“Why not?”
“Can you imagine if one morning you woke up and I didn’t remember who you were, then I left you to start a new life somewhere else with another man? He’s already been through hell.”
He pulls me closer and brushes his thumb over my cheek. “And what if he’s the one trying to hurt you?”
“I don’t see it,” I answer, shaking my head. “Besides, it’s still possible that no one is actually trying to hurt me.”
“You were shot at… and run off the road!”
“Those could both still be coincidences. Car accidents happen all the time and it’s possible someone was trespassing on your property and just target shooting or hunting. Besides, don’t you think if someone wanted to kill me out in the woods, they wouldn’t have missed?”
His brow knits together. “I didn’t say they had good aim.”
“I love how protective you are, baby,” I tell him, pressing my hand to his cheek and he meets my eyes. “I just don’t want you to be so busy looking for the danger that you miss the rest of your life… the rest of our lives.”
Emotions flick through his eyes as he stares down at me and I can see him thinking it through before he leans down and seals his lips over mine. His kiss is tender this time and I can feel every ounce of love he feels for me being poured into his touch. It’s so potent, so pure that tears sting my eyes. He pulls away and a soft smile stretches across his face.
“You ready for that shower now?”
I nod and he jumps out of bed, laughing as he scoops me up despite my squeals of protest. As we turn toward the bathroom, someone knocks on the door and he looks down at me with a scowl. I shrug and he sets me on my feet before kissing my forehead and grabbing his jeans from the floor.
“Stay here,” he orders as he pulls them on and I nod as I grab my robe off of the chair and slip into it, tying it off at the waist. Sawyer runs his hand through his hair as he walks into the living room, leaving the door to the bedroom wide open so I can see everything. As I sit on the edge of the bed, I scan through all the options as whoever it is starts pounding on the door. If it was hotel staff, they certainly wouldn’t knock like that and Mercedes would have called before coming over. The only other option that makes any sense is Gavin but he wouldn’t come here, would he? Not after I made my feelings perfectly clear yesterday.
He opens the door and starts talking to someone but they’re too far away for me to hear so I stand up and sneak into the living room.
“I’m sorry to do this, Moose, but I’ve got to bring you down for questioning,” someone says and a feeling of protectiveness wells up inside me. I march to the door and yank it open further so I can see who is on the other side.
“Who are you?”
The man on the other side of the door turns to me with wide eyes. “Detective Rodriguez. Who…”
“Why are you here?” I ask, my heart racing as I try to think of a reason why he would need to take Sawyer down to the station for questioning. Whatever it is, it doesn’t matter. He didn’t do anything wrong and I will hire the very best attorney money can buy to fight whatever charges they want to throw at him. The detective glances over at Sawyer.
“As I was just telling him, there’s been a report filed against him and I need to ask him some questions.”
I nod. “Is he under arrest?”
“Not at this time.”
“Then you can ask your questions here,” I tell him, stepping back so he can come into the room. He glances over at Sawyer, who just shrugs and turns to grab his shirt off the floor where it ended up when I threw it last night. As he slips it over his head and sits down on the couch, I sit next to him and carefully watch Detective Rodriguez as he sits in a chair across from us. When he looks up at us, I give him an expectant look.
“Right,” he sighs. “Do you know a Tawny Mullan?”
Sawyer rolls his eyes. “You know I do, Diego. Just tell me what the hell is going on.”
“Wait. You two know each other?” I ask and Sawyer nods as he wraps his arm around my shoulders and pulls me closer.
“Rodriguez helps the club from time to time and we help him when we can.”
“Look,” Rodriguez says, scrubbing his hand over his face. “The department knows I’m friends with you guys so when this hit my desk, my captain said it has to be official.”
Sawyer releases a breath and nods. “Okay. Yes, I know Tawny Mullan. We dated for a few months.”
“And when did things end?”
“A little over two weeks ago.”
He nods, writing some things down in a mini notebook. “When was the last time you saw Miss Mullan?”
“When she showed up at the club three days ago,” he says. Rodriguez writes some more things down, nodding the whole time.
“You haven’t seen or heard from her since then?”
He shakes his head. “No.”
“Do you have an alibi for last night?”
“Um, yeah,” I snap. “He does.”
Rodriguez looks up and meets my eyes. “He was with you all night?”
“He got here around six and he never left.”
“Can anyone else confirm this?” he asks and Sawyer’s muscles tense up.
“What the fuck, dude?”
I nod. “Yes, I’m certain this hotel has cameras. You could also ask whoever brought our food up last night and this morning… oh, and the bartender downstairs.”
“Okay,” he breathes as he finishes jotting down notes and slips his notebook back into his suit jacket.
“You want to tell me what the fuck is going on now?” Sawyer growls and I lay my hand on his leg to calm him. I’ve never met this bitch but there’s something about her that gets Sawyer’s hackles up and that’s enough for me. Plus, she clearly can’t take a hint where my man is concerned… not that I can blame her.
“Tawny came into the station this morning to report an assault. She’s got a pretty nasty black eye and she says you did it.”
He surges forward. “Are you fucking kidding me? I would never…”
“Chill, okay?” Rodrigues says, holding his hand up. “I could tell pretty quickly that she was full of shit and layin’ it on a little thick but I can’t look like I’m giving y’all special treatment. I had to come ask you these questions, no matter how ridiculous they are.”
“Yeah,” Sawyer sighs, relaxing back into the couch. “Okay.”
“I’ll talk to the staff here and get the videotapes. That will be more than enough to convince anyone that you had nothing to do with this,” he says as they both stand. As they walk over to the door, I sigh and turn to look out of the windows, wondering what this girl hoped to gain by framing Sawyer for assaulting her. It’s not like it would win him back…
“What are you thinking so hard about over there?” Sawyer asks as he leans down and scoops me up into his arms. I lay my head on his shoulder and sigh.
“Just wondering what Tawny was trying to do by framing you.”
He shakes his head. “You shouldn’t worry about it, baby. Knowing Tawny, she was just trying to get back at me and it didn’t work so we should focus on more important things.”