Page 50 of Velvet Vaughn

Chapter Nine

Leo stared out the window for ten minutes before he gave up and called her.

Chloe answered on the first ring.

“Leo?” She sounded wide awake, but there was an edge to it, meaning she’d been expecting bad news. “It’s after midnight. What’s wrong? Does this have something to do with the call Kayne got earlier?”

“Nothing’s wrong.” The lie tasted exactly as bad as he’d known it would. “Well, something is, but I’m fine. I wanted you to hear it from me instead of anyone else.”

He gave her the short version, then told her about the photographs of her, taken in Bloomington that afternoon while she’d been doing something as ordinary as buying groceries. He left out the part where someone had circled a twenty-two-year-old girl in red ink, because Chloe didn’t need that image living in her head tonight, and frankly, neither did he.

“They photographed me?” Her voice climbed half an octave. “Today? While I was walking around?”

“Yeah.”

“And you’re calling to tell me you’re fine.”

“I am.”

“Leo.” Two drawn-out syllables, delivered with enough of their mother in them to make him feel twelve again. “Someone is targeting your clients and watching me, which means they’re watching you too, and you’re calling at midnight to tell me not to worry.”

“That’s the gist of it, yeah.”

“I’m coming to St. Louis.”

“No.”

“Leo—”

“Chloe, listen to me.” He sat up against the headboard, forcing calm into the words, because she’d hear it in a second if he didn’t. “You know what it’s like being the one in danger. I watched Kayne lose ten years off his life every time you walked out of his sightline. I am not doing that to him, and I am not doing it to you, and I sure as hell am not doing it to myself by having one more person to worry about in this city.”

“That’s not fair. You were there for me.”

“And now I need you to be there for yourself. Stay put inside the gates. Kayne will hover. Let him.”

He could picture her on the other end, sitting up in the dark with one hand pressed flat against her stomach, a familiar tell that she was working hard not to cry.

“I hate this,” she whispered.

“I know.”

“I can’t stand that you’re the one who has to be vigilant and I’m the one who gets to be safe behind a fence with armed guards and a husband who’d burn the city down for me. You’re just . . . in your condo. Alone.”

“I’m not alone.” The words came out before he’d decided to say them. Might as well go all in. “Anja’s here. Luke and Logan are sending more people in the morning.”

When Chloe spoke again, it was a different tone that, even at midnight and scared half to death for him, still managed to sound like his sister noticing a thing she found most interesting.

“Anja Johansen is at your condo.”

“That’s not the headline, Chloe.”

“It’s a little bit the headline, Leo.”

“Go to sleep.”

“I love you. Be careful. Tell Anja hi from me, and also that I have several questions for her.”

“Goodnight, Chloe.”