Dead by Midnight - Beverly Barton [119]
With the length of the room separating them, Lorie and Mike looked at each other. And then Mike turned to Jack. “You and Cathy can go on home. I’ll stay with Lorie.”
No one uttered a sound for a couple of minutes, and then Jack replied, “Sure thing, if that’s what you want. I guess it makes sense for several of us to rotate shifts, but since I’m already here, you could have—”
“We’re not rotating shifts,” Mike told him. “I’m moving in. I’ll be staying here with Lorie until she’s no longer in danger. I’ll go in to the office during the day, but I’ll be here every night.”
“What!” Lorie gasped. “You—you’re moving in here with me?”
Mike looked her square in the eye. “That’s right.”
“But what about M.J. and Hannah?”
“My mother will be staying at the house with them.”
“And Abby, what’s she going to think about your moving in here with me?”
“Abby understands the situation,” Mike said.
“Does she? I’m glad she understands, because I sure don’t. How about explaining it to me?”
Chapter 23
Lorie wasn’t sure if she was relieved or not that Cathy and Jack had left so quickly. A part of her wished they had stayed, at least Cathy, for moral support. But on the other hand, she knew that this particular confrontation needed to be solely between Mike and her. His showing up at her door and announcing that he was moving in with her had come as a complete surprise.
No, surprise was too mild a word. Replace that with shock. Yes, that was how she felt. Totally shocked.
“My God, what were you thinking?” she demanded the moment they were alone. “People are already talking about us, so I can only imagine what is going to happen now.”
When he stood there and stared at her, saying nothing, she marched over and stopped directly in front of him. “Why, Mike? Why are you doing this?”
“It’s something I have to do,” he told her, the words dragging out of him as if they caused him pain.
“And why is that?” She was not going to let him off with such a simplistic explanation. “It’s not as if I didn’t already have protection. Jack was here. And you have a deputy posted outside.”
“Yeah, I know, but…” He hesitated, as if choosing his next words carefully. “I need to be the one protecting you.”
She glared at him. “No, you don’t. You need to be home with your children. You need to stay as far away from me as you can. Not only do you have a reputation to uphold, which you can’t do living under the same roof with me, but you shouldn’t put yourself between me and a killer. Hannah and M.J. have already lost one parent. I don’t want to be the reason they lose another.”
“Are you saying that you assume because Shelley Gilbert was murdered, someone will try to kill me?”
“Yes, of course, that’s what I’m saying. You can’t put your life on the line for me.”
“But that’s just it,” he said. “If something happened to you and I knew that I hadn’t done everything possible to keep you safe, I couldn’t live with myself.”
“Damn it, Mike, where is this sense of responsibility coming from? For nearly nine years, you were barely able to speak to me or even look at me, and when you did speak to me, you made it perfectly clear that you wanted absolutely, positively nothing to do with me.”
“Yeah, I know. Thanks for reminding me of what a jerk I’ve been.”
She was momentarily rendered speechless, her mind completely blank.
“I’m moving in and I’m staying until you’re no longer in any danger. People can say whatever they want to say. I’m here as your personal bodyguard, not as your lover. If people want to believe otherwise…” He shrugged. “I have to do this. I wish I could give you a better explanation, but I can’t.”
“Hannah and M.J. will be—”
“For some inexplicable reason, my children seem to adore you. They’re okay with my staying here. And my mother encouraged me to do this. She told me to do what I had to do.”
Lorie huffed and threw up her hands in frustration, then glowered at him. “What about Abby Sherman? You can’t tell me that she