Jared smiled. “No. We’ve talked about this. She’s keeps an eye on Ryan the same way we were allowed to train. We have connections.”

“That’s not the point.”

“I know,” Jared said, opening the door.

I didn’t kiss him when I passed through the door, or when he opened the passenger side for me as he always did, or before he left me for the driver’s seat. He didn’t attempt to apologize, which he only did when he felt he was right. Knowing that infuriated me further.

“I’m sorry you’re angry,” he said.

I glared at him. “That’s lame and you know it. You didn’t tell me Ryan had enlisted in the first place! You didn’t let me say goodbye to Claire! Sorry I’m angry….” I muttered the last words and crossed my arms, settling into an unyielding foul mood. When Jared didn’t reply, I peeked at him from the corner of my eye. He was trying not to laugh.

“This is not funny, Jared!”

His mouth immediately flat-lined. “I didn’t say it was, you’re just,” he shook his head as he pulled to the curb of Titan Mercantile, “trying to be angry, with a series of annoyed expressions on your beautiful face; it’s amusing—I’m sorry.”

“Stop being sorry, and start being…I don’t know! Sorry!”

A corner of Jared’s mouth rebelled and turned up slightly before he straightened it again. “Have a good day.”

I slammed the door, beyond trying to have an argument with him. At times it was maddening how in love with me he was.

I took a few steps toward the building and then stop. I returned to the Escalade and sighed. Sheepish, I opened the door. “Are you coming in?”

“Not today,” he smiled.

Jared had spent endless hours at Titan Mercantile as a child, and it was his least favorite place to go with his father. It didn’t help that the other employees stared at him as if he were a zoo animal. They couldn’t figure our relationship out, although most of them knew that Jared was Gabe’s son, and my security.

Seeing Gabe shadow my father was just another day at the office when my father walked the halls, but now that it was apparent that I needed protection, who also happened to be my fiancé, it began more than one string of rumors about my family.

One of my fellow interns in particular, Sasha, had an immediate interest in Jared. She wasted no time with the saccharine-laced pleasantries; on the contrary, she was downright hateful to me on the subject.

“So…Jared….” she began as I walked into the office we shared. She eyed his Escalade from the window as she spoke.

“I have a lot to do, Sasha.”