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“Sorry,” Sofia said. “She woke up and was crying for you. I couldn’t find you, but I heard voices out here.”
“It’s fine.” I stood to reach for my daughter, but she caught sight of my brother and her tears stopped as she began to wiggle excitedly and make grabby hands in his direction. “Typical,” I muttered under my breath.
“I’m the cool uncle. What can I say?” He plucked her from Sofia, and they began talking their own language as we all headed inside.
I locked up and watched as Sofia tucked herself back under a blanket on the sofa, her eyes wary on my brother.
“You okay?” I asked her.
She nodded, her eyes slipping toward the door. “Everything alright out there?”
“Oh. Uh...” I paused, not sure how much to tell her. I didn’t want to shake her up more after last night. Thank goodness Camden stepped forward.
“It is now,” he said. At her confused frown, he clarified. “Just some low-rate vandalism. I’m here to take care of it.”
My gaze shot to him, but he ignored me, his focus back on Elizabeth.
Sofia rose slowly, not seeming convinced. “Okay. I guess I’ll get ready then. I have early classes today.”
“Of course,” I said. “Let me know if you need anything.”
As soon as she was in the bathroom, I spun toward Camden. “Take care of it?”
His glance was casual, but it spoke volumes. I’d seen his version of ‘taking care of things’ when he’d had to hire a full-on security team to protect Vanessa from overly aggressive paparazzi before they were even married. I was so not on board with any of that.
“Cam—”
“Yours and Elizabeth’s safety is not up for negotiation,” he cut me off.
I reeled back as if I’d been slapped. I’d never, in my life, heard my brother talk to me this way. “I’m not your wife,” I shot back. “Or some piece of property that you can control. This isn’t the stone ages!”
Calmly, he pressed a kiss to Elizabeth’s cheek before he turned and put her in her high chair. He continued to ignore me as he moved to the fridge and pulled out a sippy cup of juice and handed it to her, along with a handful of Cheerios.
As he was puttering around, looking entirely too big and out of place in my small kitchen, Sofia emerged from the bathroom, back in her regular clothes. She eyeballed us both. “I’m just gonna...” She hiked her thumb toward the door.
“Right.” I spun away from my brother and walked her out.
She froze when she spotted my car. “Oh my God!” Her hand flew to her mouth before big brown eyes met mine.
“What Camden is handling.” I shrugged.
Her hand dropped as her gaze moved back and forth from the car to me a couple of times. “That happened... last night?”
“I didn’t want to scare you.” I touched her arm. “Don’t worry. Cam will take care of it. You’re safe.” I hoped I was telling the truth.
She faced me again. “Do you want me to stay? Help with Lizzie or something?”
“Oh. No. I’m good, but thank you. Get to class. I’ll be fine.” I offered her a tremulous smile that I didn’t feel and waited while she got into her own car at the curb and drove away before moving back inside to face down my brother and his ideas about “safety.”
Turned out my brother was not kidding about the nonnegotiable safety issue. He was also willing to spare no expense to ensure it, and while I talked a big game about not being controlled, I was willing to swallow my pride where my daughter was concerned. After all, I had no idea, truly, what I was dealing with yet, and after thinking about it for a while, I decided why not make use of the resources at my disposal? Meaning, a rich, famous, loving brother who was willing to go as far as buy me a new house in another town, complete with a full security system and full-time bodyguards.
We negotiated it down to one temporary security person who would do a thorough security assessment until we figured out how viable the threat was and the police dealt with it accordingly. Cam didn’t like it, but he agreed. For now.
And so, later that day, after the police came and did their thing with my brother hovering around with an angry frown, I found myself cushioned in a back booth at a small diner, sipping ice water and toying with a business card for Kade Markus, CEO, Hollow Point Security, as I waited for who Camden promised was their best guy. I believed him, or my brother would never have allowed this meeting, much less allowed Mr. Markus to put him in charge of Elizabeth’s and my safety. Still, the idea that I needed “security” at all grated. It might be par for the course for my famous athlete brother, but not for me. I was not looking forward to the intrusion.
I’d already been intruded upon, I reminded myself, and this was a necessary evil.
With a sigh, I picked up my ice water and sipped as my gaze was drawn to movement up front.