Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 83986 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 420(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83986 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 420(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
“Were the Feds going to put Ash into protective custody?”
“No,” Owen said. “They were planning to just take him into plain old custody.”
“That makes no sense.”
“It does if you look at those photos as a whole. To them, Ashford Lennox looks pretty fuckin’ cozy with a known fugitive who died not long after their encounter.”
“What are you talking about?”
Quickly, Owen moved through other pictures for me, all the ones not taken by Ash, and in them, he was at the table, leaning forward, talking, listening, laughing, and smiling. I had to admit that it did look like he and Voss were buddies.
“Yeah, okay, this doesn’t look great.”
“This is why we’re here,” Nash said flatly. “To help you guard Mr. Lennox, and more importantly, to get answers.”
I shook my head. “There’s an explanation, I know there is, and anyway, Ash is not some nobody off the street that the FBI can just toss into some off-the-books black site and press him until they get answers. He’s a huge star.”
“Great. Good,” Nash was quick to agree with me. “But our boss would prefer that our client not be interrogated by the FBI on our watch. We’re looking to prevent trauma, not allow it to happen.”
“Of course,” I agreed.
“Good. So go back in there and wake your boyfriend up so we can figure this shit out. We’re wasting daylight.”
“I will. I just have something I need to ask Owen.”
“Hit me,” he said.
So I told him all about Burke Furniss, and how he’d tried to seduce, then attack Ash in the middle of the night. I also told him that Burke had been rough because he’d known, presumably from watching, how Ash preferred his sex.
Owen nodded. “You’re worried he has pictures or video of Lennox in bed with men at his home, in hotel rooms, on location where he filmed movies—”
“Yeah. All that. And Ash is being very calm about it, very whatever happens, happens, but I don’t want that for him. I can’t have that happen.”
“Of course,” Owen told me. “I’ll get into it now.”
“His old bodyguard, she runs her own business now. Her name is Preeya Shah, and she never liked Furniss and didn’t want Ash to hire him when she left to give birth.”
“You’re thinking what?”
“Well, she says she has a new bodyguard for him who sounds great.”
“You want me to check up on that?”
“No, Preeya sounds amazing, and because of that, I’m wondering if she already dealt with Furniss.”
“I’ll talk to her,” Owen assured me.
“Hello?”
And there was Ash in pajama bottoms and a T-shirt—one of mine, actually. Nash had been standing at the sliding glass doors, looking out at the rain, while Owen and I sat on the couch. We all turned to Ash at once.
“Good morning,” I said hoarsely, so happy to see him.
“As nice as that robe looks on you,” he said sharply as he reached me, taking hold of my bicep, “I need you to come with me and put on some clothes, since we apparently have guests.”
“Wait,” I said, stopping so he would too. “I need to introduce you to—”
“Clothes,” he snapped. “Let’s start with underwear.”
“I—”
“Now,” he insisted, his grip on my bicep tightening as he tugged me after him, not interested, from how quickly he was moving toward the bedroom, in any explanation.
Once there, he slammed the door behind us, then rounded on me.
“Listen, Ash, there is—”
“Fuck,” he growled, which surprised me, and I was even more so when he started to pace.
Not what I was expecting. “What’s wrong?”
“I promised myself when I woke up this morning and turned my head and found you beside me in bed, still holding me, still spooning me, that I would absolutely not get attached.”
I just stared.
“Did you hear me?”
“Yeah. You don’t want to like me.”
“No. You’re not listening.”
“But that’s what you just said.”
“No. I told myself I, me…me, that I would not get attached.”
I squinted, unsure if he knew what he was saying.
“When I rolled over and watched you sleeping, I thought, I could get used to him so very easily, and I was even planning to get up because I needed to put some distance between us, but then you realized I wasn’t right next to you, and your eyes opened just a bit, and you told me to lie back down and hurry up because you were getting cold. Do you remember that at all?”
I shook my head.
“I knew you weren’t awake, but you were so insistent, and when I got close to you, you grabbed me and wrapped me in your arms, and seconds later you were breathing on my nape and—”
“Listen, I’m sorry I—”
“No,” he said sharply, “you’re still not paying attention.”
I shut up, feeling lost.
“You see, lately,” he began, then stopped. “No. More than that. For a while now, I’ve been missing a feeling of normality. I’ve been going nonstop, which is why I usually have Benny with me because looking at my dog gives me just enough of a tether that I don’t completely forget who I am…but I digress.”