Entwined with You(26)

“Jesus.” I fell back on my ass, feeling sick.


“I’ll have my guys look at it.” He lowered to his knees and brushed the hair back from my face. “Could it be your mother?”


I stared at him helplessly.


“Eva—”


“My God, Gideon.” I held him off with an uplifted hand and grabbed my phone with the other. I dialed Clancy, my stepfather’s bodyguard, and the moment he answered, I said, “Is the bug in my compact one of yours?”


There was a pause, then, “Tracking device, not a bug. Yes.”


“For f*ck’s sake, Clancy!”


“It’s my job.”


“Your job sucks,” I shot back, picturing him in my head. Clancy was solid muscle. He wore his dirty-blond hair in a military crew cut and radiated a vibe that was deadly dangerous. But I wasn’t afraid of him. “This is bullshit and you know it.”


“Keeping you safe became a bigger concern when Nathan Barker showed up again. He was slippery, so I had to cover both of you. The minute his death was confirmed, I turned off the receiver.”


I squeezed my eyes shut. “This isn’t about the damn tracker! I don’t have a problem with that. It’s the keeping-me-in-the-dark part that’s wrong on so many levels. I feel violated, Clancy.”


“I don’t blame you, but Mrs. Stanton didn’t want you to worry.”


“I’m an adult! I get to decide if I worry or not.” I shot a look at Gideon when I said that, because what I was saying was totally applicable to him, too.


His arch look told me he got the message.


“You won’t hear me arguing,” Clancy said gruffly.


“You owe me,” I told him, knowing just how I was going to collect. “Big-time.”


“You know where to find me.”


I killed the call, then sent a text to my mom: We need to talk.


My shoulders sagged with disappointment and frustration.


“Angel.”


I shot Gideon a look that warned him not to push me. “Don’t you dare make excuses—for yourself or for her.”


His eyes were soft and shadowed, but the set of his jaw was resolute. “I was there when you were told Nathan was in New York. I saw your face. There’s no one who loves you who wouldn’t do whatever they could to shield you from that.”


And that was really hard for me to deal with, because I couldn’t deny that I was glad I hadn’t known about Nathan until after he was dead. But I also didn’t want to be insulated from bad things. They were part of living.


Reaching for his hand, I gripped it tightly. “I feel the same way about you.”


“I’ve taken care of my demons.”


“And mine.” But we were still sleeping apart from each other. “I want you to go back to Dr. Petersen,” I said quietly.


“I went on Tuesday.”


“You did?” I couldn’t hide my surprise at learning he’d kept his regular schedule.


“Yeah, I did. I only missed the one appointment.”


When he’d killed Nathan …


His thumb brushed over the back of my hand. “It’s just you and me now,” he said, as if he’d read my mind.


I wanted to believe that.


I was dragging when I got to work, which wasn’t a good omen for the rest of the day. At least it was Friday and I could be a slug over the weekend, which would probably be a necessity Sunday morning if I partied too hard Saturday night. I hadn’t had a girls’ night out in ages and I felt the need for a good stiff drink or two.


In the previous forty-eight hours, I’d learned that my boyfriend had killed my rapist, one of my exes was hoping to spread me across his sheets, one of my boyfriend’s exes was hoping to smear him in the press, and my mother had microchipped me like a damned dog.


Really, how much was a girl supposed to take?


“You ready for tomorrow?” Megumi queried, after she buzzed me through the glass doors.


“Hell, yeah. My friend Shawna texted me this morning and she’s in.” I mustered a genuine smile. “I arranged for a club limo for us. You know … one of those that take you to all the VIP spots, cover included.”


“What?” She couldn’t hide her excitement, but still had to ask, “How much is that?”


“Nada. It’s a favor from a friend.”


“Some favor.” Her grin made me happy, too. “This is going to be awesome! You’ll have to tell me the deets over lunch.”


“You’re on. I expect you to dish about your lunch yesterday, too.”


“Talk about mixed signals, right?” she complained. “ ‘We’re just having fun,’ but he shows his face at my work? I would never pop into a guy’s office for an impromptu lunch if we were just messing around.”


“Men,” I huffed sympathetically, even as I acknowledged that I was grateful for the one who was mine.


I went to my desk and got ready to start my workday. When I saw the framed photos of Gideon and me in my drawer, I was struck by the need to reach out to him. Ten minutes later, I’d asked Angus to place an order for black magic roses to be sent to Gideon’s office with the note: