“Hey, you ready?” he chirped as I walked out of the bedroom. I nodded, picking up my purse. “I’m in the mood for bacon, what about you?” he asked, taking my hand and interlacing our fingers.

I shrugged. “Anything, as long as it’s greasy and bad for me.”

In the local café that was a five minute drive away from our apartment, I ordered a huge plate of bacon and eggs, and surprisingly, it did make me feel better. Or maybe that was the two espressos that I had to accompany it.

“So, about our date tonight, I know where I want to go. Make sure you dress casual and warm, and no heels,” Ashton instructed, grinning as we waited for the waitress to bring his change. I frowned. Our date night was usually on a Friday, but because I’d had my girls’ night, we’d shifted our date to tonight instead.

I cocked my head to the side. “Where are we going?”

He shook his head, smiling teasingly. “Surprise.”

“Oh come on, tell me, please?” I whined. I hated surprises, and he knew it.

“Nope,” he answered, popping the p. The bell above the door rang, signalling someone either coming in or leaving the café. His eyes flicked to the door and his body stiffened. I glanced over my shoulder in time to see a group of five guys walking in. They were all loud and boisterous, like they were still drunk or high from the night before. “You ready to go?” he asked, still discreetly watching the group of guys as they started harassing a couple of women a couple of tables away. I nodded, standing up. Ashton’s hand wrapped around mine as he pulled me close to his back on the opposite side to the men than were laughing and jeering, pushing each other playfully.

When we were about four feet from the door, one of them stepped in front of us and smiled. “Leaving so soon?”

“Yeah, excuse us.” Ashton smiled politely, tightening his grip on my hand.

“Well, maybe your lady would rather stay here,” the guy suggested, smiling at me.

I snorted in disbelief. “No thanks.”

Ashton shifted on the balls of his feet. “Seriously, bud, excuse us before you get yourself hurt,” he growled. The guy laughed but stepped out of the way, waving us through. As soon as we walked past him, he grabbed my hand, yanking me backwards. My instincts took over and I turned, throwing my knee up into his groin. He groaned in pain and Ashton shoved me towards the door as one of the other guys stepped forward.

“Son of a bitch!” he ranted.

“Leave with Dean!” Ashton growled, pushing me towards the door again.

“What? No!” I cried, horrified. There was no way I was leaving him here with five guys.

“NOW, ANNA!” he ordered.

I flinched at the authority in his voice and quickly turned for the door. As soon as I was outside, I ran to Dean, who was about a hundred years away, leaning casually against the wall. “There’s a fight. Go help him!” I shouted, pointing frantically at the café. I felt sick with worry. He was going to get hurt, I just knew it. My heart was pounding out of my chest.

Dean’s eyes widened as he looked back at the café but didn’t move. Suddenly he shook his head. “No. I need to take you away.” His hand clamped around my elbow, starting to drag me forward.

What the hell? He’s going to leave Ashton on his own? “Dean, what the hell are you doing? Ashton’s in there with five guys!” I screamed, trying desperately to shake off his hold.

“Then I feel sorry for the five guys. My orders from him are to take you away if there’s trouble,” he replied simply.

I didn’t want to hurt him, but if he carried on dragging me away then I was going to break his face. “For God’s sake! You can’t just leave him in there. Get the hell off me! Dean, will you stop? Ashton’s in there on his own, please go and help him!” I shouted, struggling to a stop.

Another pair of hands gripped my hips, and I squealed from the shock. “Chill out, Baby Girl, I’m here,” Ashton said in my ear.

My breath caught as my heart stuttered. I turned to face him and threw my arms around his neck, hugging him tightly. “What happened? Are you okay?” I asked, gripping onto him for dear life, probably choking the life out of him.

Instead of answering, his arms circled my waist and he lifted me off my feet. “Dean, let’s get her to your car,” he ordered. He moved one hand to my ass and forced my legs around his waist with the other as he started to jog in the direction of the car.

“I can walk, Ashton,” I protested, unwrapping one of my legs, but he just hooked it back there again and continued to jog towards the parking lot where we’d left the cars.

“I know you can, just humour me, okay?” he countered, gripping me tightly. My breathing started to slow, and my stomach unclenched now that he was here with me. When we got to Dean’s car, Ashton set me in the passenger seat and slammed the door, talking to Dean outside. I took the opportunity to look at every inch of his exposed skin, trying to see a red mark or blemish that indicated that he’d been injured, but there was nothing.

Suddenly, he slapped Dean on the shoulder and turned on his heel, running off towards the café again. I gasped and tried to open my door so I could follow him, but Dean pushed me back into the car and locked the door before running around to the driver’s side.

“What’s going on? Where’s he going? Is he okay?” I shouted as he started the car, pulling out without even buckling his seatbelt.

“He’s fine. Someone called the police, he needs to go and handle that. It’s best that you’re not there so he doesn’t have to explain the whole undercover thing,” he explained.

I gasped, looking back over my shoulder, hating that we were driving away and leaving him. “Someone called the police? Well, what happened?” I cried, wiping my face, I didn’t even realise I was crying until I did that.

Dean shrugged. “He took care of it.

Took care of it? What the heck does that mean? There were five guys in there for goodness’ sake! “What? How?”

Dean grinned and shook his head as if I’d said something silly. “Annabelle, he’s an excellent Agent. You shouldn’t worry about him.”

I scowled at him. “I’d worry about you too, you know. I just don’t think you should have left him like that! He wouldn’t do that if that was you. He wouldn’t have left you!” I ranted angrily.

He laughed loudly. “Annabelle, Ashton would kill me himself if it meant he could stop you from getting hurt. I have no doubt in my mind about that,” he replied, still laughing.

I sighed angrily and looked out the window, not wanting to talk to him anymore. I hated the thought of Ashton just being left like that on his own. Anything could have happened to him, he could have been seriously hurt and that thought made my whole chest tighten with worry.

When we arrived at our apartment, Dean walked me in, doing a quick survey of the rooms to check they were empty before he left to wait outside the door. I sat down on the sofa and put my head in my hands. The silence was deafening as I sat there watching the clock tick around slowly. My nerves were making me feel sick. I couldn’t seem to stop myself from crying silently as I imagined all of the horrible things that could have happened to Ashton today. I could barely breathe. Unconsciously, my hand went to the inside of my elbow, pinching and picking at the skin there as I tried to regain control of my emotions.

Well over an hour later, the front door opened. I jumped up with my heart crashing in my chest. My trembling legs barely supported me as I rushed around the corner and looked up the hallway. When I saw his black head of hair, I dashed to him, jumping on him. I obviously caught him off guard because he staggered back under my weight and we both crashed into the door with a loud bang. My lips slammed against his as I kissed him fiercely. He seemed shocked but kissed me back after a second or two, wrapping his arms around me as we slumped to the floor in a heap of tangled limbs.

“All I needed to do was get in a fight to have you throw yourself at me like this? I wish I’d known that two months ago,” he joked. My tears were flowing uncontrollably again as I kissed every square inch of his face before burying my face in his neck and sobbing in relief that he was unharmed and safe. Thoughts of losing him, of him leaving me just like Jack did made my heart ache so much that it was almost unbearable. I dug my fingers into his shoulders as I pressed myself to him tightly, completely lost in my overwhelming emotions. “Hey, come on, Baby Girl. Shh, everything’s okay,” he said as he stroked my hair soothingly.

Suddenly anger boiled inside me as I realised that he’d made me feel like this. By not letting me stay and help him, he’d put me through this. It hadn’t needed to be like this, I hadn’t needed to feel this pain again.

I pulled back and smacked his chest as hard as I could which resulted in making my hand sting. “Don’t ever do that to me again!” I shouted angrily. His mouth dropped open in shock as he looked at me like I’d lost my mind. “You stupid damn boy! Don’t you realise how worried I was about you? You couldn’t even wait long enough to tell me you were okay before running off?” I shouted, pushing myself off him as he opened and closed his mouth again, looking a little lost for words.

“Anna, calm down,” he finally said, clambering to his feet. I scowled angrily. I was so mad that I didn’t even want to look at him. I turned and stormed off to the bedroom, but he followed me in there. “That’s my job,” he said sternly.

“That’s your job?” I repeated incredulously. “Your job is to leave me f**king worried sick about you? You couldn’t have stayed there for one minute to show me you were okay? You couldn’t have just left the car door open while you talked to Dean so I could hear what was going on?” I almost screamed. I was so angry that I wanted to smash something.

“Anna, calm down! My job is to get you as far away from trouble as possible,” he countered, reaching for my hand.

I jerked it away from him before he could touch me, glaring at him. “There was no damn trouble! You carried me to the car like a f**king child!” I spat, wiping my traitor tears away angrily.