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Every time she closed her eyes, the mob of people came back to her. Reaching for her. Their hands grabbing at her clothes.
Terrifying her.
Her breath came in faster pants as she reached for Amy Alpaca. She rubbed her under her nose.
Where were they?
Stop it, Chloe. You sent them away. They’re giving you what you wanted. You can’t get upset because they’re not here.
The more she lay here, the more stressed she grew.
I need to run.
If she didn’t run, she was afraid of what she’d do. But her body was shaky and unresponsive.
She whimpered and pressed her fingernails into the palms of her hand. She bit down on her lip.
Call them.
They’d given her their numbers that first day. But what if she called them and they didn’t come? What if they didn’t care about her at all?
They could be angry with her.
She was alone. And it was better this way.
It was the way it had to be.
But if this was for the best then why did it feel like her soul was shattering into little pieces?
Owen strode toward where his girl’s suite.
He’d waited until Beck left with Lord Fothersam to go to her. Hux was still acting weird. And Judd had just been called into a meeting with Caleb.
Owen was glad he wasn’t in charge. Not that anyone would be stupid enough to put him in charge. Bullshit meetings were not his thing.
And pretty much any sort of meeting was bullshit.
All that meant was that there was no one around to talk him into being reasonable. And sane.
He wanted their girl with them.
The way she should be.
As he approached her door, he saw Aleki standing outside it. The other man raised his eyebrows as he saw him approach.
“Owen.”
“Aleki.”
They stood there for a long moment, staring at each other.
Act normal.
“What are you doing here?” Owen asked.
“Guarding Chloe.”
“Guarding her?” he asked smoothly. “Isn’t that our job?”
Something filled Aleki’s face. Pity? Sympathy? What the fuck?
Then the other man’s gaze flickered to the side and he turned to see Judd storming toward them.
Fuck. What now?
Judd moved close to Aleki while Owen watched on curiously. Sure, he could intercept, stop Judd from losing it, but he wanted to find out what was going on first.
What had Aleki done? He was usually the most easy going of Alpha team. And he often had some great treats.
Owen was quite fond of the Tim-Tams and pineapple lumps. Not that Aleki shared.
Nope, he had to steal them.
“Caleb gave you the news, huh?” Aleki asked.
“It’s bullshit!” Judd had worked himself into a fury. His breathing was coming fast, his fists clenching and unclenching.
“Nice of him to leave me to cop the flack,” Aleki said dryly.
“We are her guards,” Judd spat. “Not you.”
“And you seem rather passionate about that.” Aleki eyed them both. “Something you have to say?”
“No,” Judd snapped. “We don’t have shit to say. Get out of the way.”
Whoa. Judd really was losing it.
Hmm, probably would have been better for Hux or Beck to be here to calm him down.
Because Owen wasn’t going to do shit.
Aleki shot Owen a look and he shrugged. “I don’t know what is going on.”
“What’s going on is that we’ve been pulled from guard duty for Chloe,” Judd said.
He must have misheard. “We’ve been what? Why?” Because of what had happened today? But Hux and Judd had gotten her out of there. They’d kept her safe. There had been no inkling that was going to happen. Surely, Caleb couldn’t blame them.
“It’s what Ms. Reed requested,” Aleki said gently. “She wants new bodyguards.”
Owen’s mind short-circuited. All he heard was a buzzing noise. The world around him went white.
She wanted them away from her.
She didn’t want him.
But that didn’t make sense. Because he’d seen the way she looked at them. At him. At his brothers.
She was starting to trust them.
So what was going on?
“Why the fuck does she get a say?” Judd snarled.
“Judd,” Aleki warned. “She’s a guest. Chill the fuck out. Owen, get him out of here.”
“Why?”
“Because he’s going to wake her up and upset her.”
“I want to see her,” Judd said stubbornly.
Aleki sighed. “Look, I don’t exactly know what’s going on. But when I saw her with Hux earlier . . . well, I thought that something might be going on between them. And the two of you are acting as though she means something to you. But here’s the thing. That girl in there has been through a lot today. She’s sore, she’s exhausted, and she needs a fucking break. What she doesn’t need is the two of you storming in there and demanding shit from her.”
Fuck.
Aleki was smart. Owen wouldn’t have thought about that. He saw Judd start to deflate.
Aleki sighed. “I shouldn’t say this, but . . . if you’ve developed feelings for this girl, then maybe you need to think less about bulldozing her and more about treating her like a fucking queen, yeah? Romance her.”
