Iona cared more than she’d admitted to her friends, much less Elias. And that was a problem, since she didn’t know if Elias felt anything for her other than friendship. He’d never let down his guard, not even once. The only things she had to base her suspicions on were the heat in his eyes when he looked at her and his choice to spend every spare minute in her company. They’d gone to dinner multiple times, but he never classified them as dates, and she’d been afraid to ask for clarification for fear of destroying what they had, whatever it was.
“Maybe I don’t want anyone to care too much.”
She stilled. He didn’t mean that, did he? A careful perusal of his face told her that he meant every word. The question was why? “Will you answer a question?”
He looked wary. “Maybe.”
Iona wanted to laugh, but knew if she did she’d have no answer at all. Knowing Elias, he would clam up, and she’d learn nothing. “Why don’t you want us to care too much?”
“It’s not safe.”
She blinked. That was as clear as mud. “You’re kidding. Elias, we’re your friends. Of course we care about you, just like we do the rest of our teammates. You can’t tell us not to care.”
“Didn’t you hear what I said? It’s not safe to be around me.”
She planted her fists on her hips. “Get over yourself. All of us have targets on our backs. You aren’t a special case, Elias. Did you hear what Brent said? You need backup. Someone painted a target on your back, and unless you’ve grown a set of eyes in the back of your head, you need someone to watch your six.”
“I don’t want it to be you.”
“Why not?”
“I just don’t.”
Iona planted her hands on the bed and leaned toward Elias. “Too bad. I care enough that I’ll ignore your cranky attitude and do my job. How’s the shoulder?”
He scowled. “Feels like a bullet’s lodged in there.”
“That good, huh? Tell me what happened.”
“I went through it a minute ago with the boss. Unless you tuned me out, you heard every word.”
“Indulge me. Tell me what happened. I have some questions about the incident.”
“Don’t you always?”
She waited in silence.
He settled back against the pillow and blew out a breath. “Fine. I had an appointment in downtown Nashville at 9:00.”
“An appointment with whom?”
“None of your business. Do you want to hear what happened or not?”
She motioned for him to proceed.
“The appointment took about fifteen minutes, then I left the building to return to the parking garage where I had left my SUV.”
“Any sign of trouble to or from the building?”
He hesitated.
“Nope, you don’t get to do that, Elias. Spill.”
“I had the feeling someone was watching me go to and from the office building. Satisfied?”
She ignored the foul-tempered words. “Did you see anyone? Or perhaps I should ask if you bothered to identify your watcher.”
“I’m not an idiot. Yeah, I looked for him in a window’s reflection. I got nothing. I tried again from inside the office building. Same result.”
