Page 86 of Protective Love

"Kaleb," I whisper harshly as I use all of the effort left inside of my body to lift myself and Aurora from the floor, careful not to jostle her body around too much. "Can you turn the shower off and open a window?"

He pops his head round the corner, his brows raised in concern as he takes in my sweaty appearance, damp clothes, and Aurora's limp body in my arms.

"You good?" he asks, watching me grimace as I move to walk past him.

"Yeah," I bite out, ignoring the pain shooting through my body as I walk into the tiny bedroom opposite me, carefully sitting down on the bed and readjusting Aurora in my lap.

He disappears from my sight for a moment, and I hear the shower turn off before he reappears.

"Is she okay?"

I shrug and look down at her, seeing her face screwed up as if she's also in pain.

"I don't know, but something's going on, and as soon as she's awake, I'm going to figure this shit out," I tell him.

"Need me to do anything?"

"Fixing her front door would be a good start."

"Yeah, I already called Leo. He's at a meeting with Dominic at the moment, but he said he should be able to get here within the next hour, and we'll get it sorted."

I nod, and glance around her room, frowning at how empty it is.

I know she hasn't lived here long, and she clearly left Ireland in a hurry, but the room is bare, and the boxes that are stacked against the wall indicate that she doesn't plan to stay here longer than she needs to.

Her grip on my clothes starts to loosen as she falls deeper into sleep, so I shuffle around and carefully place her in the centre of the bed, keeping the towel wrapped around her body.

I cautiously unwrap my arms from around her body, and when she doesn't react, I step away from the bed as quietly as I can and step out of her room, partially closing the door behind me.

"What the hell is going on, man?" Kaleb asks, walking down the little hallway and into her living room.

"I don't know much, but I do know she's running from someone, someone that absolutely terrifies her, and I'm assuming he's caught up to her because there was a taunting message on her shower door."

"What did it say?"

"Found you, with a smiley face on the end."

"Damn, that's twisted," he states, shaking his head.

"That means that whoever it is that's after her has been in this apartment."

"Okay, so we get her a new door, with multiple locks, and we install cameras outside that you can monitor," he says, pulling out his phone to make a list. "I'll also make sure that Leo and Charlie are placed out on the street at all times. I can also text Miles and get him to send us a picture of every other tenant in the building so that we know if there's anyone lurking around who shouldn't be here." When he turns to look at me, he laughs. "No need to look so horrified."

"I'm just shocked," I tell him, moving to sit on the sofa so that I can rest my legs. "I'd expect you to do all of this if Sophia was in trouble, but I wouldn't expect you to care when it comes to Rory."

He scowls at me.

"Firstly, I'm offended that you seem to think I'm such a heartless prick. Secondly, you pretty much saved my life, so I kind of owe you," he adds, rolling his eyes. "Also, there's no point calling her Rory now because you fucked up earlier and called her Aurora, whichhonestly confused the fuck out of me, but then I realised that you obviously know more than we do and haven't decided to share said new information with us yet."

"You'll all continue to call her Rory. She confided in me, and I fucked up because I panicked and wasn't thinking clearly, but that doesn't mean that you can all be privy to the information she shares with me," I spit.

He holds his hands up, and steps back with a wide smile on his face.

"Chill. No need to get all feisty with me, King. I'll respect it, but only because Sophia would probably rip my balls off."

Huffing in frustration, I get up from the sofa and walk into the kitchen, opening all of the cupboards until I find some cleaning supplies.

"I'm gonna go clean the bathroom. Go wait outside, will ya?"