Page 70 of The Bodyguard
17
SABRINA
Pine’s Ranch
“Hey, you’re running late tonight. Something happen today at work?”
See? That sounded pleasant. Easy. I smiled at him and thought there was no way he could tell I had spent part of the day crying over him. I told myself it was best to get it out of my system before he came home. I literally put it on my day’s calendar. Two to three—crying jag. Three to four, ice and cucumber treatment to handle the swelling. Four to five, practice smiling and making chitchat in the mirror.
I watched Garrett take off his utility belt and set it down on the table in the foyer. If I’d been going to stay, I would get him a rack or something better to hold his belt and gun so it wasn’t just out there on the table like that.
But I wasn’t staying.
A few more days. A few more days with him and I would take every one of them.
“What in the hell is that?”
I flinched at his tone. He was glaring at the box on the kitchen counter like it was some kind of rabid beast. “Oh, check this out,” I said, clapping my hands. I flipped open the lid. “Ta-da! It’s a Kate Spade cat purse. See the ears and the eyes and whiskers on the front? I figured Romeo needed to be carried around in something more stylish, and besides, I needed my actual purse back.”
I thought it was adorable but he was still glaring at it like it was going to bite him. “You ordered that,” he bit out.
“Yes. From the website. Why are you behaving like this?”
“You had a fucking delivery person out here, Brin! Don’t you get that? You have some guy who has hacked your phone and emails who supposedly wants to hurt you. And you order something and have it shipped here! Here, where you’re supposed to be in hiding! What was whole damn point of you being here if you were going to let the world know?”
He was shouting and his face was a furious red. I couldn’t think. I started to stutter and then I started to think about what he’d said.
“Supposedlywants to hurt me? When did we go back tosupposedly?”
“Oh, no,” he said, storming toward me. “You do not change the subject. How can I possibly think YOU think you’re in danger if you’re willing to tell everyone where you are?”
That wasn’t fair. I wasn’t doing that. But I realized now it was stupid of me to do it. The stalker had proven on many occasions he had access to my accounts over the Web. I had been careless and let my guard down.
“I…didn’t…think…I guess… It was just a stupid purse… I didn’t think.”
“You didn’t think or you know damn well this whole stalker thing has been a stunt from the beginning? I found your hoodie guy today. It’s Pete Wade’s son, Danny. You went to high school with him. He said he saw you and pointed at you because he realized who you were and then watched you take off running, but he didn’t know why.”
Stunt. He thought it was a stunt. I could actually feel myself shutting down. “Oh. That could have been it.”
“Yeah,” he snorted. “That could have been it.”
I was shaking. I could feel my lips trembling, and I knew I was going to cry and I didn’t want to do it front of him. I needed to leave but he wasn’t done yelling at me, and I had this idea that it would be rude to walk out on a conversation.
“What did you think was going to happen here, Brin?” He waved his hand in the air. There was an ugly smirk on his face I had never seen before. “I bring you to my home. You make me some brownies and cookies. Give me some good and regular sex and I’m going to change and be the man you’ve always wanted me to be? Some guy that worshipped at your feet? That loved you? Because that was never going to happen and you knew that from the beginning! I. Am. Broken.”
With his hand he slammed each word against his chest as he said it. I wanted to rub the pain away and tell him I was sorry he’d been hurt so badly. But I was pretty sure he didn’t want to hear that from me. And I was done listening to his awfulness. The more he talked, the more he would ruin what this week had meant to me and I didn’t want that. I wanted to the remember all the feelings right up until last night as being good and wonderful.
“Can I go now?” I asked.
“That’s it? You’re not going to say anything? Not going to at least try and convince me this wasn’t all some kind of setup?”
I shook my head. “I just want to get Romeo. I’ll come back for the rest of my stuff tomorrow while you’re at work. There is a lasagna in the oven, so you should take that out when the timer rings.”
I moved away from him while he stood there in the kitchen cursing to himself. I scooped up Romeo and his feeding supplies and then went to get my purse. My car keys were in the side pocket.
“Brin…wait.”
I didn’t stop moving. I had Romeo. I had his formula and nipples. I had my keys. I started toward the front door.
