I went back to Brent’s office when we returned and got busy working again. I liked him a lot. He was comforting, for some strange reason. I felt like there was something a little sad, and a little dark, about him, but I had plenty of both things myself. We worked in a comfortable silence, not bothering each other until we had to.

I’d almost finished another cabinet when Jack strolled into the office. He looked at me, bent over the bottom drawer, and something flared in his eyes.

“You were supposed to come by my office.”

I nodded. “I got busy. Did you want to talk about Snake?”

He hesitated and I could tell he wanted to talk about that kiss, which reassured my decision to stay away from his office. “Sure.”

“Go ahead. I just want to finish this drawer.”

“I’m going to call the chief. I remember him from my days in the DEA. He was a stand-up guy. I just want to see how high the dirty goes.”

I straightened and gripped my hands together. “What if he is dirty? Snake will know I’m here. He’ll come here to get me. I don’t want to be gotten, Jack. I don’t want you to do that. I…just want to hide.”

“You can’t hide forever, Red. We have to take him down so you can have a normal life.”

I shook my head, still unsure. “It just seems like a big chance. It’s my life we’re putting on the line.”

“I won’t let anything happen to you.”

Brent stood up and tugged at the bottom of my hair. “He’s right, Raelyn. We’re not going to do something that could put you in danger and then throw you out to the wolves. We’ll keep you safe.”

I blew out a big breath. “Okay. What happens afterward?”

Jack looked at Brent with annoyance written all over his face, but he shrugged it off. “If it seems like the chief isn’t dirty, we’ll have him directly file a report, and then he’ll put out an APB for Snake. After they find him, they’ll charge him with assaulting you. It won’t get him a lot of time, but it’ll get him away from you long enough for us to figure out a bigger plan.”

My stomach clenched. “That means court, right? It’ll be his word against mine. There’s no telling what will happen in court. I’m a stripper, Jack. I’ve watched a few episodes of Law and Order. I know how that works.”

Brent tilted his head. “You’re a stripper?”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “Yes.”

Jack sighed. “She was. She’s not anymore.”

“Jack, we talked about that. If that’s what I want to do, I’ll do it.”

“Well, that explains a lot.”

Jack and I both turned to look at Brent. I was the first to get words out. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

He laughed. “I saw you looking at those glass stilettos in that shoe store.”

My cheeks went red and I hit him in the arm. “I was just looking at them, jerk.”

He ruffled my hair, like he was my big brother, and went back to his desk. “Sure, you were.”

I purposefully walked over to his desk and pushed a whole stack of old newspapers into the trashcan. “Play nice. You’re at my mercy, here.”

Jack seemed frustrated that the conversation had gotten away from him. “This is just the first step, Red. We have to follow the laws and do what we can.”

I grunted. “That sucks. He’s going to come here, Jack. There’s nothing stopping him from getting me. I’ve just been ignoring it because there was that thing with…”

My face went bright red as I realized what I was about to say. I was going to say I’d been ignoring the situation with Snake because of all the sexual tension with Jack. God, that would’ve been awkward. I cleared my throat. “I mean, I was just ignoring it. I can’t get too comfortable, though. It’s just the way it works. I get away and then he finds me. I spend a few more years under his thumb, slowly dying, and then he goes to jail. I run. Then, he finds me. It’s the dance we do.”

I’d worked myself into a panic. I moved to the window behind Brent’s desk and pressed my head to the cool glass. “If I go to court, he’ll have the gang grab me. He doesn’t usually, because he hates the idea of them touching what’s his, but if it’s to stop me from testifying against him, he’d throw me to them.”

A large hand cupped the back of my neck and I knew it was Jack immediately. Waves of goosebumps broke out all over my body and I had to bite my lip to keep from sighing.

“I told you we’d keep you safe, and we’re going to. We’ll start slow. I’ll contact the chief and go from there. Okay?” When I didn’t respond, he turned me around to face him and held my shoulders. “There’s an alarm system on the guesthouse, and I’m close by. Brent is just down the street. Bo is just a little bit farther away. That alarm goes off and a ton of our personal security guys are coming to you. You’re safe here.”

I blinked up at him. “I didn’t know how to turn the alarm system on last night.”

He laughed and brushed his thumb over my cheek. “I’ll teach you how to use it tonight.”

I felt my body reacting to him, and I moved away from him to try to stop it. He was a taken man. It wasn’t right to even toy with the idea of him. I moved closer to Brent and started straightening his desk. “Okay.”

Brent grunted. “Don’t take this out on my desk. Go back over to your file cabinets.”

I stopped midway to the trashcan with an arm full of old coffee cups. “Are you really tied to these?”

He frowned. “Maybe.”

I dropped them into the can and went back to grab more. “I don’t know how you can think in here with all of this trash surrounding you.”

“I was thinking in here just fine until you found your way in.”

I reached across his desk and patted his cheek. “Don’t be so cross. You’ll thank me when I’m done.”

Jack watched silently for a minute as I carted more trash away. Then he walked over to the doorway and grinned at his brother. “I think this is the best place for Red to work for a few days. She’s doing good work and annoying the hell out of you. I don’t know how I could get more bang for my buck.”

I looked up at the word ‘bang’ and made the mistake of meeting Jack’s gaze. It was the wrong thing to do. I felt a shock go down to my core at the heated way he was looking at me and stumbled over a stack of notebooks. Cursing like a sailor, I grabbed the top notebook and waved it at Brent. “A Word document wouldn’t trip me, Brent!”

He looked at his brother and frowned. “What did I ever do to you?”

I threw one of the balled-up sheets of paper at him. “Don’t pretend as if you don’t like having some company in here.”

It continued on like that after Jack left, only I was much more comfortable. Brent was easy to be around. I could forget that I was being hunted by a psycho and pretend that I was just some secretary, or something, cleaning up her boss’s office.

By the end of the workday, I’d gotten through several of the cabinets and cleaned up the obvious trash from Brent’s office. He’d grumbled constantly, but I thought he was working a little faster with less trash clogging up his desk.

He offered to take me home just seconds before Jack came in and made the same offer. Without blinking, Brent stated that it was a good idea because Jack lived on the same property and was going straight there.

I glared at him and when Jack wasn’t looking, he winked at me.

I cast a sweet smile at Jack and clasped my hands together. “I’ll be right out. I just have to go over one last thing with Brent here.”

Jack narrowed his eyes at me, but turned to leave, anyway.

As soon as he was outside, I angrily whispered at Brent. “What are you doing?”

He just smiled at me. “Something’s happening there, and I’m interested in how it will play out.”

I shook my head and moved toward the door. “You’ll pay for that.”

I met Jack in the hall, standing near the elevator, and forced a smile. “Thanks for the lift home.”

He nodded, but didn’t say anything.

Bo chose that moment to come out of his office and join us at the elevator. He raised an eyebrow at Jack and then grinned at me. “How was your first day, Raelyn?”

I patted the bag I was carrying that was full of candy from the cafeteria. “Pretty good.”

We all rode down to the ground floor together. It would’ve been awkward if it’d been just Jack and me, but with Bo there, I was struggling not to burst into a fit of giggles. He kept cutting me looks when Jack wasn’t looking and it was all I could do to remain calm. The adrenaline rush that came with meeting new people and making new friends had been with me all day, and even late in the day, I couldn’t kick it.

Being around the security office had also given me a feeling of safety that I’d never been able to experience before. It gave me a childlike sense of happiness that I knew wouldn’t last, but I was fully enjoying while I could still feel it.

Bo cut his eyes to me one last time and actually made a silly face at Jack’s back. I snorted and then burst out into a deep belly laugh that shocked both men, judging by the looks on their faces.

After he recovered, Jack smacked Bo in the arm. “I can see you, asshole. Grow up.”

I couldn’t contain my laughter. I held my side as I laughed until it hurt. Even after the elevator doors opened, I laughed. It was the relief I needed. When Jack started laughing along, I felt like maybe things wouldn’t be so incredibly awkward between Jack and me anymore. A girl could hope.

*

As soon as we were in the car alone, I realized what an idiot I’d been. Of course, things were still awkward. We hadn’t mentioned anything all day about the kiss, or the fact that we’d been interrupted by his girlfriend/wife. Being alone together again wasn’t exactly a beacon of normalcy. I wanted to crawl out of my skin, it was so tense.

Jack waited until we were out of the parking lot before glancing over at me and opening his mouth. I didn’t even let him get any sound out, however, before I leaned forward and turned the radio on. I wasn’t afraid to approach the situation like a coward. I didn’t know what to say and I didn’t want to think about it.

He shot me a look and turned the radio down. “Red, I—”

I quickly turned the radio back up and made a faux excited sound. “Oh, my gosh. This is my favorite song!”

I’d never even heard it before, but if I had to pretend to sing along with a power ballad from the eighties, I’d do it. I bobbed my head to the beat and hummed under my breath.

Jack shifted in his seat and then turned the radio off. “Your humming is terrible.”

I choked on my own spit and coughed while Jack reached over and rubbed my back. The sensation of his hands on me sent me scooting farther away from him, though. I finally turned to him and gestured for him to stop touching me while I got my breath back.

“Jesus, Red. I was just patting you on the back.”

“Well, that’s not what you were doing earlier!” I paused. I hadn’t meant to start the conversation. “I mean… Never mind what I just said. I was just delirious from choking to death over here. Let’s just listen to music.”

He held his hand over the buttons when I reached for them. “No way. You started it and, now, we’re going to finish it.”

I crossed my arms over my chest and faced the front of the truck. “I don’t want to have this conversation. I would like to pretend like that never happened.”

“Well, it did.” He cleared his throat. “It can’t happen again, Red. I’m engaged to Stacey.”