Page 64 of Guarded from Sabotage

Why won’t it open?

Panic is clawing at me. It’s hard to breathe.

I want Dante.

My phone. I drop to the ground and fumble for it, finally snatching it out of my purse.

But it won’t work. Vision blurring, I jab at Dante’s name, trying to call him. But nothing happens. The call won’t go through.

I try to send a text, squinting at the screen as I type outhelpand send it. But again, it doesn’t work.

Why won’t it work?

Why do I feel so terrible?

It’s getting harder to keep my eyes open. My limbs are getting weak.

I want Dante.

The earrings.

I sag to the floor, my muscles not feeling like my own. Helpless tears run down my cheeks. Each blink takes longer and longer.

With my waning strength, I try to reach for the earring Dante gave me. It’s supposed to signal for help from anywhere. Tell Dante and his team I’m in trouble.

I’m in trouble.

Darkness edges in.

I can’t move.

Please. Dante. I need you.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

DANTE

Is it normal to miss Sarah already?

It’s only been a few hours since I left her, but it feels like a few weeks, at least.

My chest feels hollow. Cold. Like all the warmth has been stolen from it.

The urge to see Sarah—to touch her, hold her, just talk to her—is a desperate thing.

Is this what my friends go through each time they leave town for a job? How does Cole manage leaving Maya, especially now that he has little Clara, too? And what about Niall? Everything he went through with Jade was only months ago. How can he bring himself to leave her?

Now I feel guilty for not insisting he stay back at HQ longer.

I thought I understood—it’s not like I haven’t been around people in love. My parents. My sisters. My friends and teammates. But I didn’t realize the loss could be this all-encompassing. That being away from Sarah would feel like a part of me was missing.

But I have to deal with it. As much as I miss Sarah, I need to keep focused. Cole and his team in Sleepy Hollow built up Bladeand Arrow to be one of the premier security companies in the country, and I’ve been entrusted to maintain that reputation out here in Texas.

And that means making sure this job is done right. Computer manufacturing CEO Beau Winningham hired us to perform a security update at his estate in Austin, which involves checking his existing security system for vulnerabilities, giving refresher training to his existing staff, and making recommendations for any necessary upgrades, like a new fence or drone detection system.

It’s not a hard job, not compared to what we used to do in the Army, but I can’t afford to miss some little detail that could cause a security breach. So I really need to compartmentalize and set my thoughts about Sarah aside until later.

“Hey, Dante.” Erik glances over from his seat at the small hotel desk. He sets his stylus down beside the tablet in front of him. “Looking through the list of security staff, there are at least two I’m concerned about. One has a track record of being late, the other was caught sleeping on the job twice. I’m torn between retraining or recommending they be let go. What do you think?”

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