“Yes.” The word leaves my lips like a curse.
“Do you need me to step in? Call someone else? I’ll be honest, Hart. Looking at you now, I don’t know anyone who would willingly cross you. You look like you’re about to rip apart a truck.”
Pink walks over and leans against the bar in the kitchen area. He tries to be smooth about it, but I can see he’s moving his line of sight to the bedroom to watch the women back there. I know because I’ve been doing the same thing.
“I’ll get it together. I don’t want anyone else on this.” I feel my fists clench. I know I can’t handle the other option of having someone else this close to her.
“If it makes you feel any better, we kind of snuck in.”
Pink smiles at me and gives me a wink. Bastard is almost as quiet as I am. He’s probably the only person on the planet who could sneak up on me, so I don’t feel as bad as I did before.
“You okay with staying with Elle? I’d like for both of us to remain on the premises or for them to stay with us until this is taken care of.”
He gives me a quick hard look and nods. “I’ve got her taken care of.”
“I set up video surveillance outside this building and inside the apartment. If the stalker tries to come back in, I’ll know it.”
“Good. I’ve got everything set up at Elle’s place. I’m willing to give it a night or two there before I offer to move her. Since the threat wasn’t directed at her, my being there might just be precautionary,” Pink says, trying to look farther down the hall.
We wait quietly for a few more moments before Elle makes her way up the hall to us. “I think you might need to talk to Zoey about what the word ‘essentials’ really means.” She gives me a wink and walks by us, heading for the front door. “You coming?” She turns to look at Pink, eyeing him up and down.
“God, I hope so,” he whispers, loud enough for only me to hear, as he pushes away from the bar and makes his way to the front door with Elle.
I nod to the two of them before going to find Zoey. “I’ll be checking in regularly with you both. No radio silence. No matter what. Clear?”
“Yes, sir,” Pink answers as Elle gives a salute. They walk out of the door, her laughing and him rolling his eyes. I hate to say it, but he may have his hands full with that one.
Speaking of handfuls.
I have to stop that train of thought before I get to Zoey. I’m here to protect her, and I can’t do that if I’m distracted. Maybe when we get to my place, I can jerk off in the bathroom real quick and take care of this ache. I’ll just think about having her rub up against me and I’ll be cumming in seconds.
I adjust my cock as I walk down the hall and into her bedroom.
I’ve already been in it before. I did a sweep when I first got into the apartment. It’s much like the rest of her place. Bare walls, plain bedding, and nothing personal anywhere except for the picture of her and her sister beside the bed. Every room is extremely tidy, except for her office. Zoey is a minimalist with no knickknacks or clutter. But I had to laugh on entering her office. I’m sure she considers it organized chaos, but for someone who works online for ninety percent of her time, her office is really where she lives. Maybe if she ventured outside of it more, her house would reflect it the same chaos of her office, but as it is, her bed hardly looks slept in.
I see her over by the bed filling three huge suitcases to the brim.
“Cupcake, I don’t mind you bringing a lot of stuff, but I think the Christmas tree can stay.”
She pauses and looks up at me, a Christmas wreath in her hands. “Oh.”
The sad look crosses her face, and I feel an ache in my chest. I’m by her side in seconds, holding her face in my hands as she drops the wreath to the floor.
“Don’t make that face. I’m sorry. I just meant this was a quick trip to my house. You can bring anything you want. I can come back for all your stuff tomorrow or the next day. I just needed you to pack an overnight bag now.”
She smiles really big, immediately over the sadness, understanding what I mean. I have to remind myself that she takes everything in the most literal sense.
“Okay. So just a couple of things. I can do that.”
“Perfect.”
I help her pack a couple of changes of clothes, and I grab her bathroom stuff before we go into her office to see what she needs from there. She packs up her laptop and one more bag filled with files. I have no idea what these are, but they seem important enough for her to bring. I’ll ask her about them later. Right now I’m focusing on keeping her safe, and that means getting her out of here and to my place. There’s no place safer than where I live.