Chapter 8

8

I was sweating.

I blamed Valentine for that.

With more force than necessary, I lifted the corner of my mattress near the wall to tuck the bedsheet's elastic edge under it. You know the one corner that's a huge pain in the ass because the wall and the nightstand is in the way and you have to pull the fitted sheet with all your might since the other three corners are already done? Yeah, that last pain-in-the-ass corner. That wasn't why I was sweating—okay, it was part of the reason. But the bigger part was I'd had a minor incident in the bathroom and had to open up all the windows and prop the front door open to air out the apartment. And since I loved planet Earth I turned off the AC since all the windows were open. Not to mention, electricity was expensive. Though it was more about the planet than the bill .

I dropped the mattress back in place and banged my wrist on the nightstand.

"Fucker," I muttered, then stared at the mattress and added, "I hate you."

"Good. You're putting all that GFY to good use."

I whirled around to find Valentine in my bedroom doorway.

"You!" I pointed at him. "This is all your fault."

He glanced around my bedroom with a smile on that criminally Hot Cop mouth.

"All of it?"

"I almost died today because of you."

"Come again?" he grunted as he did a top-to-toe visual search of my body.

I ignored the tingle that gave me, picked up the flat sheet off the floor where the rest of my clean bedding lay in a pile, and shook it out over the mattress.

"I've answered one email today. One . How am I supposed to build my empire when my ass isn't in a chair in front of my computer working?"

I tugged the sheet into place and folded down the top. When I felt I'd given him enough time to answer and he remained silent, I glanced over my shoulder.

"Well?"

"I'm waiting for the ‘almost died' portion of this explanation before I comment. I'm also waiting for an appropriate time to chew your ass out for leaving your front door open for any whack job to walk in. "

"The building is perfectly safe," I defended, and picked up a pillowcase.

"Me standing here is proof it isn't. And what the hell are you wearing?"

I glanced down at my once-white-but-now-dingy Justin Bieber concert tee with a very faded picture of the man himself circa the early 2000s, then down to my cut-off cleaning sweats and looked back at Valentine in confusion.

"You don't like The Biebs?"

"Baby." His voice was vibrating with humor. "No self-respecting grown man is a Bieber fan."

He was probably right.

Moving on …

"I'm in my cleaning outfit," I told him. I tossed the now cased pillow on my bed.

"I'm talking about what's on your head."

I lifted my hand to my head and encountered plastic.

Shit .

"Oh my God. I forgot!" I dashed across my room, stopping at the doorway when he didn't remove his big body from blocking my path and pointed up at him. "This is your fault, too."

"You wearing a shower cap is my fault?"

"Yes," I hissed and pushed past him.

I stomped my way to the bathroom but paused in the doorway to sniff the air. Once I ascertained I was no longer going to die from fumes, I marched in and tore off the cap, avoiding the mirror so I wouldn't expire from humiliation. I didn't need the baby blue with bright yellow rubber duckies visual as a reminder of my ridiculousness. I was bent over the tub with my head shoved under the spigot when I heard Valentine's voice muffled by the water. Yet I still heard his question.

"No, my hair's not going to fall out!" I shouted back.

Thank God I'd chosen to deep condition my hair this afternoon and didn't get a wild hair and decide today was the day I was going to bleach my brown hair blonde.

The conditioner had been in for no less than two hours.

I'd be bald otherwise.

Could you imagine?

"Then what exactly is my fault this time?"

I waited until all the conditioner was rinsed out before I twisted an arm back and wiggled my fingers.

"Towel."

Valentine shoved a towel into my hand. I twisted my hair up in the towel, got to my feet, and whirled on him.

"You saw my rubber duckie shower cap," I accused.

His brows went up. His expression went straight to he thought I had a screw loose, and he waited.

" On . You saw my rubber duckie shower cap on."

"And that's a problem?"

Now I was staring at him like he was the one who had a screw loose. Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to educate him on all the ways he'd ruined my day, because Hayden was home .

"Please tell me this isn't a role reversal and she's in there naked."

Valentine looked to the side and smiled.

"I'm fully clothed!" I yelled to Hayden.

"Is there a reason the two of you are reenacting the bathroom scene with the front door propped open?"

Valentine's smile got wider.

"All my lady bits are covered," I reminded my roommate. "And I didn't bring a cucumber in here to reenact Mr. Meat Stick Penis exposing his private parts to me."

Valentine's gaze sliced back to me. His grin faded into a smirk and he shook his head.

"Did you just call my cock a meat stick?"

"Yes! One of those salami sticks you buy in the deli section. Not to be confused with the Slim Jim ones you buy at a gas station."

"Thanks for clearing that up, baby."

I rolled my eyes to the ceiling and when I rolled them back Valentine's sexy smirk was still in place.

"Seriously," Hayden groused. "For the last time can we please stop talking about this?"

"Sure," I magnanimously agreed.

"Great. Now can you explain why I'm coming home from work and the front door is wide open and the two of you are in the bathroom?"

"Shoo." I waved my hands in Valentine's direction, needing him to back up so I could keep my distance. He looked way too good grinning at me and a girl could get ideas with all that sexiness aimed in her direction .

It was best if I stayed no less than six feet away from him at all times.

Valentine backed out, turned, and started making his way down the hall. My gaze dropped to his perfect ass. I'm not above admitting I stayed where I was and stared until I lost sight of it when he disappeared into the living room. When I came out of my trance and Hayden came into focus I knew I'd been caught.

Whatever .

I was a healthy woman who hadn't had anything but self-induced orgasms for a very long time and besides it wasn't my fault Hot Cop had the best ass I'd ever seen. Not to mention he also had the biggest dick I'd ever seen. I had yet to do my internet research to know if he was abnormally large or if I'd gotten shafted in the sex department and had only been with under-average men.

"Soph," Hayden called.

Right.

No more thinking about Valentine's perfectly formed penis.

"I needed to air out the apartment," I explained as I walked down the hall.

"Why?" Hayden asked.

"Because Valentine tried to kill me," I announced when I made it to the living room.

The man in question was lounging in one of the papasan chairs. I didn't want to notice how comfortable he looked or how much I liked seeing him in my living room. But there it was; he looked fabulous in my home. Though he looked better hanging in the doorway of my bedroom.

Hayden's attention went to Valentine.

"How'd you try to kill her?"

It must be noted Hayden didn't sound alarmed at this news. Nor did he ask Valentine about his attempted murder in an accusatory tone.

"No clue, we haven't gotten that far," Valentine informed Hayden. "All I know is everything is my fault. That everything includes her being unable to run her empire and wearing a rubber duckie shower cap. Beyond that, I got nothing."

Hayden nodded like that sounded about right.

"You staying for dinner?"

Dinner?

At Hayden's question I looked at my watch. Holy shit, it was after seven. I glanced out the window behind Valentine. It was no longer bright but still light out. It didn't get dark out until closer to nine. Such was summer in Georgia.

I'd lost a whole day.

"El Cabrito?" Valentine shot back.

"Soph? Seafood fajita burrito? Extra guac?" Hayden gratuitously asked.

He knew my order from El Cabrito never changed.

"Yep," I said and flopped down onto the couch, suddenly exhausted from all my frantic cleaning.

"Is it safe to shut the door and windows and turn the AC back on?"

"Do you still smell Liquid Plumr and Soft Scrub mixed together?"

"Jesus," Hayden clipped.

"Told you he tried to kill me," I mumbled, my energy waning fast.

"How is this Valentine's fault?"

I shifted just my head on the couch and flicked my gaze up to look at Hayden.

"It's his fault because this morning he ordered me a special concoction of caffeine, vanilla, copious amounts of sugar, and some sort of poisonous ingredient that temporarily gives you a wicked case of attention deficit disorder that makes it impossible to concentrate or sit still or remember you poured drain cleaner in the tub which means you forgot to flush the drain before you dump Soft Scrub in and the chemical reaction to that is smoke. This special coffee blend also gives you a serious case of the jitters and a dose of false ambition."

"A vanilla Red Eye with three shots."

I watched Hayden's eyes round at Valentine's explanation. Mine didn't round; they narrowed as I shifted to look at the sexy caffeine pusher.

"Three shots of espresso ?" I demanded to know.

"Yup."

"So you were trying to kill me today by giving me a heart attack. "

"The drama with this one never ends," Hayden mumbled.

He wasn't wrong, but still… my poor heart.

Seeing as my antics no longer fazed Hayden and I'd run out of steam I listened as he sorted dinner with Valentine. Then I listened to them talk about some basketball tournament that was coming up to raise money for the Hope Center while my eyes drooped, and it began taking longer and longer to open them between blinks.

My eyes were closed and I was almost snoozing when I heard, "What's going on with you and Soph?"

As interested as I was in Valentine's answer, his delay meant I was drifting back to sleep when his response yanked me back to consciousness.

"Didn't have her number so I came by to talk to her about the liquor store incident."

A disappointment I had no business feeling washed over me. In my tizzy I hadn't thought of why he was there. But if I'd been in my right mind, I would've thought to ask. However, I was in an altered caffeinated state and had not been clear headed the whole day. That included me leaving Hot Java convincing myself I'd had a third pseudo-date with a hot cop who didn't seem to mind I was a tad bit on the crazy side.

"Why do you need to talk to her about that?"

"The guy Sophie took down was bonded out. The same day the kid he was using as a distraction was beat to shit. Could be a coincidence but the detectives on the case can't find Ackerman to question him."

Cold suffused my body.

"Is Sophie in danger?"

My eyes came open, and when they did they immediately locked with Valentine's.

"No."

"How firm is that no?" Hayden went on to ask.

Valentine kept his stormy blue gaze on me when he rumbled, "Firm." He went on, speaking directly to me, and unfortunately he said, "But just to say, to make that so, I called in a favor and got you a device that looks like a key fob, but it's a panic button with a built-in tracking device. Until Ackerman is found, I want you carrying it with you."

Panic button?

Tracking device?

"So she's not safe," Hayden growled.

Valentine's gaze shifted back to Hayden.

No words were exchanged but still Hayden grunted, "Right."

When nothing further was said I asked, "Right, what?"

"Just being cautious, Sophie."

Cautious was good. No, it was great. I loved cautious but I still didn't understand.

"Cautious entails me carrying a panic button and being tracked?"

"In this case, yes."

"I need more than that before I agree to being tracked. "

"I get that," Valentine conceded. "You can say no but I'd feel better if the guys at Triple Canopy monitored your location and you had a tool to call for help if needed."

"She's not saying no," Hayden answered for me.

Okay, hold on a minute.

I straightened out of the cozy ball I'd curled myself into in the corner of the couch, sat up, and glowered at my roommate and best friend. He at least had the decency to shift on the bar stool he'd pulled into the living room but other than that, showed no outward remorse he'd crossed a line he knew he'd be crossing by answering for me.

My mother did that to me.

All the damn time.

Hayden knew this and knew how much I hated it.

"Soph, we're talking about your safety."

"I know what we're talking about and I'm not saying no to the panic button. But before I say yes I need to fully understand what's going on and who exactly will have my location."

"What's going on is Valentine is trying to take care of you," Hayden snarled. "And with this you're going to let him."

Whoa .

Hayden had never, in all the years we'd been friends, lashed out at me.

"Hayden, be cool," Valentine warned.

Don't ask me how I knew it was a warning but I did. His voice was smooth and low but there was a bite to it that screamed ‘back off.'

"I'll be cool when she says yes," Hayden bit, then narrowed his eyes on me. "A kid was beat to shit by the man you took down. If there's even a fraction of a chance he'd come after you, either you take what Valentine's offering or I'm taking leave from work and I'm your new shadow."

That seemed excessive.

"Hayden—"

"You know I love you more than I love my sister. You know I'd lose my shit if someone took a fist to you. Valentine would not be here offering what he's offering nor would he have called in a favor with the guys at Triple Canopy, some of whom I've met, and they're known to be the best at security in Georgia and the surrounding states, if he didn't want you safe. Not a little safe. Not maybe safe. Safe , Sophie, as in the safest he can make you without moving in and being your personal bodyguard."

That was a lot to digest. And it wasn't that Hayden loved me more than Marybeth. I already knew that. Hayden's sister was a bit of a drag and a whole lot bitchy when he didn't loan her money. And he didn't loan it; he gifted it since she never paid it back.

The parts I was having trouble processing were many. First, Valentine wanted me as safe as he could make me—that was understandable; he was a cop. But the safest? Add to that he'd asked people who were the best in security for a favor to make that happen? We were strangers. I was nothing more than a friend of a friend to him.

I had yet to come up with a proper response to Hayden when there was a knock on the door and he excused himself to get our food delivery.

That left Valentine to answer the question that was preying on my mind.

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why are you going through all this trouble? A panic button? Asking friends for a favor? That seems like a lot for someone you don't know."

The man looked downright uncomfortable. Actually, he looked so uncomfortable that if his answer wasn't so important to me I would've let him off the hook.

"I can't answer that. I just know my first thought when I heard about that kid being in ICU and Ackerman being in the wind, was you. My second thought was if he got to you and it was you beaten up and lying in that hospital bed, I'd kill him. I know it's a big ask. I know it's intrusive as hell and I have no right to ask, but I'm still doing it."

That was more than enough for me.

"I'll take the fob."

Valentine visibly relaxed.

The sting of my earlier disappointment evaporated.

He'd come over here to talk me into accepting his offer.

He wanted me safe.

It wasn't the same as him coming over to ask me out for another coffee or offer me a night of wild, crazy, monkey sex that would ruin me for all other men, but it was something.

And that something meant more to me than a coffee date ever would.