Chapter 25
Chapter Twenty-Five
In the morning, Aurora woke to over two-hundred pounds of man snoozing beside her. She propped her head up, just watching him. Devon was sweet all the time, but he was especially cute when he slept. Although she wasn’t sure if he would object to being called “cute.”
But Devon had already surprised her by not being what she expected. Maybe “alpha” men weren’t really the problem. Some of them just gave the others a bad name.
She didn’t know what they were going to do about Max, but they would figure that out later.
Right now, she was too content to dwell on her brother and their issues.
Even amidst the awfulness of the past few days, she was happy.
In fact, she couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt this bubbly inside.
Not just happy, but completely alive. That was probably the adrenaline talking, but she also knew that Devon had everything to do with it.
She was sore between her legs, and she relished the feeling. They’d been up half the night. When it came to fucking, Devon’s body was like a wind-up toy, ready on command. But he was passionate and attentive, too.
Maybe they would have met eventually, at some coffee shop on Ocean Lane, or at her brother’s office once she went for another visit.
But as crazy as it seemed, maybe it was better meeting this way.
In times of crisis, a person’s true personality showed through.
She and Devon already knew each other better than she’d ever known her ex, Justin.
Which was depressing, in a way, because she’d been with Justin for so many years.
It revealed to her how much she had grown.
Perhaps the universe had a sense of humor. Her life was in danger, and her fledgling career was in jeopardy. Yet she’d also met Devon right at the moment that she was most ready to be herself.
A phone rang.
The day before, Sylvie had left behind a burner phone for them. It sat on the dresser, jangling and buzzing.
Devon stirred beside her, snapping almost instantly awake. Before she could even get up, he had already launched across the room and answered the phone.
“Devon here.”
Aurora had to cover her mouth over her laugh. Whoever he was talking to, they had no idea that he was buck naked right now. Or that she was covered in only a thin sheet right behind him. After a minute or two, it became clear that the caller was Sylvie.
“When will the car arrive?”
His eyes met hers. So Max was getting them out of here, apparently.
Aurora felt ambivalent. She wanted to go someplace more secure, especially if that meant Devon wouldn’t be in the direct line of fire.
But she had also started to think of this cozy house as their place.
She had no idea how many other people would be around them in one of Max’s safe houses.
“Yes, we’ll be ready.” Devon punched the phone and set it down.
“Sylvie said the car will be here in about an hour. She and Max are confident that nobody inside Bennett Security was involved in the attack. They think the leak came from somewhere inside the police department. They want to get us to a safe house.”
To Aurora’s disappointment, Devon was already pulling on clothes. “Max is sending one of his armored vehicles to get you.”
“And what about you? You’re coming with me, right?”
His face twitched, hardly betraying anything. “I’m going to take the car that Sylvie left on the next street and follow at a distance. Tactically, it makes a lot of sense. We need multiple vehicles to address a threat if we’re followed.”
Aurora couldn’t remember where she had left her clothes. Oh, the bathroom. That shower seemed like forever ago. “But I haven’t even fixed Chase’s curtain rod yet.”
Devon grinned at her. “We’ll figure that out later. I think I owe Chase a full house cleaning.”
No kidding. Aurora set about getting dressed and gathering up her extremely few belongings.
Then she tidied up as best she could, pulling off the sheets from the bed and gathering up the towels to put in Chase’s washer.
Her stomach felt too unsettled for breakfast, so she sat down at her laptop to check her email.
Sylvie had written to both her and Devon during the night. Once again, it looked like Sylvie had been working instead of sleeping, even though she had claimed to be getting some needed rest.
Sylvie’s message said that she had tracked down the license plate on the black Escalade. Unfortunately, it belonged to a Ford Taurus stolen from an airport a month ago.
Devon came up behind her. “You saw the message from Sylvie? Figures that the plates were fake. The car itself was probably stolen, too. Doesn’t get us any closer to identifying our mystery man.”
“The only real connection we have is Mrs. Wolfson.” Aurora saw another message from the woman in her inbox, asking questions about the birthday party. “It would be easy for me to ask her.”
He mentally debated. “All right, go ahead. It’ll save some time. This safe house switch will take most of today to get settled.”
She typed out the email, attaching the photo Sylvie had saved. She sent a copy to Jennifer Scoville, Brandon Wolfson’s assistant, as well.
Devon squeezed her shoulder and leaned down to kiss her. She was glad to see that he hadn’t completely gone back into bodyguard mode.
“I know you’re eager to help with the investigation,” he said, “but the most important thing right now is that we keep you safe. Lana needs you to testify if she’s going to make her case. I’m sure Mrs. Wolfson would prefer that, too.”
“You’re right.” Aurora still wrestled with being the subject of so much effort and attention.
She didn’t enjoy feeling like cargo to be shuffled from one location to another.
Especially with no control over who was with her.
But there was more at stake here than just her feelings.
She owed it to Lana and everyone affected by the murder to get her testimony on the record.
Lana had warned her that the Syndicate might want to retaliate against her, even after she’d testified. But it was less likely. Witness retaliation was actually pretty rare overall. But if Max thought she needed a bodyguard going forward, Aurora was willing to discuss it.
The sooner all of that happened, the sooner she could get back to her life and figure out how to fit Devon into it—whether he was her bodyguard or not.
They sat in the living room, ready to go.
The two laptops were packed into a bag at Aurora’s feet.
Devon had his gun strapped into the holster at his shoulder.
Periodically, he glanced through the gap in the curtains to check the street.
Aurora had wanted to sit next to him, but he had told her to stay farther back from the windows.
“Will it be much longer?” she asked. “It feels like we’re in a time warp.”
“It’s only been five minutes. They’re not due quite yet.”
Chase’s landline rang. Devon jumped up to answer it. “Hello?” He paused, looking confused. “Hello? Max, are you on your way?”
He hung up the phone. “Nobody there.”
Aurora fidgeted nervously. “Is it important? Is Max okay?”
He glanced at the burner phone, which hadn’t rung or received any new messages at all. “Maybe it was a wrong number. It was probably nothing.”
She bounced her heels against the floor and her fingers on the couch cushion.
Aurora wanted to get up and pace, but she had a feeling that Devon would find that distracting.
His body had a tension to it that she hadn’t seen since they’d first arrived at this house.
He was on edge. And that made her anxious, too.
“I’m going to go check the back. Stay here.” He walked across the house toward the kitchen.
Aurora thought of Lana, who was probably sitting in her office right now. Aurora’s parents were traveling on Max’s dime, and they probably had no clue that any of this was going on. Not that they’d been too concerned with her for years, anyway.
Aurora hadn’t been envious of their vacation before since she hated to be so out of touch.
She didn’t like the thought of being stuck on some boat in the middle of the ocean, completely at the mercy of the weather and someone else’s itinerary.
But now, a trip to a faraway place didn’t sound so bad.
Maybe she and Lana would go on a cruise together once this insanity was over.
Or maybe she and Devon. Was it weird to want so much time with him already, when they’d only known each other a few days?
He was still in the kitchen, carefully checking the view from each of the windows.
Aurora heard a car engine. “I think they’re here.”
Devon strode toward her. When he got to the front window, Aurora was right at his elbow. The curtain flipped back by a centimeter under his fingertips. She caught a glimpse of something black and shiny.
Then everything started happening at once.
Devon screamed at her, “No! Get back!” He pushed her and she fell to the carpet, his weight rolling over her.
The world exploded into a storm of splinters and broken glass.