Delighted.
Confused.
“He was going to hit you.” Each syllable was spoken with low, slow, and perfectly concise speech. “When I saw the look in his eyes…” Archer worked his throat, his swallow audible. “When I saw that fucking hand rise up, I knew he was going to hurt you.”
He rolled his lips inward and gave a slow shake of his head as the hand that had been holding hers pulled itself free. Moving slowly, Archer lifted it up, toward her face. And when he slid his palm against her cheek to cup it, Cassie lost the ability to breathe.
“I will never let anyone hurt you.”
She couldfeelArcher’s resolve as he made the solemn vow. Several seconds passed by as they became as still as statues. Herlost in his heated stare. The fire in Archer’s gaze burning as it remained fixed with hers.
A horn honked in the distance, and in the literal blink of an eye, the moment had passed.
Archer dropped his hand as if she’d just burned him. “Come on.” He reached for his door. “We should get you inside, just in case.”
Just in case.
Right. Because that was really why he was here. Something that, today of all days, she seemed to have forgotten.
Keeping her eyes glued to the sidewalk and her steps, rather than risk glancing at him, Cassie gave herself yet another reminder of just how serious her situation really was.
Someone wants you dead, Cass. That’s about as serious as it gets.
Someonedidwant her dead, which is the only reason Archer was even here. He was hired to do a job. To be her shadow. Protect her from some enemy she never even knew she had.
He wasn’t spending time with her so they could sit behind the safety of impenetrable tinted glass and make out like a couple of teenagers. Not that they’d made out. They hadn’t even come close.
You came a little bit close.
The start of a growl escaped the base of her throat as she kept her eyes glued to the sidewalk and not him. She hurried and coughed, adding a clearing of her throat for good measure.
“Son of a bitch.”
Archer’s sharp expletive—along with his abrupt stop beside her—had her steps faltering to a stop, as well.
“What’s wrong?” Her eyes flew directly up to his. But he wasn’t looking back at her.
He was staring straight ahead.
Cassie followed his line. When she saw what he was seeing, her hand flew to her gasping mouth. “Oh, my god!”
Her front door and a good portion of the wooden slats leading to it from her steps were covered in red paint. It was everywhere, almost as if someone had flung buckets of the stuff at her home’s entrance.
Slow, hesitant steps carried her forward. When they got close enough to see the rest, Archer let out a string of curse words beneath his breath as her stomach filled with a massive ball of dread.
It should have been you.
Those words had been sloppily paintedacross the otherwise spotless white siding to the door’s left. Streaks of red dripping from the letters giving the macabre scene an eerie, terrifying feel.
With a deep scowl, Archer kept his eyes in constant motion as he put an arm around her waist and hustled them both back to the safety of the SUV. Putting his free hand to his ear, he began speaking to his team.
“You guys still there?” He opened the passenger door for her, still scanning their immediate area the entire time. “I need you at Cassie’s house.” He slammed the door shut and moved swiftly around the back bumper. The driver’s door opened as Archer finished rattling off the last part of her address. He shut himself inside and locked the doors. “We’re fine,” he spoke again. There was another, final pause and then, “You’ll see when you get here.”
“Your team’s coming here?”
He gave a sharp nod but remained stoically quiet. She, too, stayed silent as he leaned back in his seat enough to pull his cellfrom his front pocket. Swiping an angry finger across the screen, he brought the device to life.
Cassie didn’t miss the muscle in his chiseled jaw bulge beneath his dark beard. The man’s anger was palpable, and she was suddenly very glad he was on her side.