As she was speaking, the sheriff’s police cruiser pulled up in front of the shop. The three of us turned our gazes toward the huge window overlooking the parking lot just as Ben stepped out. The look on my brother-in-law’s face was murderous.
The customer turned ghostly white, and I snickered as I finished shutting down the computer. “Don’t forget to lock up, sis,” I told her as I walked toward the back door. “And make sure there’s no blood on the floors. You know how Mom hates having to bring in a cleaner.” Opening the door, I called over my shoulder, “Let me know if I need to help bury a body.”
The bell over the front door jingled as I was going out the back door. Knowing Ben had dickless covered, I jogged up the side stairs to my apartment. Shutting the door behind me, I flipped the locks, not wanting either my sister or brother-in-law to be able to just walk in.
I wanted a little bit longer with my treasure before I had to share her with everyone else.
She wasn’t cuddled up on the couch, so I went into the bedroom. When I didn’t find her snuggled beneath the covers on our bed, my gut clenched. I’d been so focused on getting my job done, I could have missed her if she’d snuck out. Would she have run off on me?
Just as that nightmarish thought entered my head, I heard a sound from the closet. Frowning, I crossed to it and opened the door. It took a second for my eyes to adjust to the darkness inside the little closet, but when I finally spotted her in the back corner, curled up into a ball, trying to make herself as small as possible, I was ready to destroy whatever had put that fear in her pretty eyes.
Realizing it was me, a pitiful whimper escaped her, and she threw herself into my arms. Feeling how hard she was trembling, I scooped her up and carried her to the bed. Sitting with her in my lap, I held her for a few minutes until some of the tremors stopped before leaning back so I could talk to her.
“What happened?” I signed.
She gulped but quickly answered. “I was looking out the window, trying to see you. I missed you.” She lowered her eyes to my chest. “Then I saw the cop’s car pull up. I got scared he was here for me.”
“You have nothing to fear here, little treasure,” I tried to reassure her. “That was just Ben. My brother-in-law. My sister was working in the shop, and he came by to deal with a customer who was being disrespectful to Lexa.”
She remained quiet, her chin quivering.
Groaning, I cupped the back of her head and tucked her close. I knew she trusted me, but it seemed it was going to take longer for her to trust that she was safe from all things with me. But I was going to prove to her that nothing could touch her when I was with her.
We sat there for a while, with me rubbing her back in an attempt to soothe us both, before she finally began to relax. When she lifted her head, signing an apology, I captured her hands and lifted them to my mouth so I could kiss each palm. “You have nothing to be sorry for, treasure. Ever.”
Twin tears fell down her cheeks. “What if someone takes me away?”
My hold on her hands tightened for a moment before I forced myself to ease my grip. “That won’t happen,” I promised. “Because I will kill anyone who even tries.”
9
Delaney
Reading hadn’t kept my attention for long as each minute ticked by without Max there with me. It didn’t seem healthy that I missed him to the point of an ache forming in my chest less than ten minutes after he’d left.
Was I being too clingy? Would that annoy him? Some of the girls at school who had boyfriends mentioned that guys hated being smothered. I didn’t want to lose Max, so I tried to fight the need to be near him.
But that hadn’t stopped me from trying to see him through the window overlooking the front parking lot of the garage. There had been no sign of anyone except for the occasional car driving past until the police cruiser had pulled up in front of the building. As fast as he’d braked, I knew the cop was in a hurry, and when he stepped out, the look on his face told me he wasn’t happy.
My only thought was to hide, so I’d grabbed my phone and dived into the closet, trying to make myself as small as possible as I tried to fight the fear of being taken from Max and forced to return to my aunt and uncle.
That fear still hadn’t completely faded hours later as Max sat with me on the couch. The TV was on some movie I hadn’t really been paying attention to. The subtitles were on so I could follow along, but my gaze kept going to the closed and locked front door, worried that at any minute it would be forced open and I’d be dragged out of the apartment in handcuffs.
Beside me, Max shifted, pulling his cell phone out of his pocket. When he glanced at the screen, he pressed his lips into a hard line, but he lifted it to his ear. Unlike the night before, he didn’t turn his face away as he spoke to whomever was on the other end, so I was able to read some of what he said.
“Don’t feel like going
