Page 77 of Her Ruthless Protector

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How could it be so hot, when it was two o’clock in the morning? But she’d been asking herself that question for over three weeks now. For the fourth time, she had to scrape her hair back up into a ponytail. Where was a damn rubber band when you needed one, because the scrunchy sure as hell wasn’t getting the job done.

She saw Kane walking up to her. Shit, he looked like he was going to ask how she was.

“Do you have a knife?” she demanded before he could say anything.

“Huh?”

“I want to cut off my hair.”

“Uhm, okay,” he said slowly.

She could see him looking at her like she’d lost her damned mind.

“Don’t you think scissors might work better?” he finally asked.

“I can’t find scissors. I can’t find a rubber band. I can’t find anything in my trailer because Shelly has moved it all. She said she cleaned. I say she’s just screwing with me.

“What the hell was that?” A.J. demanded as one of the four big stadium lights went black. Great, that was just what she needed.

Kane chuckled. “Earlier today there was a crane outside the arena to do lamping and cabling on the four stadium lights. Didn’t you notice? It was a pretty big project.”

Shit, how did she miss that? Oh yeah, she was probably soothing a bunch of nervous and hissing cats into letting them check their trailers. And in Python’s case there were actual cats!

“Chet warned me that the guy who normally runs everything for the arena wasn’t available when the lighting company was doing the work, so he’s in the control room checking it now.”

A.J.’s eyes narrowed as she took in what Kane was saying, and she realized there was something that had been bothering her.

“Kane, I did the normal background checks on all of the stagehands before they were hired, but did you do a more comprehensive one when all of this hit the fan?”

“You’ve noticed that we’re relying on Chet a lot, haven’t you?”

A.J. nodded.

“He’s clean as a whistle. I checked everyone. Trust me.”

She felt like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders. But then she felt like a fool for not asking sooner.

Get it together.

“Are you all right?”

“I’m just pissed that I didn’t ask the question before, I assumed you’d done it, but I didn’t ask the question.”

“A.J., you were right to assume. It’s my damn job.” He looked around. “Let’s go over to your trailer. I would prefer we found a rubber band instead of scissors, okay?”

“Scissors are still an option. Actually, I’m interested in what a knife would do, it could start a new trend.”

Kane shuddered, then maneuvered her across the field and soon had her inside her trailer and seated on the couch. He pulled a bottle of water out of her fridge and handed it to her. “When was the last time you ate?” he asked.

“Food? What’s that?”

He opened the fridge again.

“Hey, there’s still some Pop Tarts in my treasure chest.”

“You need protein.” He pulled out a carton, sniffed and grimaced. “God, how old is this?”