He came around to stand beside Evangeline and stared up at her dilapidated building, a scowl forming on his face.
“You live here?”
She stiffened at the implied criticism and snobbery, and she fixed him with an icy glare of her own.
“It’s all I can afford and I share it with three other roommates. We do fine. It has all we need.”
He shook his head and reached for her elbow, but she evaded his grasp.
“Thank you for the ride home,” she said, politely distant.
He ignored the obvious dismissal and his hand closed around her elbow as he herded her toward the entryway.
“I’m walking you up to your apartment.”
There was a stubborn glint in his eyes that told her no amount of arguing was going to sway him on the matter. She sighed and threw up her free hand.
“Whatever. Let’s just get it over with. I’ve had a long night and I’m ready to face-plant on my bed.”
His mouth twitched ever so slightly. She could swear he was battling a smile, but then none of the men who worked for Drake that she’d seen tonight looked like they smiled. Ever.
When he headed for the elevator, she pulled up and shook her head, directing him toward the stairs.
“The elevator doesn’t work. We’ll have to take the stairs.”
He frowned. “What floor do you live on?”
“Top,” she said, already bracing herself for his reaction.
“Jesus,” he muttered.
Then he simply bent down, gripping one of her hands and anchoring it on his shoulder.
“Hold on to me.”
She had no time to question and it was a good thing she was too befuddled and rattled to disobey his order because he lifted one foot, causing her to teeter, and slipped one of her heels off. After her bare foot was solidly back on the floor, he repeated the action with her other shoe before easing her hand back down to her waist.#p#分页标题#e#
Her shoes dangled from his fingertips and with his free hand, he pressed his palm to her back and ushered her to the stairs.
“What on earth are you doing?” she asked in a strangled tone, finally managing to find her voice.
“You’ll break your damn neck climbing six flights of stairs in those toothpicks you call shoes,” he growled.
She rolled her eyes as they began their climb. “I’m very used to wearing heels like these.”
He cocked a mocking eyebrow at her. “Can’t say I’m convinced after tonight’s fiasco. You damn near killed yourself.”
She uttered a growl of her own and pinned him with her most ferocious frown. “Well gee, excuse me all to heck. I was a little more concerned with getting out of the way of a fist trying to make contact with my face than I was about staying upright in my shoes.”
It was the wrong thing to remind him of. His expression went utterly glacial and a murderous look entered his eyes.
“He won’t fuck with you again.”
The conviction in his voice made her uneasy. She used sarcasm to avoid thinking too hard about the certainty with which he’d made that particular statement.
She lifted one eyebrow. “So you have a magic ball? You can see into the future and you know he’ll never come at me again?”
“Trust me. He will never come within a mile of you.”
Her stomach quivered and she swallowed the fear quickly forming a knot in her throat. He wasn’t joking and she did not want to know how he knew this and why he was convinced that Eddie would never be a problem for her again. Some things were just left better unsaid. Ignorance was bliss, and it was a motto she’d adhered to her entire life. No reason to make any drastic changes now. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, her mama always said.
“This is it,” she said in a hushed voice when they reached the end of the hallway. Her apartment number was 716, but the six was turned sideways and the seven dangled precariously upside down. It would fall any time and she’d been meaning to fix it herself since her landlord was a useless piece of crap who never bothered to grace the building with his presence unless someone was late on rent. Then he was Johnny-on-the-spot and pounding on their door, threatening immediate eviction, even though it wasn’t legal.
“Jesus,” Maddox muttered again.
Knowing that if he walked into her apartment with his badass protective routine, her roommates would never let her go to sleep until they pried out the entire soap opera that had been her night, she unlocked the door and opened it just enough so she could slide through. Then she turned back, putting her entire weight against the flimsy door, as if he’d have any problem pushing past her. For that matter, he could kick it down without breaking a sweat.