So, yes, she knew Eric was strong. She knew he was fast. But he’d pounded Mark before she could so much as blink.

“The new boyfriend seems…way protective.” Mark’s voice was stilted as he approached her.

She stood next to Eric’s car, her hips propped against the side of the vehicle. At his words, she tilted her head.

“Protective…” Mark said again. “Fucking dangerous. Take your pick.”

Piper swallowed. Eric was talking to two members of his team and one of the uniformed cops who’d arrived. “He’s not my boyfriend, and he’s not dangerous.”

“Uh, yeah, tell that to someone who isn’t sporting a bruised jaw because of him.”

Right. “Some…things have been happening lately. He’s like—Eric is like my bodyguard, and when you lunged forward, he reacted, thinking you were attacking me.”

He closed the space between them. Stared down at her. “I would never do that to you. Would never want you hurt. I wasn’t bullshitting back there. You saved my ass.”

She glanced away from him, the memories stirring in her mind. She’d been taking out the trash one day, walking in the narrow alley behind her building, and she’d found him. Passed out, a broken bottle of Jack at his side. She hadn’t been able to leave him because she’d remembered all the times her mother had come home and passed out on the couch…

Until the day she didn’t come home.

Piper had dragged Mark, literally hauled him inch by painful inch, back to her gallery. She’d sobered him up with coffee. And she’d asked him…why.

Mark’s sister had been murdered—one year to the day that Piper had found him in that alley. When he’d talked to her, when he’d told Piper his story, Mark had said it was his fault. He’d been supposed to pick up his sister after work, but he’d gotten distracted. He’d arrived an hour late.

His sister had been dead when he found her. She’d been viciously stabbed, over and over again.

Her killer had never been caught.

Piper had been able to tell by Mark’s eyes…the guilt had been eating him from the inside out.

“After what happened to Katie, shit, you know I’d want to help you. If some bastard out there is targeting you, talk to me. Let me help you!”

Piper exhaled slowly. “Eric runs Wilde Protection and Securities. He’s helping me. Providing around the clock protection.” She pointed toward Eric. “His team is on the case.”

At that moment, Eric looked up. His gaze zeroed in on her. Even in the growing darkness, she could feel the heat of his stare.

Then his head turned, and she knew he was staring at Mark. Eric said something else to the people around him, then he began marching her way.