His mouth grew hard, and probably because of that, his wordswere terse.“She should be more sensitive.”
“I’m okay, Mr.—”
“Marcus,” he clipped.
“Right.Marcus.Sorry,” I muttered.
“Smithie isn’t here,” he informed me.
He’d already shared this intel so I didn’t know why he wasrepeating this to me.
“Okay,” I replied.
“This means you’re not here for any reason unless Smithie orLenny are here, and if you need to be here and neither of them is available tobe with you at all times, you call me.I’ll put a man on you.”
At all times?
He’d put a man on me?
I stared at him.
He reached into the pocket inside his suit jacket, took outa silver card case, flipped it open, and extracted a card.He flipped it shut,returned it, and walked to me, stopping not close (thankfully).
He held the card up between us, offering it to me with twofingers extended.
Lord, this man was fine.Even offering a business card!
“I don’t…I don’t…” I swallowed, ignoring the card, “need aman on me.”
His eyes turned hard too, and at their glinting fury, Ifinally started to be scared of him.
I fought taking a step back.
“They haven’t found him,” he whispered.
“I know that,” I whispered back.
And that made me shiver.
I wasn’t thinking about that.The fact the guy who violatedme got away.
Smithie said he was taking care of it.Detective JimmyMarker, who talked to me at the hospital when the staff called the cops afterthe ambulance took me there, said he’d do everything in his power to find him.
I was thinking only about that.
“You need to be safe.So you’re going to be safe,” hedecreed, lifting the card up higher between us.
“You need to stopsendin’ meflowers,” I didn’t exactly decree because my voice was kind of shaky, but Ihoped he’d get my message.
“I will, if you go to lunch with me tomorrow.”
“You need to stop asking me to lunch.”
“Fine.Then go with me to dinner tomorrow.”
“Mr.Sloan—”
He leaned into me, his face close, I could smell hisexpensive cologne, and I snapped my mouth shut.
