Markus laughed.
Nina smiled.
But what Mav couldn’t quite figure out as he walked back to the Morgans was that he hadn’t been joking. Markus might have been a tornado in human form, but Nina Keller was more dangerous. A man didn’t see her coming. She was quiet but devastating, her sad eyes drawing you in before that flash of a smile knocked you off your feet entirely.
Maverick tried not to think anything of it. He had eyes, he rationalized, and Nina Keller was a beautiful woman. Which made him want to look. She was hurt, which made him want to help. And Mav had never been one to turn his back on suffering.
Those were just facts.
Chapter 4
‘So, this is pepper spray.’ Markus held up a black spray bottle no larger than a lipstick. ‘It might not look dangerous, but this baby has a ten-foot range. It’s compact, so you can take it anywhere. It’s safe – you just slide your thumb under the doodad, point, and shoot.’
‘The doodad?’
He ignored her raised brows and cynical tone. He leaned over the small arsenal on her bed and picked up a stun gun, this one in bright pink. ‘Stun gun. If you have to use this, things are bad. Because the perp’s already too close to you.’ Markus pressed the button on the side and demonstrated.
Nina took a step back as the Taser made a zapping noise. ‘The perp?’
‘Yes, the perp.’ He nonchalantly waved the Taser. ‘The lunatic. The bad guy.’
‘Stop pointing that in my direction.’
Markus turned it off. But he flipped it over and said, ‘Look. It has a flashlight too.’
‘Very cute.’
‘Next—’ he picked up a small rose gold device that looked like a USB drive ‘—we have the Birdie.’
‘The Birdie?’ Nina crossed her arms, cocked a hip.
‘Girl. Don’t give me that sass. This baby only cost me twenty-three dollars on Amazon.Twenty-three dollars!It clips onto your clothes, and when you press this button, it emits a siren that could blow the clothes off a man at twenty feet.And it has a strobe light!’ He turned on the strobe light, raised his hands in the air and made an ‘intz’ sound as he danced as if he were in a nightclub.
Nina tried her damnedest to smile, knowing he was trying to make a seriously depressing conversation light-hearted and fun. But she couldn’t quite manage it, even for Markus.
She looked down at the items on the bed. The pepper spray, stun gun, and Birdie were just three from the pile. There was also a folding knife, a first-aid kit, another flashlight with extra batteries, a period kit (tampons and chocolate included), a box of thirty granola bars, and a twenty-four pack of bottled water.
‘This is like a full earthquake preparedness kit,’ she argued.
‘No. This is a self-defence kit for the girl who never took Tai Chi with me.’
‘I thought it was stretching.’
‘It’s. A. Martial. Art.’
Nina let it go, knowing that Markus was legitimately serious about his Tai Chi, but she did wave at the twenty-four pack of waters. ‘What am I going to do with those – throw them at him?’
‘No.Those are for drinking,’ he said, enunciating each word slowly. He tapped her on the nose with one finger. ‘We might look twenty-three, but my knees know we’re a decade older than that. And hydration is the only thing all the health quacks agree on. And sleep,’ he sighed, ‘but we both know you aren’t going to get enough of that anytime soon. But—’ he picked up a bottle of pills off the bed and rattled them ‘—I’m leaving my prescription hydroxyzine here for you, just in case.’
‘I can’t use your prescription, Markus.’
‘It’s only illegal if you get caught.’
‘No. I mean, I need to be lucid in case …’In case what?she thought. Her attacker almost certainly wouldn’t be able to find her, and even if he did, she doubted he’d risk coming to Hunt Ranch. And, still, there was that little voice in her head telling her she needed to be lucid. Ready. ‘I can’t take the risk of being drugged if he comes back.’
Taking both of her hands in his, Markus bent his knees until they were at eye level. ‘He has no way of knowing where you are. This,’ he reassured her, ‘this is just my way of giving us both peace of mind.’
She pulled her hands out of his grip. ‘I know. I do,’ she insisted when he raised a hand to frustratedly rub his forehead. ‘But I just I want to move on. I want to forget.’ She didn’t say it aloud but pretending that nothing had happened felt like the only way she’d ever truly be able to live again.
