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Him, if he read her flushed cheeks and dilated pupils accurately—not that she’d admit it.
He’d made sure to wear a tight black T-shirt over ass-and-leg-hugging cargo pants, emphasizing his assets. A bit of an unfair advantage but he’d take it. He worked hard to keep himself in shape, continuing his fitness regime even since he’d left the commandos. And it helped with his general health and wellbeing. Meeting Sage’s eye-candy criteria, having her approval, made him feel even better…worth something.
“Um…” She glanced down at her almost empty plate. “A glass of red would be great. I’ve got a bottle open in the cupboard.”
He grabbed their drinks and returned to the table. “To positive new beginnings.”
“Yes.” She raised her wine glass to his stubby of beer. “Cheers.”
They both drank to that, finished their dinner and took their time with their drinks.
Alexander fixed his eyes on hers. “Tell me about your day.”
“Same old.”
“You don’t have to hide anything from me. Like I said, the more details I have, the better I can do my job—and my job is to protect you.” Plus a lot, lot more, but he couldn’t go there yet.
She dropped her gaze to her glass, like it was a crystal ball that could guide her decision-making, and sculled the rest of her red. “Okay.”
Thank fuck.
Sage hesitated, then met his stare. “Before I say anything else, I want to emphasize that I don’t know whether the acts are linked. And I don’t want to assume.”
Discomfort crawled up his spine. The signs, compounded by her words and tone and body language, according to his very responsive, very accurate gut, refined over years of experience, suggested the events were most likely connected. However, he had to remain neutral. Let her speak, explain and assess afterwards. “I agree it’s important to be as objective as possible.”
“It is.” She paused and he didn’t say anything, silently encouraging her to continue. “It started about three months ago.” She glanced at him, as though expecting a response.
He kept quiet…a strategic move that often encouraged a person to talk, to reveal more.
“I received a random email and ignored it. I thought maybe it was a prank meant for someone else and they’d gotten the address wrong. Then a couple of weeks later, I got another message, same generic email address, something that probably isn’t traceable.”
“Show me.”
“I will. But now that I’ve started, I need to get this out.”
He gave her a gruff nod. The whole thing felt really off, dodgy.
“The vague, unsettling messages became more frequent and started to spread across platforms. Email, text, messenger on my professional social-media pages. Then, in the last week, before the break-in, I received a message every day.”
“And today?”
“Yes.”
Fuck, he knew there’d be more to it. “Have you kept all the communications?”
“Every single one.”
He closed his eyes and breathed out a sigh of mega frustration. “Fuck.”
“What does fuck mean?”
Alexander met her worried gaze. “They have an extraordinary amount of access to you.”
“That’s bad.”
“Yeah. Though it might help us narrow down people of interest. To have that level of knowledge suggests it’s someone you know.”
“I’d kind of figured that out already, and I’ve made a shortlist.”
