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She stared out into the ocean, avoiding my eyes. I wanted her to look at me and believe the words because I meant them. I would do whatever it took to have her trust.
Finally, she turned her gaze to me and there was a softness there. “It isn’t easy for me to let go if you haven’t noticed,” she smiled. “I don’t trust anyone. I think everyone has their own motives and interests at heart. But I do believe you take your job seriously and you will protect me if that time ever comes. Of that, I have no doubt.”
I was pleased to hear her say she believed in my ability as a bodyguard, but as a man, as someone who believed in honor, I wanted to earn her trust.
My watch beeped, and I checked the message.
“We’re almost at shore. We’ll disembark in fifteen minutes.”
She nodded.
Another message followed the last one.
“Shit,” I whispered and wished I’d held it back.
“What? What’s wrong?”
I read the text from Will and my muscles tensed. My body was primed to take action.
Nikole grabbed my hand, forcing me to look at her.
“I just received a text from Will,” I explained. “Someone went to your home. He said your apartment has been ransacked.” I looked her in the eye. “Nikole, you can’t go back there.”
“What?” Her eyes grew bigger and her chest rose and fell rapidly. “Someone came inside my apartment?” She shook her head. “Where am I supposed to live now?”
“You can stay with your mother. There will be two of us there to protect you if you do.”
She shook her head as soon as I said ‘Mother’. “No way. I’m not moving back in with her. It was not easy living with her the first time. I’ll stay at a hotel, anything. There has to be someplace else.”
Her eyebrows inched closer and she bit the skin on the side of her thumb, gnawing one side and then the other.
“There is,” I said before thinking it through.
She looked up with curious eyes. And I blurted, “You could stay with me.”
13
Nikole
I blinked. His face blurred in front of me. His bluish-gray eyes were like two points I could focus on to regain my bearings.
Jake said someone had broken into my apartment while we were gone and ransacked the place. The thought of someone inside my home scared me, I couldn’t lie.
Had they planned to go in while I was at work? Or was I just lucky not to be at home? I couldn’t wrap my head around the scenario, but I realized that someone was serious about hurting my mother and probably even me.
But stay with Jake? In his home?
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” I said, and he stared at me for a moment but finally nodded.
There was something happening between us, there was no use denying it. My heart raced whenever he looked at me. I worried that these feelings I was developing might be based on some messed up Stockholm Syndrome. Or maybe I was shallower than I thought and this yacht was making me feel something I hadn’t felt before.
Or maybe it was the way he covered my wrists or massaged my aching feet. Those feelings were the most confusing of all. Stockholm Syndrome and being shallow, I could understand. Having someone take care of me for no other reason than to make me feel better. This was strange territory to me.
“I want to see my place first. Then decide where I will stay.”
He pressed his lips together. “I don’t think you should see it the way it is now. It may be an image you can’t forget.”
“I once traveled across state lines to see a man put to death in the name of justice. There are some things I will never forget. I don’t think this will be one of them.”
