Page 45 of Defending Love
Once inside, Eli shut the door and engaged the locks.
“What the hell?” I asked when his green stare met mine. “Was that a threat?”
Chapter
Seventeen
Dani
* * *
Eli’s jaw clenched as his nostrils flared. “A fucking obvious one.” He lifted his hand. “I need to find out how they knew the safe was accessed and how they found us.”
I shook my head and hurried toward the kitchen. The blue and white striped bag was on the chair where we’d left it. Eli was a step behind me.
“What do you think they want?” I asked, peering into the depths.
“Just a minute.”
I stood puzzled as Eli hurried up the stairs. In less than a minute he was back with my phone in hand. “I want to ask Carol tomorrow if these uniforms” —he showed me the paused video on my screen— “are similar to the people who she saw last Wednesday.”
Without gloves, I dumped the contents of the bag on the kitchen table, creating a momentary ruckus as I scanned the variety of items.
“Dani, you should be wearing gloves.”
Inhaling sharply, I turned to Eli who was now behind me. “I have every right to go inside my mother’s home. I don’t understand what those men thought they were doing.”
He reached for my shoulders. “Intimidation. That’s what it was.”
I peered upward into his green stare. Unlike earlier, his orbs were solid green, calm, and reassuring. “You were scared earlier, when you came upstairs for me.” It wasn’t as much a question as it was a statement.
“I was concerned,” Eli admitted. “I knew they weren’t real FBI, and I didn’t know what they had planned or more importantly, how they found us.”
“I’ve never seen you anything but stoic.”
He ran his large palms over my shoulders and down the arms of my sweatshirt. “It’s the fucking blurred line. You mean more to me than an assignment.”
“I was scared for you, too.”
He leaned closer and kissed my hair. “Don’t worry about me. If anyone would have not made it through that meeting, it would have been them. I just don’t reach for my gun as the first option. I wanted to hear what they had to say.” His smile grew. “They thought you would be an easy mark to intimidate, and they were wrong. If you have that attorney you mentioned on speed dial, I suggest you let him or her know that something is off.”
“Seriously?” I spun, looking for a clock. “It’s after nine o’clock.”
Eli nodded. “The more people who know the better.” His gaze met mine. “Have you spoken to anyone since we got here?”
“No. I left Damien a message.”
“Do the two of you share your location on your phones?”
“Yes, but…” Shaking my head, I thought about my attorney.
I hadn’t spoken to Stephen since the cemetery. If he’d sent me information on Preston Ayers, I hadn’t had the chance to look at it. “Fine, I’ll call him.” My gaze went to the table covered in things. “What about all that?”
Eli reached in his suit coat and pulled out another pair of gloves.
I quirked a brow.
“I told you I restocked.” He tilted his chin toward the stairs. “I’ll put this all back in the bag and take it up to your room. I have a few theories, and there may be answers upstairs in the computer room. You can either go through these things in there or in your room.”
