As if… we were a couple.
It was nausea inducing. It was a strange motivation that moves you to keep things like that. Fear that if you don’t, no one will believe you when it happens.
When.
“It’s nothing,” I said quickly, even though I couldn’t see what he’d grabbed.
He shucked me off him without effort. I fell to my ass with a minor thud. My heart hammered as Theo thumbed through each one with a torturous meticulousness, pausing occasionally to reread a letter or examine a photo. He gave nothing away in his look.
Slowly, his eyes found mine.
Theo bent down until we were eye to eye, suit stretching across his knees, a kindness in his pale green eyes that made my gut tighten.
“What is this?” he asked again, holding up the stack of papers and photos. His voice was like earlier, as if I were a frightened doe he had to soothe off the road.
I was more terrified of that than any of his cruelty.
I stood up, dusting nonexistent items off my dress. “I’m a Crowne, Theo. Death threats and stalkers kind of come with the package.”
I stared into Theo’s eyes, acting as if fear wasn’t strangling my chest. He got an odd look across his face before folding something and shoving it in his pocket.
I looked at his pocket. “Theo, you can’t tell anyone. Especially my mom.”
His brow furrowed in pity. “She could help, Abigail.”
“We’re both thinking of the same person, right? Tansy Crowne, the woman who told me my incessant need for attention was exhausting, you know, that one time I had the gall to start my period during the annual Christmas party?”
His nostrils flared, but he nodded. For a moment I thought that was the end of it.
“How long?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know.” Over a year. No one checked my mail the way they did my grandfather, mom, and siblings’. They didn’t think anyone cared about me. And at first I didn’t think it was a big deal either. By the time I realized it was too late. I’d tried desperately to keep my last guard, but in the end, he ran when I needed him most.
I had no one to blame but myself.
Theo leaned forward, clear eyes shadowed under his hard brow. “How. Long.”
Like I’m going to tell you— “A year.”
Theo’s eyes softened, and I lived for that moment.
I could forget myself, forget Theo was just as much a threat as the man planting dangerous, lascivious promises atop the hood of my car and in my mailbox.
“You’ve been dealing with this for a year?” Theo asked softly.
I shrugged and played it off like I always did. “Yeah. Sorry, Theo. Someone beat you to the punch. It’s not a big deal.”
Just like that, he was rough again. “Not a big deal? Are you fucking kidding me, Abigail?”
“Careful, Theo, it sounds like you might care about me. Are you actually taking your bodyguard duties seriously?”
His glare returned. “You’ve been keeping this from me?”
“Fuck off, Theo.”
The fireworks were reaching their crescendo. Pop, pop, pop one after another, until brightness eclipsed the sky, illumining my entire bedroom.
He grabbed my elbow, eyes searching. “What else are you keeping from me?”