Fractured Freedom(36)

I never got that far though. My tummy was unmarked, brutally pure in a way I realized I didn’t want it to be.

I jumped when I heard a ping from my phone, and my hands flew from my stomach.

I grabbed the device from the counter and wrapped a towel around my body.

Dante: You staying in your room today?

Me: How’d you get my number?

Dante: That’s classified. Now, tell me what you’re doing today.

Me: Do I have to stay in my room?

Dante: At least stay at the resort. Go swim if you want, but don’t leave. The buffet isn’t open to the public, so you can eat there. Otherwise, let me know what food you want and I’ll bring it to you.

Me: This is only until tomorrow when I’m technically back in town, right?

Dante: As long as the threat to you doesn’t change.





I sighed because that wasn’t the answer I wanted.

Me: I guess I’ll swim or maybe go to the beach. I read theirs is private.

Dante: I’ll go with.

Me: Don’t you have to work?

Dante: You’re now part of my job, Lilah. Get used to it.





I jumped again when I heard the knock at my door, my body so wired from him being near.

I glared at the door. He damn well knew no one could be ready that fast. So I yelled, “One minute.”

Quickly surveying the room, I threw on a white swimsuit I’d just bought a week ago off some inexpensive website and added my flowy yellow skirt and matching crop top over it. The color made my skin look tanned and I needed all the help I could get when it came to looking good in front of my childhood crush.

As I walked across the white tile of my hotel room, I shoved a few pieces of clothing in my suitcase and opened the door.

Dante in beach shorts and a white linen top probably should have been illegal.

“Hey.” I waved him in as I combed a hand through my wet hair. “You don’t have to follow me around. I’ll be fine hanging out here.”

“I know,” he replied and plopped his butt right on my bed. “I’m just trying to figure out how I’m going to check things off your list with you.”

I huffed and plugged in my blow dryer. “Those are my plans, Dante. Not yours. And tomorrow I go back to work and can do all those things on my own. Don’t you have a job to be doing?”

He started to say, “It’s my job to keep you—"

I held up my hand. “Not following me around. I can get a cop to do that if it makes you feel better.”

His brows slammed down. “That’s not happening. I have guys I trust guarding the hotel when I’m out. Otherwise, it’ll be me. No one else.”

“You have guys guarding us?” I squeaked. “What for?”

“As a precaution.”

I tried not to let him see my hand shaking. “That’s so over the top. Izzy was trying to do these men a favor by carrying drugs back to Florida, right?”

He narrowed his eyes like he wasn’t going to answer.

“If that’s the case, she got caught with me, but I didn’t do anything. I was out in a day or two because of my family friend, right? No one knows you or me here. We’re fine.” I waited a beat and then said again, “Right?”

“Maybe.” He shrugged. “Maybe not. It’s class—”

I turned the hair dryer on. I didn’t want to hear that word again.

When I smirked at him, he shook his head and got up from the bed to stalk toward me. My body still reacted the same to him after all these years. My adrenaline, the jitters in my belly, and my core tightening all happened at the same time. The logical side of me told me to back away from him.

I wasn’t looking for logical and safe here, though. I wanted to live.

So I stood my ground as he came closer and closer. When he leaned in and stared at me, inches from my face, I was reminded that he was a whole head taller than me. I couldn’t stop myself from looking at his pillowy lips with him this close. I didn’t know if only a second went by or a whole minute.

Suddenly, the sound of my hair dryer cut off. He held up the cord end as he took one step back.

Unplugging something: that was the reason he’d come so close.

Not to kiss me or tell me how much me being his best friend’s kid sister didn’t matter. Or anything like that.

“Let’s go have breakfast and go to the beach, huh?”

I shrugged and grabbed my purse. “I’m going either way. If you want to come, that’s fine, but I don’t want to be a burden. Go work if you have to.”

Dante just smiled and opened my hotel door for me.

I followed him, and he walked me through the hotel. I pointed out the bird sanctuary where I’d seen peacocks on my first day and also told him that there were all sorts of lizards running around. “It’s such a beautiful hotel.”

“It is. Probably one that should have better security for the first few floors, though.”

I rolled my eyes. “My room wasn’t that bad.”

Before he could argue, I pointed out a swan on the water and murmured an ‘aw’ when another swan came to nestle into the other bird’s neck.

“They’re monogamous for life,” Dante told me.

“I wonder if those two are.”