Page 44 of Catch My Fall
“Uh, what’re you doing?” I ask, swallowing down the embarrassment.
“Making sure you’re safe. I got some of these security cameras at the hardware store in town. I need to know I have the place covered. I’ve also got alarms to fit on the doors and windows should we have any unwanted visitors.”
“You’re really not taking any chances are you?”
He stops drilling and turns to me, the heat of his gaze burning into me. “Not when it comes to your safety, never.”
His stare and his words have my belly flipping, but truthfully, with or without the camera and alarms, I don’t think I could feel safer than when he’s near.
A stab of fear hits me. “Do you think they could find us out here?”
“They could, had they followed us the entire eight hour journey. They have the means and the manpower to do so but as far as we know, Sloane’s gone into hiding. He knows he’s got a target on his back. He’s not stupid enough to risk getting caught. My guess is, he’s lying low, waiting for the heat to die down before he makes a move.”
The thought of that man waiting, biding his time, planning, plotting, makes me uneasy and I hate that the sheer mention of him has my belly coiling in fear.
Alec must see something on my face that has him putting down the drill and closing the space between us. “Hey, you trust me, don’t you?”
My eyes meet his. “Of course I do.”
He reaches up to dust his fingers over my cheek, my skin tinging beneath his tender touch, his expression unreadable as he brushes over the scar there. “I will always keep you safe, Sierra. Never doubt that.”
Sighing, I inadvertently lean into his touch. “I don’t doubt for a second that you’d let anything happen to me, Alec.”
Something passes between us as the air around us crackles, my heart skipping a beat as his eyes dart down to my lips and back up again.
The overwhelming urge to close the gap between us and press my lips to his is so strong, and just as I’m about to give into it, my phone rings in my pocket.
We break apart, and I glance down at my new phone that replaced the one that I lost when I was kidnapped to find Reese requesting a video call.
I shoot an apologetic smile to Alec and click accept to the call and walk away, but it’s not Reese’s face I see, it’s Ivy’s.
“Hi, Auntie!” she waves excitedly through the screen.
“Hey, munchkin. You okay?”
“I’m good. Wish you were here! Daddy tried braiding my hair but he’s pants at it, not like you!”
I’m trying to picture my brother fixing his daughter’s hair, but the image in my head is so unlike Rafe it makes me giggle.
A door on Ivy’s end opens behind her. “Ives,” my best friend, Reese says. “I said to wait until I asked Auntie Sierra first. She might’ve been busy.”
“Sorry, Mommy.” I love how she’s come to call Reese her mom, though Ree has made it clear that she’ll never let Ivy forget her real mom who died a few months back.
“Ree, it’s fine,” I say as she comes into view beside my niece. “How are you both?”
“We’re good. Bigger question is, how are you? Is Alec looking after you?”
“He is. It’s beautiful here. I’ll send you some photos later. It’s exactly what I needed.”
“Good. I’m glad. You take all the time you need, okay? And you let Kevin Costner take real good care of you, okay Whitney?”
“We’re really back to this again?” Reese has it in her head that Alec and I are like Whitney Houston and Kevin Costner’s characters in The Bodyguard about a singer being stalked by a creepy fan and hires a bodyguard to protect her.
“Who’s Kevin Cotsener?” Ivy asks innocently, her cute mispronunciation of his name makes Ree and I chuckle.
“Never mind, sweetie. I’ll explain later.” Ree drops a kiss to her head. “We’ll let you go, Si. Take it easy, okay? Speak soon?”
“Speak soon. Love you.”