Page 65 of The Agent
“Sheisstrong—stronger than you’d believe.” Tully could take criticism of himself but he wasn’t going to let anyone sell Natalie short.
Leland raised a hand in acknowledgment. “You’ve stated your intention never to marry with great conviction. I may disagree with your reasons but I respect your decision.”
“Natalie has the same intention,” Tully pointed out, keeping his temper in check.
“Dawn thinks that will change once Natalie has had time to heal.” Leland shifted in his chair. “Neither she nor I wish to see Natalie drawn into a relationship that might cause her hurt.”
Tully felt a punch of guilt since he’d had the same thought last night. “She knows who I am. She knows where I stand.”
“What one knows and what one feels sometimes lead in different directions,” Leland said.
“Tell me about it,” Tully said before he could stop himself.
Leland didn’t let the honesty slide by. “So you’re in deeper than you want to admit.”
“Shit, I don’t know how deep I’m in. But I hear you, partner.” He wanted to get out of there before Leland pushed him into making a decision he didn’t want to face just yet. He stood up. “Right now my focus is on keeping Natalie safe and Regina protected from her psycho husband.”
“There’s more to safety than just the physical,” Leland said.
“You’ve made your point.” He turned on his boot heel and stalked out of the room. Leland was lucky that Tully had already been beating himself up. Otherwise he would have ripped a strip off his partner’s hide for nosing in Tully’s personal life.
Since he was now spoiling for a fight, he went back to his office to call that jackass of a client, Henry Earnshaw, and give him the bad news about how much his next meeting would cost.
Natalie fell into the familiar rhythm of combing and cutting, the metallic hiss of the scissor blades a comforting sound. Her client chatted about her daughter’s upcoming graduation from medical school while Natalie made appropriate comments.
But beneath the surface serenity, she wrestled with how she’d come to depend on Tully so profoundly. She’d slipped into a relationship with an overpowering man again. What the hell was wrong with her?
Granted, Tully didn’t buy her jewelry to impress her. His gifts were security bars and surveillance cameras. He sent a bodyguard and gave her favorite tenant a job. Tully’s way was far more seductive and dangerous to her hard-won independence.
And he hadn’t considered her a coward when she confessed to contemplating suicide. She’d expected him to look at her with pity at best and disgust at worst. Instead, he’d told her how strong she was.
She traded her scissors for a blow-dryer, the noise silencing her client’s chatter. Her stalker seemed to have fallen silent as well. No twisted messages had arrived in any form for the last day and a half. Maybe Natalie could go back to her house and her life of solitude again. Then Tully wouldn’t need to protect her.
They could see each other casually every now and then. Because the sex was great.
Natalie nodded to herself. Keep it about sex. Don’t open the door to another man who could make her doubt herself.
A niggling little voice said Tully wasn’t like Matt, but she used the hair dryer to drown it out.
As she tossed her client’s lavender cape into the laundry bin, Pam strode over and said in a low voice, “Still no sign of the stalker, either here or at your house.”
She sounded more worried than relieved. “Isn’t that a good thing?” Natalie asked.
Pam pressed her lips together for a moment as if debating how much to share. “Stalkers don’t stop for no reason. So why has he gone silent?”
Tully hadn’t pointed that out, although he had pulled Pam aside for a short, intense conversation when she’d picked Natalie up at Tully’s house that morning. But now that Natalie thought about it, the silence didn’t make sense, especially if Dobs was her stalker. “Why doyouthink there have been no new messages?”
Pam just shook her head, but Natalie could see concern in the grim set of her jaw.
“You believe he’s planning something worse, don’t you?”
The other woman looked away and then back. “You can’t predict what a psychopath will do. I’m telling you this so you stay careful.”
“Luckily, I have you to make sure I do,” Natalie said with a smile.
“I’m off tomorrow, so you’ll have someone else. Just as good,” Pam added.
A ping of disappointment hit Natalie in the chest. She’d come to trust Pam as much as Tully.
