Bronson’s grip tightened on me. He yanked me down and crouch-walked me to the sliding door, blocking my body with his.
“Inside. And don’t open the door for anyone.”
While I was still processing what he said, Bronson ran and jumped, clearing the deck railing effortlessly before disappearing from view.
I screamed and ran back to the edge of the deck, peering down into the dark. He’d just jumped off a two-story building.
He yelled back up, “Go inside, Lucy! Now!”
With nerves frayed, I did as he asked, locking the sliding door behind me.
I called 911 and waited for twenty breathless minutes to find out what was happening.
Then Bronson reappeared at my front door, unlocking it with a key I hadn’t given him.
“W-what happened?” I asked as I scanned him. “Are you okay? And how do you have that key?”
He was sandy, and his baseball cap was missing.
But other than that, he didn’t look hurt.
Bronson held up a camera and growled, “It was paparazzi. He won’t be coming back. And Cal’s team made this key when they first came to assess your house for security issues.”
My heart sank.
He was right.
This place wasn’t safe anymore.
That may be why I didn’t fight harder when he announced twenty minutes later that he wasn’t sleeping in the second bedroom.
He pulled out a cot the landlord had provided and set it up a foot away from my bed.
I was too scared to refuse. The closer Bronson got, the safer I felt.
Chapter 3
Bronson
I’d been close to taking Lucy out of here last night and driving her to a safe house.
She’d squabbled with me over the sleeping arrangement a little, but gave in when I insisted on sleeping in a cot in her room.
I couldn’t protect her from the spare bedroom, now could I?
Although I had to admit, sleeping had been hard. OrI’dbeen hard.
It was difficult to lie so close to my celebrity crush, listening to her soft breathing as she drifted into sleep. And even worse when she’d woken up screaming in the middle of the night, reliving the attacks.
Yes, I may have slipped into her bed and comforted her.
But it had only been for a moment before I resumed my appropriate spot on the cot next to her bed.
The morning waves came in hard on the shoreline, salt thick in the air.
I was already dressed, standing at the kitchen window with a cup of coffee in hand, running the route to town in my head for the third time.
Inside the house, I could control things. Angles, access, noise. Outside was a different calculation entirely, and I didn’t like it.
