Bree looked over the top of her book. Her feet rested on Jase’s lap, and he was rubbing the balls of her feet while he watched a baseball game. “Why? What happened?”
His thumbs stilled, and he shifted his gaze to her. “You have a stalker who is killing people. That’s what happened.”
She set her book facedown on the back of the sofa and pushed up. “You want to cancel your trip because of me?”
“Yes.” He continued rubbing her feet and went back to watching the game.
Bree yanked her foot from his grasp and stood. Grabbing the remote off the coffee table, she turned off the TV and threw the remote back down.
“Absolutely fucking not.”
“Bree—”
“No.” She glared down at him. “I’ve put up with you following me to base every morning. I’ve put up with you losing your shit when I forget to text you when I’m leaving work. But you willnotcancel your trip because of me.”
Polly raised her head from her bed and whined.
Jase stood and matched Bree’s angry stance. “Excuse me for wanting to keep you safe.”
“This isn’t about keeping me safe, Jase. This is about a promise you made to guys who need this trip. You are not going to cancel on them so you can sit here and play mother hen.”
“You seriously think that’s what I’m doing? Playing mother-fucking-hen?”
She closed her eyes and took a breath. Polly’s heat pressed against her leg, and Bree rested a hand on her head. Fighting for calm, she opened her eyes. “I’m exhausted. It’s been two weeks and I’m tired of constantly being on alert. I’m tired of looking over my shoulder and staring at everyone who passes me in the street like they’re going to pull out a knife and stab me.”
When he opened his mouth to answer, she covered it with her hand. Anger still rolled off him in waves, and whatever he wanted to say was going to piss her off even more.
“I’ll ask Denise to come stay with me for the weekend. I’ll call Tim every afternoon. But you arenotgoing to cancel this trip. We arenotgoing to put our lives on hold because of this whacko.”
He bit her palm. “Ow.” She yanked her hand away from his face, shook it, and glared at him. He grabbed her around the waist. Her struggles to get free were pointless. She huffed and folded her arms in front of her.
“You deserved it.”
“Like hell.” She refused to meet his gaze and stared off to the side.
He nuzzled her neck, tickling her with his beard. “You’ll call Tim every day.”
Sighing, she gazed up at the ceiling. “Yes.”
“Denise will stay with you.”
“Yes.”
He raised his head and held her chin between his forefinger and thumb. “You’re more important to me than my business or five strangers I’ve never met.”
Her anger and annoyance melted. She wrapped her arms around him and rested her cheek on his chest.
“I don’t want anything to happen to you, Bree.” He rested his chin on top of her head.
“Nothing will.”
Bree leaned back against the arm of the sofa and stared at her phone. No messages or missed calls. “I haven’t heard from Jase yet.”
“Did he say he was going to call?” Denise asked.
“Yeah. He said he’d call when he was on his way back.”
“Maybe his phone died.”
