Page 30 of Forbidden Access

He felt a pang of guilt but knew he had to come clean. “I shouldn’t have led you on. I’ve put you in danger, and for that, I’m truly sorry.”

She sucked in a breath. “What do you mean, you’ve put me in danger?”

Christ, she was naïve. “Don’t you get it? The people who are trying to kill me are ruthless. If they think we’re involved, they might try and use you to get to me. That’s why the office has been shut down, and the developers are in lockdown. That’s why there are FBI agents guarding the building, and why I have a private security company at my premises.”

“And why you have a female bodyguard in your house?” Her gaze narrowed, but then she hesitated. “She’s the woman that came to your office. She locked me in the restroom.”

“I know.” He sighed. “She was making a point. She was showing me how easy it was to get to me.”

Christine let out a sob. “That was my fault. I didn’t suspect a thing.”

“It was not your fault,” he reassured her as tears welled in her eyes. “You are not trained to look out for assassins. This has nothing to do with you.”

Her lips quivered. Please don’t cry, he thought.

Too late. Tears overflowed and rolled down her cheeks. She looked so forlorn, he reached out and gave her arm a squeeze. With a sob, she turned and buried her face in his chest.

Dammit. He could handle most things, but a woman crying really got to him. He wrapped his arms around her and gave her a hug. That’s when Thorn walked in, followed by Hawk.

CHAPTER 12

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

The words stung, even though she knew they were true. That’s all she was to him—a protector. So why did hearing them leave such a sour taste in her mouth?

She had no claim to him, even if their kiss had been… What? Explosive? Enlightening? Earth-shattering?

Goddamn it. She shook her head, wishing she hadn’t heard that.

And now Damian’s arms were wrapped around Christine, in the same way he’d held her not so long ago.

It just kept getting worse.

Hawk, who’d stepped in with her, assessed the situation. “We can’t let her go now. She’s a liability.”

“What?” Christine looked up, panic in her eyes.

“I’ve called the FBI. They’re going to take you to a safehouse.”

“A safehouse?” Christine’s voice trembled. “But I want to go home.”

“You should have thought about that before you broke into a guarded property and jumped a personal protection officer,” Thorn retorted, her tone crisp—because of him.

Christine blinked, looking every bit the damsel in distress. “But I didn’t know. I thought… I don’t know what I thought, but I had to come here and see for myself if it was true.”

Thorn did feel a twinge of sympathy. Christine had been Damian’s plaything, then discarded—but not entirely—and now she’d found out he’d married someone else.

To be fair, that would irk anyone. She’d want to know what the hell was going on too.

But to find out it was a ruse? The poor girl’s head must be spinning. It was enough to confuse anyone.

“You’ll be taken to a secure safehouse where you’ll be guarded until this is over,” Hawk continued, turning to Damian. “We might also need to discuss moving you to a different location.”

Damian scowled. “Why? I thought you said it was safer to stay here.”

Thorn glanced at Christine. “Hawk’s right. If she can get to you, others can too. This place is too big for one team to protect, even with the electric fence and additional patrols. Now that we know they’re using IEDs carried by drones…” She shrugged, letting the implication hang in the air.

“We underestimated their skill,” Hawk said. “But let’s get her someplace safe, and then we’ll talk about you.”

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