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“And that’s exactly why I’m doing your one-day crash course, the self-defense thing. I can get behind that. That’s great, but the bodyguard thing? No. Hell no. Sorry.” And then she starts walking off.
I catch her by the arm and turn her around. “No.”
“No?” Her gaze drops to where my hand rests on her tan skin.
I pull away, wiping my hand on my jeans again. “No. If you call Todd, I’ll be taking a ride with him too. And once we get to your apartment, I’ll be posted outside your door all night.”
Her jaw drops.
“It will be more comfortable for me if I get to spend the night in my SUV, rather than on the steps of your apartment.”
“SUV?”
I point toward my SUV with blacked-out windows. It’s a new acquisition, and it has my logo “Savage Self-Defense” printed across the side. Looking at it makes me sweat. I like my privacy, and setting up the camp and the classes is working on my nerves, but it’s something I have to do. I’ve been running a few courses, but never a full-on camp.
“You can’t follow me.”
“It doesn’t matter what you think,” I say. “I will be following you. Closely. So either I take you home or Todd does, but we’re both going to your apartment tonight.”
She lets out a tiny breath, her lips parted.
I stare at them, and the seconds tick by, the tension bands across my chest.
“Fine,” she says. “Fine. Whatever. But tomorrow, you two, you and Cash, you’re going to pay for this.” And she goes as far as to poke me in the chest, right on my pec. She snatches her finger back. “Wow. That is… That’s hard.” And then she blushes and practically runs for my SUV.
Adorable.
I follow her and unlock it with a click of a button. She’s standing at the back door, but I walk to the front passenger door and open it for her. “In.”
Hannah blinks.
“I’m not an Uber driver. Get in the front seat.”
She walks over and grabs the door handle. I take her elbow and help feed her into the car safely, then let go like I’ve been burned, because I have. I have been burned by Hannah Taylor, not that I’ll let her know it.
I shut her door, then head over to my side and get in, starting the engine in silence.
Hannah puts on her seatbelt and stares out the window, which suits me fine. We don’t have to talk and make this worse, but I keep glancing at her, whenever I can, taking in her side profile, her cute nose, the glasses that are slipping down and that she keeps pushing back into place.
“I live above the bakery on?—”
“I know.”
Her head whips around.
“We’ve been going to the same potluck dinner for years,” I say. “Did you think I wouldn’t know where you stayed?”
She shrugs. “I didn’t think you cared.”
I don’t step on that landmine.
I park in front of Bagel’s Bakery. “Stay in the car,” I say.
“But—”
I get out and slam the door, then head around the side of the brick building to assess the alleyway and the grated steps that lead up to the apartment. The alleyway ends in a chain link fence that would be easy to climb. It’s dark, the light from the lampposts barely reaching the first step. There are two green dumpsters that are shut.
I don’t like it one fucking bit.
