Page 19 of Corrupted Lies

And in the end, that was what she was seeking.

Being loved by someone was nonnegotiable to her, and she wouldn't stop searching for it until she found it.

A giant yawn felt like it split her face into two, and Alannah felt like she was coming close to hitting the wall. Her body was running on fumes, and she needed proper rest with real sleep.

Maybe she could get that with Jake in the next room.

“You're exhausted. Why don’t you go up, take a hot shower, and go to bed?” Jake suggested.

“I already took a thirty-minute shower earlier,” she reminded him.

“So, take another. You need it, and it will help you relax so you can sleep.”

“Yeah, maybe I’ll do that.” Standing, she rubbed tiredly at her burning eyes. Hopefully, some sleep would help clear them up and they’d feel better in the morning, too. “Night, guys, and thanks for coming to me today when I needed you.”

“Don’t thank us for that, sunshine. You're family,” Jake rebuked her.

“I still appreciate it.”

For him, family meant you were always there for one another, for her it meant something completely different. Other than Jake and his brothers, she had no family. Her parents and sister were never going to be interested in her, and she had long since given up trying to earn their love.

At the kitchen door, she paused. “That guy who saved me and then disappeared, I didn't know him. He wasn't someone from my past. If you're right and he’s the one who set the fire, he was following me or he knew that was my favorite place to run.Whether he was there because of me or because of Jake, he was there, and now he’s out there somewhere.”

“We’ll find him, Alannah,” Jake vowed.

He’d always been her protector, and she’d always believed in him.

Except today.

She went upstairs wondering if anyone could keep her safe.

Chapter

Five

October 15th

5:18 P.M.

“You get everything done?” Jake asked as he came up behind where Alannah was sitting at his kitchen table with paper spread all around her.

After a good night’s sleep, she’d seemed to be in better spirits, and had woken up ready to tackle the mountain of jobs she needed to get done in order to get her gym open and running again. Seeing lots of encouraging and supportive comments from her customers on social media had lifted her spirits as well, and she’d set about everything she had to do with determination.

Since there was no way in hell he was letting her out of his sight while the final man involved in the conspiracy was still out there somewhere, for the foreseeable future, Jake had already decided he was going to play bodyguard. Having Alannah staying in his house felt strange since they were best friends and she wasn't a date, not that he brought many of them home, but it wasn't strange in a bad way.

Looking up at him over her shoulder, she shot him a weary smile. “I think so. Thanks for your help and for asking Eagle to pull some strings. Only one more inspection needs to be done, and if that goes well, I should be able to open again later in the week.”

“That’s great.” The last thing he wanted was for his problems to affect Alannah’s life and livelihood. The gym meant a lot to her, and he knew she’d sunk in most of her inheritance to open it. Her hard work had paid off and she was very successful, but something like this could change that in a split second.

Even though they’d spoken to her last night about whether there could be anyone out there targeting her, he’d never really believed that was a legitimate possibility. It was too much of a coincidence that this had only started when he went to hang out with her in person for the first time in three months.

Seeing the devastation on her face as she’d defended herself, insisting she hadn't set the fire had filled him with rage. The cops that put that thought in her head were lucky he had too much on his plate right now, otherwise, he’d make sure they lost their jobs for treating an innocent victim who’d almost died twice in two days so insensitively.

“Yeah, I'm glad the damage is mostly just downstairs. It will be a while till repairs are sorted out and I can reopen the play area, but I know how lucky I am there wasn't any structural damage that would need to be repaired. That would take months, and I might not be able to survive.”

“I'm just glad you weren't hurt.” While he would have hated her to lose her livelihood it was still preferable to losing her life.

Twice in just days he could have lost her.

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