The Dangerous Thief (Stolen Hearts #3)(21)

Once they were a block away, she finally let go of everything. “What the hell are you doing here, James? Are you trying to die? Are you trying to get me killed? And how the hell did you end up working for my dad? I know you weren’t working for him before. If he knew what I was trying to do, I’d probably be dead already. So someone had to get you a job here, right? What is your end game? You need to leave because if you are around, I’m going to keep on doing stupid stuff that’s going to get me caught. What the hell are you doing here, James?”

They were still walking during her entire tirade and James, ever the silent one, wasn’t in any rush to answer her questions. “You talk a lot.”

“Yep. And did you know the sun rises in the east and sets in the west?”

He raised his brow as a silent touché. “Nothing changed. I’m still trying to get your father to give up the location of someone I’m looking for. The only thing that complicated matters was you taking off. With my truck.”

“I left the keys in it,” she said weakly.

“And my cover as your personal bodyguard will give me a good reason to get close to your father.”

He didn’t mention anything about staying close to her. Some part of her had thought he’d come to track her down and drag her back with him. Or maybe some part of her wanted that? Who knew what her jumbled mind was going for these days?

But it wasn’t all in her head. Maybe back when she was at his place in the Arizona desert, it was easy to think her inconvenient feelings were one-sided, but they’d kissed. And it hadn’t been just her doing the kissing. He’d been just as into it as she’d been. And those few seconds she’d seen him in Vegas....

“So now what? Where are you going to go?”

He frowned. “I’m going home with you.”

“No you’re not.”

“My cover is as your security detail. That means I go home with you.”

“Then....” Willa tried to think of something to say to end up not spending any time secluded with James, but nothing really came to her. If he wanted to get close to Jadon, she really was the best way in, especially considering she was on his side. But that didn’t make her feel better about it. Because Willa sucked with words, she just burst out with the truth. “James, he’ll kill you.”

The corner of his mouth lifted. “I’m not that easy to kill, hun.”

Wasn’t that the truth? If it were anyone else, she wouldn’t be worried. She’d seen firsthand how dangerous James could be. But Jadon wasn’t just anyone. The kind of money in this family was dangerous. Dangerous in a way she’d never realized before.

“Tell you what,” said James. “We go to your apartment, regroup, and you’ll get used to the idea.”

Willa chewed at her bottom lip. It really didn’t matter what she said. She couldn’t abandon James now that he was here. Jadon would be too suspicious about her hesitation to let him watch her, especially after her embarrassing reaction to seeing him. And she had a feeling that even if James did agree to leave her alone, he wouldn’t drop his agenda against her father. So if she didn’t want him to die, he was going to be spending a lot more time with her. Willa let out a groan and rubbed at her temples. “Fine. Let’s go home.”

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Willa was still rubbing her forehead when the cab dropped them off in front of her building. Everything about this was wrong. The fact that James was here was wrong. The fact that he was wearing a full suit, even a tie, was wrong. The fact that they were about to stop at her apartment was wrong.

Really, after everything that had happened recently, she should be used to things feeling wrong, but nope. She wasn’t even close to being okay with this.

She paid the cab driver and gave him a generous tip as she led the way into her building. She almost went to introduce James to the doorman so he would be able to get in and out without issue, but then remembered that she’d never done that with security detail in the past. Normally her father took care of it.

Right after they reached the elevator and she hit the up arrow, she started to have reservations. “Maybe we should go somewhere else. He could be listen—” The elevator doors opened and instead of moving away from the elevator, James set a hand at the small of her back and led her inside. Apparently he was scrapping that idea.

As soon as they were inside the elevator, Willa stepped away from James. “I think we need boundaries,” she said.

He stared straight ahead, but the elevator doors were basically an oversized golden mirror, so she couldn’t tell whether he was looking at her.

“Because the little incident that happened was just a one-time thing. Considering that you’re here for work, I think we can both agree that it would be best for each of us if that didn’t happen again.” He didn’t say anything. “I think distractions are dangerous and since I obviously barely have any idea of what I’m doing to begin with, I need all the help I can get.”

The doors opened right to her luxury apartment and James set an arm in front of the doors as though to hold them open for her.

She stepped inside and turned around to face him. “Damn it, James. I know you’re not big on talking, but I’m trying to work with you here and you’re not really giving me much to go with.”