Page 10 of Protector Next Door
6
Xander
A touch,a few words, and a kiss. They shouldn’t have the power to seize your heart with affection and refuse to let it go, but that’s where I am rightnow.
I turn into the parking lot where I have Fritz in Doggy Day Care. I was able to sneak in a last-minute extension of his reservation when I decided at the eleventh hour to extend my working vacation from just a trip to New York to a trip to both New York and LosAngeles.
I walk up to the front desk and tell David, the owner, who is almost always here, that I’d like to check Fritz out for a couple days and then check him back in. I have to hammer out the details of Samantha’s conference with her, but she was understandably cold toward me during coffee thismorning.
Scratch that. She wasn’t just cold. Her eyes were like a polar ice cap. She’s completely frozen meout.
I don’t know what the fuck got into my head and convinced me it would be a good idea to put my hands on her. Thank fucking god her phone rang. I should put her friend on my Christmas list and send them one of those baskets of cheese, crackers, salami and wine with a card that saysthank you for saving my ass, happyholidays.
If Samantha’s phone hadn’t rung, I don’t know what would have happened next. I let out a deep breath and scrub my hand up the side of my cheek. I don’t know if I would have been able to stop myself from throwing her down on the sofa and ripping her goddamn clothesoff.
And now I’m grabbing Fritz from daycare to bring him home to do two favors for me. One, act as a buffer between me and Samantha. I’ve found introducing a wingman is always a good way to break the ice. And yeah, about that cold front she’s blowing at me. I hope Fritz can melt it down a little. Dogs are good like that. They do favors for us humans and they don’t even know how much they’re appreciated. All the treats in the world won’t be able to pay Fritz back for helping me smooth out things withSamantha.
“Hey boy,” I say, unable to stop the smile that’s spreading on my lips when he appears. He jumps to put his paws on the counter and I give his chin a rub as David hooks his leash on his collar and hands me the end. “How was he thistime?”
“Everyone always loves him,” David says. “The girls were brushing him. Can’t getenough.”
“Thanks.” I shake his hand and grab a business card from the tray on the counter. As I’m walking out the door with Fritz my phone rings. It’s the forensics lab I use. I’d had the envelope Samantha’d received bagged and picked up by a confidential messenger service last night and had it hand-delivered to the forensic lab’s twenty-four-hour drop-off location. There’s always someone on call at night for emergencies like this. I had them pick it up right afterdinner.
After…god, whatever thefuckthatwas.
“What you got for me?” I open the passenger-side door of my car for Fritz to hopin.
“The fingerprints came back as a match for Bryce Aldo. He’s in the system.” His prior or priors are a blessing at the moment. I walk around the front of my car and my feet feel heavier than before. Now that I have confirmation it was Samantha’s ex who sent her the photos, I have a new place to channel my energy rather than letting it just float. I get inside and put my phone on speaker, throwing it on the dashboard and starting the car. “He was arrested once before on a domestic call but the charges weredropped.”
“Thanks,” I say, turning out of the parking lot. I know he didn’t physically abuse Samantha because she would have told me if he had. Still, hearing that he was arrested for a domestic issue makes me see red. “This is enough to start with. Thanks again. We’ll talksoon.”
I feel my grip on the steering wheel get tighter as I callSamantha.
“Hello?” she answers. She sounds strong. Legitimately, convincingly strong, like she doesn’t take shit even when she’s scared. That’s not to say there isn’t a thread of unease there. But she sounds like she can take what’s thrown ather.
“Can I take you to lunch?” I say. “We have new information on the photos and I was hoping we could go over nextsteps.”
There’s a pause before shereplies.
“Sure,” she says, her voice clipped. I swallowthickly.
“Did you happen to pack a dress? Something nice butcasual?”
“Yeah, I think I threw a black dress in mybag.”
“Perfect. I have a surprise to drop off at home and then we’ll goout.”
“Okay,” she says, a little stutter in her voice. It makes me sick to know she hasn’t been teated well, treated right, treated fairly. Treated how she deserves. Treated how everyone who is decent and good deserves. Well, maybe not that last part. She deserves more than the average decent person, because she is anything but average. It’s undeniable. She’s a very specialwoman.
Could I be the man to give her what she deserves? Yes. There’s no doubt about that in my mind. And could she be the woman I want to give my all to? That’s the scary part, the part that makes my mind buzz with the excitement ofuncertainty.
“See you soon,” Ireply.
I throw Fritz a look and give him a scratch behind the ears before settling into the ridehome.
