Page 20 of Protective Love

I glance over at the scarred man beside him.

"So, you stalked me?"

Kaleb rolls his eyes and Sophia giggles through the phone.

"Technically, it's not stalking. It's investigating," she says in an amused tone.

"That's still stalking," I retort, surprised by her response. "It's weird."

"Yeah, that's my view on it, too, but Kaleb has a tendency toinvestigatepeople."

"Not people. Just you," he grumbles, shaking his head at his phone as if she can see him.

These people are fucking crazy.

"Well, uh, thanks for the concern, but I'll be fine without your help," I tell them, stepping back and starting to close the door before Kaleb's foot shoots out, wedging a gap and forcing my door partially back open.

"Unfortunately, I've been told that I can't accept no for an answer. Believe me, I don't want to be here just as much as you wish I wasn't here, but I'm not going against what Sophia wants, so I'd suggest yougo and get ready so that I can get back to my wife and Leo can drop you off at work."

"Firstly, I'm not your wife," Sophia snaps. "Secondly, you can't leave her with Leo, he's too scary. You have to take her. Besides, my mum's coming here soon to pick me up."

The scarred man beside Kaleb grins at Sophia's comment, somehow proud that she's called him scary.

Kaleb huffs and his piercing green eyes jump back to mine.

"I'll give you fifteen minutes," he says, pulling his foot out of the way and turning around as he takes his phone off of speaker and starts whispering to Sophia as he walks away.

I slam my door shut, pressing my back against it as I take a deep breath and I flick the safety back on before placing the gun down on the table in the hallway.

"What the fuck has just happened," I mutter, trying to wrap my head around the most confusing five minutes of my life.

My hand drifts up to my neck as I think about the faded bruises wrapped around it and I'm suddenly grateful I was so tired last night that I didn't have a chance to wash off my make-up.

Chapter Eleven

Rory

My eyes flick back and forth between my phone that's clenched tightly in my hand and the men sitting in the car that's idly driving beside me as I walk down the street.

I outright refused to get in the car with them and told them I'd be walking to work. I expected them to leave after that, and I was hoping I could then jump on a bus, but instead, they got into the car and are now following along beside me, trying to convince me to get in the car.

Before leaving my apartment, I turned my location on for Chrissie and told her that Kaleb Rossi had been at my door and to check in with me in half an hour to see if I got to work safely, but at this rate, I won't make it to work on time.

Since I've been walking, Chrissie's messaged me sixteen times and tried to call me as well, but I haven't answered because I'm genuinely terrified of the men who are with me and I wouldn't want them to hear Chrissie talking to me, especially if she accidentally slips up with my name again.

These people are obviously already doing a deep dive on me, trying to find out any information that they can, and I can only hope that the fake identity Chrissie and Nathan set up for me will satisfy them and not ring any alarm bells.

I don't need them seeing something suspicious and digging even deeper.

It would usually terrify me to know that people are investigating me, but I can understand where Sophia is coming from.

I could see how much she cares for Jaylen in the short time that I was with her in his room, so I'm honestly not surprised that she wanted to do a little background check on me.

Whatdoessurprise me is the fact that she had someone follow me home and then proceeded to tell her boyfriend and his friend to take me to work.

I glance over at the car as I see the red light ahead of them and I work hard to cover the smirk, knowing they're going to have to stop following me.

This may be my chance to ditch them and get on a bus so that I can make it to work on time.