Page 41 of When He Protects

“They told me you died.”

“Yes, that would be what I meant when I said my father erased me. A false name. A dead woman who wasn’t. Andno one learned the truth. A very important man’s daughter was never in the café. She couldn’t be tied to what happened. Her father could be safe from the mob of the press. So could she.”

“You’re telling me the truth.”

She was. Esme nodded.

“What is going on?” Tyler demanded. “You pulled me in your web and now you tell me everything.”

She would tell the most important thing. But he already knew it, didn’t he? “Powerful people want me dead.”

“Were you the target in the Paris bombing?”

She’d revealed enough for now. Big revelations were exhausting. “According to the press, that was a terror attack.” And she still fought the terror that rolled through her whenever she heard loud noises. “The perpetrators were caught. Sentenced. They should never get out again.”

“Then why did your father hide the fact that you were there for all this time? Why the lies?”

“Because fate is funny.” Hilarious some days. Horrible on others. “I was meeting with someone…let’s just say this individual could have caused a great deal of trouble in the international world. He had proof that certain powerful individuals were involved in a massive weapons and drug trade. If that proof had gotten into the right hands…” There was no point in the “if” talk. Her gaze darted away from Tyler and skimmed around the den. Paused a moment on the blanket and the pillow. “The proof was destroyed in the explosion.” Suddenly very weary, Esme headed for the stairs. “Lots of things were destroyed in that explosion.” Including the person she’d been before the world had erupted around her.

“Esme.”

Her hand reached for the banister.

“Were your hands the right ones? Is that why you were in the café? Were you the one who should have gotten the intel?”

She looked at her hand as it pressed to the wood.

“Were your hands the right ones?” Tyler asked again.

“Not then.” Because her job hadn’t been to make sure that proof got out…

Watch him, Esme. Stop him. Report back.

Her eyes closed. “You’re the hero, remember? Not me. Don’t ever forget that.” Enough sharing for the day. It was morning, and yet she was already soul weary. Esme climbed up the stairs and left her hero behind.

Oh, who was she kidding? She’d never been able to really leave him behind. For years, he’d stayed in her head.

When a man saved your life, you tended to never forget him.

“They’re here,”Clay Banks said into his phone. He sat behind the wheel of his patrol car, and his eyes were on the house that waited about twenty yards away. “Got eyes on their place right now.”

“And Tyler is staying close to her?”

He thought about the way Tyler had watched the woman. “Pretty sure you can count on him staying close.”

“The cameras are in place?”

He’d been the one to install them, so… “Yes.”

“You’ll report to me on everything that happens?”

Now this was the part that made him feel like shit. “Tyler is a friend of mine.”

“And you want your friend to stay alive, don’t you?”

Yeah, he damn well did.

“Seven million dollars is a lot of money.”

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