Protecting Her - Alexis Noelle Page 0,23

killed me, he could have killed Hunter. A chill runs through me as I realize all of the things that could have happened last night. The same person from the beach. The same person who wants to hurt me.

I get dressed, the entire time not able to look away from it as if it might explode. Who could be doing this? Why? Hunter comes back into the room and seems to be assessing me. “You okay?”

I take a deep breath, trying to calm my emotions and get a hold of myself. Tears fill my eyes but I keep them from falling. I nod at his question. He takes a few steps toward me and wraps his arms around me. “I won’t let anything happen to you, Sam.” His promise is sincere, I just hope he can keep it.

“What if you had been in your room? If I were alone, they might have done more than leave something outside the door.” His arms tighten around me. “Why is someone doing this?”

“I don’t know. But we are damn sure going to find out.”

The door to the room opens and my mother walks in. She assesses my messy appearance and the fact that Hunter is only wearing a pair of sweatpants. I brace myself for the verbal beating sure to come.

“Before you say anything, don’t. She has had a rough morning, so if you are going to come in and be your normal hell hound self, then walk right back out the way you came.” His voice is deep and authoritative.

My mother’s face contorts with anger. “You have an appearance scheduled for eleven, don’t be late.” She walks away without another word. I shouldn’t be surprised. I should expect this from her. It still hurts.

My phone dings and I walk over to the end table to see what it is.

Mom: The press knows, they will ask about it in your interview.

I was hoping we could keep this quiet for longer but with the scene at the beach, I knew it would eventually come out. This situation is the last thing I want to talk about in an interview on a big late night talk show. They shoot around dinner time and then air it but I don’t plan on talking about this in front of millions of people.

“Sam, the detectives are here.” I nod my head walking toward him. He takes my hand leading me out into the living room. I explain to them at least three separate times what happened and that we didn’t hear anything.

“Mr. Stone, you’ve been hired to protect Miss Baker?” The detective looks over at Hunter, this is the first time they have addressed him.

“Yeah, about a week ago.” I grab Hunter’s hand, wanting his support and trying to lend him some of mine.

“So it would be safe to say if Miss Baker wasn’t in this situation, that you wouldn’t have this job?”

I feel his body tense beside me. “I don’t know what the fuck you are trying to insinuate, but I don’t have shit to do with what is happening.”

The detective doesn’t flinch. He continues to grill Hunter about his intentions, his life, and his background. After about an hour, they leave and I breathe a sigh of relief. I look over at Hunter on the couch and I can still see how pissed he is at the questions they asked him. He almost lost it when the detective was going over the information they gathered. He had mentioned that Hunter had a sister, Amy. Before he could say anything else, Hunter had jumped up and told him that he would not talk about her. He seemed so unhinged at the mention of her that I even flinched as he told them in no uncertain words to drop it.

I want to ask him why. What happened? I know right now isn’t a good time, though. I go into my room and get dressed. I have two photo shoots today and then the talk show appearance. Luckily, all of them will give me an outfit to wear when I get there so it really doesn’t matter what I show up in. However, I know that the paparazzi will be all over me now that the news has broken and the last thing I want to do is give those vultures any ammo.

I slip on a pair of jeans and a pink button up shirt. When I walk out to see what Hunter is doing, I find him at