Page 13 of Dare To Tempt (Dare Nation 2)
She blew out a long breath. “I received a package today.”
His expression hardened. “From John?”
She nodded. “No one else can cause that kind of reaction, as you well know.”
“Son of a bitch. I’m going to kill him.” He curled his big hands into fists.
“What’s John’s last name?” Damon asked Mack because he already knew Evie wouldn’t want him to know or get involved in any way.
“Coltrane,” Mack said to a glaring Evie.
She glanced at Damon. “You have your own issues to worry about. I can handle my ex myself.”
Mack looked from Evie to Damon and grinned. “Well, this is interesting.” But he sobered quickly. “Where’s the box?”
With a groan, Damon said, “I didn’t know there was a stalking issue. She was upset and I tossed it.”
Mack winced.
“I put it down the trash chute.”
Mack pulled out his phone and asked for a patrol car to meet him at Evie’s address. “We’ll find it and check for a card or at least find out what florist it came from.” He turned to Damon. “Now as much as I’m a fan and respect you, I want to talk to my sister.”
It took everything inside Damon to walk away, but first he had something to say. “I don’t think you should stay here right now,” he said to Evie again, watching as a scowl took hold of her pretty face. He glanced at her brother, hoping for backup.
“The man’s got a point,” Mack said.
“Seriously? I can take care of myself and I’m armed. I’ll be fine.”
“And I have a gated community, a lot of space between neighbors, and cameras everywhere,” Damon said, realizing his house was the safest place for her. “I just want you to be safe.”
Mack raised an eyebrow. “Or she could move in with her brother, the cop, instead of a client she barely knows.”
Clearly Mack had shifted to big-brother mode, something Damon recognized because he’d feel the same way about Bri if the situation were reversed.
“You have to work. I’m home full-time right now,” Damon said, frowning at the reminder of his own situation. “Besides, I’m telling you my security system is second to none.”
“Or she can think and speak for herself and stay home,” Evie said to them both, her eyes flashing with annoyance. And damned if her defiance wasn’t a turn-on.
“I think it’s time for you both to leave. Damon, I’ll keep working on your situation. Mack, I love you. Please dig into whether you can prove it was John who sent the package.” She pushed her brother toward the door, and Damon understood he had no choice but to follow.
But if she thought he’d go home and pretend today hadn’t happened, she was wrong. He’d be checking on her soon and often.
* * *
Evie shuffled the men out of her apartment, closed up and flipped the locks behind them, leaning against the door with a groan. Damn these men who thought they knew best. Yes, she understood their concern, but she wished they’d trust her to protect herself. The only reason John had gotten the best of her last time was because she’d been coming home from a party for a friend, wearing a dress without her gun, her guard down.
And though he’d frightened her today, once she gathered her wits, she trusted herself. She had to or she would lose all sense of her own identity. Ever since he’d attacked her, she’d questioned herself and her judgment. She couldn’t let him get to her again or drive her out of her home.
Instead of focusing on her fear, she turned her attention to Damon’s case and figuring out who had framed him. Luckily for him, she’d recently wrapped up two cases when Bri had approached her with Damon’s, and she could give him her full focus.
She opened her notepad, turned on her laptop, and began looking further into his backup quarterback, Gregory Emerson. She researched him as far back as she could, trying to get a feel for the type of person he was. A check with the police department revealed he didn’t have a record. True to what Damon had said, he appeared to be a great guy, a smile always on his face, no skeletons that she could find at a surface glance.
Before she turned to her computer guy to see what else he could dig up, she wanted to make sure she was looking in the right direction. Which meant she needed to look into Damon’s trainer as well.
Before she could go down that rabbit hole on her laptop, her phone rang. “Hello?”
“Hi!” Quinn’s voice provided a welcome distraction. “Are we going to yoga class tonight?”
Evie winced. “I forgot.” But relaxing and going for a latte with her friend after the snake incident was exactly what she needed. “But yes, let’s go. Coffee shop after?”
