Page 30 of Rogue’s Path (Sweet Chaos #1)

Rogue

What is going on?

Why is she flipping out?

I should let her go, but I can’t, not when she’s like this.

Havoc walks over and takes the flowers out of my hand.

I wrap that now free arm around her, offering what comfort I can.

“It’s the roses that are triggering her. She thinks you’re her stalker.” Havoc walks to the door.

Stalker?

Peaches freezes. “He isn’t? You aren’t?”

The other flowers Jane said she got. “Why didn’t you tell me you had a stalker?”

“We haven’t talked about anything important.” Peaches steps away from me.

Havoc leaves the room, taking the offending flowers with him.

“Then let’s talk. I’m here. You’re here. Tell me what’s going on so I can fix it.” And then we’ll get to my making sure her stalker feels more pain than he’s caused my woman before I kill him.

She shakes her head. “Havoc and I talked. All we need to do is set the terms and the price.”

Price. “Protecting my woman is my honor.”

Peaches moves all the way to the other side of the table. Her head no longer shakes, but the rest of her body is doing a pretty good job of it.

I can’t push too hard. Whatever mental torment she’s going through, I don’t need to add to it. “Okay. Let’s talk terms.” I sit down and wait for her to sort her head out. My normally unflappable woman needs some time to find her feet again.

“Everyone seems to think you’ll be the one to protect me.”

Because I will be. The club will help, but ultimately you’re mine.

She pulls the chair out and pushes it in again. “You need to tell me whatever you find out. No being this silent manly protector. I want to know everything you know as soon as you know it.”

That seems fair. “Okay.”

“You promise?”

“I promise.”

The shaking subsides a little. That’s progress.

Her eyes move to the wall, but her mind isn’t there.

“You don’t have to come up with all the terms right now.” We don’t need any terms. I’ll find this guy. Kill him. Then stick you on the back of my bike. Maybe not in that order.

“I have two other terms.”

That doesn’t sound good. “Name them.”

“You have to let me pay the club. Protecting me will take not just your time and energy. I don’t want a discounted rate. Charge me what you would charge anyone else.”

Stubborn woman. “Fine.” The club will just give it back to us. “What’s the last term?”

“You can’t kiss me until after the stalker is gone.”

“No.” There is no way I’m going a day without kissing her, let alone possible weeks.

“Yes. I won’t budge on this one. If you don’t accept, I’ll get in a cab and leave.”

Peaches didn’t say we can’t kiss, just that I can’t kiss her. How long will she make it without kissing me? We can’t be together for more than five minutes without doing it. “Peaches, I would never kiss you without your permission.”

She shakes her head.

Is she trying to separate me from the stalker, or does she not believe me?

Has someone sexually assaulted her in the past?

If they touched her—That doesn’t make sense.

Back at the park, she was fine with me manhandling her a little bit.

The dreamy look she had on her face before I walked away spoke of a woman more than fine with what just happened.

It must have been whatever made her run.

“I need you to promise me. I need you to say the words.”

“Peaches, I promise you that I will not kiss you until your stalker is dead.” I shouldn’t have said that. She didn’t need to know that I planned on killing him. Is she going to freak out and run?

All the tremors disappear.

Now to see if I can get her to do something for her own safety. “I have one to add to our deal.”

Peaches’ head snaps back. “What?”

“You stay with me until we find this guy. No going off. No playing hero. You let me take care of him.”

The barest hint of a smile tips up the corner of her lips. “Those are two terms, but I have no desire to get myself kidnapped playing hero. Though, couldn’t I just stay here until you find him? The security around here seems pretty tight.”

More than you could even imagine. “You stay with me.”

“Deal.” She nods.

“Deal. And Peaches, my word is my bond. I will find this guy. From here on out, you’re safe. Nothing will happen to you. Now tell me everything.”

“It all started…”

***

Control. You are in control. Follow the steps and make your woman safe. “Okay, we need to get those clothes off of you.”

“WHAT?”

I could have phrased that better. “We need to check everything you brought with you for trackers.”

“Oh. I thought of that. There’s nothing.”

“Some of the off-market bugs are incredibly small and flexible. They’re easy to hide in the lining of a jacket—” I glance down at her wrist. “—inside a watch, the lining of your shoes, even a makeup tube. We need to check everything.”

“Okay.” She takes all her jewelry off and shoves it into her purse before setting it on the table in front of her.

I step over to her, grab her purse, and hold out a hand to her. If I can’t kiss her, at least I can touch her.

She shrinks back from my hand and stands up. “Let’s do this.”

I’m going to make this slime pay for every time she pulls away or cringes at my touch.

She follows me as we walk out of the room.

Several of my brothers decided to make sure everything went well, it seems, and they aren’t being nonchalant about watching us. “Integer, bring her bags to Vandal and have him scan them for bugs. Bear, would you call her friend and tell her Peaches is staying here.”

“There’s no need to do that,” Peaches chimes in from behind me. “I left her house several days ago. And I told the other friend I was visiting that I was boarding a plane tonight.”

What? Why did she even question that I would protect her? “To where?”

“At first, it was going to be Alaska to learn to build igloos. Then I thought I could go white water rafting near Colorado, but both of those sounded too cold. So I booked a safari in Africa.”

She was going to run away to Africa. Why? We need to talk a lot more. But not today.

Integer takes the purse and suitcases and walks towards the labyrinth.

We follow at a slower pace.

“Rogue,” Havoc says as I reach for the door handle. “Don’t forget you have to leave to deliver that custom order tomorrow.”

That would be hard for me to forget since Integer was scheduled to do it three days from now, because his grandmother lives near there. Why is Havoc—To get her out of town, which would keep her safe and give us some privacy. “We’ll leave tomorrow morning.”

This place is safer than Fort Knox, but my brothers don’t understand the meaning of privacy. They’re the nosiest, meddling bunch I’ve ever met.

Which is what we need now. I take Peaches through the labyrinth to my room.

“You can change here, and then relax, watch some television, or play some games.” What am I going to give her to change into?

It’s not like I have a robe lying around or any women’s clothes.

One of the old ladies would help out. Peaches is small enough that one of my tees might work.

Seeing her in my clothes…This is not the time to think about that. I walk over to the drawer.

“Whose room is this?” Peaches asks from where she stands next to the doorway.

Does she think I would take her to another man’s room? “It’s my room.”

“Yours? You brought me to your room. Are all of you crazy, or are women completely interchangeable to you?”

Huh?

“What will your old lady think of me being in your room and wearing your clothes?”

“My old lady?” What is she talking about?

“Don’t even bother trying to pretend. I saw her with you.”

Saw her?

“Your friends were impressive. Not one of them slipped up, and I’m pretty good at knowing when people are lying.”

Lying? Old lady? When could Peaches have seen me — “Rhys? You’re talking about Rhys.”

“Duh.”

Why do I find her so sexy when she’s angry?

This explains why she went to Havoc and not me.

And why she insisted that I not kiss her.

“Rhys isn’t my girlfriend. She’s a tattoo artist who came for the funeral.

Her husband and kids couldn’t make it, and there weren’t any more bikes available, so she rode on the back of mine. ”

“What?” Peaches shakes her head. “You aren’t—”

I step forward. “The only person I’m interested in right now—“ and probably for the foreseeable future “—is you.”

“Really?”

“Really. I’m not your stalker, and I don’t have a girlfriend. I haven’t had one in a few years.”

She runs to me, wrapping her arms around me as her body crashes into mine.

Now that’s more like it.

“I was so angry when I saw her with you. And so jealous.”

“That makes two of us.” How can I feel so strongly about a woman who I know so little about?

She burrows her face into my chest. “I don’t want us to fight again.”

I didn’t know we were. “Never again.” Which is probably a lie since we’re bound to butt heads on occasion. “We won’t let anything pull us apart again.”