Her body warmed at his words. He’d protected her. Stood between her and Duke last night even though she didn’t think the big biker intended to hurt her. But if he’d tried, then Zeke would have stopped him. She’d only ever felt that sort of protection from her brothers. And that was different. They were family.
Zeke was. . .she didn’t know exactly what he was.
More.
“You’ve stopped eating.”
“I’m full.”
He frowned as though he didn’t believe her.
“I really can’t eat this much.”
“All right. I laid out some workout gear for you. Do you need help getting changed?”
“I can get myself changed. I’m not completely helpless.”
“I didn’t say you were,” he told her mildly.
“Shouldn’t we be focusing on finding Keira rather than what I’m eating or working out?” she snipped.
“The others are taking care of finding Keira. There’s nothing either of us can do. I’m taking care of you. And I think before we go for a workout, we need to go over my rules.”
Well. Shit.
He turned her chair so she was facing him where he still sat at the table. He reached out and tucked her hair behind her ear. It was such a tangled mess that she’d simply dragged it back into a ponytail. But a few strands had obviously broken free.
“First. You can’t use your phone. I’ll keep it charged and with me, in case Keira calls. I’ve turned off the location tracker just in case. You want to call your brothers, tell me. Hayes keeps a sat phone here for emergencies, so we’ll use that.”
That sounded fair enough.
“Second. And you already know this. There will be no talking down about yourself. I won’t stand for it. No one talks badly about my baby, including her.”
That was a hard one for her. But she nodded.
“Three. You need to talk to me. Tell me if there’s anything I need to do to help you. If there’s something that makes you uncomfortable, even if it’s something small, I want you to promise to talk to me.”
“Communication is hard for me,” she told him.
“I know. If there is anything I can do to help make it easier, tell me.”
She gave him a nod.
“Good girl.”
“That’s all?”
“That’s all for now,” he told her. “When we get back to normal, we’ll have a chat about how fast you drive your car and skipping meals. I know you won’t be skipping meals while we’re here because I’ll be monitoring that.”
She sighed. “Jeez, kind of wondering what I signed up for here.”
“I can guarantee you that at the end of this, you will be healthier than you ever have been. Go get into your workout clothes.”
14
Working out was hell.
It didn’t take long until she was puffing away and sweat had her clothing sticking to her skin. Gross. Yuck.