The Wrong Right Man - Aurora Rose Reynolds Page 0,63

and I know the instant his warm gaze meets mine that he didn’t tell me, because he didn’t want me to worry. Like Jamie, he wants to protect me. The puzzle pieces begin to fall into place—all the times he’s tried to convince me to move to the marketing department, his overbearing protectiveness. It’s all been because he wanted me off air; he wanted to tuck me away in hopes that it would keep me safe.

God, this crazy, crazy man.

I hold his gaze and whisper, “Let’s go talk to the cops.”

Without a word, he leads me across the room to one of the officers, and then for the next hour, I try to make sense of what is happening.

But quickly, I realize I might never understand, yet it’s time I trust the man who has stolen my heart.

Chapter 13

Dakota

I SIT ON the floor in the living room in the dark and look out at the city below me, watching my breath fog up the glass as my forehead rests against it. I should be exhausted after the day I’ve had, but I can’t sleep, which is why I carefully untangled myself from Braxton’s hold and escaped to his living room to think. No matter what I do, I can’t make sense of what happened to my apartment, and I can’t even comprehend someone being so infatuated with me that they would go to such an extreme to get my attention.

The cops asked me tonight if I had anyone in my life or in my past who I would consider a suspect, and I honestly couldn’t think of one person. Troy would be an obvious suspect, but I know he wouldn’t risk tarnishing his family’s name by being so devious, and there is no one else in my past who I can think of who would want to hurt me or given me a reason to believe they are even the slightest bit obsessed with me.

I close my eyes. Neither the police nor Braxton told me what was said on the phone calls or what was in the package they received, but by the looks that were passed around, I know whatever it was, it was bad. I also know Braxton well enough to understand he’s not going to let me go about my life as usual, and I’m not sure I want to. For the first time in a long time, I feel vulnerable, the same kind of unease I felt as a kid when things in life were up in the air.

I open my eyes when I hear movement behind me then moments later, Braxton settles on the ground at my back and wraps his arms around me. Once I’m resting against his chest, encircled in the safety of his hold, I turn to my side to rest on my hip with my ear over his heart and listen to the steady beat.

“This is why I didn’t want you to know what’s been happening.” His words cut through the silence, and I open my eyes.

“You don’t think I would have eventually found out my place had been broken into and all my stuff was destroyed?”

“I was going to cross that bridge when I got to it.”

“You’re really unbelievable.” I tip my head back, and he dips his head down to meet my gaze. “What was your plan? Were you going to just move me in with you and say you got rid of all my stuff?”

“Maybe.” He sighs, and I want to laugh, because he would do something so ridiculous in order to hide what happened, but all that would’ve done is create more issues between us.

“That would have been a lie,” I point out.

“I know,” he agrees.

“You said you don’t want to lie to me anymore.”

“I also don’t want you so worried that you sneak out of bed in the middle of the night because you can’t sleep.”

“You can’t stop me from worrying about this.” I sigh, resting my head back against his chest.

“I know.” He cups my jaw, smoothing his thumb back and forth over my cheek. “What took you from bed?”

“I just keep wondering what I did,” I admit quietly as I stare at the silent street below us.

“You didn’t do anything. Sometimes people are just mentally unable to distinguish the difference between real life and what they believe in their minds.”

“I guess you’re right.”

“It will be okay.” His lips linger on the top of my head as he continues to speak. “The police will do