Rob cursed, but he didn’t tell me not to. That was good because I would’ve hated to disobey a direct order from my alpha. “Watch yourself. Keep it clean. I’ll be in touch.” Rob hung up without anything more, and I pocketed my phone.
I opened the passenger door to my van and dropped Brooke into the seat. “Don’t run, sugar,” I warned her, meeting her angry and scared gaze. “I’m just trying to get you to safety. Somewhere I can protect you. Okay?”
“Protect me? You just killed two men!” Her eyes were on mine but wild.
“He had a gun aimed at your head and wasn’t going to wait too much longer to shoot you. No one shows up with a silencer as a threat.”
She swallowed hard.
“They had to die. It was them or you. and I swear I’m not gonna let anyone hurt you.”
Her gaze darted past me, scanning the street. Even after what I just said, she was gonna run the second I tried to walk to the driver’s side.
“Please, Brooke.” I tried to catch her gaze. “I won’t hurt you. I promise. You’re safe with me. You trusted me with your body last night.” I told that to her the night before, and she’d believed me then, believed me enough to give me her body.
Her eyes filled with tears, and her lower lip quivered, which gutted me. “Sugar, please. I can protect you. I need you to trust me with your life.”
She glanced over at her house, and the tears spilled down her cheeks. “You killed the men at the hotel. You murdered… four men!”
I’d kill a thousand for my mate. And I’d repeat the same thing again until she calmed down enough to see that I was right. “You’re a loose end from that meeting. The second you ran from that hotel room yesterday, your death warrant was signed. You aren’t safe. But I’m not gonna let anyone touch you.”
She searched my face, her breath coming in shallow gasps. Maybe death warrant wasn’t the right thing to say, nor was the earlier gun to the head comment. “I need… you have to…”
Fuck. We didn’t have time to wait here. “Don’t move.” Reaching across, I buckled her seatbelt, slammed her door, and pressed the key fob to lock the doors. That would buy me at least a couple of seconds if she tried to run.
I jogged around to the driver’s side.
When I climbed in, she had already unbuckled her seatbelt and had the door open.
I lunged across her and pulled it shut. I stayed right in her space. “Look at me, Brooke.”
Her dark eyes were wide and terrified. She was shaking.
“I’m a trained killer, yes,” I explained. I would always tell her the truth. “I kill bad guys. I’m on your side. The good side. You’re my good girl. Right now, I need to get you the hell out of here. Both of our lives could depend on it. Okay?”
She stared at me, frozen with indecision.
“Have I hurt you?” I asked.
She shook her head.
“Have I kept you safe–not once but twice?”
“Yes,” she whispered.
“Have I shown you that I’ll do everything I can to make you safe and happy? To give you nothing but pleasure?”
Her cheeks flushed, probably remembering just how I’d given her pleasure the night before.
Finally, she gave a tiny nod.
Thank fuck. I turned on the engine and drove away as fast as I could without calling attention to the van.
“Where are we going?” Brooke warbled.
“Back to the hotel where you can be safe in my suite while I figure out how to end this.”
“End this,” Brooke echoed in a whisper.