Guarding her, p.6
Guarding Her, page 6
She rolled her eyes as she picked up her purse. “Please never call me that again.”
“Why not?” Lawson could admit he’d watched the video a few more times. Maybe more than a few.
“I’ve gotten a bunch of weird emails with that subject line and even weirder content inside.”
He didn’t like the sound of that. “Want to drive separate?” he asked as they stepped out the front door. “And where is your car?”
“It’s at Angel’s mom’s a few doors down. I stopped by to say hi to her first. And if you don’t mind bringing me back, we can drive together.”
He wanted her in his truck, with him, so he could spend more time with her. “I don’t mind. So what kind of emails are you talking about?” He couldn’t let that drop.
She made a groaning sound as she slid into the passenger seat.
“So?” he pushed again once he pulled out onto the street and she still hadn’t answered.
“I’m getting some ridiculous messages asking me out, offering all sorts of things if I’ll basically be their sugar baby, and oh, plenty of dick pics. I started filtering all messages now because I have an actual job to do.”
“What the hell?”
She shook her head, her dark ponytail swishing slightly against the headrest. “People are crazy.”
“True enough.” He didn’t like the idea of a bunch of weirdos sending her messages. Because shit like that could turn dark. “Anything that feels threatening?”
“Ah…not really. I mean, there are some gross messages but that’s sadly the price of being a female.”
He gripped the steering wheel, hating that she was dealing with so much shit. His gender disgusted him sometimes. “Is there anything you want me to look at?”
She lifted a shoulder. “Nah. At least not right now. But if I get anything really weird, I’ll let you know.”
He hoped she did, and planned to follow up because he couldn’t help himself. Lawson knew that Gia wasn’t his to take care of, but that didn’t stop him from wanting to. And the last time he’d looked, that video had a couple million likes. Chances were this would be a blip and then blow over, but until then, he wanted to make sure she was safe. “So have you heard from Juan?”
“Nope.” Her laugh was like music, wrapping around him. “And I don’t expect to anytime soon.”
The rest of the drive to the restaurant went by far too quickly. He wanted to somehow slow time down when he was with her, stretch out every single minute. Because apparently he was a masochist. He couldn’t have her, but he wanted to spend all his time with her anyway.
Maybe because it was a Thursday and before the night crowd, they got a table on the back patio, right on the beach, without waiting. The sun was close to setting, and if he was going to pick a romantic setting…this would be it. Yeah, masochist.
As their server walked away, a blond-haired man who was in his early twenties stumbled up to their table as he stared far too intently at Gia. Lawson started to stand, to block Gia, but the guy stopped, swayed once on his feet as he stared at her.
“Are you the waterfall girl?”
Holy shit, she hadn’t been kidding. Lawson stayed tense, ready to shove this guy back if necessary.
She shook her head. “Not me.”
“Nah, it is you! Man, you were so hot in that video.”
Nope. Not happening. “Listen, buddy—”
“But you’d be way hotter if you got your tits done. I was just telling my buddy I couldn’t believe you walked in here tonight.”
Lawson was up and standing in front of the guy in seconds, not touching him—though he wanted to smash his fist right into the guy’s perfect teeth. “You need to walk away right now.”
“Oh man, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean anything by it. I just meant that if, like, she got her boobs done, that she would be way—”
Lawson took a step forward right as the friend of the guy moved up and grabbed him by the arm, tugging him away. Whatever was on Lawson’s expression was likely dark because the guy held up his free hand.
“Dude, I’m sorry. He’s drunk. Normally he’s not like this.”
Yeah, Lawson called bullshit on that. “Get him out of here now.” His jaw clenched and the guy backed up another step before his drunk friend finally started moving, muttering another non-apology.
“You’ve gotta chill,” Gia murmured as he sat. “Because you look a little like you want to commit murder right now.”
He blinked, some of the steam fading as he realized she wasn’t upset. “That doesn’t bother you?”
She lifted a shoulder as she picked up her menu, amusement playing at her lush lips. “Guys like that are simpleminded morons with such fragile egos that if I said something like ‘you’d be so much hotter if you got a bigger dick’ he’d be sobbing in his beer. I give zero fucks what someone like that thinks. I’ve got great breasts and he can suck it.”
He grinned at her response right as their server appeared, looking harried, and asked for their drink order. She wasn’t wrong either, her breasts were fantastic—so damn perfect he couldn’t stop fantasizing about what it’d be like to suck on them, to bring her all the pleasure. But Gia was more than just her body. She was really impressive, and the more time he spent with her, the more he realized he was on the hook and so far gone for her.
So far gone he knew he was going to do something stupid like confess his feelings. But he was having a hard time feeling any regret or remembering why he should keep his distance.
Because she was this bright star, so full of life and energy and…he found himself pulled to her. He didn’t want to walk away, didn’t want to play it safe where she was concerned.
CHAPTER TEN
“Oh my God,” Gia breathed out as she and Lawson reached his truck, her eyes widened in horror.
It took Lawson all of two seconds to realize what she was talking about. Someone had slashed his tires. All four of them. What. The. Hell.
“Inside, now.” He wrapped his arm around her, hurriedly guiding her back to the entrance as he instinctively scanned the now packed parking lot.
There were a lot of places anyone could be hiding. And all his tires slashed like that?
As soon as they stepped inside, he called the police and quickly let them know what had happened. Then he shot off a text to his direct boss—he had standing orders to let Red Stone Security know if something out of the ordinary happened. Usually that meant if someone approached them with a bribery offer but this incident definitely counted. He’d barely finished sending his text when his phone rang.
“Hey,” Lawson said, surprised to get a call from one of the owners so quickly. He hadn’t been with Red Stone long, but this said a lot for how they treated their employees.
“I’m with Travis right now and he told me about what happened. Have you called the cops?” Grant Caldwell was one of the majority owners, his father having founded the company.
“I have.” He figured they’d send two patrol officers and he’d make a report—which he would need for insurance. But this wasn’t a huge priority so he wasn’t sure how long it would take for them to arrive.
“I’m putting in a call to a detective friend of mine. He might follow up. Do you think this is work related?”
“I can’t even speculate. But I can’t imagine why. I’m not currently on any jobs.”
“We did just cancel Harbor’s contract. He might be pissed and taking it out on you.”
“Potentially.” But Lawson didn’t even think the guy would remember him or his name, let alone have someone slash his tires. He’d only guarded the guy one day, and yeah, he’d been a dick but so were a lot of people.
“I’ll discreetly look into him. Call me directly if anything else pops up with this.”
“I will, thanks.”
Once they disconnected, he turned back to Gia, who was sitting on one of the benches in the little entry area, worry in her dark eyes.
“So we just wait?” she asked as he sat next to her.
“Unfortunately yes.” He liked the way she scooted closer to him, pressed herself against him.
She leaned her head on his shoulder, pushed out a sigh. “I’m sorry about your truck.”
“It’s all good. Insurance will cover it.” He tried to keep his voice light, but he wasn’t worried about the tires.
This situation felt personal. It wasn’t a one-off with some asshole walking by and shoving a screwdriver into his tires. It had been methodical, all four slashed. And from what he’d seen, none of the other vehicles surrounding his truck had been touched. Not to mention he’d noticed that the security camera above the main entrance had been tilted downward and wasn’t facing the parking lot—and he had no clue if that had been intentional or not.
Lawson started going through any enemies he might have but couldn’t think of anything that would warrant this kind of animosity. At work he’d ended up telling Ernesto to stay away from Gia when the guy had searched him out to ask if she was single. But that had been nothing. And none of his past jobs or even something from his time in the Marine Corps would have warranted something like this. The drunk guy from earlier hadn’t left the restaurant—Lawson had kept him in his periphery at dinner.
When he saw flashing lights reflect off the windows, he stood. They’d gotten here faster than he’d thought they would. “Sit tight, okay?” he asked. She was safe in here.
She nodded, even as her eyes filled with worry. This had not been how he imagined their night together ending.
Gia could see the worry in Lawson’s hard face as he shook hands with the officer, who then got in his car and drove off. The cop had talked to Lawson, the manager of the restaurant, to her, and then to Lawson again. Everything had taken over an hour, but at least now it seemed they could finally leave.
The tow truck driver strode over to them after finishing loading the truck, shoved his hands in the pockets of his black overalls. “I’m taking this where you asked. You can follow if you want.”
Lawson shook his head. “I already got everything I need out of it. They said to park it right in the front by the main door.” The guy handed Lawson a card, then held out his tablet. Lawson quickly scrawled his signature as he said, “Thanks.”
“Just sorry you needed me.” He glanced back at the truck, shook his head. “Stupid teenagers.”
Lawson simply grunted and she could tell he didn’t think this had been teenagers. And the cops hadn’t seemed too sure either, not when the security cameras had all been strategically turned away from the parking lot while they’d been eating dinner. It was all too bizarre.
“Our ride’s almost here,” she murmured, looking at the app on her phone. The little dot indicated their driver was only two blocks away.
Surprising her, he wrapped his arm around her shoulders. “I’m paying you for the ride so don’t argue.”
“It’s no big deal.”
But his body was tense, and even though she liked having his arm around her, liked the feel of being pressed up against him, she could feel his raw anxiety. “Do you…think this is personal?”
He looked down at her, surprise flickering in his gaze. “Why?”
“I don’t know. I mean…slashing all of your tires is pretty psychotic. And you seem really worried about this. Not that you shouldn’t be,” she added. “I just, I don’t know. It’s a really mean thing to do to a stranger is what I’m saying.” And the thing with the security cameras made it feel far too planned out, malicious.
He nodded as a car pulled into the parking lot, slowing down in front of them. “What kind of vehicle is supposed to pick us up?”
“A Honda CR-V.” And she loved that he was checking. He was in super overprotective mode right now and even though the situation sucked, her heart rate kicked up all the same. When her brother got all protective it was annoying, but when Lawson did it everything felt different. “I texted Angel’s mom, let her know we’d be getting dropped off for my car so she doesn’t get worried to see a strange car pulling up in her driveway.”
“Good.” He nodded again, pulled open the back door for her, then slid in behind her.
Their driver was a chatterbox so they were both quiet other than answering questions. But mainly they listened. By the time they made it back to Angel’s mom’s house where her car was, she knew that the man had come to America twenty years ago, had a son who was a doctor in Georgia he was proud of, and that he was a huge Miami Heat fan. She grinned as they got out in Angel’s mom’s driveway, giving the guy five stars before he’d even made it down the street.
But she turned at Lawson’s curse and her stomach dropped when she spotted her flat tire. “Oh my God,” she said as she hurried over to him.
Crouched down, he had his phone flashlight on as he eyed the lone flat tire. “It’s just a nail.” And he seemed positively relieved by it.
“It would’ve been too weird if I’d had my tires slashed too.” At that thought, she wrapped her arms around herself and fought off a shiver. Glancing around the neighborhood, she could swear that eyes were on her—then she inwardly chastised herself. Tonight had her shaken, that was all. And she was just wearing a bathing suit, a T-shirt and shorts. It was no wonder she was chilled. Still…she glanced around, peering into the darkness across the street, then found herself annoyed. She was being ridiculous.
“I’ll change it for you,” Lawson said as he stood.
She turned back to him, shaking off the cobwebs of tension. “I can just call someone.”
“It’ll be quicker if I do it. Do you have a spare?”
“I think so?”
His expression was dry as he held out a hand for her keys. Thankfully she did have a spare and a tool kit in the trunk—put there by Juan at one point. She wasn’t going to tell Lawson that, however.
As she stood watching him, Flora, Angel’s mom, stepped outside, bringing a mug of what looked like hot cocoa. “Why don’t you come inside?”
“Oh, no, it’s okay. I’m helping supervise.”
Lawson snorted slightly and she nudged his foot with hers. He was crouched in front of her new tire now, his sleeves shoved up, showing off the ropes of muscles in his arms. And she liked the view—she wasn’t going anywhere.
Flora simply grinned at her, handed her the hot cocoa. “Drink this, then. You need to warm up. It got chilly tonight.”
“Thank you.” She inhaled, took a sip and grinned because Flora had decided to make the cocoa Irish.
“It’s just a dash and it’ll warm you up faster,” Flora said as she patted her arm gently. “Since you won’t come inside.”
Ooh, she had that mom thing down to an art. And Gia could admit that she liked it. Flora had started treating her like one of her own, and while her daughters usually groaned, Gia enjoyed being mothered. She knew why—it wasn’t hard to figure out. Her own mother had died a few years ago, but the truth was she’d been working too damn hard for years and had held on to a bitterness in her heart her whole life. And it had bled into other facets of her life. Gia and Juan had learned to take care of themselves from a young age. When he’d left and joined the Marines, it had been one of the hardest things for her, to lose her big brother, her friend. Now, she felt like she had more people to call family—people who weren’t emotionally unavailable. Feeling oddly sentimental, she blinked back stupid tears and took another sip.
“Nothing for me, really?” Lawson said as he stood, a cheeky grin on his face as he looked down at Flora. And that grin just upped his hotness factor even more, something that shouldn’t be possible.
Flora made a tsking sound. “Of course I’ve got something for you too. Come inside for a few minutes before you head out.”
“Let me pack all this up first.”
Flora disappeared as he put the tools in the trunk and started cleaning up.
“I’ll give you a ride home if you want.” Gia didn’t want him having to catch a ride, and she wanted to spend more time with him. Even if that just twisted her up inside even more. He’d made it clear where they stood. And it was fine. Even if it sucked.
“Nah. That’s too far out of your way. Also, I left cash in your toolbox to cover the ride here.”
She blinked. “I told you that you didn’t have to do that. You paid for our dinner.”
“Yeah, and I asked you out, so of course I paid.”
“We’re friends though.”
“Maybe I want more than friends.” His voice came out like a growl, all sexy and raspy.
Ooooh. His words ricocheted through her, hope blooming deep inside. “But you said almost kissing me was a mistake—”
“I know what I said.” He leaned against the shut trunk, scrubbed a hand over his face. “But…it’s still not a good idea.” He sighed again.
Her hope took a nosedive with those words. Gia wanted to push, to dig deeper, but instead she sat next to him and laid her head on his shoulder. He was silent, simply resting his chin on the top of her head for a long moment.
She took that moment, forcing herself not to grill him or ruin this quiet. He wanted to be more than friends with her, but he also loved Juan and didn’t want to mess up his friendship.
This…was tricky. She was too young to have ever had any real crushes on Juan’s friends, so they’d never dealt with any of that.
This wasn’t just a crush, however. This felt like it could be something real.
And she was afraid that if she didn’t grasp onto it with both hands, she’d regret it for the rest of her life. But Lawson had to be in this, had to take the step and decide she was worth it. That he would risk his friendship with Juan for her.
She desperately wanted him to take the risk, to choose her.
