The Murphy Princess

Chapter 3

I didn't need protection, damn him.

Fiona was out for the day, so it was just me running the boutique. It had been a slow afternoon. It was storming outside so we hardly had a customer come in.

I spent most of the day doing a crossword puzzle – my only vice. Well, besides the smoking.

I liked to do them in pen, even though I so often fucked them up.

I yawned loudly, tired as hell. I hadn't been able to sleep last night at all. I found myself waiting for the sound of the SUV driving up. And sure enough, once at 11pm, again at 2am, again at 4am.

I wondered if Finn was in there or if he just had cronies drive by.

And why?

No one was after me.

So what was the purpose of it?

I tapped my pen against the crossword.

Admittedly, I was not a smart person. In school, Rose had always been the straight A student. I barely floated by with C's. It's not that I was stupid, I just didn't give a shit about school. I liked crosswords though. They kept me sane.

My phone buzzed.

Chloe wanted me to come out with them tonight.

On a Monday. No thanks.

I silenced it and turned back to the puzzle.

The bell above the door went off so I looked up, "Welcome to Fio-" I stopped when I saw who it was.

Tall, all lean muscle, tattooed, all man, jet black hair, icy blue eyes.

Finn Murphy looked like a demon sent from hell standing in my pink store.

"What are you doing here?" I growled.

He looked around, "You're alone."

"Yes," I admitted, suddenly a bit nervous. He looked around as he approached the

counter. I watched his every move, the way his eyes darted down to my crossword puzzle.

"Busy day, princess?"

"What do you want?" I tried.

I watched as his hand picked up the crossword puzzle book, a small smile covering his face as he took it in. "You do crosswords in pen?"

"Yeah, so what," I snatched the book back.

"I could see that being effective if you got answers right, but half of those are wrong."

"Fuck off. What do you want?" I repeated.

He sighed, leaning against the counter.

"I felt a little bad about dropping that bomb on you last night about having your house watched so wanted to come check in."

I rolled my eyes, "Yeah, well. Why IS my house on watch? Am I in danger?"

"No," he looked at me seriously, "of course not."

"So why?"

Finn didn't say anything, "I told you. I promised Rose I would look after you. How are you sleeping at night?"