Page 26 of The Monster’s Weakness

Then he shut the door.

His expression disappeared before he’d taken three steps.

The men were still there. Good.

The loud one noticed him first. “Forget something?”

“Yes.”

He folded the parking receipt once and slipped it into his back pocket. Then he walked toward him.

The man laughed. “What, you grow some balls now your girl’s—”

The first hit silenced him. He knew exactly how to hurt a man. How to drop him. How to keep him conscious. How much force a body could take and where.

The man hit the pavement. One of his friends lunged at him. Caleb dealt with him without hesitation. Another made the same mistake.

Seconds later, all the swagger had vanished from the group. The ones still standing had backed away. He let them. The first man wasn’t laughing anymore. He crouched beside him.

“You frightened her.”

The man spat something unintelligible. Caleb’s hand closed around the front of his shirt.

“She was already dizzy. Already scared. And you decided to make her more afraid.”

Another blow. Cold. Precise.

This wasn’t jealousy. Jealousy implied competition. There was no competition. There was only her—and people who had not yet learned that touching, frightening, or cornering her came with consequences.

He finally stood, straightened his cuffs, and looked at the others.

“If you see her again, you don’t speak to her. You don’t look at her. You don’t go near her.”

No one answered. He smiled faintly.

“Good.”

By the time he returned to the car, his breathing was steady. He opened the driver’s door.

She looked over. “Found it?”

His gaze softened the instant it landed on her. “Yeah. Found it.”

He started driving out of the parking lot. He hadn’t been home since he’d left days ago. Right now, he wanted a change of clothes and to collect his thoughts. His last hit had ended well. The target was dead and he’d been paid in full. What he didn’t like was the fact the target had been tipped off about the contract. It wasn’t an open contract, so shouldn’t have been public knowledge in their circles. He’d make some calls and find out if there was anything he should be looking out for.

At the same time, he couldn’t leave Gemma alone. After being away for days and just having her bloodwork done, he wanted to keep her close.

“You don’t start work for a few hours. You okay hanging around my place until then? I want to keep an eye on you. Like you said, you could die.”

She giggled.

“Deal?”

“Deal.”

Chapter Ten

It had been a couple of weeks and after Gemma once again picked up her prescription, she went to work, acutely aware of her medication in her bag. She got through a list of her tasks, which was basically responding to inquiry emails. She’d been given a list of what jobs to accept, and to tell the client the artist would be in touch for further instructions.