I stuffed my phone into my pocket as I surveyed the wreckage that was her apartment. Everything was smashed. Splintered. Broken. She was staring at the window aimlessly, her eyes unfocused and watering. I approached her from behind, careful not to make any sudden movement.

Careful not to spook her.

“Come here,” I said lowly. “Come on. It’s okay.”

She turned into my chest and buried herself into me. Pressed so hard into my chest it became hard to breathe. I wrapped my arm around her frail, shaking form. Feeling her tears soak my shirt. Her body shake against my bones.

Her curves pour into my crevices.

I looked down the hallway as I stroked my fingers through her hair. Holes were bashed into the walls and her door was practically torn off its hinges. It was mass chaos. Nothing but a desolate wasteland.

Whoever this was-- even though we all knew who-- was on a fucking rampage.

“It’s gonna be okay,” I said. “You’re safe with me.”

“Where did you go?” Alicia asked breathlessly.

I looked down at her and watched as she craned her neck to see me. To hook her gaze into me. Her eyes were round and full, and a salted sea was dripping from them. She was begging me for an answer she wouldn’t like.

“I was with you,” I said.

Fire ignited behind her eyes and she shoved me away. Pushing so hard she fell back onto her ass. I reached down to try and pick her up but she scurried to her feet. She held her hand out to me to stop me. To keep me from approaching her.

She pressed herself against the wall as tires screeched outside.

“You were where?” Alicia asked.

There was no use in lying to her.

“I was with you,” I said. “At the restaurant.”

“I told you I didn’t need you. I told you that wasn’t necessary.”

“As your bodyguard, I can override what you instruct me to do if I feel your life is in danger,” I said.

“What? Like Langley overrode my wants? My passions? My instructions of him?”

“That’s not what I did and you know it. You were out there. Exposed. And look at this. Look at the anger and destruction your ex is capable of. You think being in public is going to protect you from this? From this anger he holds inside?”

“I told you I would be fine. Sent you fucking text messages on the hour until I left. And you were what? Sitting on the street? In a booth behind us? And not here, waiting for him when he busted into my apartment and ransacked my fucking home!”

“Smith, where do you want us?”

I whipped around and saw my team standing at the door.

“Yoake, I want you in the kitchen at the counter. I want you pulling traffic cams and accessing the security cameras in this apartment building. I want proof he came into this apartment. Video evidence.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Abram, I want you dusting for everything. Fingerprints. Boot prints. Every single fucking print you can find. Then run it through databases and pull that son of a bitch up.”

“Got it,” he said.

“Wilde?”

“Yes, sir?”

“Pictures. Take all the pictures you can. This is an active crime scene and we treat it like one. Take them outside, too. Up and down the sidewalk. In the bushes. If that man so much as peed behind a tree waiting for the right moment, I wanna know about it.”

“Got it,” he said.

“Alicia?”

“What?”

I whipped around and found her slouched against the wall. Desperate to hold herself up as her hands continued to tremble. I knew she didn’t understand and I knew she didn’t mean what she’d said earlier. She was frightened and fearful and everything was out of control. Just when she started gaining some sort of control back, Langley disappears, I come back, and suddenly she’s taking orders again.

But I have to get her safe.

She can’t stay here any longer.

“We need to get you somewhere safer,” I said.

“I know,” she said weakly. “But I don’t have anywhere to go.”

“What about Becca’s?” I asked.

“I don’t want to bring this down on her head. She’s watched me flounder for thirteen plus years. She’s been through enough.”

“Your parents?”

“The died a few years back.”

I watched her eyes water as she placed her temple against the wall.

“I’m so sorry,” I said.

“Car accident. Drunk driver. You know the story. They die, she lives. The cruel irony of of my life since college.”

I didn’t know what to say, so I stayed silent. She was all alone in this world and Langley manipulated that. Took advantage of that and made her frightened of her own strength. It made me irate inside. My vision was dripping red. The guys were moving around me, snapping pictures and dusting every broken fucking piece for prints.

But my eyes were solely focused on Alicia.

Then, an idea popped into my head.

“You could stay with me.”

“What?” she asked.

“If you don’t want to go to Becca’s and you have nowhere else, you can come stay with me,” I said.

“I’m not going to your house.”

“It’s not really a house,” Yoake said with a chuckle. “More like an estate.”

I shot him a look and he promptly went back to his laptop.

“What does that mean?” Alicia asked.

“Nothing. But it is secure. You’ll be safe there and have your own room and bathroom. I can keep a closer eye on you-”

“If you remember, that's why I’m pissed with you in the first place.”

“I know you don’t like it. You took orders from an asshole for your entire marriage and now I’ve swooped in and taken your controla way, but I’m not trying to control you, Alicia. I’m not making this decision for you. I didn’t police who you went to lunch with or why. I didn’t tell you how to dress or what to fix for breakfast or even demand you bring me coffee. You made a decision about your safety that, as a professional, I didn’t agree with.”

“Then why didn’t you say something?”

“I did. Multiple times. And you overrode me. But when you left, something didn’t feel right. So I got in my car and followed. That’s it.”

I watched her sigh as she turned towards me. She pressed her back into the wall and wrapped her arms around her chest. I knew she didn’t like it and I knew I was crossing into uncharted waters. It was unprofessional, at best, for me to bring a client back to my home for protection.

But this wasn’t any client.

This was Alicia.

“Okay,” she said. “I’ll go.”

I was shocked, but I made sure it didn’t resonate in my features.

“Good. Go back some things up and I’ll meet you outside. I’m going to pull the car around.”

“You’re leaving again?” she asked.

I could hear the anxiousness in her voice.

“Yoake,” I said.

“Black-belt in Aikido, Jiu-jitsu, and Karate. Ten years in the Army, Special Forces.”

“Wilde,” I said.

“Sniper for the Marines for three years. Served for seven. Best target practice score six years running. And I really enjoy my weight time in the gym.”

“Abram,” I said.

“We’ve got the best two-mile run time, the best free-climbing run time, the best fighter pilot skills, and the best boxing punch wrapped up in one sweet little package that can disarm, unload, and reload in under seven seconds.”

All the guys chuckled as a shadow of a grin crossed Alicia’s cheeks.

There she was.

“You’re safe with them,” I said. “When you’re ready, Yoake will escort you downstairs.”

“You got it, boss,” he said.

Then I turned on my heels, made my way out the door, and headed for the car.