Page 69 of This Time I'm Keeping You
“Just thinking.”
She started tapping on her keyboard again.
“Poppy,” he said when they stopped at the lights.
He felt that little dip in his gut when she turned those green eyes on him.Her sweater was the same color today and made them even brighter.
“What are you up to?”
“What?”
“You’re not planning on running, are you?”Her eyes dropped to her laptop.“Because if you do, I’ll follow, and when I find you, I’m going to be pissed.”
“I—ah, no.”
“That doesn’t reassure me.”
“If I want to leave, I can, Nick.You can’t stop me.”
“Sure I can, and I will, because you are not leaving my protection and letting anyone get their hands on you again.”
“Okay.”She smiled, but her eyes were on his left ear.“I won’t then.”
He wasn’t reassured.“I don’t believe you.”
“I’m wounded.”
“No, what you are is sneaky, and I know you’re planning something.”
She sighed, and he heard the cover of her laptop shut.
“If you hadn’t come to my book signing, and I hadn’t been attacked that day in the street, none of this would have happened, Nick.You and your family would be safe.
“Is that what you wish?”Nick demanded, hurt.“That you’d never found me again?”
“Yes… no.”She sighed.“Yes, then you would all be safe.No, because I wouldn’t have had these amazing days with you.”
“At least you’re showing honest emotion,” he said with less heat.“And even though I hated seeing you hurt that day, the outcome was that you stopped running, and we have this.”He jabbed a finger at her and then into his chest.“Which is fucking awesome.”
His phone rang then, stopping the conversation, and he took the call through his car speaker.“Hey, Billy, you’re on speaker, and Poppy’s beside me.”
“So don’t swear and talk about how hot she is, then?”Billy asked.
Poppy snorted.
“I have news, and it’s good,” his cousin said.“We located Brad Denton and have him in custody.His fingerprints were also on the picture left on Nick’s bed.”
She only made a small sound, but he heard it.
“Where is he now?”Nick asked.
“At the station.I’m interviewing him,” Billy said.
“Don’t suppose I can come along?”Nick asked.
“Not in this lifetime or the next, so stay away.I just wanted Poppy to know we have one of them.Davy knows he’s being watched, so he’s behaving.”
Nick shot Poppy a look.Her hands were clenched around the edges of her laptop in a white-knuckled grip.
