Fear surged through me, my entire body locking up, but I forced myself to breathe. It was probably just a cop. Someone must have noticed my unfamiliar car.
When my heart rate finally slowed, I pushed myself upright.
My mouth fell open. It wasn’t a cop standing outside my window.
It was Roman Ramsey.
4
Roman
Itwastoodamncold for this.
I glared through the car window. It was almost comical the way she stared back at me in shock, as if she weren’t actively trying to kill herself right now.
I’d noticed her car return to the neighborhood through the cameras installed outside the bed-and-breakfast—meant to watch the street. When I hadn’t seen her get out of the vehicleand the snow started to pile higher, I’d decided to check on her after Hailey went to bed.
When she didn’t move, I rapped on the glass again.
She surged forward, fumbling with the lock before cracking the door open. No warmth spilled out from inside. I glanced into the interior of the car. It was an older vehicle—a dingy white sedan that was in dire need of new tires.
Inside, though, it was clean and well cared for.
I narrowed my eyes at the woman blinking up at me like I was some kind of ghost in the night. She had a pile of blankets stacked on top of her, deep green and burnt orange. They reminded me of her sweater from earlier. She’d said it was wool, but it didn’t matter if those blankets were straight-up sheep pelts—they weren’t enough.
“What are you doing?” I snapped.
She swallowed hard, her delicate throat dipping. Her nose and the tops of her cheekbones were pink from the cold.
“What do you mean?” she asked.
I gestured around us, to the snow falling steadily from the sky. “You’re going to freeze to death in these conditions.”
She blinked at me again.
She looked younger than the twenty-seven years she was supposed to be. Her long, blonde hair was in that loose braid over one shoulder, and she was still wearing that sweater and no winter coat.
“I don’t really think I’m going to freeze,” she said softly, an edge of defiance in her tone.
Those big eyes flicked toward the falling snow, then to the flurries landing on her blankets. “That might change, though, if I don’t get my door closed.”
I clenched my jaw. I couldn’t tell whether she was serious or not.
“You can’t sleep in a car during a winter storm.”
She deflated instantly. “Please don’t call the police. It’s just for one night. I—” Her cheeks flushed a deeper shade of pink. “I didn’t realize the weather was going to get so bad. I couldn’t make the trip to the hotel I was planning on staying at. I promise I’m not going to stay more than tonight.”
I stared at Palmer—at the woman who had knocked on my parents’ door that morning and offered to be my nanny completely out of the blue. I hadn’t known what to make of her then. I didn’t believe in coincidences, and it had seemed too perfect. Suspiciously so.
In the hours since she’d left, I’d taken her information and had my brother—the chief technical officer at Hearthstone—run a background check. There wasn’t anything Fox couldn’t hack and uncover about someone if he was determined to.
She was a real nanny. She’d been working in childcare for years. Her references were solid. I’d even spoken to her last employer—the one who’d let her go without much notice. Stephen had nothing but good things to say, but something about the conversation had made me uneasy. Like he was holding something back.
Now here she was. Freezing in her damn car, half-buried in snow.
“You couldn’t have stayed with anyone else in town?” I asked.
Her hands fisted the thick blankets. “No.”
