Hold Her Close

“I’m upstairs, where you left me,” she calls, and the relief that I feel nearly puts me on the fucking floor. I bend over and lean on my knees, heaving in breath after breath to try to get my heart rate down. The dogs are all inside, laying against the cool marble floor, panting too.

“Holy shit. Are you okay?” I look up and see her standing at the top of the staircase. She’s running a towel through her hair, so casually, and she is such a contrast to the things I was imagining just minutes before. She’s dressed for work in a perfect suit, she looks fine. Healthy. Jack just said that shit to mess with my head. I want to pull her into my arms and never let her go. But I’m covered in sweat, and I don’t want to ruin her suit.

“Jack,” I say, panting still. “He drove by me on the end of my run. Flashed his gun and made me think he was coming this way.”

Sadie pales. “Oh my God. He knows I’m here?” How?

“He must have seen me pick you up last night. This guy, Sadie, he just has eyes everywhere. But this house is secure. You’re safe here.”

“Fuck.” She walks down the stairs to me, throwing her wet towel over the bannister and plopping herself on the couch. “I can’t stay locked up in here, though. I have to go to work, Jon. And I refuse to let this man terrify me and back me into a corner. That’s just what he wants. To intimidate me. It’s not going to happen.”

I hate that she’s right, because I want her to be safe. But Jack thinking that he’s terrified her will just egg him on. He’ll fucking love it. So she has to go to work, live her life. “You’re right, but please, let me arrange for some security. Jack is out there right now with a gun. I don’t know where he is, and I don’t know his intentions, but he’s dangerous and unpredictable. I don’t take death threats from him lightly.”

She nods. “Yeah. That’s fine. I’m stubborn, but I’m not stupid.”

A knock at the door makes her jump. “It’s Ben,” I tell her. “He shows up every morning around this time.” But I make sure to look through the peephole first.

When I open the door, his eyes go immediately to Sadie and then back to mine. “Hi,” he says, but it sounds more like a question

“We have a situation,” I say. “Sadie needs security. I want a full team to travel with her, and then when she’s here, they’re to stick around. She needs to get to work soon, so get started. Don’t spare any expense. I want this done right. And fast.”

Ben’s eyes widen. “Okay, I can do that. Give me a few minutes.”

I nod, and he steps into the kitchen, already typing on his phone. He knows me well enough to know that I don’t ask for frivolous things, so for me to tell him to do it at no expense is serious.

“Why are you doing this for me?” Sadie asks quietly from the couch.

I find that I can’t look at her. I don’t want her to see any fear on my face, because if she does, I’ll be vulnerable. She’ll know just how badly I need her to be safe and she’ll wonder why. So I shrug. “The money isn’t an issue to me, if that’s what you mean. I have everything I need, and you need this. What good is the money if you can’t spend it on the people you love?”

Sadie sucks in a breath, and too late I realize what I said. Oh, fuck.

“I’m sorry,” I say. “I didn’t mean—”

But she’s smiling at me and is off the couch and moving toward me in a second. I’m still sweaty from my run, but she doesn’t seem to care. She folds herself into my arms and gets up on her tippy-toes to kiss me.

I realize as she kisses me that I’ve already given my entire heart to her, so what does it matter if I let the L word slip? On some level, she has to know how I feel. And all I can hope is that she may feel the same way too.9SadieAlan looks a little disgruntled as he steps into my office. He didn’t appreciate the grilling from the security guard standing at my door. Unfortunately I was on the phone for a few minutes and I hadn’t realized he was trying to get in before I was able to wave away the security guard so Alan could come through. Luckily it’s all but forgotten as he sits across from me and starts updating me on my first, and very successful story.

“Things are going through the roof, Sadie. The story has been picked up by all the affiliates, and the social media response is absolutely off the charts.”