Page 91 of Release Me

My phone vibrates on my desk. I pick it up and see two texts from Nadia that came in within seconds of each other.

Nadia: Guess who ate three saltines and drank a can of ginger ale without vomiting?!

Nadia: Me. In case you were wondering, it was me.

The smile that tugs up the corners of my mouth is impossible to resist, so I give in to it, letting it take over my whole face as I text back.

Sebastian: Good job, precious.

“You really love her, don’t you?” Russ asks, pulling my attention away from my phone.

I nod, feeling vulnerable as hell. “More than anything, which is why I need you to put together a security detail as soon as possible.”

“How long do I have to get it done? The guys I’d prefer to work with will need a few days to get stateside.”

“You don’t know anyone local?”

“The only guy in New Haven I’d work with is Hunter Drake. He runs a self-defense gym on the outskirts of town that he started when a gig we did together went sideways. He won’t get back in a suit for anyone.”

I glance at my calendar. Thanksgiving is in two days, so Nadia will be by my side until she goes back to work on Friday. I tried to talk her into taking off Friday and the weekend too, but with Nic and Sloane’s engagement party happening on Saturday she wasn’t having it.

“Get them here by Thursday night. I don’t care what it costs.”

Russ nods. “Yes, sir.”

“Is that everything you have for me?” I ask, eager to get back to Nadia.

“I’ve got one more thing, but it’s not related to Beau Montgomery.”

Since Beau is my top priority at the moment, I’m tempted to tell him to table it for another day, but something about his expression tells me I need to know now.

“What is it?”

When I walk through Nadia’s front door a little over an hour later, I have miso soup in one hand and a dossier containing information about her paternal grandparents in the other.

Russ stumbled across it when he was doing his initial deep dive into her. Apparently, someone as good at what they do as Russ is at what he does, had Nadia’s real name flagged and reached out a few days ago. Russ met with them first, vetting them before he brought any information to me, and now I have papers in my hand that won’t do a damn thing for Nadia but open up old wounds.

She’s curled up on the couch when I come in, looking adorable in one of my t-shirts with a haphazardly tied scarf on her head. The can of ginger ale she was so proud of drinking sits empty on the coffee table in front of her, and there are saltine crumbs on the corner of her mouth when I kiss her.

“Babe! Don’t kiss me on the mouth! We still don’t know what I had, and I don’t want to get you sick.”

“If you really think a little stomach bug is going to stop me from kissing you, you don’t know me at all.”

“If you think I’m going to hold your hair while you hug the toilet, you don’t know me at all,” she tosses back, all sass and good health thanks to my diligent care-taking which apparently means nothing to her.

“Damn, it’s like that?” I sit down on the coffee table, blocking her view of the TV, and she giggles. “I nurse you back to health and bring you miso soup to celebrate you finally being able to keep some food down, and that’s how you gone treat me?”

Upon mention of the soup, her eyes go to my hands, but they skip right over the soup and go to the folder. She sits up, looking more alert than she has in days. “What’s that? Is it about Beau?”

I put the soup on the table behind me and shake my head. “No, it’s not about Beau. Russ didn’t have any new information on him.”

It’s not a lie, but it’s also not quite the truth. I just don’t think it’s worth it to tell her what Russ said when it amounts to a whole bunch of nothing that will just make her scared.

“Then what is it, Seb? Is it about me?” Her eyes search my face, and I have no choice but to answer her, to tell her this truth if only to make up for not telling her the other one.

“Yes. It’s about you and your grandparents.”

“The Hawthornes? What about them?”

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