I was the one whom had exposed her by coming into her life, and since I had no intention of leaving I was going to make damn sure that she was protected.
I tried my best to make my words as concise and as clear as possible. “Willow, I think the attack on your store has something to do with those people who want me to make their Ponzi scheme for them.”
She blinked, hard. “What?”
“They know that you’re in my life, so they must have done this to get some sort of response out of me to fix it.”
Right now, there was nothing I hated more than the look on her face. It was of fear and worry. The fact that I was the one to cause it made me sick to my stomach. To my surprise however, she suddenly smiled, and taking a step forward, placed a hand on my chest. The warmth that began to spread into every cell of my body at the simple contact, stunned me.
“Are you sure about this?” she asked. “Or are you just saying this so that I’ll let you take on the responsibility of these renovations?”
“Willow, I wouldn’t say this to you if I didn’t have to. Trust me, the last thing I ever want is for you to worry or to make you unhappy. But, as I told you, the men I am dealing with … are not the very best of people, and a huge sum of money is at stake here. They will not stop at anything to bring me to heel. I guess this is one way they’re trying to light a fire under my ass.”
“Why now?”
I sighed again.
“It’s a long story and I don’t want to get you involved. The less you know the better it is for you, but basically, my losses yesterday made them nervous. They are lashing out at me.”
“Oh, my God! What will you do?”
I grinned. “Are you worrying about me?”
“Of course.”
“I’m a master of the numbers. I’ll survive.”
She frowned. “Caleb, you didn’t lose that money deliberately, did you? Just so you won’t have to make their Ponzi scheme.”
I put my finger to my lips and my eyes widened. Then I said, “Of course not. That would be illegal.”
She moved her hand to my cheek to comfort me, and I felt even more guilty and undeserving of her.
“I’ll fix this, Willow. I promise, I’ll fix all the damage. Just give me a few days and you won’t even know there was any damage. Let me take care of all the renovations for you. I’ll bring you the labor and materials that you need right now, and they’ll begin immediately. Just tell them whatever you want done, and include as many upgrades as you would like.”
“Okay,” she whispered.
“Secondly, I’m going to put a security team on you.”
Her lips parted to refuse me, but I put my finger against her lips. “Please. For my peace of mind. You won’t even see them, I promise you that, but I need their eyes on you just in the meantime.”
She sighed, and leaned her forehead against my chest, “Fine. I understand, but only temporarily, right?”
“Absolutely.”
She lifted her head to gaze into my eyes. “I’m worried,” she said. “About you. If they can do this to frighten me it means they can do the same or worse to you.”
“If they wanted to hurt me they would have done it already; they’re just doing this to force me to speed things up. Don’t worry about it at all.”
“Alright,” she said and even though she was scowling, lifted to the tips of her toes to press a kiss to my cheeks.
After our agreement, it felt as though a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders. We walked back into the store, and saw that one more person was now present. It was the idiot who had purposely dropped a plant on my feet during my previous visit, the one who was secretly in love with her. I had checked him out to confirm he was sane, his jealous attitude was the only loose screw he was dealing with, and he was all clear. I ignored him and turned to Willow. I put a hand on her arm.
“I’m leaving now,” I said. “Keep me in the loop and send me updates as often as you can.”
She nodded and folded her arms as if she was cold. Usually, she kissed and embraced me before my departure. She was either distracted and disturbed by the break in, or it was out of consideration for the idiot who was still watching us with a sullen, hostile expression.
“Willow,” Sandra called.
Willow gave me one last look filled with concern, and moved from my side towards Sandra, who was trying to salvage some plants from the floor.
I started to head towards the door, but the idiot approached me. He stopped right in front of my face and I carefully reined in my temper. Willow didn’t need me to add to her misery. As long as she considered him her friend, I would remain polite if it fucking killed me.