Page 73 of Guarded from Treachery

A moment later, his features go still. His jaw clenches.

“What is it?” I ask.

He takes a deep breath and sinks onto the couch. Indecision creases his brow. “I don’t want to ruin our night. Maybe we could?—”

“No. Tell me.”

Another sigh. “Okay. So you know I have some web crawlers set up to search for any reference to your name. And then cross-reference the mention with any topics that could be suspicious. So it won’t flag something from high school, for example. But if it’s more recent…”

I grab Matt’s hand and squeeze it hard. “So it found something.”

“Yes. Someone shared your medical records on the dark web. It was deleted, but the crawler was able to locate an archived version hidden on the site.” He pauses. “It was shared six months ago.”

“Six months ago? Who… why would someone do that?”

Wait.

Iknowwhy. “Because I was targeted. For some reason, I was picked for this screwed up pregnancy scheme. And they wanted my medical records to see if I was a good candidate.”

Frowning, Matt nods. “Probably. So now I need to find the identity of the person who shared it. It has to be someone with access to medical records. So that will narrow things down. Once I identify them, we’ll track them down. Make them tell us how they got involved. And who they’re working with.”

Opposing emotions hit me at once. Anger that someone shared personal information about me, and on the dark web, no less. And optimism that we could be getting closer to an answer.

“Are you okay, Isles?” He touches my chin. “I know this is a lot…”

“I’m okay.” Lifting my chin, I add, “It’s more information. And that’s what we need. So that’s what I’m focusing on.”

Matt stares at me, emotion working in his gaze. “You’re amazing. You know that, right?”

“So are you.” Scooting closer to him, I snuggle into his side, and his arm wraps around me. “This might sound like a crazy question.”

“What?”

“Well… you planned this whole date. And I know you want to research this lead you found. But. Do you have to do it right now? Or can we finish our evening? Have dinner? WatchHell’s Kitchen?? Make love again? I’m just thinking a night wouldn’t hurt to wait?”

A smile chases away his grim expression. “No, a night wouldn’t hurt. And I would love to finish our date.”

“Good.” I lean in to kiss him. “Because so far, this is the absolute best date I’ve ever been on.”

16

MATT

As soon as I step inside my apartment, I can’t help but smile.

Leaving our team meeting, I felt the furthest thing from happy. Frustrated, angry, disgusted, worried? All of those, for sure.

While we’re making progress on Isla’s case, which I’m glad about, it’s incredibly hard to stay cool and unemotional when it’s my girlfriend’s life we’re discussing. The single-minded focus I used to rely on during our missions is much more difficult to maintain when the topic revolves around the people who tried to abduct her.

Then there’s the added weight of having to tell Isla what we found. She’s been so strong all through this, but every time I’ve given her another update, I can tell it’s wearing on her. That it’s causing mental and physical stress that her body doesn’t need.

As I trudged back to my apartment, my mind was twisted up with all the terrible things we talked about and how I could present it to Isla without upsetting her too much. Though I’d love to gloss over the worst of it, Isla deserves the truth. Not just deserves it, but demands it. Like she said to me after the first gloomy update,“I know you want to protect me, Matt. But I have to know. I’ve never stuck my head in the sand before, and I’m not starting now.”

I know she’s right. But I can’t help worrying. What if the stress becomes too much for her and she goes into premature labor? Or what if it sends her blood pressure dangerously high and she develops preeclampsia? If something happens to the baby, she’ll be devastated. And if something happens to either of them, so will I.

So it was with trepidation that I walked into my apartment, knowing Isla would be there waiting.

If it were any other morning, I’d be thrilled. Isla, finally sleeping over at my place instead of the client apartment, as she has the last three nights since our date in the barn. We just sort of fell into it the first night, when we came back here after dinner and four episodes ofHell’s Kitchen. Deciding to forgo the couch for the second round of lovemaking, Isla was the one who suggested coming to my apartment instead.

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