Page 29 of Forbidden Access

“Damian?” Christine’s voice quivered, her eyes narrowing. “What’s going on?”

“It’s a cover, Christine. You are right, she’s not my wife. It was all a scam, a ruse for the newspapers.”

“I knew it!” Triumph gleamed in her eyes before they clouded over with confusion and hurt. “But I saw you two kissing. If it isn’t real—” She petered off.

He sighed, relieved Thorn wasn’t in the room. “It’s complicated.”

Her lip quivered. “Do you love her?”

Love?

The thought made his chest tighten.

“No, don’t be ridiculous. She’s my bodyguard.”

Christine shook her head. He didn’t blame her for being confused. He was confused as hell too.

“Why didn’t you tell me? Why’d you lock me out? Didn’t I deserve to know?”

“Not about this,” he said quietly.

She frowned, tears welling up. “I don’t understand. What’s going on, Damian? Are you in some kind of trouble?”

“You could say that.” He shook his head. By coming here, she’d put herself in danger. “Let’s sit down, and I’ll try to explain.”

He wouldn’t tell her everything, that would be foolish, just enough so that she would back off and leave him alone until after the conference.

“I’m going to make an announcement at CryptoCon. Lydian will become more transparent, potentially exposing the identities of everyone using the cryptocurrency, particularly on the dark web.”

She stared at him as the gravity of his words sunk in.

“It’s made me a target. There have been threats.”

She gasped. “I thought the bomb threat was a false alarm. Some sick joke.”

“It was, but there was the crash a couple of weeks back when I drove off the road, remember?”

“You said your brakes failed.”

“My brake lines were cut,” he corrected. “My vehicle was sabotaged, Christine.”

Her mouth fell open.

“Only this morning, there was a drone attack on my house.”

She glanced up, horrified. “What? Here?”

He nodded. “It was loaded with explosives. My security team shot it down before it could do any damage.”

She gulped nervously. “I had no idea.”

“I know, and that’s my fault. I couldn’t tell you because I didn’t want to put you in danger. The fake wedding was an attempt to protect you.”

“Protect me?” Her eyes glistened. “Then—Then you do care?”

He shook his head, trying to be gentle but firm. He wasn’t going to lead her on, not anymore. “I care about what happens to you, but you know as well as I do, it was just a fling.”

“It wasn’t for me,” she whispered, her voice breaking.

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