Unbound

“You’re more fragile than you should be, Evvie.” For a strange moment, Nyx was the one who looked truly vulnerable. Her thus far implacable calm vanished. She licked her lips anxiously. “You’ll let him teach you what you need. You’ll be careful. He’s good at what he does…and the things you…I picked him for reasons you—”

“Nyx.” Eavan backed down the porch stairs and looked up at Nyx. “I’m not actually in any danger. You and I both know that. Hiring him”—Eavan glanced at Cillian—“is a control tactic. It won’t change anything, but you don’t have to pretend it’s a legitimate bodyguard situation.”

Nyx lashed out with a closed fist.

Eavan gripped the banister in front of her to keep from stumbling. Blood slid down her chin from a cut lip.

Cillian started forward.

“Stay out of it.” Nyx didn’t even look his way. Her attention and her next words were for Eavan. “You’ll let Mr. Owens guard you as carefully as if there were hellhounds pursuing you, Eavan, or you’ll move into this house. I make the decisions in this family, and this one is not negotiable.”

Eavan stood motionless, staring at her cousin as the blood dripped from her mouth. They both had all of the affect of statues.

“Don’t challenge me, Eavan. The consequences would be very unpleasant.” Nyx’s hair seemed to move of its own accord; the dark tendrils twitched like restless serpents around her shoulders.

Cillian stood there awkwardly. He wasn’t sure either of them should be trusted, but instinct told him that there was a threat to Eavan whether she was inside the house or on her own. It shouldn’t matter as much as it did, but he had a longtime habit of cheering the underdog.

“Am I understood, Eavan?” Nyx asked.

Finally, Eavan bowed her head. “You are, but I’ll prove that I don’t…need him.”

“I almost wish you were right, Evvie,” Nyx murmured. Then, before anyone could say another word, she spun on her heel and stepped back inside the house. She didn’t close the door. Instead, she left it open so they could watch her walk away swinging her hips like an invitation. Her footsteps echoed as she went into the room, a heartbeat rhythm beat out by her sharp heels.

And Cillian couldn’t look away. Seeing Nyx go made him feel like he was losing something—even though she made his skin crawl.

“Are you all right?” Eavan’s voice drew his attention from the open door.

“Are you?”

“I’ll be better once I’m out of here.” She dropped her shoes to the ground and slipped her feet into them. Then she pulled out a tissue and wiped the blood from her face.

He started down the walk, but stopped when he realized that she hadn’t moved.

“Why did you take the job, Mr. Owens?” She watched him as she twisted her hair back into a tight coil. Everything in her posture screamed “challenge.” It made him want to refuse any answer. Which works out well. He couldn’t tell her anything.

“It’s what I do right now.” He didn’t lie, not really. Watching her was his job. His supervisors were very clear that he should accept the terms of his anonymous source’s offer—including guarding Eavan.

“Guard people against nonexistent enemies?” She almost smiled, and the change was remarkable. She was every bit as tempting as the beautiful monster that had hired—blackmailed? manipulated? — him, and based on her family and her association with Brennan, she was also likely to be just as deadly.

He tamped down the softness he was feeling when he’d watched her face off with Nyx.

“Nyx seems certain you’re in danger,” he said.

“Nyx is sure I’m in danger every time I’m not in her direct line of sight.” Eavan shook her head. “If you wanted to simply say you guard me, but not—”

“She hired me to watch you. I’ll watch you.” He tried a falsely friendly smile. They’d do better if they were at least civil to each other. “You could make that easier on both of us if you answered questions.”

“Sure. I’ll answer what you need to know to do the job Nyx hired you for.” She smiled again, not full of promises like the women inside, but with barely curved lips. It was a dismissal, and in case he missed the message, she turned and walked down the flagstone path.

Yeah. This is going to be a cakewalk. He snorted and followed her. Before she had taken a half-dozen steps down the end of the walk, he was in front of her. “Guarding you means you don’t go wandering off.”

“I’m not an errant child, Mr. Owens. I drove here on my own; I go to and from work every day on my own. I go—”

“No. You used to. I’ll be escorting you to and from everything for the time being.” He’d hoped that Nyx had explained the extent of his role in Eavan’s life, but if she did, Eavan wasn’t cooperating. To be sure there was no confusion, he added, “Nyx was adamant about that part of my services. I’ll be accompanying you everywhere you go, every time you leave your apartment for any reason. It’s why she rented the apartment. That way, I’ll be within reach the moment you step outside your door.”