She jerked a bit at his questions.
“Gwen?”
Her eyes narrowed on him. “You have your own PI business now.”
He stared back at her. “It’s a bodyguard business. We specialize in high-end protection. The discrete, save-your-ass variety. But we do occasionally handle…other types of security cases.”
He’d saved her ass tonight. She sucked in a deep breath, one that seemed to chill her lungs. “Has my father been to see you?”
“What does he have to do with anything?”
“He wants me protected.” No, that wasn’t quite true. “He wants me in a cage. So the world can’t hurt me. And so I can’t see the world.” He was still touching her, and she was far too conscious of his touch. “It’s because of Ethan, isn’t it? My dad is still worried about him.”
“Ethan’s a sick bastard.”
Her stomach knotted. “Ethan can’t get close to me. I have a restraining order against him, remember? Besides, he’s not after me. I know that’s what my father thinks, but he’s wrong. I haven’t seen or heard from the guy in six months. Not since…”
Silence. The kind of silence that she hated.
But maybe she needed to say these words. “Not since you burst into my bedroom and beat the hell out of him.” Talk about a memory that had been permanently seared into her brain.
***
He tossed the ski mask onto his bed. That bastard had come out of nowhere. Had the asshole been hiding in the dark? Waiting for Gwen?
Only he’d gotten to play the hero. Rushing to the rescue.
And Gwen…Gwen had no clue that the guy was as twisted as they came.
He marched toward his desk. Keyed up the computer. Gwen’s purse was on the floor beside his chair, and he kicked it out of the way. He hadn’t cared about the purse, but it gave him a good cover. If she’d called the cops, they would just think he’d been mugging her. They wouldn’t know what he’d really been doing.
No one would know. After all, he was very good at this type of work. An expert.
He typed in his password. Got the system linked and up and running and…
The feed slipped right up on his screen. He smiled when he saw the interior of Gwen’s apartment. But that smile froze on his lips when he realized that Gwen Hawthorne wasn’t alone.
Fucking bastard.
This was really going to mess up the plans that had been put in place.
***
Gwen shook her head. Her thick, blonde hair slid over her shoulders. “That’s not exactly a scene that a girl can forget.” She swallowed. “I had to pull you off him.”
His hands had clenched into fists. Hell. Chance forced his body to relax. Ethan wasn’t there. Gwen was safe.
That one night was etched in his memory. The night his self-control had broken. He’d already told Gwen all about Ethan’s past by that point. Her father had been the one to give Chance that particular dirty job. He’d had to break the news to her. Chance had stood there while pain and horror flashed across Gwen’s face.
After that, she’d broken up with Ethan Barclay. Kicked the guy’s ass out of her life.
Chance had gone to Gwen’s apartment that fateful night. Gwen had been hurting—because of me—and he’d just wanted to take her pain away. But he hadn’t. Gwen hadn’t wanted him there. She’d told him to leave, that she had to be alone. Chance had roamed the city and then found himself back at her apartment, staring up at the window. He’d hated for her to be in pain. Hated the thought of her tears.
Then he’d seen Ethan’s car parked near the corner of her street. His instincts had gone into overdrive and he’d found himself racing to her building.
“Why did you come back that night?” Gwen asked him now.
He rolled his shoulders, trying to push away tension that just wouldn’t vanish. “I knew you were hurting, and I didn’t want you to be alone. I was coming back to…talk. And then I saw his car.” His breath eased out. “I was at your front door when I heard you scream.” He’d broken that damn door and rushed inside. Gone straight to the bedroom. He’d kicked in that door, too, and when he’d see Gwen in bed and that bastard Ethan looming over her…
“I’d never seen you like that.” Now her voice was soft. Her eyes slid over his face. “You just…erupted. I had to pull you off him.”
Because he’d wanted to destroy the bastard. “He broke into your home.”
She nodded. “I sure didn’t invite the guy back. After what you’d told me, did you believe for a second that I had?”
With her scream ringing in his ears, he hadn’t exactly been thinking straight. Just feeling. Following a primitive instinct to protect.
“Ethan said he came here that night to talk with me. Because I’d been ignoring his phone calls. He wanted to tell me the truth about his past.”
Fuck that. “The truth is that he’s a criminal. A bastard who beat his ex-girlfriend up so badly that she wound up in the hospital. I wasn’t going to let him do that to you.” A simple fact. “I wasn’t—”
“You were doing your job. Protecting the boss’s daughter. That was your thing, right? Your assignment. To eliminate all possible threats.”
It had been one hell of a lot more than an assignment.
“I can’t help but wonder…are you doing your job now, too?”
If he said that her father had come to his office, Chance had no doubt that she would kick him out of her home right then. He didn’t want that to happen and he also didn’t want to lie to her. So, very carefully, he said, “I will do anything necessary to protect you. Always. From any threat.” He held her gaze. “Now I think you’re the one who needs to start sharing your secrets. That man tonight…was that the first time you’ve had an encounter like that? Is something else going on? Is—”
She paced toward her window. Stared out. “I’ve gotten…phone calls, okay? Late night phone calls from numbers that I don’t recognize. Numbers that I can’t trace. The callers would never say anything. Just silence. I turned the phones off but…” One shoulder lifted and fell. “When I’d turn them back on, there would be dozens of messages. Messages made of nothing but silence and the occasional whisper that I couldn’t even understand.” She looked back at him. “It was probably just some kids playing games, but it made me nervous, so I got a new number.”