Chapter 50
~Deacon~
As soon as I turn the shower off in the hotel room, my phone rings.
“Damn it,” I mutter, grabbing a towel off the rack to dry my hands before striding, dripping wet and naked, into the room. It takes me a few seconds to locate my phone on the bed, where I tossed it after getting back from the hotel gym. “Hello?”
“Mr Belin? It’s Sid from Harper Safety.”
I frown as I wrap the towel around my waist. The curtains are wide open, and even though the room is dark other than the light streaming in from the bathroom, I don’t need to give anyone in the surrounding buildings a show. “What’s going on? Did you have any trouble finding Daley’s house?”
While Daley soaked in the bathtub at my house yesterday, I took a call from Matt, the team’s PR director. Since River’s bio included his hometown as Wikaskwa, North Dakota, it didn’t take people long to put together that Daley must be from there too.
“You have security precautions at your house for a reason,” he reminded me. “And you remember what people were like with Megan. It might be worth putting something in place for Daley too, at least until interest in her wanes.”
Megan’s social media accounts were always filled with men messaging her inappropriate things, but I assumed that came mostly from her own semi-celebrity status. The idea of Daley attracting the same sort of attention when she never had to deal with it before made my stomach turn.
Still, I didn’t want to scare her unnecessarily.
Maybe it would be fine. Maybe she’d think I was overreacting.
So, I decided to hire a private security firm to keep an eye on her from a distance while I was on this road trip.
It would set my mind at ease if nothing else, and when I got back in a week, I’d check in with her to see how she felt.
Earlier that day, they sent someone to Wikaskwa to stake out her house. It shouldn’t have been all that hard to find in the small town, but that seems like the most likely reason for his call now.
“I’m sitting in my car down the street from it now,” Sid tells me. “The woman you told us about, Jane, has been there for around an hour, and a man with out-of-state plates just arrived. He’s at her door now.”
My instructions were to let me know if any men approached her house.
There will be children coming and going for her tutoring business all week, along with Jane, but any man over the age of 18, I want to know about.
If anything looks suspicious, the security personnel have my permission to step in or call the police.
“What state is he from?” I ask, my grip tightening around the phone.
“Minnesota.”
My heart thuds a little heavier in my chest. Daley hasn’t mentioned any friends or family in Minnesota.
Not that I know everyone in her life, obviously, but she said she grew up somewhere further south, that her mom had been raised ‘up in North Dakota’.
Jane said she didn’t date. So where did this guy come from, and why?
“Did she answer the door?”
“She did,” Sid confirms, drawing out the word slightly as he relays the scene in front of him. Fuck, I wish I could see it for myself. “Jane is with her. She and the man are talking.”
“Does she look scared?” I press.
“Not exactly. Her arms are crossed but she appears sure of whatever she’s saying.”
That really doesn’t clear anything up. “Can you find out who he is?”
“I’ve already sent a picture to our team back in the office, both of the man and his plates.
We should have an ID soon. Hang on…” He goes silent for a few agonizing seconds before continuing.
My free hand rubs the back of my neck, the muscles tense there.
“They’re moving inside now. She let him in. ”
She invited him into her house? It must be someone she knows, then, but I’m still a little unsettled about the whole thing. “Alright, keep me updated.”
He promises to do so, and after hanging up, I call Daley’s number instead. It goes to voicemail, so I call again. She can tell me to fuck off if she wants, but I want to hear her for myself.
She answers just before the voicemail picks up for a second time. “Hi, Deacon.”
Right away, I hear the tightness in her voice. It’s not the way she usually sounds when talking to me. “Hey. Just checking in before I turn in for the night. How was your drive home?”
“It was fine. I’m actually in the middle of something right now. Can I call you back in about…” She hesitates, sounding uncertain about how much time she’ll need. “Half an hour?”
That’s longer than I want to wait, but I have to respect her request. Still, I can’t help offering one more chance for her to ask for help if she needs it. “Is everything okay?”
“Yeah. I’m good. I’ll talk to you later.”
“Speak to you then.”
We hang up and I walk over to the window, looking out over the twinkling lights of San Jose.
A group of guys from the team went out for a drink tonight, and I’d guess some of them won’t come back to the hotel alone.
The idea of spending the night with a random woman has never appealed to me less, though. I don’t want anyone but Daley.
I’m in love with this woman.
The realization hits me like a smack to the chest, like the universe holding up a big sign shouting Obviously.
And once I accept it, the next logical conclusion is that I want to spend as much time with her as I can.
The road trips with the team, I can’t avoid, but when I get home, I want her to be there.
At my house, with its security measures and any luxury she could want.
Maybe it’s crazy when we’ve only been seeing each other for a month.
It feels longer, and in a way, it is. It’s been four months since we first met, four months that I’ve been unable to get her out of my mind.
And the reality of who she is has turned out to be even better than I could have imagined during that unforgettable night in Vegas.
The things I’ve really wanted in life, I’ve always managed to get, with the one glaring exception of my failed marriage. But now, I can see that it was only ever an illusion anyway. Daley is the real deal, and I’m going to go all-in, the same way I do in every other part of my life.
I glance down at the phone in my hand, still dark and silent. Only five minutes have gone by.
Fuck. Clenching my jaw, I force myself to drop the phone and return to the bathroom to finish drying off.
I’m going to go all-in… just as soon as she calls me back.