The truck hums along for another minute, tires eating up the miles, the air inside carrying salt and that sexy scent of his that has already become a problem for me. He makes me want to lean closer just to see what he’d do if I did.
I keep my hands firmly in my lap and try to be a person with self-control because I already lost control in the truck with Luca.
Then North says, “I actually have something I want to tell you. Now that I’ve got you to myself.”
The words slide through me like heat, and I twist toward him fully this time.
His eyes stay on the road. “Luca had discovered a tracker on your van at the garage from whoever’s been following you. And I managed to find the people who put it there.. I spoke to the man running that crew.” He changes lanes with that same smooth certainty he does everything with, while I’m frozen in my seat.“He owed me. I collected. They’re cutting loose whoever hired them. They won’t keep following you.”
For a second, all I can do is stare at him. Is he serious? My heart is pounding at hearing this and how efficiently they took care of the problem.
“You did that for me?” I ask.
He nods, then glances over at me with the softest smile, and I’m still catching up with what he just revealed. Not because I don’t have anything to say, but because I suddenly have too much. Relief engulfs me so hard it nearly hurts, sharp and hot behind my ribs, and I have to turn my face toward the window for a second to blink away the tears.
“You really got rid of them,” I say softly. “God.”
His hand reaches over and settles on my thigh. It’s warm and heavy and completely comforting. “It doesn’t mean you’re clear,” he adds. “Whoever hired them can pay someone else. But it takes the pressure off for now. Gives us room to find who’s responsible and who might be looking for you next.”
I lean back and release a long breath, realizing he’s done something so huge for me that he may have put himself in danger. North glances at me briefly, then returns his attention to the road, his hand back on the gearshift. “Do you know who’s behind it?”
Of course I do.
Outside, the island keeps moving past in impossible beauty. Blue water. Bright roofs. Palms bending in the wind. And all I can see for a second is Daniel. At a charity event with his hand at the small of my back, steering instead of guiding, pressure to do as he said that night.
“Don’t ask questions tonight. Just smile.”
Then his office, when he was talking to that stranger about Thomas. And later, when Thomas was on the news, found dead.
My fingers curl tightly in my lap.
North notices immediately. His hand leaves the gearshift and settles on my thigh. “Easy,” he says.
That one word almost undoes me, and I place my hand over his, wanting his presence closer, his scent, anything he offers me.
Maybe I should tell him…
Don’t say it.
Say it.
If he’s protecting you, he needs the truth.
If you tell him, it draws him into your danger.
He’s already involved.
The fear crawls through me cold and quick now that I’m finally turning toward it properly. The knowledge of what Daniel is capable of. The quiet certainty that if he decides I’m worth removing, there are men who will do it for him if they get their hands on me.
North’s thumb presses once more into my thigh.
I suck in a shaky breath. “His name is Daniel Nixon.” Saying it out loud makes the cab feel smaller. “He owns the company I worked for. Lumen Creative in Los Angeles, a creative agency.” My voice is thinner than I want it to be, and I hate that. “I was also secretly dating him, my boss.”
North doesn’t interrupt or rush in to soothe the clearly stupid mistakes I made in the past. He just stays there beside me with his hand on my leg and all of his attention open.
So I keep going. “I heard him talking one night when I shouldn’t have been near his office. To a man I didn’t know. They were discussing someone.” I shake my head once. “And days later, that name was on the morning news when they found his body.” My throat closes for a second.
North’s hand tightens on my thigh.
