Page 2 of Snowed in with My Protector

It wasn’t until my tears start hitting Dr. Hamilton’s desk that I even realized I was crying. I brushed those tears away while wondering if we had been lied to about every other fragrance extraction source that made its way into the lab. Was anything we worked with ethically sourced?

Or was it easier and cheaper to steal? Or pay off warlords? Or abuse the people we told the world we were helping?

My hands shook as I pulled a thumb drive that I used to back up my data out of my pocket, thankful I had slipped it there when Mr. Carlisle called me. It took almost no time at all to copy the file over, but it felt like an eternity. I knew there were cameras in the lab, but I wasn’t sure about the office I was sitting in. With so much…sensitive information coming to Dr.Hamilton’s desk, I thought it might be a dead zone as far as cameras go, but I couldn’t be sure.

It was hell trying to act normal as I shut down the computer and walked back to my station on wooden legs before grabbing my things and heading out. When the security guard stopped me, I thought for sure they—and thinking of a faceless, nameless ‘they’ was jarring—already knew that I had found out the secrets the company would be desperate to hide.

“Are you okay, Fallon?” Scott was looking at me with so much concern that it made my knees buckle.

I shook my head and tried to force a smile on my face, but it felt brittle and I’m sure it looked less than enthusiastic. “I’m okay,” I forced out. “I think I might have caught whatever Dr. Hamilton did.”

Instead of pushing, Scott took a big step back and nodded. “Feel better.”

Then I practically ran from the building. I had no idea what to do, but it felt like the thumb drive was burning a hole through my pocket. Then I remembered the news article done on Luxe Notes not long after I started working for them. I pulled over, since I had only been driving in circles, and searched for it.

Echo Bardot was the person who wrote a beautiful article extolling all the positives about Luxe Notes and how she saw them becoming the next big thing in luxury fragrance. She wasn’t wrong except for the fact that she was unknowingly spreading lies.

Surprisingly, it wasn’t difficult to get in contact with Echo and she agreed to meet with me in an hour. The moment I did, I told her everything and watched as her eyes got bigger and bigger. Then I gave her the only evidence I had, the thumb drive.She told me she would have to do some digging to see if she could confirm the information, but I was too tired to assure her.

Before we parted, she grabbed my hand, her eyes imploring, “Please find somewhere else to stay Fallon.”

My eyebrows pulled together as I fought against the reality I had been dropped into and the exhaustion it brought on. “I don’t understand, why should I?”

Echo glanced around and dropped her voice even though we had already been practically whispering to each other. “When I run with this story, it will be putting corporate money on the line. A lot of it. When money gets involved, people will go to untold lengths to protect their assets.”

I shrugged one shoulder as my gut clenched. “Once the bell is wrung, it can’t be undone. Why would they care who leaked it?”

Her eyes bored into mine. “They always care.” Fear, true fear, skittered up my spine. “Please, stay at a hotel even if you’re doing it just to humor me. And get some cash, only use cash.”

“Okay, I promise.”

She relaxed slightly and then we went our separate ways. I called in sick the next morning and haven’t been back to work and now it seems like all hell is breaking loose.

My phone beeps and I’m a little surprised to find a notification from my home security app since it’s the middle of the night and I’m not at home. When I pull up the video, thankful as hell that I had sprung for the internal cameras now, even though I didn’t see the need when they were first pitched to me, I freeze. Three men have entered the house before splitting up, one of them heading straight to the security panel and disarming the alarm.

I only get another 30 seconds of video before it’s cut off, but it’s more than enough to tell me that Luxe Notes knows I’m the one behind their fallout. And they’re not happy.

I stand up and collect my things quickly, the need to get out of here, out of Seattle, riding me hard. The only problem is that I’m not sure where to go.

“If you’re ever in trouble, call Higgins Security in Denver,” my brother’s voice floats through my mind. I thought he was ridiculous at the time to give me such wild instructions or maybe joking. His gaze was intense and his voice serious, “I mean it. Higgins Security. Remember it. I hate being overseas and not being able to keep you safe, but Blake and his team are good at what they do. They’ll help you.”

“Okay,” I said mostly to appease my brother before being deployed, again. “If I need help, I’ll call him.”

He nodded and relaxed a little as he held his hand out for my phone. When he handed it back, he smiled, “Now you have the number. Just in case.”

I had no idea that I would need it; never could have even dreamed I would. Now here I am, and I’ve never been more grateful. If my brother trusts them then I will too.

Which is why I barely wait for the sun to start coming up as I sit on a bus heading to Denver, before I make the call, hoping that whoever Blake Higgins is he can save my life.

CHAPTER 2

HUTCH

My eyes snap open, morning light barely diffusing through the windows of my cabin nestled in the wilderness of Alpha Mountain. I can still hear the gunfire that was echoing around me in my dream. But it wasn’t a dream, was it?

It was a memory. If only I could escape my memories in dreamland, but they follow me. They always follow me. Just like the ghosts of the men I served with and lost, follow me wherever I go.

It doesn’t matter how far I run, how many people I help when such a job comes my way, or how far off the grid I go. The ghosts remain.

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