Page 9 of Echo, the Sniper (Men of PSI #2)

The quivering got worse. Muriel’s bug eyes flicked to me before bouncing back to Echo. “How dare you. I never—”

“Bullshit, you never. This monster who stands before you can always recognize one of his own, and I recognize you . You’re a monster.

And you know what else? You love it. You love inflicting pain, and you never think you’ll be held accountable.

But you will. One way or another, you’re going to get exactly what you fucking deserve, you poisonous cunt.

So take this one final chance to redeem your sorry ass, yeah?

Turn your doughy, melted-wax face to this woman, your victim , and tell her you’re sorry.

Or don’t. Stay silent, and live with the knowledge for the rest of your sad little life that you’re just another common monster with shit for a soul. Choice is yours.”

Again Muriel’s eyes flicked to me before she glared at Echo, and firmly clamped her thin mouth shut.

Echo’s grin seemed carved out of ice. “And that, Rory, is how you confront a bitch who knows deep down she’s nothing but a steaming pile of dogshit. That’ll shut her mouth every time. Ready to go?”

“Absolutely.” Feeling lighter than I had in months, I had to stop myself from skipping as Echo led me back to the Range Rover, and I left Cherrywood Creek for the final time. Nothing could have made me happier.

Well, seeing Muriel Bittenger bitch-slapped was a close second.

But there was something that bothered me about that whole exchange.

“You don’t really see yourself as a monster, do you, Echo?”

He stopped at a stop sign and looked out at the road leading away from Cherrywood Creek. “Where do you need to go?” he asked, ignoring my question.

“The bank, so I can get some money, and then the nearest Starbucks so I can start paying your fee. Turn right and go about five blocks, and then I’ll direct you from there. You can tell me all about this whole monster business while we’re enroute.”

His sigh was long-suffering as he made the turn. “There’s nothing to tell.”

“How would I know that? We’re still trying to get to know each other, aren’t we? So I should know why the man I’m hanging around with believes he’s a monster, if only so I know what I’m dealing with when I’m dealing with you.”

“You have nothing to fear from me, Rory. I would never hurt you.”

“I...” The sincerity in his tone had me blinking, because it hit somewhere deep in my chest and stayed there, glowing like an ember. “I believe you, Echo. But that’s not why I’m asking. I want to know why you think you’re a monster, when I know you’re not.”

“You know ? You just said we’re still in the get-to-know-you phase.”

“Well, I don’t know ,” I said, grimacing when I realized how lame I sounded.

“But I am aware of how kind you’ve been to me since you showed up.

You made sure I had something on my feet when no one else even noticed I was barefoot.

You went out and scrounged up some clothes because you knew I’d be uncomfortable traipsing through Denver in nothing but a nightgown—”

“This is what a bodyguard does. I guard the body and protect it from all possible injury, including frostbite.”

“You won’t let me pay for those bodyguarding services.”

“I’m not doing that out of the kindness of my heart. It’d go against PSI’s company policy to get paid twice for one job.”

“And you just skewered my total witch of a neighbor, when she had nothing to do with any of your duties as a bodyguard.” When he just lifted an uncomfortable shoulder, I made a sound of triumph.

“You didn’t have to do that, but you went out of your way to take down the neighborhood bully because you saw she bothered me. Why did you do that?”

“Bullies piss me off.”

“Bullies are a kind of monster. If anything, you’re a monster slayer. Doesn’t that sound better?”

“Ohh-kay,” he muttered, almost to himself before shooting me a searching glance. Then he nodded, as if coming to a decision. “You and I need to have a very frank conversation about who we are to each other.”

My brows shot up. “Who we are?”

“Don’t get confused about who I am. My number-one mission is to protect the body I’m guarding at all costs.

I provide care and protection around the clock, and my primary focus will always be you.

Why? Because that’s my job. A bodyguard is paid to see no one else.

To listen to no one else. To care about no one else.

I will kill or die protecting you and only you, because that’s what I’m being paid to do. ”

Wow . “I understand.”

“No, you don’t, because I haven’t made my point yet. That much focus on you could trick your brain into thinking we might have special feelings going on, but don’t forget—we’re strangers. You don’t know me.”

The words were sharp enough to cut off my breath.

“In the business it’s called the bodyguard crush,” he continued on, while I sat there trying to remember how to breathe.

“While it’s understandable, it isn’t real.

I’ll do everything in my power to protect you, but never forget that’s it’s my job.

If I let this go any further, anything you might come to feel for me would be built on a lie. ”

“I didn’t...” Humiliation swarmed through me like an attack of killer bees, stinging me from the inside out until my skin prickled unpleasantly.

I wanted to curl up in a ball and die right there, even as his words echoed in my ears to mock me.

“I wasn’t making a pass at you or anything.

I just pointed out that you shouldn’t talk negatively about yourself. That’s literally all I said.”

“We usually have these conversations with our clientele in a professional setting like a conference room before a job begins,” he went on as if I hadn’t spoken.

All I could do was be grateful he kept his eyes on the road, and didn’t glance at me and my red-hot face that would probably sizzle if anyone touched it.

“Obviously the shit hitting your life came up way too fast to prepare you for how to deal with having a bodyguard close to you twenty-four seven. That means you’re now having to get this instruction on the fly.

I need you to trust me, not fall for me because you think my professional protectiveness stems from anything emotional on my part. It doesn’t. Understood?”

“You’re not that irresistible,” I shot back and conveniently ignored how wet my panties were, thanks to him.

“You need me to trust you? I get that. You don’t want me to go all hearts-and-flowers on you?

Not a problem.” Especially now . “If you want me to be pissed off at you to the point of making me imagine how best to murder you when you’re not looking, keep pushing this topic.

Trust me, your point is coming through loud and clear, so your virtue is safe from me. ”

“That’s a relief. I wouldn’t want anyone getting their itty-bitty doll hands on my virtue.”

What the hell . “You cannot possibly be referencing my hands.”

Without taking his eyes off the road, he held out a hand, palm-up, toward me. “Compare the size of your hand to mine, and you be the judge.”

Against my better judgment my gaze shifted to his hand, and my stupid brain tried to snark about the size of a man’s hand and feet.

Big hands, big feet, big...

Nope. I wasn’t going there. Nope, nope, nope.

Grimly I folded my arms in front of my chest. “My grubby doll hand isn’t touching yours. Your virtue might be on it.”

“I don’t think that’s where virtue is kept, but whatever.

” He dropped his hand while the faintest of smiles played around the corners of his mouth.

“Thanks for being a good sport about taking in that particular conversation. It’s a necessary one, but I don’t normally do it.

My boss is the one who usually fills in our clients on the psychological pitfalls of having a bodyguard.

More often than not, I’m not even in the same room. ”

The bitter bite of humiliation was still stinging away, so I had my doubts I was that much of a good sport . “I’m sure that cuts down on a lot of confusion.”

“A lot of awkward moments, anyway. I’ve had my share.”

I’ll bet . “I can just see you getting cornered by one of your amorous clientele, making woo-woo eyes at you while you cry into a walkie-talkie that you need an adult in the room.”

“Or a quickly executed exfil plan.”

“You military types have such a flair for the dramatic.”

“You should see our parades.” A wistful sigh escaped him as we passed the Starbucks by my bank, and some of my discomfort ebbed.

“Go ahead and start getting paid,” I urged, gesturing toward the coffee shop. “My bank is right across the street, so I’ll pay you back the moment I have some money in my pocket.”

Twenty minutes later Echo had a venti mocha in hand while I carefully tucked a good chunk of my savings into my wallet.

“So now you’ve got your mocha, and I’ve got cash and a brand-new cash app that I couldn’t have while Dane was alive, because he checked my phone on the daily.

Next up is shelter.” Luckily I’d already figured out where that should be.

“I still haven’t heard from my people that they’ve landed a safe house for us, but that’s not surprising.

It’ll take a couple days for them to vet and secure a place that’ll help you disappear while we figure out what’s going on with you.

” He shot me a curious look before pulling out of the bank’s lot.

“Why wouldn’t your ex allow you to have a cash app? ”

“Not ex. Late,” I automatically corrected, wishing for a charger that fit my phone. Another thing I needed. “Keeping me penniless was one of the tools Dane used to make sure he had control over, well... me. He was big about control.”

Echo made a sound that could have meant anything. “No shit.”

“I had a ten-million-dollar inheritance from my father that vanished into one of Dane’s bank accounts, because what was mine was his, and what was his was his. True story, by the way. He literally told me those exact words.”

“Fucking asshole.”

He said it under his breath, but I still picked it up and agreed with it wholeheartedly.

“The bank account we just hit up was the one my mother made for me, even got a P.O. box for whatever correspondence the bank needed to send my way. Dane didn’t know about it, so there was no way I was going to link a cash app to it.

Like I said, he checked my phone almost every day.

He would have found it, taken it over, and then I’d be right back where I started—penniless, with Dane holding all the purse strings. ”

“Sounds like you were married to a real sonofabitch.” His hands tightened on the wheel, and he turned to look at me until I felt compelled to wave a hand back at the road so we wouldn’t crash. “You’ve got to be happy he’s out of your life now, yeah? I mean, you’ve got to be.”

Guilt surged up to swamp me as he blithely said the words I’d been too ashamed to even allow myself to think. To actually feel happiness over my husband’s murder made me beyond terrible... didn’t it?

“I don’t want to talk about it, if that’s okay.” The mere mention of Dane sucked the life right out of my body until it was all I could do to not just close my eyes and let it drain me so dry there would be nothing left. “What matters now is focusing on my immediate to-do list.”

Ethan gave me a long side-eye as he drove. “All right, fair enough. What’s on your to-do list?”

“Getting a charger for my phone to see if that’s what it needs, or if I need to replace it altogether. Then I need to figure out who’s trying to ruin my life. And I think I know where to start looking.”