"That can't happen." She said it on a quick hushed breath and the line went dead.
Shit. Did someone catch her talking to me? What was going on with her?
The hairs on the back of my neck tingled because something just didn't feel right. I understood a mother wanting to protect her child even if it meant sacrificing her own happiness. But Lupe knew what I did for a living and what I was capable of doing to help her.
She knew that I would be able to get her away from her family and keep her safe. But she didn't come. She didn't want to come. What sort of mother wouldn't want to be with her child, if it was possible?
Remembering that Harper was upstairs with Mo, I shoved the phone into my pocket and hurried back upstairs to his room. She wasn't there. Mo was sleeping quietly. It was a miracle.
I went back downstairs and walked through the house. "Harper?"
She wasn't in the living room or out on the terrace, nor in the kitchen. She didn't strike me as a woman that would go poking through nonpublic rooms, so I had to believe that she left.
That was a disappointment. The man in me would've liked to have spent a little time with her. Now that she was my neighbor, maybe I would be able to.
With the house empty and quiet, the fatigue caught up with me. I went back up to my room to lay down to take a much-needed nap. I kicked off my shoes and lay on my bed, letting out a long sigh as I settled into the mattress. My body relaxed. Finally, I was going to have some peace and quiet. I rolled over onto my side, getting comfortable. I closed my eyes and waited for sleep to come.
A baby’s cry broke through the silence.
CHAPTERSIX
Harper
I had discovered some very unsettling things about Noel St. Martin since moving in next door to him. The first was how rich he had to be to own the ginormous home next door. Noel didn't give off an impoverished vibe, but neither did he exude billionaire status which he most certainly had to be to own that house.
His hair was a little long, as if he had forgotten to get it cut. I couldn’t remember ever seeing him in a suit like Archer wore. He didn’t look unkempt, but he didn’t put a lot of care into his appearance, which was a shame because he was a handsome man.
More unsettling was how I ended up living next door to him. It couldn't be a coincidence, could it?
My first thought when I ran into Noel was that somehow Bran had hired him to buy that house and live next door to me. I knew that was ludicrous.
How would Bran have known that I was going to buy this particular house? I didn't know what was going on, but something really seemed off about this whole situation.
Then there was seeing this lethal looking man looking helpless in caring for his infant son. Why was it that seeing a powerful man nurturing a child that made my ovaries sing?
Out of all the unsettling aspects of discovering Noel living next door, the biggest was how sexy he looked with his son.
Sure, I noticed that Noel was a good-looking man before, but that was always offset by my guardedness around him since I couldn't ever be sure that he wasn’t there because Bran hired him to follow me. The way my heart went totally soft and gooey watching him hold his child while trying to soothe him was really disconcerting.
The following week, I focused on getting my home unpacked and settling in. After long days getting the house finished, I would spend my evenings out on the terrace looking over the ocean.
My terrace was a little bit higher than Noel’s, and on occasion I saw him walking around his terrace with the baby crying like a banshee. A couple of times I nearly took pity thinking I’d go over to offer my assistance.
To be honest I don't know why the baby stopped crying when I held it except maybe it thought I was his mother or there was something about me that was similar to his mother.
Ultimately, I didn’t offer any help. I was paranoid about how it came to be that I was living next door to Noel, and so I kept my distance. It was really a disappointment because I loved my new home and if not for the fact that Noel was next-door, I'd be blissfully happy.
I hated how my paranoia was impacting my enjoyment of the house. I had to find out one way or another how I ended up here with Noel next-door. I went to the extra bedroom I set up as a home office and pulled out the paperwork from the home sale.
Leafing through it, I found the name of the owner. It wasn't a person. Instead, it was a company, B&A LLC.
I suppose it wasn't that unusual for a company to own a property although usually that was done with investment property. This home wasn't the type of property someone would buy to rent out.
I turned on my computer and began searching for information on B&A LLC but wasn't able to find anything. I knew one person who was an expert at finding information, but I wasn’t about to call Bran since the reason for my search was to determine if he was behind Noel being next door to me.
I pulled out my phone and called Selene. As a real estate agent, she had to have the means to find out more about the seller.
“Harper.”