Page 56 of Guarded from Sabotage

His other arm comes around me, hugging me close as he listens. All I can hear is a dull rumble, but I can’t distinguish the words.

“Are you sure?” Dante asks. His tone shifts, becoming brisker. More commanding. After a pause, he says, “Okay. Everyone’s at HQ, so we can meet in an hour. I’ll let them know.” Another pause. “Thanks, Matt.”

Matt says something on the other end of the line, and within thirty seconds, Dante hangs up. He quickly taps out a message, hits send, and then rolls over to face me.

His serious expression makes my breath catch, and a small shiver runs through me. “What is it?”

Dante sits up, pulling me into his lap and wrapping the blanket around me. “It’s not bad. But it might come as a shock.”

“A shock?” Another shiver catches me. “Did you find out?—”

“Yes.” His tone is gentle, but somber. “Matt seems to think so. We’re going to meet, go over the evidence, talk about next steps, contacting the police…”

“Who?” Urgency strains my voice. “Who did this to me? Why?”

“Matt set up something called a honeypot,” he explains. “Basically, he opened some new accounts under your name, but they’re meant to be a trap. So if anyone tried to access the accounts, Matt and Leo would be able to trace them. And it worked. The asshole took the bait.”

“Who?” I repeat. “Who tried to ruin my life?”

Dante rubs my arm. “His name is Ivan Petrovic. He’s an IT guy at your?—”

“Ivan?” My voice pitches up. “But… I barely know him. I think I’ve talked to him twice, and it was just to set up my work computer—”Crap. Why didn’t I think of him?

“We looked into him,” Dante says, shaking his head and frowning. Self-recrimination laces his tone. “But there was nothing. No red flags. He looked normal. Obviously, we missed something.”

I’m stunned. Ivan? The tallish guy with horn-rimmed glasses who always wears nineties band T-shirts and stares at the floor whenever he talks to a woman? The guy I’ve spent less than five minutes in total talking to?Hedid this to me?

“It doesn’t make sense. To do all of that, and he doesn’t even know me?”

“I know.” Dante hugs me closer and brushes a kiss across my forehead. “A lot of times, it doesn’t make sense. But we’re going to make sure he’s punished. He won’t be able to hurt you again.”

As the shock subsides slightly, reality edges in. “So it’s over? He’ll go to jail, and my life can go back to normal?”

“I think so, Sarah.” He kisses me again. “We’ll investigate everything, pull in the police, probably the FBI, as well. Make sure the case is airtight. But I think so.”

Normal life.

But this time, I’ll be with Dante. We can go on dates and trips whenever we want without fearing for our safety. We can go to New York and South Carolina to visit our friends and families. We can be together like a regular couple.

Relieved tears burn behind my eyes. Voice thick with emotion, I say, “Thank you. For fixing this. For protecting me. For everything. And—” I squeeze his hand. “I can’t wait to go do regular couple-y things with you.”

Dante’s features soften, and emotion darkens his gaze. “I would doanythingfor you, Sarah. And I can’t wait, either.”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

DANTE

It’s almost anti-climactic.

Just a week ago, Sarah and I were hurtling down the highway in my out-of-control car, one wrong move away from a terrible catastrophe.

One week ago, I came much too close to losing the woman who’s captured my heart.

Every night since then, Sarah’s had nightmares. Crying, shaking, making these awful sounds like she’s in pain. And the worst is when she starts to sob, her voice breaking as she pleads for me to be okay. Begging me not to leave her.

Two nights ago, after a particularly bad one, Sarah confessed what she was dreaming about. As I held her in my arms, stroking her hair and kissing away her tears, she whispered, “I dreamed he killed you, Dante. In my dream, the car crashed, and Ivan appeared out of nowhere and shot you. Then he said it was all my fault.”

It breaks my heart.

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