I can’t look away because his intensity has me mesmerized.

“She will stay with me,” Forrest commands like there is no room to contest his words.

But it’s enough to shake me out of this trance. “Wait, what? No, not happening. I can take care of myself, asshole. I don’t need your grumpy ass hovering over me.”

“Not up for debate.” He glares at me again.

And before I can answer, Sandon agrees with him. “It actually has merit. If we leave her address as the current rented apartment but she doesn’t stay there, it is an added level of protection. That way she is never alone, and we don’t need to post a guard outside the door, which she’ll hate.”

“Don’t talk about me like I’m not here!” I storm toward Forrest with my hands on my hips. “You can’t stand being near me because I piss you off constantly when I speak, yet now you want to be roommates. Why?” I ask, pushing him in the chest.

“Because you need me.” It’s almost a growl.

“Let’s get this straight, I don’t need any man in my life.”

He grunts with frustration. “You. Need. Me. Understood?” His eyes are boring into me like he thinks that can make me agree.

As we stand here snorting at each other like two bulls about to butt heads, Flynn starts talking behind me.

“I, for once, agree with my brother. How about the rest of you?” I can hear all the men agreeing, and then I feel Felisha’s arm on mine as she starts to pull me away.

“Give us a minute,” she says as she drags me toward her bathroom while my eyes are still locked on Forrest’s.

Closing the door, she turns me to look at her. “I want you to take a few deep breaths and then we will talk this through.” Her voice is not gentle, it’s just calm and comforting. She has seen me at my best and seen me at my worst. And this is somewhere in the middle.

Trying to take the breaths is hard because my heart is racing with rage, my head is running trying to process everything that has just happened in the last twenty minutes, and my gut is telling me that although it’s a totally ridiculous idea, I should do as Forrest said.

“What’s the most important thing right now?” Felisha’s hands are on my shoulders so I can’t look away.

“To find this fucker and sort him out,” I blurt out at her.

“No, Harper, it’s to keep you safe,” she appeals to me to put myself first.

“I can do that in my own home,” I whine.

“But you aren’t in your own home, and your apartment isn’t set up with security like we are going to need,” Felisha refutes.