Chapter 11
Chapter Eleven
Addie was confused and horrified. The only thing that felt solid and safe and right was Price. Addie clung to his strong shoulders as he ran away from her destroyed and still burning home. She could see the fire growing even as Price protected her.
He darted up the porch steps of the Blotters’ rental house and set her on her feet on the porch.
The cold seeped through her socks. Thankfully Price kept an arm around her or she would have fallen over.
She could feel his body shaking as he typed in a code on the door.
It must have been wrong because he let out a low oath and then typed it again.
The door finally buzzed, and Price swung it wide and escorted her inside.
Addie could hardly think straight. The boom still rang in her ears and she was seeing black spots, semi-blinded by the light from the explosion.
She’d been getting ice from the fridge when the world, or more accurately her home, exploded.
She was tossed like a ragdoll against the open freezer.
Her body was sore and her mind full of terror.
Someone had tried to kill her. That was the only explanation she could come up with for her master bedroom blasting into a million pieces of wood, sheetrock, and her material possessions.
Everything in her bedroom and bathroom was probably ash. Maybe even her entire home.
Slamming the door, Price typed in another code and then flipped on the light switch.
Addie stared at the living area, not really seeing anything.
Price. He was all she wanted to see. All she could see.
Price Sanderson was her dream man, and he had just pledged to keep her safe.
She’d felt that vow through every cell and was grateful for him and for the good Lord bringing such a man into her life.
Price turned her to him. His hands trembled on her arms as he assessed her. “Addie. I can’t … I’m so grateful. It’s a miracle. Still … how did you survive a bomb like that?”
She’d never seen Price unsettled.
“I couldn’t sleep,” she explained, “so I was in the kitchen getting a glass of ice water. I was thrown against the fridge, but ...” She shook her head, trying to make sense of all of this.
“If I’d been asleep, if I’d been in my bedroom, I’d be dead.
” Her entire body started trembling again.
It was a miracle, and she was grateful just as Price had said.
“Oh, Addie.” He gathered her close and tenderly kissed her forehead.
“I have never been so scared in my life. When the sensor went off, then I saw the black shadow behind your house on the camera, I sprinted for you and called Thayne, but I couldn’t get there fast enough.
Then your bedroom exploded. I thought you were dead.
I’ve never been so scared.” He buried his face in her hair and his body shuddered.
Addie didn’t know what to think. Price was the only thing that was real and safe, and his concern was heart-warming.
“You were in the military for twenty years,” she reminded him, trying to ground herself and talk normally.
“You work for the Aiden Porter. You’ve seen much more terrifying things than a house being bombed. ”
She wanted to fall over. It was her house that had been bombed. How had that happened?
“Yeah.” Price’s dark eyes seared into her and all the other worries disappeared. “But none of those ops involved the woman that I …” He cleared his throat. “Have fallen for.”
Addie’s eyes widened. All the horror and shock seemed to float away as Price’s strong arms surrounded her and lifted her close to him. He’d promised not to leave her side and to protect her. He’d admitted that he’d fallen for her.
She tugged him down, arching up to kiss him and show him she felt the same.
Their lips met, and joy and peace filled her.
She was safe. She was happy. She didn’t have any trust issues or fears.
Price took all of that away. This was the man she could trust and love …
hopefully her entire life. Heaven above had brought him into her life just when she needed him and she’d be forever grateful.
Price pulled back far too soon, and she registered the buzzing against her hip. He pulled out his phone and held it up. “Thayne,” he explained.
Addie nodded. He swiped the call on and started talking fast, telling the detective where they were and what had happened from Price’s point of view.
Addie wrapped her arms around herself, chilled without him holding her close.
She was a mess, and no one could blame her.
Almost killed. Her house destroyed. Thank heavens for Price being there.
She was only half-listening, her mind distracted by her near-miss with death and all the feelings surging through her for Price. She could finally trust a man to protect her, to be there for her, be honest with her, maybe even love her.
Price’s conversation with Detective Thayne didn’t make a whole lot of sense, so she tuned it out.
He was talking about the cameras and sensors he had set up and how grateful he was that Addie had been in the kitchen and how he should’ve called and warned her.
He kept glancing at her, his brow wrinkled.
Instead of the pledge to protect her and the depth of feelings she’d seen in his eyes after he carried her from her burning home, that conflict she’d glimpsed was back a hundredfold.
What was he talking about with the detective? It seemed to have him concerned for her, or maybe for their relationship. Price had said something about cameras and sensors earlier to her as well, but she hadn’t thought much about it because of all that was going through her scrambled brain.
Addie glanced around the room and zeroed in on the monitors set up next to the laptop computer on his table. Slowly, she padded toward them, feeling unsteady and confused and full of questions. The images on the screen were burning. Was there a fire at his client’s house too?
She kept moving forward, in a trance like a moth to light. The cameras revealed angles of a beach house with a front porch like hers. Did they also have a two-thousand and twenty Honda Accord parked out front? She peered at the screens, confused.
“Addie.” Price’s voice behind her was a warning. She expected him to say, ‘Don’t look.’ Part of her didn’t want to look. Didn’t want to understand what Price and Detective Thayne were talking about.
He didn’t say anything else, and she didn’t stop or turn around or close her eyes.
She reached the small table and stared at the camera angles.
Angles of her own house. It was her house Price had camera angles of.
Her beloved home was burning. It wasn’t a surprise, but it was sickening.
Fire trucks were there, and firefighters were angling hoses at her bedroom.
She wanted to puke. She loved her house, but even more important …
she’d almost been blown to bits. Whoever had sent her those threatening notes had tried to fulfill his threats.
The fact that she’d almost died and she might lose everything of earthly value to her registered, but even more strongly was the blaring realization …
Price’s warm hands wrapped around her arms, and he gently pulled her back into his chest. She wanted to lean back, but something kept her rigid. Every cell in her body wanted to lean into his strength and let him love and protect her.
Every cell except her brain. A confused brain, but also a brain that was realizing like a slap to the face that she’d been lied to. She’d been betrayed by the man she’d been falling for, the man she’d thought a few minutes ago she could trust and love like no one else.
“Addie,” he said softly. “I know this looks … confusing.”
“Confusing?” She whirled to face him, stepping back and running into the table with her backside. “Confusing, Price?” The pieces clicked so fast the room began to spin. “You’re watching me and my house? I’m your assignment?”
A stone settled in her gut and dizziness assaulted her. She reached back and held onto the table for support. How had she been so blind? How had she not seen the glaring truth? It was crystal clear in this appalling moment.
Price, the great security operative for Aiden Porter, staying four doors down for an assignment that he couldn’t disclose.
Price, her superhero, showing up just when Travis tried to push his way into her house.
Price, the man she thought she was falling for, the man she believed she trusted, being there right as her house exploded.
Kissing her. Holding her. Claiming he was falling for her.
Lying to her. Betraying her. Destroying her trust.
Addie glanced back at the monitors. Cameras showing every angle of her house, front, back, and sides.
How could she have been so slow, so willing to trust him?
How had this happened to her again? It was vastly different from Jamison.
Price was trying to protect her, not harm her, yet it felt even more hurtful and deceptive.
Jamison had been wearing a mask of charisma and kindness that she had initially found appealing but had lost its shine quickly and she’d been the one to end things.
Price’s mask of humble hero, kick-butt protector, and all-around great guy was still in place, but he’d used it to deceive her, gain her trust, and break her heart.
“It’s not like it seems.” Price held up his hands in a placating gesture. “Your sister—”
A loud rap came on the front door.
Price grunted in frustration, his dark gaze reflecting more than that. He was upset and alarmed by this turn of events.
Well, she was nauseated, betrayed, and quickly growing furious, and it was all his fault.
“That’ll be the EMTs. They need to check you out. I’ll explain everything. It will be okay, Addie.” He held her gaze, begging her to listen to him, to give him a chance. “We’ll work this out. All right?”
Addie couldn’t form words. She could only stare at him. This superhero of a man, who she had been falling for, had been hired to watch over her. She was mortified that she’d given her heart to him, kissed him, said far too many telling things to him.
Work this out? They were not going to simply work this out like it was a misunderstanding.
Her sister?
… Daphne. Only Daphne would do something like this. She hadn’t taken Addie’s no and she’d hired Aiden Porter’s people to keep Addie safe. Price had lied to her face and said that Daphne Belle hadn’t hired him. How could he?
She didn’t appreciate her sister’s meddling. Price had saved her from Travis and been there for her tonight, and maybe she could someday appreciate that, but not right now. Right now, she was too embarrassed and angry.
How had she gotten so lucky to have Price be her bodyguard and not another of Aiden’s operatives? It might have simply been because he was in the area, but she could imagine Daphne had requested him because she knew Addie was interested in him. It was the only thing that made sense.
The other thing that made blaring sense was she’d been an absolutely gullible idiot. She’d been so drawn to Price that she hadn’t interrogated him about his ‘assignment’, taking his answer that he shouldn’t share at face value.
She’d asked if Daphne had hired him. He’d looked her in the eye and said, clear as day, that Daphne hadn’t hired him. She hadn’t questioned him being out for a run in the freezing dark and how he’d miraculously been there when she needed him when Travis showed up.
Addie stared at him as he let the EMTs in and a man and woman approached her and started asking her questions. Price looked like the same tough, ruggedly handsome, somehow humble military hero as he gave her a hopeful yet guarded look with those intense dark eyes beneath those thick eyelashes.
No. She didn’t know him at all. Everything she knew was a lie, a ploy to deceive her, especially the intense and caring way he looked at her that had melted her heart.
Which part of the past few weeks had been real and what had been him playing a part?
Their ‘chance’ meeting at Quincy Market.
Him knowing how much she loved banana pudding.
Had Daphne somehow set all of that up as well?
Growing closer to her so he could protect her.
Kissing her. Like he meant it. Multiple times.
Had Daphne met Price through Brex, assumed he was the perfect man for Addie, and set this all up?
Her stomach turned over, and she could answer honestly when the lady asked if she was experiencing any nausea. Yes, she was sick to her stomach, but she doubted it had much to do with the explosion and her house burning down a few hundred yards away.
This nausea was the gut churn of betrayal.
Daphne and Price had betrayed her.
Daphne she’d eventually have to forgive. She was her sister and they’d been through fights before and somehow healed.
But Price…
Maybe she’d eventually forgive him too, but any trust she’d felt for him was gone. She was heartbroken over his betrayal. He’d wormed his way deep into her heart and shattered her from the inside out.
It might be dramatic, but she’d thought she trusted him above all others. She’d been wrong.
Addie would never trust a man again. Especially not Price.