He was right. So right. She reached out and took the phone from his hand. Their fingers brushed in the exchange, and she tried to ignore the zing the minor contact gave her. There were so many other things she needed to concentrate on, but suddenly all she wanted to do was look him in the eye and find the stillness in his gaze again. The eye of the storm. Instead, she pulled her phone out of her back pocket and gave it to him. She hadn’t even realized he’d turned it off earlier.
“The new phone is a pre-paid number, like I said. I got it with cash, so it’s not traceable to any name, and we can take the cost out of your paycheck if it’ll make you feel better. I programmed a couple of numbers in, but you’ll have to remember which they are. Better than having names in the phone in case someone gets a hold of it. First number is for this school. Second is Hope’s Crossing Kennels. Third is my personal number. Fourth and fifth numbers are Gary and Greg. You need any of us, we’re just a phone call away.” He pocketed her phone. “Gary and Greg will set the security system when they leave to go home. You should be fine to move around up here, but if you go back downstairs, the motion will set off the silent alarm. You won’t realize you’ve set it off until the police arrive. Gary and Greg won’t be far behind. They live in the neighborhood behind this shopping center, literally a five-minute run. Best to stay up here in this room and avoid all of it.”
She nodded, stunned. He’d given her all those numbers and she silently repeated the order over and over in her head. If he’d gone to the trouble, she wasn’t going to make him tell her more than once. Revolution MMA, Hope’s Crossing Kennels, Alex, Gary, Greg.
He was inviting her to call him again. He wasn’t telling her to leave.
“Hey.” He reached out slowly, giving her enough time to step away if she wanted. He brushed a lock of her hair away from her eyes. Then his gaze dropped lower, and he brushed another lock away from her collarbone, raising goose bumps all along her skin in a delicious way.
His eyes were a warm caramel, very kind at the moment, though they could burn with anger readily enough. She reminded herself of how scary he’d been the night before.
For a good cause, a small part of her mind pointed out.
In any case, he was generous in offering her employment and making sure she had a place to stay. She was not going to ponder other things, the kinds of things to make a new job complicated and totally inappropriate.
Because she shouldn’t be thinking anything inappropriate about a well-built man with an expressive mouth and incredibly sexy stubble across his strong jaw.
She swallowed, hard.
After a moment, he said, “It looks like you’ve come a long way. You can rest here. It really is okay.”
New people in her life, all ready to help her with no explanation but what they’d been able to put together themselves. Her throat tightened. There’d been a long time there when her own family and friends, who’d known her since childhood, hadn’t believed her when she’d been looking for help. They’d been fooled the same way she had, and it was so much easier to wonder if maybe, just maybe, there was some unfortunate misunderstanding. Easier to believe she’d made a mistake than the unpleasant reality.
“This is all too much.” She hated to suspect his kindness, but it was too good to be true. “I can’t even begin to repay you, and you’ve only just met me.”
Alex was still. It wasn’t a question of simply not moving. Everything about him had gone motionless. She shrank in on herself, sure he was going to explode with anger.
But he didn’t.
Instead, he turned away from her and faced the door. “You can leave if you feel safer. Do it before classes are over and they set the security system. I’ll have a word with Gary and Greg, and no one will ask any questions or try to convince you to stay. No pressure. Do what’s right for you.”
If he’d even sounded upset, she could’ve gotten angry back. Could’ve built up the momentum to leave.
She was very tired of running. What she was looking for, hoping for, was a place to rest long enough to build a life again.
“I could be playing all of you,” she whispered.
He balled his free hand up into a fist, then let it go. “You could be. Not likely. I’ve heard a lot of lies over the years. Met more liars than I care to count. I recognize lies when they’re right in front of my face.”
She didn’t have an answer to that. Her fear, suspicion, guilt spiraled down into her gut and left her chest feeling hollow. “I’m sorry.”
He still didn’t turn to look at her. “Boom liked you. Souze liked you. That’s enough for me. The great thing about kids and dogs: they don’t know how to lie. Not really. They don’t know how to hide themselves from the world, and it gives them a simple perspective. When I suspect I’m thinking too hard, I fall back to their opinion.”
Something to think on, if she could pull her thoughts into any kind of comprehensible order.
He pulled the door open and stepped out, pausing in the doorway. “They liked you. That’s enough for me. Sleep well, Elisa. You’re safe. And if you’re not here when I swing by in the morning to pick you up, it was nice to meet you.”
And he left. Just like that.
Chapter Seven