“Yeah, it’s me. You were having a bad dream.”
“I do most nights,” he confessed, like it was something to be ashamed of.
“It would be surprising if you didn’t after what you went through.”
I moved to go back to the couch, but he reached out and grabbed my wrist. “Will you stay with me?”
“I’m not going anywhere. I’ll be right over there on the couch. I promise you’re safe here.”
“I mean here.” He tugged on my arm in an attempt to pull me closer. I shouldn’t, and I knew it. My job was to protect him from outside threats, not from imaginary dream ones. Except thoseweren’t actually imaginary, were they? They were memories, and for Noah, they were all too real.
“Okay, I’ll stay. You just get some rest.” I didn’t crawl under the covers with him, but I did lie down on the bed.
He let out a relieved sigh and whispered, “Thank you,” before rolling over and going back to sleep.
Chapter six
Noah
I woke up and slowly opened my eyes. Light streamed in through the wall of windows across from the bed, which meant I’d slept in. That was surprising. I hadn’t expected to get any sleep after my nightmare. Normally, I lay awake for hours after I had one, afraid to go back to sleep. Afraid I would see their faces again, feel the zip ties on my wrists, or see what they did to the other people they held.
The man who’d purchased me at the auction had insisted I be kept in what he calledpristine conditionfor the price he’d paid, but I saw the way a couple of the men looked at me. They treated the other captives like they were property, and I could tell they longed to treat me the same way, like it was their right. I was never sure if their greed would win or if they would break and decide to take what they wanted.
I closed my eyes tight enough to see stars and then shook my head to get rid of those thoughts. I wasn’t down in that basement anymore. Not only that, Jackson and the rest of the guys at Three Bears were going to make sure it never happened again.
I looked over at the empty side of the bed where Jackson had been. I couldn’t believe I’d practically begged him to stay with me, but he made me feel safe in a way I hadn’t in a long, long time. I was guessing sleeping with your client, even platonically, was against some kind of bodyguard rule, but he’d done it for me anyway.
I sat up in bed and looked out the window. It looked out over the backyard, and it was beautiful out there. I was about to get up when I caught movement in the trees and froze. A large deer stepped out of the woods, followed by a little one with spots on its back.
I looked around for Jackson and found him sitting in the recliner in the living room, drinking a cup of coffee and reading a book.
“Jackson,” I hissed like I was afraid the deer would hear from in here.
He looked up. “What is it?”
“It’s a baby deer, come look.”
He put down his coffee and his book and walked over so he could see, a smile spreading across his face.
“She’s a pretty one. Isn’t she? Let me grab my camera.”
I sat there afraid to move, not sure if the deer could see me as well as I could see them, until Jackson came back with what appeared to be an expensive camera in his hand. He took a couple of shots from inside the house, then he looked at me.
“I’m going to go out the front door and try to get close enough to take a couple of pictures. I’ll be right back. They won’t notice if you move around in here if you want to get yourself a cup of tea. I put some water in the electric kettle for you.”
“Okay. Thanks.”
I slipped out of bed and went to the kitchen area. He didn’t really strike me as a tea drinker, so I was surprised to find a small tin filled with a selection of tea bags sitting next to the kettle. I selected a nice herbal tea, and once it was steeping, I walked over to the window so I could watch what was happening. The mother deer was eating the berries off a bush while the little one stayed nearby.
I saw a shadow move off to the left as Jackson slipped around the corner of the house. Either he was being extra quiet, or the deer was so into her snack she just didn’t care. He lifted the camera and stood there taking pictures for a while until something startled the deer, and they both loped off into the woods.
Jackson came up to the back door and tapped on the glass for me to unlock it. I flipped the dead bolt, and he came inside. “That was fantastic.”
I went over to the kitchen counter to retrieve the tea I’d forgotten about while watching the deer. I took the tea bag out of the mug and took a sip before saying, “I didn’t know you were a photographer.”
“Amateur at best. Gator’s the real photographer. If he ever decided he didn’t want to keep running Three Bears, he could easily make a career of it, but he’s the one who got me interested in it.”
“Well, I would love to see your pictures sometime.”
