Page 40 of Obsessed Fox

"Go back to the office, guys. I got this."

I didn't think Maisie or her brother wanted witnesses to their reunion. It would be hard enough to convince her that I needed to stay for whatever conversation Matty wanted to have with her.

All three men nodded their heads but took their time backing away from the door. I hoped I was making the right decision by asking them to leave. My gut was telling me Matthew wouldn't hurt his sister.

Matthew really did look a hell of a lot like his sister, except where she was short, he was tall. He almost had the boy-next-door look going on, with short hair and no tattoos, and he proved that he was both observant and protective when he tucked Maisie under his arm and glared at me. "Who's this?"

There was a huge smile on her face when she looked up at me and I hated that he was the one to put it there instead of me. "This is Hendrix." She beamed. "Hendrix, this is my brother, Matty."

Both her arms were wrapped around his middle and it took everything in me not to stomp over there and yank her intomyarms. Brother or not, I didn't want another man's hands on her.

"It's nice of you to stick around this time instead of dropping a note." I didn't keep the sting of my words out of my tone.

"I hadn't planned on showing my face, but I realized I couldn't come all this way and not see for myself that Marmar was okay."

"I'm better now that you're here."

Well, that stung. I kept my expression neutral though. We could talk about that when her brother wasn't around.

"I can't stay but I needed to tell you to your face. It's important you stop digging into what happened. There are dangerous people out there and I don't want them knowing who you are."

"What dangerous people?” I growled. “If there’s a threat, my team and I need to know about it."

Matthew looked me in the eyes when he answered. "I can't tell you, but just know, everything I’ve done was to keep my family safe."

"What happened to Atlas's body? Hendrix told me they never found it. This whole time I thought I needed to disappear because my fingerprints were all over the scene. If they aren't looking for me, then why didn't you ever try finding me?" I could hear the hurt in her voice. It made me want to wrap her up but she was still across the room in her brother's arms, and unless I wanted to look like a possessive jerk, I needed to stay right where I was.

Wait, since when did I care what people thought about me?

Since you're trying to win over the girl, dumbass.

I was starting to question that thought process.

"I can't tell you but you need to trust me, it's safer for you to stay away. From what I can see, you've built a great life for yourself here. You should be enjoying it and not worrying about me."

Maisie finally stepped out of his arms but only because she was putting up a fight and that meant hands on her hips and sass in her tone.

"You're my brother. Of course I'm going to worry about you, and how did you find me anyway?"

"I know people."

"Youknowpeople? Is that seriously the only answer you're going to give me right now. What happened to telling each other everything, huh? We never kept secrets and now you come here expecting me to just believe every word you say because that's the way of it."

"Trust me, Marmar. It's better this way. I hate keeping secrets from you but it's better than the alternative."

"And what's the alternative,Matthew?"

Oh, this was getting good. Where was the popcorn when I needed it? Maisie had no problem laying into him. It was kind of a turn-on actually.

"You ending up dead!" Matthew hollered back.

And that was a boner killer.

I happened to prefer Maisie stayed alive, so anyone even mentioning there was a possibility for her to be harmed ticked me off.

"Why the hell would she end up dead?" I butted in.

"I can't tell you that. All I can say is that my secrets are what's keeping Margaret safe."

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