Page 46 of Beneath the Burn

He squatted before her and enveloped her hands with his. “I feel safe, too. It’s nice, huh?”

“Then stay.”

She turned toward the voice behind her.

Laz leaned against the door jamb, hands in his pockets. “Stay the night. I’ve already tucked the guys in. You can have my room.”

When did the guys return? Another guard must’ve gone back for them. A laugh bubbled out of her. “Did you read them a story before you tucked them in?”

“Yeah, it was a picture book. Lots of boobs.”

She shook her head, smiling at the image of him caring for his drunken bandmates. “I don’t want to kick you out of your room.”

“It’s yours. Stay.” He batted his eyes. “Please?”

How could she say no to him? Why would she want to? For once in her life, she could wake up surrounded by luxury without being held as a prisoner.

She looked at the man perched before her. “Well?”

23

Charlee shimmied out of her jeans, slid the Bodyguard 380 under the pillow, and fell back into a cloud of luxurious bedding. “This is the life.”

Nathan said something to the guard in the hallway and closed the door. “We have a bodyguard.” He scratched his head, his voice flattened with disbelief. “He’s going to stand out there all night.”

She pulled the blankets up to her chin. “Maybe we can sleep with both of our eyes closed tonight?”

He perched on the other side of the bed and tugged off his pants. Then he clicked off the light and lay on his side to face her. “Crane still hasn’t found any connection between these guys and Roy, so yeah, we’re sleeping well tonight.”

She smiled, and it was bitter sweet. “The one night you could sleep alone, yet here I am. You’re stuck with me as usual.”

They’d shared a bed for three years, too concerned about the other’s safety not to. The worst part of that had been the way Nathan just accepted his celibacy in this life with her, making her his responsibility and giving up everything for her and his revenge.

He shoved her shoulder. “I’m not stuck with you and have never felt that way. Besides, how else will I trap Roy? You’re my bait.”

It was her turn to shove him. “Ass.”

He might’ve been driven by revenge, but three years of simply trying to exist without being caught left him frustrated and without a plan to bring down Roy. Moreover, if anything happened to her, he would see it as failing his brother. Again. In truth, if Nathan wanted to use her for his own end, he would’ve been justified in doing so. She was the reason Noah was dead after all.

A burn torched her throat, and she swallowed through it. “I might be doing a couple tattoos tomorrow, so I’ll need to get my supplies from the apartment, okay?”

“A couple? Laz and…”

“Jay.” Hopefully. There was so much hope in that name.

“Be careful with him, Charlee. The last thing you need is another obsessive man.”

She tensed. There was a lingering fear in her that she might somehow attract compulsive men. If she could entice a monster like Roy, it might happen again with another man. Jay wasn’t a monster. He wasn’t Roy. “He’s different.”

“Yeah, he’s a whole other breed of messed up.” He kissed her brow. “Sleep well, sweetheart.”

That he could count on.

24

Jay woke up shaking. Charlee had invaded his dreams again, but this time was different.

The blue-eyed beauty had been haloed in flames of red. Her fiery hair swept over her tiny shoulders and cascaded in curtains around her. He clutched the bedding. She was so fucking beautiful.

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