Page 39 of Guarded from Danger

Once she leaves, Lucy makes an aggrieved noise and buries her face in my chest. Her voice is muffled as she says, “I’m so embarrassed. Making out like that. Right in front of her.”

“It’s fine.” I gently pry her away from me and look down to meet her gaze. “There’s nothing wrong with it. And trust me, Sarah’s happy to see you feeling better.”

She scrunches her nose. “If you say so.”

“I do.”

Guiding her over to the couch, I sit down and pull Lucy onto my lap. I kiss one heated cheek, then the other, before pressing a soft kiss to her lips. “So. You had a good time with Sarah?”

“Yeah. We watched some old episodes ofVirgin River. She likes it too, so that’s nice. And I played with Rambo. He’s so smart. He can roll over and play dead and balance a treat on his nose.”

My heart swells. “I’m glad you had a nice morning.”

Lucy smiles, and her eyes sparkle with bits of silver and sapphire. “I really did. Sarah’s great.” She pauses. “Oh. And I talked to my parents.”

“Are they doing okay?”

“Yes. My mom still wants to come home so she can see me, but I reminded her why it’s safer for them to stay at their apartment in Paris.”

“I know you want to see them. But it really is safer if they stay far away from Texas for now. ”

It sucks, and I know Lucy desperately wants to see her parents, but as a team, we determined it would be safer for them to stay at their Paris apartment once they finished theirAntarctic expedition. If they came back to San Antonio, it would be too easy for the people who took Lucy to target her parents as leverage. To take one of them, hoping Lucy would give herself up in exchange.

“No, I understand.” Lucy looks at me with a steady gaze. “I want them safe. And if Paris is the best place for that?—”

“We think it is. And we’re monitoring the security at their apartment. So if there’s anything suspicious, we’ll get them to a safehouse immediately.”

She nods, then goes quiet for a second. “My dad wants to pay Blade and Arrow. For protecting me.”

My response is immediate. “No, Lucy. There’s no way. I’m not taking money from your parents for protecting you. You’re my girlfriend. Not my client.”

She strokes my forehead, tracing her fingers along the lines I can feel forming there. “I know that, Xavier. And that’s what I told my dad. But he said his money could go towards helping a pro-bono client. So it’s more like… a donation, really.”

I’m torn. On one hand, I’m adamantly against taking money from Lucy’s parents. Not for this. But on the other… her dad is right. We could use the money for more pro-bono work. “Let me talk to the team. See what they say.”

“Okay.” She snuggles against me. “That’s fair.”

And then she asks the question I’ve been hoping she wouldn’t.

“How was the meeting? I know you can’t tell me everything, but… is there any news?”

Shit. The last thing I want is to ruin Lucy’s mood. But I also don’t want to lie to her.

After debating the gentlest way to say it, I finally settle on, “We had good news and bad.”

“Oh.” Her teeth worry her lower lip. “Well. Can you tell me?”

I stroke her hair, running my hand down the length of it. “I can. But I don’t want to upset you.”

“Xavier. I’d rather know than wonder. And I can handle it.” She pauses, then amends, “I’m getting better at handling these things. Plus, I have an appointment with my counselor later. So I can talk to her about it. Will you just tell me?”

My gut cramps, but I say, “Okay. The good news is Matt found another victim and the police rescued her. She’s alive.”

Lucy exhales. “Oh. That is good. I mean, not that she was taken at all. But that Matt found her. That she was rescued.”

“Yeah.”

“So, what’s the bad news?”

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