“Boone?” I dragged my hand through my hair. My fingers were raw from running for so long. The front desk person hadn’t said anything, but he probably wondered what had happened to me. I didn’t feel it. All I felt was my mate bond tugging fucking hard. “What do I do?”
I made my way up to the penthouse level and used the keycard to enter the suite. It was exactly as I left it, but clean. And there was no scent of my mate lingering in the air. Only the sharp bite of cleaning supplies.
“Can you hang on there in the city for a while longer? Take the time to court her properly? Humans are different. They don’t have the biological urge to commit the way we do. They don’t understand that it’s instant. One whiff of her scent, and that’s it.”
Yeah, that had been exactly it. “I know. And yeah. I’ll stay here forever if I have to. She’s my fucking mate. And now she doesn't even want to see me.”
He sighed. “Give it time. Don’t pressure her–that will only freak her out more. See if you can figure out what exactly spooked her.”
I frowned. “I think I know. I just don’t know how to fix it.”
“You’ll think of something. She’s your mate. You’re wired to provide her with everything she needs.”
I didn’t know how, though!
Frustration exploded behind my eyes. I cocked my fist to punch the wall, but pulled back at the last second. Boone was paying for this suite. I didn’t need to add a huge damage charge to the bill.
“I gotta go,” I growled.
“Okay, let me know if you need help. Summer and I could fly down if you think she’d want to meet us.”
“She doesn’t. She doesn’t want anything from me right now.” I paced to the window and yanked the curtains open to look outside. I longed for the big open skies of Montana, not this urban jungle.
“Well, anything you need, just let us know.”
“Yeah. Thanks. I’ll talk to you later.” I ended the call, staring out the window without seeing anything.
Think, Roy. Think.
Boone believed I’d think of something. That I could provide Brooke with everything she needed. But what did she need?
I reviewed what had happened. The murder charges I was brought up bothered her. Was she scared of me? Scared I would hurt her? Or was it something else?
Brooke liked a sure thing. What had she said about why she became an accountant?
I was looking for something quiet and stable. Numbers don’t lie, and everyone’s got to pay their taxes.
I probably felt like the opposite of quiet and stable. Moving to a new state–even visiting a new state with a guy she just met two days before–was the opposite of quiet and stable.
She’d had a chaotic childhood where she and her mom had been financially dependent on a string of her mom’s conquests.
She wanted to feel safe on her own, which she’d definitely done. Then I came in and fucked with that. Lazano and the whole drug thing didn’t help either.
I stood in this same spot with her. She’d talked about what she wanted…
There.
My eyes snagged on the building she’d pointed out. The one where she said she’d buy a place. A place that was hers, and no one could take from her.
I could give her this. Safety. Consistency. If my mate wanted that apartment, then it would be me who gave it to her. I had saved all my money from when I was enlisted, and Boone had invested it. I had plenty. Enough to buy her that fancy downtown loft outright, without a mortgage.
If she wasn’t going to move to Montana with me, I’d make sure she felt safe and provided for here.
Yes. Fuck, yes.
She might want me out of her life, but she didn’t know much about marked mates. It was my job to care for her. Protect her. Make her happy.
If that meant an apartment in the midst of all this fucking concrete, then that was what my mate was getting.