“That way.” I pointed up the block.
He climbed out of the car and joined me.
“You really have to do this? Go everywhere I go?”
“It’s part of the job. I do what Grace tells me.”
“Does this mean I should be worried? I mean, is Angela Mason some kind of Russian spy whose cover I’m about to blow?”
One corner of his mouth tugged up.
“Is that asmile?” I stopped in the middle of the sidewalk.
“No.” But it was, at least the closest to a smile I’d seen from him, for a whole two seconds. Then his mouth returned to its usual frown. “And stop being so dramatic.”
I put my hands on my hips. “I’m not being dramatic. If anything, this whole bodyguard arrangement is dramatic.”
He hadn’t stopped walking, but he did slow and wait for me to catch up.
“Seriously, Rafe.” The hairs on the back of my neck lifted. “Did something happen to one of Grace’s employees in the past?”
He cracked his knuckles.
“Rafe?”
“One of the girls had her apartment broken into a few months back. And her tires slashed.”
I remembered theleave of absenceGrace had mentioned, and my pulse jumped. “That’s not cool.”
“No, it’s not, but no one got hurt. They were warnings. Stupid acts of vandalism. But that’s when Grace hired us all full-time.”
“Huh.” I guessed having a bodyguard made a little more sense now. I checked the GPS on my phone. Half a block to go, and the art gallery would be on our right. I could see it up ahead, a sleek black building with red awnings.
“How long have you been doing this?” I asked him.
“For Grace? About a year and a half.”
I had no idea how old Rafe was. Thirty? Thirty-five? If he ever took off the sunglasses I might be able to get a better look, but those things were glued to his face. “Have you always worked as a bodyguard?”
He shook his head.
“Are you from D.C.?”
“No. Pittsburgh.”
“Ohio?”
He grunted. “Is there another one?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never been.”
“To Pittsburgh?”
“Or Ohio. I’ve never been anywhere but the East Coast. What’s it like?”
“It’s a city.” He paused. “My mom and my sister still live there.”
Rafe had a family? This was the most personal information he’d shared in the almost-week I’d known him. “Really? Do you miss them? Do you get back there a lot to see them?”
