Page 21 of Protective Phlox

“Can I trust you to give him the message?”

“Yes, I will right now. The Executive Assistant Director just left his office. I’ll get him to call you back,” she said, and my mouth dropped open as the line went dead.

“Son of a….” I bit my tongue and smiled at Cutter, who was eyeing me from the corner where he was playing with his latest gift from Nathan. Of course, Nathan had gone out and bought Cutter an expensive tablet to play games and, according to him, do homework. Like I believed that was his intention. The joke was on him, though, if he thought Cutter would prefer to play games. Instead, he was already looking up how to speak Russian.

Helena had been by twice a day, and I loved that she was not only taking an interest in Cutter but seemed genuinely interested in me. My mom wasn’t exactly mother-of-the-year material, and having someone look at me the way Helena did made me feel like things just might work out. That was until I caught glimpses of Nathan glaring at me before walking away. What the hell was up with that?

I also needed clothes. I couldn’t continue to wear Kaylani’s. It didn’t matter that she wasn’t here for a month. What mattered was that it was strange as hell to be wearing someone else’s underwear. Unused or not, I felt like a creeper.

Helena promised to take me shopping as soon as she could get Nate, as she called him, to agree. That was going to be a hard sell. He seemed determined to remind me that I was his prisoner. Ring on my finger or not, I was as trapped as those I tossed in a cell.

I did like this living room, though. Apparently, it was one of four in the house. Who needed that many? This one looked out toward the backyard, and during the day, you could watch the birds that zoomed around the pretty garden. I’d watched a particularly hairy standoff between a squirrel and a crow yesterday. The crow won.

“Hi,” I startled at the sound of the voice behind me and turned to see Nathan’s brother Titus. I’d only met him that one night, but he left a lasting impression. He was not only nice, which was a miracle on its own, but he was an imposing man, standing at six feet-six inches. He had the same midnight black hair as his brother but the most exotic golden eyes. I’d never seen anything like them.

“Titus, right?”

He smiled and stepped into the living room as he held out his hand. That was when I spotted the two black dogs sitting in the hallway. I shook his hand, giving the dogs a once-over.

“They won’t hurt you or Cutter. They are better trained than Nathaniel,” he teased, the corner of his mouth turning up.

“To be honest, these days, that would be insulting your dogs,” I said, and he chuckled, the sound a deep baritone that matched the rest of him.

“So true.”

“Were you coming to meet Cutter?”

Titus turned his head to look at Cutter, who was in the process of sounding out words. “I was. Is this a bad time?”

“Not at all. Cutter? Come here for a moment, please,” I said, and he placed the tablet down and jogged over. “Cutter, this is your Uncle Titus. He’s your dad’s brother.”

“Hi,” Cutter said, looking up at Titus like he was a giant.

Titus knelt down to get on Cutter’s level. “Hi there, Cutter. Nice to meet you.” He held out his hand, which looked big enough to crush a melon. Cutter shook it before getting distracted.

“Oh, cool,” he squealed as he peeked around Titus.

“Remember what I said? You don’t run at dogs you don’t know,” I said before he could take off. He looked up at me, clutching his hands to his chest.

“Please, can I pat them?”

Titus chuckled. “Trust me, they love the attention. Hailey…Holly…come,” he said, and I had to look away as a flash of Nathan saying that to me danced in my mind. The two massive dogs crawled forward on their bellies until they were beside Titus.

“Which is Hailey and which is Holly,” Cutter asked, pointing at the identical-looking dogs.

“Hailey wears the pink collar, and Holly has the red one, but once you get to know them, you can tell them apart without the collars.”

Cutter held out his hand like I’d shown him to let the dog sniff, but Holly had other ideas. She licked his hand and arm, making him giggle.

“She likes you,” Titus said and then laughed as Hailey got into the mix. Soon, Cutter was hugging and petting the massive dogs.

“What breed are they? I thought they were Pitbulls at first glance.”

“They are Staffordshires, but larger than most. I have six dogs, all of them pairs. The two you saw at the club were Bella and Daisy. But they are getting older now and are mostly retired. My two new girls are Cane Corso.”

“You certainly like them big,” I said, and then my face flamed hot as he smirked up at me.

“I’ve never gotten a complaint,” he said just as Nathan walked in.