Page 43 of You Saw the Best In Me

Adam: Good idea. Let us know if you need anything at all.

I will. I have my concealed carry permit, and he won’t get close enough to hurt her.

Hunter: Good man, Maverick

Not only are they great bosses, they’re stand up men, too. Every time I’ve needed a favor, or had a slight issue, they’ve been more than happy to help.

“Is everything okay?” Karina asks, and I put my phone away.

“Of course. My bosses are very worried about you.”

“Adam and Juliette got me out of town last time, and Hunter offered me a condo to crash in until I got my footing. His wife is pregnant with twins,” she fills me in, and I did know that last part.

I chose not to attend the party I was invited to; it seemed like an intimate event, and I was still new enough not to have connections with anyone.

“They’re good people,” I say, and she agrees.

Karina pours a drink, and I tell her this is my last one. I need to be sober in case anything happens.

We don’t know when the letter was sent, and it’s not postmarked, so Asher had to get inside the building to deliver it.

How he pulled that off, I don’t know, but he’s fucked in the head, so we can’t take any chances.

It’s surreal having a woman inside my apartment, inside of my head and heart. I’ve kept it together for her sake, but deep down, I’m terrified.

It’s like everything has been in overdrive since the day she moved in here, and I’ve had so many mixed feelings about her that my head spins whenever I try to make sense of it.

I want to find the words, break down my walls, and let her in but I’m clueless as to how. She doesn’t trust me yet, and I’ve ruined things between us twice, before we truly had something resembling a relationship to destroy.

I decide to hold off on telling Karina how I feel until I can figure it out for myself.

It’s been a long couple of days, and I hope my actions can speak for me until I’m ready to spill my heart, soul, and past to her.

KARINA

The last week has been a fucking whirlwind, and I can’t stop my head from feeling like it’s spinning. Here I am, eating cheeseburgers in my asshole neighbor's apartment while my ex is out there hunting me down.

Everything is fucked, and to top it all off, Maverick is casually walking around with a weapon in the waistband of his jeans.

It’s arguably the hottest fucking thing I’ve ever seen, but nonetheless, it’s not a distraction for the fact that I’m in a scary situation.

I don’t forgive him for everything we’ve been through, but having him keep me safe is a step in the right direction. He left me no choice, lifting me off the ground, and carrying the weight of my fucked up baggage across the hall, into his home.

He told me it was real, not something I conjured up in my mind, and I genuinely think I’m more afraid of falling in love with him than I am of Asher.

If I could trust him, I could have a once-in-twenty-lifetimes kind of love, but I can’t let myself get carried away yet. He’s still the same man who ran away when things got scary and screamed in my face over a misunderstanding.

Right here, I promise myself I’ll enjoy the moment, even if I am being threatened, stalked, and forced out of my home.

“I like your new hair,” Maverick says, pulling me out of my thoughts.

“Oh, you noticed? I was going for a refresher,” I smile, and he has a pang of guilt in his eyes.

As he should.

I take this as an opportunity to dig into Maverick a little bit while he’s in the mood to be vulnerable.

“So, tell me more about Harper and the rest of your family,” I say, which elicits a groan from him.