Free The Agent Next Door by Adrienne Bell Page B

mouth.
    A half second later, the door was wrenched
open. John’s wide shoulders filled up the narrow space.
    “What happened?” he demanded.
    She looked down at the phone.
    John picked it up. He glanced for a moment at
the screen. His expression hardened. He wrapped one arm around her
shoulders and pulled her close.
    The invisible weight on her chest eased
enough that air filled her lungs. She wasn’t sure if he meant the
gesture to be reassuring or protective. She didn’t care. All that
mattered was that he was there, and she was able to breathe
again.
    For the moment, at any rate.
    John tucked her phone into his pocket, pulled
out his own and dialed. Whoever was on the other end answered
quickly.
    “He was here,” John said, then disconnected.
He looked down at her face. “You okay?”
    Erin nodded even though she wasn’t. How could
she be? It wasn’t enough that she’d been marked for death by a
brutal killer, now he had her number and wanted to play some sick
game of cat and mouse with her too?
    John must not have believed her. He lifted
her chin with his finger and forced her to meet his gaze. “It’s
going to be all right, Erin, but we’re going to have to stay right
here for just a few minutes longer. Ty and his men are going to
secure the area. When they’re done, he’ll call me and let me know
we’re clear to leave. Understand?”
    Erin nodded again, but there was no use
pretending. Her eyes burned with welling tears. Her whole body was
shaking so hard that she could barely stay on her feet. All she
wanted to do was run home, lock her doors and hide under the
blankets until this whole thing had blown over.
    But that wasn’t possible. It might never be
possible again.
    Erin tried to blink away the tears. If she
was going to get through this she was going to have to find some
other source of strength.
    “Erin,” he whispered as he lowered his head.
His mouth lingered near hers, the look in his eyes slowly changing
from apologetic to…something deeper.
    Then he blinked, and the look was gone. He
pulled back, straightening. Distancing himself, she realized.
    Marianne chose that moment to turn the corner
to the dressing rooms with her hands full of new clothes.
    “I found another—” She stopped short, a wide
smile spreading across her face. “Am I interrupting something?”
    Crap. She’d forgotten all about Marianne. How
could she have been so selfish? She’d put her friend in danger the
second she’d agreed to leave the house with her. It wasn’t a
mistake she would make again.
    Erin tried to push away from John’s side, but
he held her too tight.
    “Marianne, thank God you’re here,” Erin said.
“Don’t go back into the store.”
    The panic must have come through in Erin’s
voice. Marianne’s gray brows pulled together. “Why not?”
    “We need to go back home.”
    “But we’ve only gone to about half the stores
we planned on.”
    “It doesn’t matter. We need to get out of
here.”
    “We need to?”
    Erin nodded. She didn’t care what Marianne
thought. She couldn’t even begin to imagine what she was going to
say to explain this all away. Not that it mattered. All that
mattered was getting home in one piece. She’d worry about
everything else later.
    “Right now?” Marianne asked, her voice heavy
with suspicion.
    John’s phone chirped in his pocket. He pulled
it out and glanced at the screen.
    “Now,” he said.
     
     
     
    ***
     
     
     
    It was a quiet ride back to Shannon Court.
Marianne didn’t mention the radio once. All through the ride she
kept her arms crossed and her mouth shut as she sat in the back of
John’s Range Rover. That wasn’t a good sign. Erin could practically
hear the gears turning in her mind, trying to figure out what in
the world was going on.
    It wasn’t until they pulled into the driveway
that Marianne spoke. “So, I take it neither one of you are going to
tell me what the heck happened back there.”
    Erin looked at John. His