Page 22 of Baked

CHAPTER SEVEN

The movie soundtrackblared from the portable radio as he snuck another peek at his sexy fairy. She was breathtaking. That dress. Her hair. The glittery stuff she’d put on her eyelids. Not to mention the excitement coming off her in waves as she stuffed more fries into her mouth. Everything about her was magic.

He’d never forget the look on her face as they pulled into the drive-in. A look of awe and wonder. It made him feel on top of the world. If only he could do things like this for her every day.

One day.

Picking up his shake, he slurped out one final chocolatey gulp. Damn, that was good. Real fricking ice cream and everything. Between the milkshake and sneaking looks at Rachel, his attention tonight had been anywhere but on the movie, which was fine. He’d take looking at his honeybun over Vin Diesel any day.

As he placed his shake back down, he felt his jeans begin to vibrate. Whoever it was would have to wait.

But as soon as the vibrating stopped, it started again. And then again.

Reaching into his pocket, he decided there was no harm in checking who had been calling.

“Shit” slipped from his lips.

He felt Rachel’s eyes on him as he scrolled through Cody’s messages. “Everything okay?”

No. It wasn’t. And it was going to ruin her night. Wipe that goddamn angelic expression off her pretty face.

“What is it?” she prompted.

Fuck. How do I say this?

“Honeybun”—he twisted to face her, tightening his grip on the phone—“something happened. Something bad.”

“Yeah, I can see that, Hunter. The steam coming out of your ears kinda gave it away.”

“Right.” He sighed.Just say it. Just tell her.“Someone broke into your apartment.”

Big blue eyes widened in horror as she whispered, “What?” Heavy pants, and not the good kind, were back to filling his truck as she struggled to control her breathing. “How? When?”

“I don’t have all the details yet.” Which right now, witnessing the anguish on Rachel’s stricken face, he was grateful he didn’t.

She nodded. Her eyes shutting as she swallowed hard.

This was a nightmare. A nightmare that was far from over. “I need to take a look at the security footage and send it over to Cody, and then ... then we need to go meet him at the apartment. Try and work out if anything is missing.”

The last thing he wanted to do was take her back to her apartment, but it wasn’t his call. And as much as he wanted to take her back to his and wrap her in as much theoretical cotton wool as he could, he trusted Cody’s judgment. He wouldn’t ask unless it was important.

When her eyes fluttered open, glistening with moisture, his muscles tensed. And when her body sagged in defeat as she whispered “Okay,” he vowed then and there he would do everything in his power to protect his little fairy from ever feeling this way again.

Her dumb fucking asshole dad.

Grasping her hand, he squeezed until sad eyes swung to his. “It’s gonna be okay, honeybun. I swear. I’m gonna keep you safe. I’m not gonna let anything happen to you. And these guys ... they’re gonna be behind bars before you know it.”

She nodded rather unconvincingly.

Keeping her hand in his, he used his free one to pull up the security feed and forward the footage over to Cody. He then sent him a quick message to let him know that they were on their way.

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