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Maddox pulls in a deep breath as he rocks his head from side to side, bones cracking with the motion. “I’ll find her. I promise.”

I shake my head, sadness and regret poking at me from all angles.

“He’ll hide her from you the same way he hid her from me.

That’s why I didn’t take her with me when I left.

I think he believed I wouldn’t go without her.

” I swallow hard. “But I didn’t have a choice.

If I stayed, I knew eventually he would kill me.

” I would have simply disappeared and no one would have ever known what happened.

“You did the right thing.” Maddox’s expression softens just a little. “And I’ve had enough dogs to know she would have done anything to protect you, so she might have ended up getting hurt if you’d stayed.”

He’s trying to make me feel better about one of the many impossible choices I’ve had to make, but I can’t feel better about losing Coco. Not ever.

Smoothing down my hair, I carefully stand. “What now?”

Maddox shrugs. “Now we go back to work.”

That’s not what I was expecting him to say. “What? But that guy?—”

“I told him Intel was going to run his information through the system to confirm everything he told me and he didn’t protest, so I think there’s a good chance he’s telling the truth.

” Maddox gets up and goes to open the door.

“And if he is, we have one more person looking out for you, so I’m gonna take it. ”

That sounds a little too good to be true. “And if he’s not?”

Maddox flashes me a smile as we walk through the storage room. “Then I’ll find him and kill him.”

MADDOX TURNS TO me as we come to a stop at a light. His hand is draped leisurely over the steering wheel of my used crossover SUV, his expression serious. “You should come work with me. Start killing people for a living.”

“What?” A laugh sneaks out because imagining me as a mercenary or bodyguard or whatever he is, is hilarious. “Why would I come do that?”

He turns back to the road as the light switches to green. “Because it’s a hell of a lot easier than what we just did.”

I laugh some more, because I think he’s kidding, but when he doesn’t shoot me that puppy dog grin he slides into when he’s teasing, my laughter fades. “You’re serious.”

“Yeah, I’m serious.” He frowns. “My feet are killing me. I folded and refolded the same shirt two hundred times today because people are assholes and can’t be fucked to put things back the way they find them.

” He continues listing off things I deal with on a regular basis.

“Ginny gave me a headache because she never stops fucking complaining through the earpiece, and Dane thinks if he smiles at you and winks enough, you’ll give him a free week of vacation.

” Maddox keeps going. “And why the fuck do you have to ask every single goddamn person who checks out if they want to open a credit card?”

Now I’m laughing again, because his assessment of my job is pretty spot on. “If it makes you feel any better, whoever has the most credit card sign-ups gets a bonus.”

“It does not.” He shakes his head. “It doesn’t make me feel better at all.

No amount of money is worth asking five hundred people in a row about a credit card none of them fucking wants.

” His brows lift as he glances my way again.

“Honestly, it came really close to our worlds colliding, because if I had to fold that fucking beige T-shirt right in front of the door one more time, I was going to have to hide a body.”

Again, he has me laughing in spite of the dire situation I’m caught in like a snare. “Tomorrow I’ll do all the shirt folding. I don’t want to risk it.”

When I called my friend Lydia to see if her husband Christian could help me find someone to come keep me safe, of course I had an idea of what a person who did that would be like. And in many ways, Maddox does fit the mold.

But there’s also a side of him that is so vastly different, I’m struggling to figure out how those two parts fit together.

Maddox is strong and smart and capable, and as dangerous as I would have expected, but he’s also sweet and kind and occasionally a little goofy. There’s even a tiny hint of awkwardness in some of the things he says.

I was expecting someone dark and mysterious, and maybe a little grumpy, but Maddox isn’t grumpy at all. He’s actually proving to be quite the opposite. A black-clad ray of sunshine in my cloudy life, and I kinda love it.

“That’s probably a good idea, because that shit is ridiculous.” Maddox turns my way, expression incredulous. “You really fold the same shirt a million times a day?”

“I mean, not during the week so much, but on the weekends? It might not be a million, but it can feel like it.” I’ve never thought about my job being difficult because I genuinely enjoy it. “Does it bother you when you have to kill a bunch of people in a row?”

I can’t believe those words just came out of my mouth. But, after the last nine months of being separated from Trevor and fighting him in the divorce, plus five years of being with him before that, I can honestly say I wouldn’t mind killing a few people in a row myself.

Again, Maddox looks at me like I’ve lost my mind. “No.”

Good to know, just in case the opportunity arises. “Well, there you go.”

Maddox continues driving to my apartment, his brows pinched together. Like he’s confused both by the conversation and my career choice. It’s kind of funny, because I would think I’d be the one confused. But I guess if you don’t work in retail, it could be tricky to understand the appeal.

“I’ve always worked at places like Birch and Ivy, so I guess I’m just used to what it involves.

” I think back to my first job at a small children’s store in a shopping mall.

“In the beginning, maybe it’s a little more stressful, but once you acclimate and move up the ladder?

” A smile twists my lips. “The pay is surprisingly good.”

Good enough that I’m able to afford a bodyguard.

Granted, part of that’s because I’ve been pinching pennies.

After leaving Trevor, I found the cheapest apartment I could that was still in a decently nice neighborhood.

I purchased an inexpensive car. I don’t really go out, and I don’t spend frivolously.

I didn’t know what kind of hell might be coming my way, or when I might have to run away in the middle of the night, so I’ve put every cent I could into a savings account.

And thank goodness I did, because having Maddox here with me has made it possible to breathe again. And laugh, which is fantastic.

“I wasn’t thinking about you being a weirdo for enjoying retail.” Maddox gives me one of those almost lopsided grins I’m starting to get addicted to. “I was thinking you were weird for not being bothered by my profession.”

An ache forms in the pit of my stomach. I’ve worked hard not to face a lot of things. There was already so much trying to break me, acknowledging certain aspects of how Trevor changed me might have pushed me over the edge. The way I look at fairness and comeuppance is one of them.

I used to feel bad for people. Hated seeing anyone suffer. I was too empathetic. Too forgiving. I gave bad men too many chances to prove they could be better.

It’s not surprising. I was fed that kind of bullshit from the time I was born. But at some point, I decided to stop eating. I’d rather starve.

Taking a deep breath, I spill one of the more painful discoveries I’ve made. “I guess I just learned the hard way that the world is better off without certain people in it.”

I can name a few.