Chapter 187

I was eating a grilled cheese sandwich and tomato soup in the dining room when Andrew stormed in that night. It was a rare moment when I could hear him stomping down the hall before I caught his intoxicating smell wafting through the door. He was pissed.

I placed my sandwich down on my plate and braced myself for his lecture.

Andrew came to a halt in front of me, towering over me.

“Did you go to Bob’s apartment today?” he demanded.

“Hello to you, too,” I said, avoiding the subject.

“Answer the question.”

“Yes.”

Andrew huffed out a breath through his nostrils.

“Why?”

“Someone had to confront him about what he did to Eliza.”

“No, no one did, not yet. You especially didn’t have to.”

I stood up, pulling myself as tall as I possibly could.

“Yes, I did. He hurt one of my friends, and I couldn’t let him get away with that.”

“I thought that you understood that I had it under control—”

“How? By just letting him get away with it?”

“The police arrested the man who actually beat Eliza up and submitted the note into their evidence locker. Bob is currently a person of interest for them, but you need to remember that this all takes time.”

“How much time? And who’s going to get hurt in the process?”

Tears sprung to my eyes, but I just let them fall.

“What if they go after Nikolas left? With his bad heart, he might not survive an attack like that.”

A pained look crossed Andrew’s face ever so briefly, but it was quickly replaced by his steely, angry expression.

“And what if Bob had taken that moment to hurt you instead? I wasn’t around to protect you. You could have been seriously hurt, or worse.”

My heart melted a little at this admission from Andrew. So that was what this was really about. It wasn’t about me possibly compromising some investigation into Bob; Andrew was worried that I could have gotten hurt.

I reached my hand up and gently caressed Andrew’s cheek.

“Love, I appreciate your concern, but I was never in any danger,” I said, deciding to leave out the fact that I had felt like I was in danger at one point during my little exploit. “Jeffrey was by my side the entire time, and the Special Guard was never far. They could have handled anything that came our way.”

Andrew closed his eyes and wrapped his hand around mine. He shook his head, letting out a deep breath.

“You just don’t understand. You still could have put yourself in danger doing this. We have no idea what Bob is capable of doing or what resources he has access to.”

He dropped my hand and began to pace the floor, walking away from me, then toward me, and back again.

“He’s a wild card,” Andrew said, his voice gruff with irritation. “I can’t figure him out. I don’t know what he’s going to do when, and I can’t pinpoint how he’s able to do everything that he’s doing. He’s just too dangerous for you to approach without me.”

“Even if I have Jeffrey and the Special Guard with me? You told me that they are the best in their fields.”

Andrew ran his hand through his hair.

“They are, and they can protect you against just about any threat that I can think of. It’s just…”

He paused. His mind seemed to be running a million miles an hour, trying to find a way to get me to understand his way of thinking. I waited patiently for him to finish his thought process.

“I won’t be able to forgive myself if something happens to you because I’m not there.”

Andrew stopped pacing, standing in front of me. He rubbed his forehead hard enough to take the skin right off.

“If that’s not enough, Lisa called me at work to tell me off for you accusing Bob of yet another atrocity.”

Of course, Lisa was the one who had told Andrew that I had been there. I should have known.

“What did she say?” I asked.

“The same things as before: that I need to back off, that I better accept their relationship and officiate the ceremony or else she’ll disown me, that I’m a rotten father for not supporting her…”

Andrew’s hand clenched into a fist.

“She’s pissed, Crystal, even more than before.”

I grabbed his fist and brought it to my lips, kissing the knuckles.

“I’m sorry, Andrew. I should have at least prepared you for this by letting you know what I was going to do.”

“You shouldn’t have done it at all.”

I closed my eyes and breathed deeply in and out through my nostrils. I opened my eyes again and nodded.

“You’re right. I shouldn’t have done it at all. But…”

I hesitated, unsure if I should bring this up with him again. He was already so on-edge; he didn’t need me reminding him of what he thought of as one of his failures.

“Andrew, we have to do something before Lisa gets hurt.”

Andrew’s body stiffened.

“I know.”

“You don’t understand. I think that it might be sooner than we previously thought.”

His eyes narrowed at me.

“What do you mean?”

My eyes fell to the ground. I didn’t want to tell him this, but I had to, now.

“I think he might have already hurt her.”

Andrew ripped his hand out of my grasp. His growl rippled through my body, causing my stomach to knot up.

“How? How do you know this?” he asked.

“I’ve seen bruises on her in two different places, one on her arm and one on her chin.”

Andrew stormed up and down the length of the dining table. His head turned left and right, searching for something that he could take his frustrations out on. He came to a stop in the middle of the table.

With a roar, he pulled his fist back and slammed it down hard on the table. His hand went straight through the woods, sending fragments flying. As he pulled his hand back, Andrew panted and stared at the hole he had made in the solid oak table.

For a minute, I froze in my spot, too uncertain to approach him. When I was sure that he was calmed down, I slowly walked up to him. I reached for the hand that had gone through the table, and he let me examine it for splinters.

As I pulled the splinters out of his hand, regret and self-hatred crossed Andrew’s face. I let him silently berate himself for as long as he needed to, focusing on my task of removing his splinters as I waited for him to feel like talking again.

“Yes, we do need to do something before he hurts her…more,” he finally said, his voice sounding more subdued, “but we have to be patient. It’s like the case against Bob. Everything will build up in its own time, and when the time is right, we will know.”

I nodded, not daring to argue with him. He had as much on the line as I did. Still, I did not understand how he could remain patient with so much at stake—for all of us.