Page 22 of Sackett (Demented Souls #17)

V oices in the next room woke Selena. She blinked awake and looked around, wondering what time it was and how long she’d managed to sleep.

Finding the clock, she saw it was just after ten.

She’d managed about six hours of sleep. Surely the voices were Sackett and Maverick.

How long had they been awake? Had they already picked up her car?

She reached for her phone to check her messages, then remembered it hadn’t been in her things, and she needed to get another one today.

Shit. Another thing to add to the list. She threw back the blanket and swung her legs over the edge of the bed.

She’d rather lay in bed for a few minutes, scrolling through things and getting an idea of what lay ahead today but since that couldn’t happen, she might as well get moving.

She needed to thank them for the rescue and send them on their way before time to leave to meet her client in just a few hours.

Twenty minutes later, she opened the bedroom door and stepped into the living area of her suite to find the room much as she’d left it the night before, or was that early this morning? She wasn’t used to staying up that late, and she wasn’t entirely sure how it worked.

Either way, the room was not just picked up from where the men had slept, but they’d cleaned up after their food, which hadn’t even occurred to her until she saw the stack of containers back in their bag and on top of one of the tiny trash cans standard in so many hotel rooms.

“Good morning,” Maverick said from where he sat in the chair she’d used the night before, a cup from a takeout coffee chain in one hand. “Did you sleep well? I hope we didn’t wake you.”

She shook her head and smiled. “It was time for me to get up and get moving anyway.” She didn’t say they hadn’t woken her, so not a lie.

It wasn’t that she couldn’t lie, when she needed to, but she preferred not to if she didn’t have to, so she’d become adroit at skirting things.

“Do we need to pick up my rental or does the coffee mean you’ve done that already? ”

“Your car is in the lot downstairs.” Sackett’s voice drew her attention.

He sat on the couch, an identical cup in one hand, his phone in the other.

“If I knew what you drank, I would have gotten you coffee too, but we can stop on the way to replace your phone if you’d like.

Who’s your carrier and I’ll find a store. ”

Selena blinked as she let everything he’d just said sink in. A store for a phone?

“I thought you would be going back to Tucson?” She looked back and forth between Sackett and Maverick, wondering what had been decided while she slept and why she hadn’t been consulted.

“I thought you would be too, but you said you’ve got things you have to do here, so we’re making adjustments,” Sackett said, drawing her attention back to him.

“Maverick’s got to be back no later than tomorrow.

They’re still working on getting him a ticket back, but I’ll stay with you as long as you’re in town. ”

Selena scowled. “I don’t think that’s necessary.”

“And none of us thought that asshole would kidnap you, but he did. I’m not going to give him another opportunity.”

She met his gaze and forced down the instant anger, the instant insistence that she could take care of herself.

They had come nearly a thousand miles to save her ass.

And as hard as it was to admit, she wasn’t sure she wouldn’t still be right where she’d been last night, if they hadn’t.

Shit, remembering the threat Mr. Smarmy had made the last time she’d seen him, she might be in a hell of a lot worse situation if they hadn’t.

Selena forced herself to take a deep breath and remain calm. Getting defensive and yelling never helped a situation. It might make her feel better, but it never helped.

“I appreciate that you want to make sure there’s not a repeat performance on my kidnapping—” those words stuck in her throat, especially the last one.

It was hard to admit she’d been in such a situation out loud.

She took another deep breath and continued.

“But I can’t have a stranger, one without attorney client privilege looming over me all the time.

I have work to do while I’m here.” She knew her lack of caffeine this morning, and the way her feet already ached wasn’t helping things, but she could do this.

She could convince these men, these big, bearded, and tattooed men that looked like no one’s idea of an attorney that she didn’t need them to loom over her all day every day for the rest of her trip.

Sackett watched her, as if he found everything she did or said interesting in a way she wasn’t ready to ask about.

“I won’t get in the way of your working, and I’ll do my best not to loom over you. I’m not even sure I know how to loom.”

Something about his tone made her narrow her eyes at him, as she suspected he was laughing at her. But since he kept a straight face, and she didn’t know him well enough to read his micro-expressions, she couldn’t be sure.

She glared at him, wondering how she could make him see reason. Maybe Maverick would help her, after all, he was Dana’s man. Maybe he’d see that she couldn’t have some unknown man tailing her all over town, especially when she had to go to court.

“Can you help me talk some sense into him?” she said to the man she hoped would be her ally this morning.

“Sorry, ma’am. I’d like to help you out, if only to get on my girl’s good side, but I agree with him. I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to stay in the area without someone to look out for you, just in case the idiots from the commune decide to try again to blackmail Donna into coming back.”

Okay, that was a sentiment she couldn’t argue with but having someone around to guard her, that sounded far more of a pain in the ass than it was worth.

“Look,” Sackett said after a moment, as if seeing her internal struggle to keep from losing her temper at them.

“I don’t want to make things harder for you.

I’m not going to stop you from doing what you need to do.

When you have meetings, and even for court, I can sit outside the room.

I don’t have to be right outside either, as long as I can check the room before and see the door, we should be good. ”

“What do I tell my client? The judge?” She wanted to bury her face in her hands as she thought about a judge asking why she had this guy following her around everywhere. “I can’t tell them I was kidnapped because we didn’t report it so there’s no record of it anywhere.”

“Tell them that the spouse of a client has made some threats that have been deemed credible and that because of them, you have a bodyguard for the time being. You can say that your boyfriend, family member, or even the client insisted you have protection, in case the threat is real,” he said with a lop-sided shrug, as if it were no big deal.

She stared at him for several seconds, wondering where to start, but as she did, she thought about his suggestion.

While it wasn’t a lie, well other than if she claimed to have a boyfriend, because really?

When did she have time to meet anyone? But if she said the client had insisted on the guard, that wouldn’t entirely be a lie.

Sackett was the one insisting that she have some kind of ‘protection’ though she didn’t like that word, at least not for this and in connotation with him.

It made her think of things she shouldn’t be thinking about. Not while she was working.

Selena shook her head and pushed the thought away. She inhaled and braced herself. This was already going to be a long day, she needed to get her phone replaced, and almost as importantly, she needed coffee.

“All right. I’ll go along, for now. Don’t get in my way and don’t cross me.” She glared at him then held out her hand. “I need my keys. I’ve got things to do.”