“Do we bring the rest of Benson Security in on this?” Elle tugged her laptop closer.
“That’s up to Rachel,” Harvard said.
As all eyes turned to her, she dabbed her lips with a napkin. “The warning gave me three days to leave TayFor. Let’s hold off telling everyone else for now. Until we have something more to go on.”
Ryan’s jaw clenched tight, and it was easy to guess he wanted to rush the building with every man he could find, interrogating every staff member until he found the culprit.
Looking Rachel in the eye, Elle cleared her throat and said, “You are amazing, and we’ll investigate your attack any way you choose. Whatever your plan, I have your back.”
For a second, it looked like Rachel didn’t quite know what to do about Elle’s declaration, but then she caught Harvard’s eye and said, “Is there any more pasta?”
“Yeah.” He stroked a hand down her back. “I’ll get you some.”
Chapter Fourteen
Elle took the photos away to have them tested for prints and DNA and to see if she could get anything off them digitally. Ryan lingered to talk to Harvard, no doubt to argue for more drastic measures to find her attackers. And Rachel said goodnight to both of them before retreating to her bedroom.
Where she currently stood, staring at her bed. Staring, but unable to actually get into it.
She’d showered and changed into a silk camisole and boy shorts set she liked to sleep in. She’d moisturized, tidied away her things, set the alarm for the morning, and checked the temperature of the bedroom. In other words, she’d done everything she could to avoid climbing into the bed she usually loved.
But no matter how determined she was to get past what had happened, when she looked at the blue and black Japanese silk of the bedspread, all she saw was that photo. No, not the photo, the images it contained. On. Her. Bed.
Thinking that changing out the cover might help, she replaced it with one that had the most gorgeous silver embroidery over black silk.
It made no difference.
She just couldn’t bring herself to get into bed.
And that made her furious. Ten years earlier, her attackers had stolen so much from her. They weren’t taking this. All she needed was a little help to get past this latest setback and return to normal, nothing more. And she knew just where to find it.
Rachel shrugged into her short black robe, tying the belt tight as she stalked across the hallway to the guest room. Her knock was firm. A few seconds later, Harvard opened the door, wearing black pajama pants that sat low on his hips and nothing else. At the sight of his muscular chest, she momentarily forgot why she was there.
“You okay?” he asked in that calming voice of his. Nothing ever seemed to rile the man. And goodness knows she’d tried often enough.
She raised her chin. “I need you to sleep with me tonight.” She narrowed her eyes. “Just sleep.”
That penetrating gaze of his seemed to bore straight through her. With Harvard, there was always the feeling that he was seeing far more than she’d like him to see. It was disconcerting.
He flicked off the light switch and stepped toward her. “Lead the way,” was all he said.
Turning on her heel, Rachel wondered at his lack of curiosity over her sudden invitation but was thankful for it. To explain would make her more vulnerable than she already felt. And she didn’t want that.
When they stepped into her bedroom, she tried to imagine how Harvard would see it. Unlike the rest of her apartment, her bedroom was decorated in shades of blue against warm white walls.
“Blue,” he said, looking around the room.
“The red clashed with that.” She pointed at the ceiling, which was the glass bottom of her pool. The gentle blue lights in the water wouldn’t do anything good for a red color scheme.
“You could have used red lights in the pool, but I’m thinking that might have given you nightmares.”
With the things going on in her head these days, he wasn’t wrong. “I sleep on the right.”
Harvard looked at the bed, then at the door. “The right is closest to the door.”
“And that’s a problem why?”
“Because if I’m going to sleep beside you, I’d rather be between you and anything that might come through that door.”