20. Chapter 20
~STARLA~
“ Y ou’re not supposed to be up.”
I glower at Jax, who’s been bustling around Levi’s apartment all morning, cleaning and cooking for me like a mother hen. If I weren’t so sick of staying put , I’d find it adorable.
“I’m sick and tired of being babysat, Jax. I’m feeling much better. Go home.”
“If I leave you alone, you’ll overdo it, and Levi will kill me. So, sorry, little girl, you get to be lazy. I’ll bake you cookies.”
“No more cookies.” I shake my head as if he’s making me eat salamanders. “Please. Give me a carrot. Or some broccoli.”
“You’re weird,” he says, shaking his head. “I’ll give you broccoli if you’re a good girl.”
“ I’m weird? Did you just hear yourself?”
He laughs as he walks away. My phone rings.
“Help me. Jax is trying to force-feed me cookies,” I say as I answer.
“Poor baby,” Levi says with a laugh. “Save some for me.”
“You can have all the cookies. Are you on your lunch break?”
“I don’t take lunch breaks. I’m actually calling because I was wondering how you’re feeling today. Do you feel like getting out? I need to show you something, but it’s not fun.”
“Oh. Yeah, I can come.”
“I’ll send you an address. Have Jax drive you, okay?”
“Yes, sir. I can’t wait to be able to drive my own damn car again. It’s been two weeks! I haven’t taken any prescription meds in like ten days.”
“Soon. Now, don’t argue with me.”
“Bossy cop.”
I hang up and call out for Jax. “Field trip!”
“Jesus,” Jax breathes as we stand in the living room of an apartment not far from the house I rented from Natalie. “She is weird. ”
My photo is everywhere, taped to every square inch of the walls. Some are Photoshopped to show me dead, and others aren’t altered at all. It looks like a murder board with photos and maps and strings that connect them all.
“So, the whole time, Belinda was living here, stalking me.”
“Since you came up from LA, yes.”
“And Rachel did the same thing,” I clarify.
“We believe so.”
“I’m damn popular,” I mutter and rub my forehead with my fingertips. “How did Belinda hide so well?”
“She’s been in the computer field forever,” Levi says. “She could reroute and hide and do all the things I don’t understand. But she confused our best IT guys for weeks. She was arrested the night of the shooting, and she confessed to everything. She had a breakdown. She’s going away for a long time. Whether that’s in prison or a mental institution, I don’t know.”
“It’s interesting, the things that make people crazy,” Jax says. “Jealousy. Tragedy.”
“Illness,” Levi adds. “It boils down to illness.”
“Yeah,” I breathe. “Will I have to testify?”
“No. There won’t be a trial. She’ll be sentenced in a few weeks.”
“So, it’s all over? We can finally move on with our lives.”
“It’s over.”
“There’s something I’ve been meaning to talk to you about,” Levi says later that night as we’re curled up together in bed, watching a movie on Netflix.
“What?”
“Let me ask you something first.” He pauses the TV and sits up on the bed, facing me. “How would you feel about me leaving the force?”
I don’t want to get too excited too soon. This might not mean what I hope it does.
“It depends on why you want to quit.”
He glances down at my hand before scooping it up in his, giving it a squeeze.
“I want to quit and be the head of your security.”
Now, this I wasn’t expecting.
“Keep talking.”
“I have no desire to do the long-distance relationship thing with you, Starla. I’ll be here, working the job, and you’ll be…where? All over the world. And I won’t know if you’re safe. The guys you’ve had working for you are incompetent at best. I can protect you better than anyone else. And be with you in the process.”
I nod, considering it. I would absolutely feel better if Levi were in charge of my safety.
“So, how would we do this?” I ask. “You’d be with me as my employee?”
He licks his lips and leans in to kiss my cheek. “I’d be with you as your confidant.” Kisses my nose. “As your lover.” Kisses my chin. “As your friend.”
He kisses my lips now, long and slow. We haven’t been intimate since I was shot, and I miss him so much it hurts.
But when I reach for him, he pulls back far enough to look into my eyes.
“And I’d be with you as your husband, if you’ll have me.”
The breath leaves my lungs. “What?”
He reaches into the bedside table and comes back with a gorgeous, simple diamond ring.
“Marry me, sweetheart. And not just because I need to protect you, but because I need you. Your love, your humor, your light. You make me a better man in a million little ways, Starla, and I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life showing you how much I love you. I want a life with you. Whether that life is here in Seattle, in Montana, or on the road three hundred days a year, I don’t care, as long as I’m with you.”
I cup his cheek and smile into his sweet brown eyes. “You are the greatest man I’ve ever known in my life, Levi Crawford, and it would be my honor to be your wife.”
He slides the ring on my finger and kisses the breath out of me.
“I guess I’ll be changing my name again,” I say as I stare at the beautiful ring.
“What do you mean?”
“Starla Crawford.”
“But you’re just Starla .”
“If people know what’s good for them, they’ll call me Mrs. Crawford.”
He laughs and kisses my hand, just above the ring.
“You’re such a diva, darling.”
“No, I’m territorial.”