Page 7 of Protected from Malice (Blade and Arrow Shadow Team #1)

“What?” My voice rises. “You were followed before? When were you planning on telling me? What else didn’t you mention? Did someone else try to break in before tonight? Anyone else try to run you off the road?”

She snatches her hand away from mine. Defensively, she replies, “No. No one else tried to break in. Or run me off the road. I would have told you.”

“Then what ?” I demand. A low growl rumbles in my chest. “Because this doesn’t sound like some weird feeling to me. It sounds pretty fucking dangerous.”

Taking a few steps back, Eden wraps her arms around herself. Her gaze drops to the floor. “There was no proof. Just this feeling like someone was watching me. Sometimes I’d see a car behind me the whole way home, but they never did?—”

“WHAT?”

Now I’m full-out yelling. I know I shouldn’t, that it’s not Eden I’m mad at, but all the pent-up frustration and fear and worry is finally breaking free.

“Someone’s been following you? For how long?”

In a whisper, Eden answers, “A couple of weeks.”

What?

A couple of weeks?

“I would have come last night,” I snap. “Shit. I would have called Indy right away. Why didn’t you call Indy? Or the police?”

She lifts her chin. “Because there was nothing to tell him. Just some suspicions that could have been nothing more than an overactive imagination. Just me being paranoid again?—”

Her lips clamp shut. Twin spots of pink rise on her cheeks. Her gaze skitters over to the window and back again.

A terrible feeling settles in my stomach. A sick feeling. A feeling that tells me there’s a lot more Eden isn’t telling me.

“You know how Indy’s been,” Eden continues. “He’s only just started working again. Just started leaving his apartment. I couldn’t mess that up for him. Not when I wasn’t sure.”

A horrible image comes to me—Eden sprawled across the floor in her laundry room, covered in blood, her clothes torn, her body already cooling…

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

It was too fucking close.

Heart pounding, I shout, “You could have been killed tonight! That’s a big fucking deal! I don’t give a shit about Indy’s job! You should have told him. You should have told me !”

As soon as the words leave my mouth, I regret them.

Eden’s face goes chalk white. Her shoulders hunch in. Her chin wobbles.

“I’m sorry,” she whispers. Tears fill her eyes. “I really thought… It’s not the first time… I’ve just been so worried about Indy…”

As the tears break free, she turns away from me, shoulders shaking.

Hugging herself.

Trying in vain to comfort herself.

Which is what I should be doing. Not yelling at poor Eden while she’s scared and traumatized.

Guilt slams into me, stealing my breath.

An icy hand reaches into my chest and rips out my heart. Crushes it. Throws it on the ground.

Gentling my voice, I say, “Eden. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have yelled at you like that.”

“I didn’t know. I just… I hoped it was all in my head.”

Fuck.

She sounds so small. Vulnerable. On the verge of breaking.

Before, at the house, at least it wasn’t entirely my fault.

This time it is.

“Eden,” I repeat more gently. Apologetically. “I’m sorry I yelled at you. It’s not your fault. I was just?—”

What? Furious at myself? So worried about Eden it’s hard to breathe? Feeling completely off-balance by the storm of emotions pummeling me?

And shit. The thought of losing Eden…

I can’t think it.

I won’t allow it.

Eden turns back to face me. Her face is streaked with tears. “I’m sorry, Rafe. I’m supposed to be so smart. But I guess… it was stupid. I was stupid.”

Confronted with her misery, I feel like I’m at a crossroads.

Do I stick with the things I’m good at? Making decisions based on logic and tactics and never letting emotions get in the way, using my skills to capture criminals, and protecting the innocent. Doing whatever it takes to protect my friends.

Or do I do what my instincts are telling me to?

“Eden.” I take her uninjured hand.

Her fingers are stiff at first. My heart sinks to my feet.

A beat later, her fingers curl around mine.

“Eden,” I repeat softly, “I’m really sorry. You’re not stupid. At all. I’m the one who was a stupid asshole. Yelling at you like that… I was worried. I am worried. But it’s not an excuse.”

She stares at me silently, swallowing hard as she works to contain her tears.

Before I can stop myself, I brush my thumb across her cheek, catching the dampness there.

My skin tingles where it meets hers.

Shit.

Her skin really is as soft as I thought it would be.

Forcing the unwelcome thought away, I tug Eden in the direction of the king-size bed in the center of the room.

Not that I’m planning to sleep in the bed with her.

I was just in a hurry trying to find a room after midnight, so I took whatever room was available.

Should I have asked for two queens instead?

Yes. But I didn’t. And honestly, it’s not like I’m going to be sleeping tonight—well, technically it’s morning now—anyway.

Once we’re both seated—not touching, but close enough that I can smell her shampoo and the minty scent of toothpaste—I shift so I’m partially facing her.

Under the auspices of checking her hand again, I hold it carefully between mine, turning it back and forth.

But I don’t let go.

I should.

But I can’t.

Eden’s gaze dips to her hand. After a moment, she looks back at me. The corner of her mouth twitches.

“You’re not a stupid asshole,” she finally says. “I know why you were upset.”

Well. She knows a part of it.

“Still.” My voice goes gruff. “I shouldn’t have… I’m sorry. After last night, and tonight… the last thing you need is someone yelling at you.”

Eden stares at me for a few seconds, thoughts working in her eyes. “Indy told me you yelled at him. In Iraq. When he was hurt. He said you yelled at him and told him he’d better not die. That you wouldn’t allow it.”

The memory emerges, just as vivid and painful as it was back then. The fear. The desperation. And yes, yelling at Indy, threatening him if he didn’t make it.

“I did yell at him,” I admit. My lips quirk. “But it worked.”

“Sometimes…” Eden draws her lip between her teeth. “Sometimes we get mad because…”

It feels like she’s dancing dangerously close to the truth.

A truth I don’t want her to know.

Still. I prompt, “Because?”

Pink tinges her cheeks. “Nothing.”

Eden edges closer to me on the mattress. Her thigh brushes mine.

On a heavy sigh, she says quietly, “I first noticed something… off… about a month ago. But I wasn’t sure.

At first it was just little stuff. Like a car following too close on the way home from work, up until I turned off into my neighborhood.

It could have just been someone in a hurry. With rush hour traffic…”

“But that wasn’t all, was it?”

“No. But, Rafe.” Eden’s blue eyes widen. “It’s not like I’m not careful. I carry pepper spray and a taser. I took self-defense classes. I don’t walk alone in the dark. I put security—” She stops. Grimaces. “Well. I guess my security wasn’t very good, was it?”

Not really.

But that’s not her fault.

“It should have been enough,” I reply. “Everything you did should have been more than enough.”

Eden takes another deep breath and lets it out slowly.

“Then I thought I saw the same car keep driving by my house. But always at night, so I couldn’t be sure.

Sometimes I’d get strange phone calls. I didn’t answer them because I didn’t recognize the number.

But there would be voicemails of someone just… breathing on them.”

My body tenses.

Alarm bells sound in my head.

Keeping my voice carefully calm, I ask, “Did you try to trace the number?”

She nods. “Of course. I even paid for one of those online services that’s supposed to identify any phone number.

But it was one of those pay-as-you-go phones, registered to a number in Portland.

So it didn’t help. And I thought… I mean, I’ve gotten texts sent to the wrong person before.

Someone who used to have my number. And once, this poor guy kept trying to get a hold of this girl he’d gone on a date with.

I felt terrible telling him I wasn’t her.

That she’d probably given the wrong number on purpose.

“And the cars,” Eden continues, “could have been nothing. Portland’s a big city. My neighborhood is quiet, but there’s still plenty of people living there. Just because I saw the same truck?—”

Eden stops. Her face pales. “The truck. How did I not think…” She shudders. “I couldn’t tell last night. Because the truck behind me was so close. All I could see were the headlights. And the bumper. But what if it was the same one?”

Pain spears through my jaw and teeth.

From what I’m hearing, it sounds pretty fucking likely it was the same truck.

“We’ll figure it out,” I assure her. “And you’re safe here. You know I won’t let anything happen to you.”

The trust in Eden’s eyes is almost my undoing.

“I know you will,” she says. “But… I wasn’t trying to be intentionally stupid about it. I really wasn’t. Everything could be explained away so easily. And it wasn’t the first time I overreacted to something…”

“What do you mean, overreacted?”

“Nothing.” It’s too quick. “Just… a woman living on her own. Sometimes things seem threatening when they’re not.”

I’m sure she’s right.

But I also know sometimes things that seem threatening really are.

Just like I know there’s something Eden’s not telling me. Something I’m not going to like.

“Was there anything else?” I ask. “Aside from the truck last night? And tonight, of course.”

She shakes her head. “No. Before this month, the last year has been normal. Quiet.”

That’s an odd way of wording it.

And it makes me worry even more.

But.

Looking at Eden’s wan face, at the lines of strain across her forehead and the bluish smudges beneath her eyes, I decide now isn’t the time to push it. Not when it’s well after two AM already. Not when I just made Eden cry by shouting at her.

She’s safe now. And I know most of the story, at least.

“Eden.” I hold her gaze. “You know we need to tell Indy about this. Not this second, but first thing in the morning.”

She plucks at a loose string on the comforter. “I know.”

“And I want to get some of my friends involved. Old teammates from the Green Berets. Niall. Xavier. Rhiannon. And Cole—he was on a different team, but I trained with him for years. Indy and I both did.”

“Cole who owns Blade and Arrow Security?”

“Yes. They have two branches now. One in New York and one in Texas. And they’re good. The best, really. I want to bring them in on this.”

Eden frowns. “But I’m in Portland. And I’m sure they’re busy. Plus… I make decent money, but I’m not sure if I can afford to hire private security.”

“Money’s not an issue. Neither is distance. These guys—they’re like brothers to me. And sisters,” I amend, thinking of Rhiannon, my old teammate, and Nora, who works with the New York team. “Once they know you’re in trouble, they’ll help. I promise.”

Eden still looks unconvinced. Her brow furrows. “Does that mean… you’re going back home? And someone else is going to help me?”

“No.” It comes sharper than I intended.

But the idea of leaving Eden right now… Well. It’s not happening.

“I’m staying,” I tell her firmly. “I promise. I’m not going anywhere.”