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Jared
It takes me forever to get to sleep. My couch isn’t designed to hold a man my size, and my thoughts keep wandering to the woman sleeping in my bed. She was afraid tonight. I could tell that. I don’t blame her. First her business, now her home… something more has to be going on here. This is starting to feel like a personal attack, and there’s only one person I can think of that might do this to her—Thomas, her ex. The man isn’t the friendliest. In fact, his violence toward Nia is troubling. I was glad she gave his name to the police. If she hadn’t, I would have—even if it would have caused problems between us. I can’t stand seeing a man put his hands on a woman.
My need to keep her safe grows with every passing minute I lie on my couch, staring at the living room window. I need her whole and unharmed. The thought she could be hurt doesn’t sit right with me at all, but how I keep her safe, I don’t know. I can’t move her in permanently—we’re not far enough into our relationship for that yet—but I’m not willing to send her back to her apartment tomorrow alone.
A thought occurs to me, and I fish my phone out of my jeans pocket from where they’re strewn on the floor. I quickly pull up Slider’s contact information and hit dial.
It takes him a few rings to pick up, and when he does, he sounds sleepy.
“Boss? Everything okay?”
“Who fitted the security system on your apartment?”
There’s a beat of silence, then, “J, it’s like, two-thirty in the morning. Couldn’t this have waited until tomorrow?”
Shit, it’s that late? I pull my phone from my ear and check the time. He’s right. It’s two-thirty-three.
“I know it’s late. I’m sorry.” I consider not telling him what happened, but if something goes down, it’ll be Slider and Beanie I’m calling on to help. “Nia’s apartment was broken into tonight. She needs a new system installing.”
All vestiges of sleep are pushed aside as he mutters a “Shit” followed by, “Is she okay?”
“Yeah. She’s not hurt, but I don’t want to send her back there without something in place—both at her apartment and the store.”
“Send her back? Where is she now?”
“My house.”
I expect a joke to follow, but he must sense how serious this situation is because he says, “I’ll call him first thing in the morning, see if he can come out straight away. I’ll let you know when I know more.”
“Thanks, buddy. Oh, Slide, one more thing.”
“Yeah?”
“The bill… it comes to me, got it?”
There’s a pause then, “Yeah, I got it.”
I hang up and let out a deep breath. It’s not much, but at least with a proper security system in place I know she’ll be safer than she is right now. I’d prefer she didn’t leave my side, but that’s not practical, and I’m not sure Nia would go for it anyway. We’re new to this dating thing, so I can’t insist.
I put my phone back on top of my jeans on the floor and try to sleep, but my mind is too full of what happened to slow down. I do eventually drift a little, but when morning comes, I’m feeling the lag of no sleep. My eyes are gritty and heavy and my body feels like lead.
I can’t hear any noises from upstairs, so I’m hoping Nia had a better night’s sleep than I did. I swing my legs off the couch and sit with my head in my hands, trying to brush away the exhaustion. I’m used to running on little to no sleep—first because of the Army and then raising Coop. I had all the sleepless nights and midnight bottle feeds to do on my own. It was hard, but it means I can get through today with no problem.
Just as I’m pulling my jeans on, my phone goes. It’s Slider. I quickly slide my finger over the call button.
“What’s the score?” I ask without any preamble.
“He can do it this morning, but it’ll cost a little extra.”
“I don’t care about that, just get it done.”
“I thought you’d say that. He’ll need the keys to get in.”
“I’ll bring them.”
“I’ll swing by and pick them up. You stay there with Nia.” He pauses. “You and Nia, huh? When did that happen?”
I rub the back of my neck, not sure I want to answer him, but feeling like I owe him something for his help.
