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Gotta start somewhere.
I clench the phone in my hand and bury myself in the comforter like the thin barrier can protect me from the unknown. I keep my eyes focused on the TV screen, watching but not seeing.
There’s a knock on the door and I jump, flinging the remote across the room.
“Amelia, it’s me,” Caleb calls.
I fly off the bed, not bothering to look through the peephole before letting him in. Even if someone is holding a gun to his head out there, I still feel safer with Caleb beside me.
He’s halfway through the door before he looks at me. His eyes narrow and he stomps around me.
“Where’d he go?” he asks.
“What? Who?” Oh no. Is the killer here? He’s an FBI agent, maybe he can sniff out bad guys.
“The thief who stole your clothes.” He turns, taunting me with a gorgeous smirk.
My hands fly across my middle. I forgot I was wearing only a sports bra and bike shorts.
“You could have told me to grab a shirt instead of pretending I was in danger.” I grab an oversized shirt off the back of a chair and smack him with it, twice, before pulling it on.
“It was more fun my way.” He looks at the bed and chuckles.
“What?”
“I see you didn’t waste any time settling in.” He nods at my mess covering the bed. It’s pretty bad. It looks like my suitcase threw up.
I fold my arms. “This is only temporary. It’s not like I’m going to pack everything away nice and neat.”
“Heaven forbid.”
“Okay, smart aleck. It’s late and I’m ready for bed so let’s get on with it?”
He raises a brow, but I thrust my phone at him.
He takes it and pulls off the case.
“What are you doing?”
“Checking for bugs,” he says automatically. “I think it’s fine,” Caleb says after a minute. “I’ll take it to Cruz to double-check. But don’t worry, no one followed us. I made sure.”
Is that why he was so quiet on the drive here as well? He was watching the rearview mirror a lot. I’m not sure if that makes me feel better or worse. Am I in more danger than anyone is letting on?
He taps the phone against his hand and turns back for the door. “Try to get some sleep.”
Ha. Fat chance of that happening.
I don’t answer and he doesn’t look back. He leaves the room, warning me to lock the door as he pulls it shut behind him. Stupid me thinking he’d stay when I voiced my fears. Thinking he’d hold me while I cried out the rest of the shock.
If only. The man doesn’t care about me like I do him. That’s okay. I don’t need a man. But I sure would like that one.
I lock the door and then bury myself in the covers. I can’t bring myself to turn off the TV so I let Shawn and Gus’s melodramatic voices lull me to sleep in the wee hours of the morning.
Chapter 33
Caleb
I didn’t go anywhere. And I don’t plan to. As long as Amelia is next door, I’ll be right here. Despite what I thought earlier, I need to be near her.