I’d never seen King move so quickly in all my life. “You can have as much as you want. I’ll be right back.”
“Thanks,” she said softly.
I stepped out of the way of the doorframe so that King could squeeze through, and then I went back to standing vigilant. Marla and Anna spoke softly to Charise, so I wasn’t sure what they said. But after they were done, Marla got up and slipped past me as well.
Anna patted her arm and stood.
“What?” she asked.
Fuck, I’m staring again.“I need to do rounds if you guys are okay here.”
“Rounds?” Charise asked.
“Oh, the big guy here walks around a few times a day checking on everyone,” Anna said as she walked toward me. She patted my arm in a way that exaggerated the slapping sound. “Making sure no one needs anything.”
Charise just nodded softly.
“Do you need anything before I leave?” I asked.
Charise studied me for a while before she shook her head. “No, thank you.”
I nodded. “Then I’ll take my leave.”
I expected Anna to stay behind with the woman, but she fell in line right beside me. Most of the guys were already out in the hallway and didn’t need anything, which meant their women probably didn’t need anything, either.
But it felt wrong to keep crowding Charise.
“Think she’s cute?” Anna asked.
“Hmm?”
“Charise. You were staring pretty hard.”
My neck practically snapped, my head whipped down so hard to look at her. “Wait, what?”
Anna thumbed over her shoulder. “Back there in the room. You were staring at her pretty hard. I hate to break it to you, but you may have to fight my brother for her.”
Did she think I was staring at Charise?
I let out a chuckle. “No, I wasn’t staring at Charise.”
“Oh, come on,” she said as she nudged me. “Don’t act like you weren’t staring at something. What was it?”
You.“Just listening out for sounds.”
“Riiiiiight.”
Just as I suspected, none of the women needed anything. That sort of became the norm as of late. If the women needed something, they went to their men, which meant my job was pretty much to walk around the safehouse and do a fucking headcount. But with everyone accounted for, there was only one last thing to do.
And that was escorting Anna back to her room.
“Home sweet home,” I said as we stopped at her bedroom door.
“Lord, I can’t wait to get back to my own bed,” she muttered as she slipped through her opened door.
Watching her disappear tugged at my gut like a lure she hooked into it. I needed to turn around. I needed to leave. I needed to go back to my room, take a cold fucking shower, and eat some goddamn food.
“If you’re going to come inside,” Anna called out, “then come inside.”
