Chapter 12
Twelve
Blade
Watching my girl in her element, teaching her students, makes my heart swell. It’s the most mesmerizing two hours of my life. I try to be as quiet as a mouse and out of her line of vision so I don’t distract her, but I can’t bring myself to leave the room.
I’d meant to go to another part of the house so I wouldn’t bother her at all, but when she sits up, puts on her professional face, and greets her students, I can’t move.
She’s incredible. She tells her students she fell and broke her arm, letting them know why she missed their last class.
It’s true. She did fall, even though she had a lot of help doing so.
I’m not surprised, and I can’t blame her.
She certainly wasn’t going to tell the young people that she was attacked.
I know she’s in pain, but she never lets on. Two hours of teaching without so much as slouching. Luckily, she’s in front of a video camera and only needs to use one finger to change screens a few times so she can follow her lesson plans.
June was born to teach. I bet she was dynamic in a classroom before her fucking ex took over her life and made her quit working so he could drag her from the city and control her every move. Dickface.
While she works, I lean against the kitchen counter. I’m not quite in her line of sight, nor am I in the line of her camera. I keep my phone on silent and exchange several texts with my team, including Rachell.
As usual, Rachell came through for me, securing an appointment with a top-notch doctor tomorrow morning. She even got the X-rays delivered from the hospital. Bless her. She’s a gem among gems.
After combing over everything, Cannon found no prints anywhere that didn’t belong to me or June. It’s not unexpected, but still disappointing. A few of my men went to June’s last known address and have verified Pete Stark—I now know his surname—is living in the same house where he isolated my girl.
Even more disturbing, it would seem he has another woman living there. One of my men got long-range pictures of her hurrying to put trash in the bin. When I see a few of the images, I cringe. She has a black eye, and she’s protecting her ribs on one side of her body with her arm.
I hate that someone else is being abused, which only makes me want to pick up the pace on our investigation. Now, I’m curious. Why would Stark be after my girl if he has a new woman in her place to abuse?
He never even consented to divorce June. She’s still married to the fucker. What’s his aim?
I consider the fact that perhaps he wasn’t the one who broke into her place. It’s possible. She’s lived in fear of him for a long time and is worried now that her picture has been splashed on the news, but what if someone else is after her instead of Stark?
I don’t have to ask my team to install surveillance cameras around her apartment.
They’ve already done so, inside and out.
Plus, they hacked into the cameras in the lobby of her building and went through hours of people coming and going.
There was no facial recognition that matched Stark, but again, I still doubt he did the heavy work himself.
There were several people who came and left without the camera catching their faces.
Any of them could have broken into her place.
In an age where everyone is a walking zombie glued to their phones, dozens of people enter and leave every building without looking up.
It’s more frustrating and obvious when people like me and my team scour hours of footage.
No one pays attention to their surroundings anymore.
I don’t know how they keep from walking into walls.
An idea comes to mind, so I shoot off a text to Mace.
Thought: can you go back through and watch for anyone who appears to be focused on their phone but has to look up more frequently than others?
Anyone who lives in that building has the spatial awareness to have memorized exactly how far it is to the steps or elevator.
Someone unfamiliar with the building would have pretended to be engrossed in their phone but would have needed to look up more often.
Good point. I’ll look again.
I pocket my phone just as June finishes her class. She’s saying goodbye to her students and reminding them about their assignments.
The moment she’s done, she closes the laptop, and her entire body slumps, her face falling from the perma-grin to a looser expression.
I hurry over, scoop her into my arms, and carry her to an armchair. Tucking her head against my shoulder, I rub her back and kiss the side of her head. “You’re exhausted.”
“Yeah. It was hard to focus. My arm was throbbing, and my body ached. Plus, I’m still tired.”
“I’m sorry. On the other hand, can I just say how amazing you are. I’ve decided I want to take one of your classes,” I tease. “I couldn’t bring myself to leave the room. You’re such an amazing teacher. I hope I didn’t distract you.”
“You didn’t. I was so focused I never even paid attention to you.” She tips her head back. “Thank you for the compliment. I love my job.”
“That’s obvious.” I cup her chin and kiss her mouth. I can’t stop myself. I want to kiss her all the time. “Are you hungry? Pizza will be here any minute. I timed it just right.”
“Starving. I bet I can even eat it all by myself without you feeding me.”
“What’s the fun in that?”
She giggles. “You’re spoiling me. If you don’t stop, I’ll get used to being pampered and expect it.”
“That’s my plan. You deserve to be pampered. I want you to expect it.”
“You can’t follow me around forever. You missed an entire day of work today. Totally unexpected. I don’t want you to have to worry about me. I appreciate you letting me stay here, but I’ll manage on my own. I promise. You don’t have to—”
I cut her off with a finger to her lips.
“June, you are not a burden. I’d give up today and all my future workdays for you.
Stop worrying. I own the company. I have a lot of employees.
They can manage fine while we get through this.
Anything I need to take care of can be done from here.
I’m one floor above them. My team knows they can pop up here at any time if needed.
I didn’t take this entire day off. You just thought I did because you didn’t see what I was doing when you weren’t looking.
I was working most of the time while you were on your video call. ”
She turns her head a bit to look me in the eyes. “When you say you were working, you mean on my situation, don’t you?”
“Yes, Little one. Mostly.”
“I’m not a paying client, Blade. That doesn’t count as work.
” She shakes a finger between us. “And for the record, I will pay you if you let me. I just doubt I can afford what you usually get paid. Maybe you have a sliding scale for poor people.” She cocks her head and grins, thinking she’s making a joke.
“Honey, we most definitely have a sliding scale. We also take pro bono cases when necessary.” I lift a brow.
She lifts both of hers. “Seriously?”
“Of course. I’m not an ogre. It’s not all about money. Yes, we have some powerful clients who can and will pay top dollar, but we also take cases from people who can’t afford our services.”
She smiles and snuggles back into me, her hand flattening on my chest. “I feel like Cinderella.”
I hate that she has to feel that way. The universe has been unkind to her. I hope I can show her another life and slowly erase the bad until she thinks of it less frequently.
My phone buzzes, and I pull it out to find it’s a call from the lobby, letting me know my pizza has arrived. Brinkman is sending a trusted employee up with it instead of a delivery driver. Bless him.
I rise and carefully settle June in the warm seat. “Be right back.” I jog toward the entrance and step into the landing, pulling a few bills out of my pocket to tip the helpful employee from downstairs so they never have to get out of the elevator.
A minute later, I’m back with two pizzas.
June pushes to standing. “That smells so good, but holy shit. Did we need two pizzas?”
“Well, you wanted cheese, and I wanted supreme. We’ll have leftovers.”
“You could have gotten half and half.”
I set it on the kitchen table and turn to meet her gaze, my head cocked and my brows lifted. “Is that so?”
She bites her lip and shakes her head. “No, but I wouldn’t have said anything.”
I chuckle as I grip her chin and kiss her lips. “I have your number, Little one. I bet you would have been panicked if you’d had to pick mushrooms off your side of the pizza. I even told them to be super careful that nothing but cheese was on yours.”
She cringes. “I bet they hate me.”
“I bet they get that a lot. Cheese pizza eaters are plentiful and often serious about their request. They won’t order from a restaurant again if there’s a stray onion on their pizza.”
“True.”
I pull out a chair for her. “Let me grab plates and drinks. You want the same flavored seltzer or something else?”
“Water is fine.”
“Got it. First thing in the morning, I want you to help me place a grocery order, okay?”
“You’re spoiling me…” she reminds me.
“That’s never going to change,” I reiterate.
I grab two plates, knives, forks, and napkins. “Ice or no?”
“No ice.”
How did I suspect that? I’m starting to guess her likes and dislikes.
After I take a seat next to her, I open the boxes. The pizzas are steaming. I slide a slice of cheese onto a plate and proceed to cut it up into bite-sized pieces.
June giggles. “I’m not that helpless. I could lift it with my left hand and manage to get it to my face.”
I smirk. “It’s floppy and hot. You’d burn the roof of your mouth and end up with cheese on the front of you from trying to hold it with one hand. This will be easier.”
“You’ve seen me try to use a fork. It wasn’t elegant.”
I lift her plate, blow on the hot pizza, and then stab a piece and offer it to her. “Lucky for you, you have help.”
She moans around the bite, and dammit, my cock jumps. I want to hear that every day for the rest of my days. I’d prefer to hear it when my mouth is on her pussy, and I wonder if the tone will be different. I will find out eventually. When she’s ready.
“Rachell got you an appointment for tomorrow morning with an ortho.”
“Oh, wow. That was fast.”
“It helps when you know people.”
“Apparently. Thank you. I have insurance. I haven’t had any issues with it being denied anywhere. I should be fine.”
“I’m sure it will be.” Frankly, I don’t give a fuck. If it’s not covered, I’ll pay the bill. I’ll also get her switched over to my insurance as soon as possible. I won’t freak her the fuck out with that information over dinner, though.
My heart is fuller than it’s ever been as I feed my girl bites in between devouring my own slices at three times the rate.
She’s a mouse. She doesn’t consume much.
But I’m much larger than her and work out regularly, so I can’t expect her to eat as much as I do.
I was in my home gym for two hours this morning before she arrived at my office.
She does manage to eat two slices before holding up her hand. “Stuffed. Spoiled again and stuffed.”