She didn’t have another heartbreak in her. She couldn’t risk it.
Maybe if only Turner had hurt her. Or if she’d just fallen for the married guy. But those two combined were a massive hurdle to get over and when added to her father abandoning her...
Love meant stepping off an emotional cliff and waiting for someone to catch her so she wouldn’t crash into the ground. What if no one was there? She couldn’t take a chance. If her heart were shattered again, it would never be whole and she didn’t want to be some sad, broken person for the rest of her life. Better to stay as she was. Lonely, yes, but functional.
Odele and her crew left, the catering staff packed up and by four, Renee was alone in the center of the courtyard knowing that the price of being safe was one she had to pay. She didn’t have a choice—not when it came to her heart.
* * *
JASPER PUNCHED THE air twice, right, left, followed by a quick kick at knee-level. As he moved his foot, his chair slid back about a foot. He continued to work out the fight scene in his head, shifting in his seat as he punched again.
He repeated the sequence, pausing to reassure Koda, who stared at him from the safety of his dog bed. When he had the scene clear in his head, he rolled back to his desk and began typing.
In the book, Vidar had come into contact with the serial killer. They were in an empty warehouse and it was pitch-black, so Vidar wasn’t sure of his identity, but he would injure him enough that there was a limp, which was what Jasper needed for later in the book.
Thud, punch, crack. He could see the scene in his head as if it were a movie, which meant he had it all the way it was supposed to be. It was only when he couldn’t figure out what to say that he knew he was screwing up with the story.
He typed as fast as he could, mentioning the grit on the floor and the smell of something dead in the corner. He felt the impact of a blow on the side of his head. Vidar’s neck snapped to the left and he stumbled. The—
“Hey, Jasper, you in here?”
The question, spoken just inside the office, jarred him from story world to real world. It took him a second to readjust his senses and remember where he was in space and time. He turned and saw Cade with two beers in his hand.
“You got a second or is this a bad time?”
Jasper knew if he said he had to work, Cade would understand and go away. He also knew his friend had something going on—otherwise he wouldn’t have shown up with no warning in the middle of the afternoon.
“Sure. I’m at a good breaking point,” he said, saving his work. He stood and called Koda, then walked toward Cade. “What’s up?”
They went back into the house and sprawled on the big sofa in the family room. Koda jumped up next to Jasper and rested his head on his lap. Jasper rubbed his ears.
Cade set his beer on the coffee table, picked it up, set it back down, then stood.
“It’s Bethany,” he said, then shook his head. “Not her so much as her parents.” He looked at Jasper. “What if I can’t do it? What if can’t deal with it?”
“What is it?”
“Royalty. Her father is the damn king of El Bahar. There are bodyguards at the ranch. They follow her everywhere she goes. If she’s in the house, they stay outside, but otherwise, they’re there. Her mother’s called me three times already, begging me to let Bethany come home for the birth. As if I’m the one keeping her away. I’m not. I even told her we’d go back the last three months and she could have her baby there.”
He paced the length of the family room, then faced Jasper. “I don’t want to be gone that long but I could fly back every couple of weeks. We have a good manager and the business would be fine. It’s just not how I saw my life.”
Jasper had no idea what to say. He wasn’t even sure of the problem. Was Cade simply chafing at the realities of being married to a princess or was he really concerned he couldn’t make the marriage work?