Page 7 of Guarded By the SEAL

The closer that I get to Harry’s bag, the more convinced I become that I’m doing the right thing. I shouldn’t be left out in the dark, should I? It isn’t right. This is my problem, and my family’s. Even if Harry thinks that he’s doing the right thing for me, it’s my family paying for all of this, so I should be in control.

“Shh,” I whisper to my hammering heartbeat. “Stop it. I’m not doing anything wrong.”

I check behind me. I glance everywhere. It isn’t great because my vision is still a little blurry, but I’m pretty sure that I’m alone. I bend down quietly. I gently touch the bag. Any second now, I will be able to open it. I will find out a little more about the man I’m stuck here with for the foreseeable future, and I will also have some answers as to where my father is and how he’s doing. Even if I don’t get the answers that I want, I need to know. Then I can make some informed decisions… maybe in the morning when I’m sober.

A strange sickness over comes me as soon as I touch the zip. I pause for a second, not sure what I want to do, not sure if this isright, but curiosity grabs me and eventually, I know that I can’t stop. I have to keep on going because I need this information and I need it now.

Any minute now… I tell myself, trying to feel gratitude for taking control of this and finding out the truth for myself since no one else is willing to tell me. Any minute now, I will know it all…

“What are you doing?” Harry’s sharp, deep, masculine voice stops me in my tracks, making me freeze right where I am with my blood ice cold. “Are you looking through my stuff? What the fuck, Petra?”

Oh, my God, what the hell am I going to do now?

6

HARRY

She looks at me with wide, shocked eyes like she isn’t expecting me to be totally pissed off that she’s pawing at my bag, clearly with the intention of going inside. Of all the weird positions that I have found myself in this job, this isn’t one of them. I can’t understand why she would do this.

It’s my fucking privacy, isn’t it? I wouldn’t go through her things unless I really felt like I had to, so I don’t know why she would even think to go through mine. I have dangerous items in that bag, things to keep her safe. I don’t know if Petra is even taking her own safety seriously at the moment.

“I… I… I dunno.” Oh, God, and to make things a million times worse, she’s slurring her words. Petra is drunk and foolish, so this is going to be just wonderful. Now, on top of everything else, I’m a babysitter.

“You shouldn’t go through someone else’s shit, Petra. I don’t even know what to say to this.”

She tries to bolt upright but loses her balance and staggers backward. I automatically reach to grab her, but thankfully, shegets to the wall first. It’s much better if she can hold herself in a standing position while we get through this conversation. Best not make it any weirder than it already is.

“I just want to know what’s going on,” she murmurs with tears blinking in her eyes. “Fucking hell, if I didn’t go through other people’s shit, then I could be being sold right now. I wouldn’t have discovered Jake’s plan for me at all.” She sighs heavily. “That doesn’t excuse all of this, but still… I don’t know what to do.”

A bolt of compassion rockets through me. She’s been betrayed by someone she cares about and loves, just like I was. The circumstances might be very different, but I’m sure the pain and upset are the same. Petra and I might have more in common than I first thought.

“I get that, Petra,” I reply carefully. “And I understand, I do. But you need to get that I am doing my best for you. I’ve been hired to help you, and you need to help me do that. We need to respect one another.”

“Respect?” All of a sudden, her face twists up in anger. “Are you kidding me? Respect? I don’t see any respect around here. What I see is yet another man controlling me. You know that I need to hear about my father. I’m worried about him. I’m scared that he is going to be killed because of me. You took away any chance that I have to talk to him, and now… now, I don’t even know where he is or what’s happening.”

She shocks me by bursting into tears, but only for a moment. It’s like a weird, drunken outburst and Petra isn’t sure what emotion to settle on. Is she mad or sad? Is she twisted up and emotional? All over the place, really. I would like to help her and give her more, but I only have what I’ve been told too.

“I’m sorry. I don’t have anything yet,” I inform her, already knowing that this will not go down well. “Like I said to you before, as soon as I know anything, I will tell you. But we are both isolated out here, and until my boss gives me anything, I don’t know. I’m sure that isn’t what you want to hear.”

“You’re damn right, it isn’t.” Uh-oh. Her cheeks are staining red. The anger is getting to her now. Luckily, I’m not about to be offended by whatever she screams out at me. Drunken words from a virtual stranger won’t upset me. “I’m scared for my father’s life. I know that going in your bag was wrong, but I am scared here. Everything that I thought was going to happen isn’t now, and I don’t know what is supposed to happen to me. The life that I thought I was going to have is just gone,poof, vanished in smoke, and now I’m stuck here in the middle of God knows where with you, who I don’t even know, and I don’t like it.”

It’s hard not to get just the littlest bit wound up by her attitude. I have to try and keep my cool somewhat while I explain my side of things. “Petra, please remember that while this might not be ideal, you are safe out here. You’re one of the lucky ones. People without money wouldn’t be able to afford this.”

“You think that coming from a family of money makes me lucky?” She scoffs. “You have got to be joking me. My God. If my father didn’t have cash, then Jake never would have targeted me. I might have actually been able to find someone decent to be with. And on top of that, having money didn’t save my mother, did it? She died when I was young. Too young to even remember her.” She wipes away her soaking wet face. “And it didn’t help me keep any friends when Jake came along. No one really cared about me. And now, money might lead to my father being killed and my being sold to some sex trafficking ring. So, I do apologizefor not jumping around for joy because I have money. It’s brought me nothing but trouble.”

“Well, I don’t think that you would like to grow up with nothing, either,” I shoot back in irritation. “Because that is shitty as well. I only grew up with my mother, and my father was an alcoholic who picked getting drunk over me. I pretty much had to raise myself because my mom was out working three jobs trying to keep a roof over my head. I had to drag myself out of an almost poverty situation, and just as I started to earn a decent wage and could have helped my mother out from her horrible life, Cancer got her and she died. Yet I don’t let that define me because I remember that there is always someone worse off out there than I am. And you should see it the same way. You might have been in danger, but now, out here, you are safe.”

She remains silent for a moment, allowing all of this to wash over her. I don’t normally tell people anything about my life, particularly not clients, but Petra got under my skin then. She annoyed me with her rich girl problems. Sure, her life is hard right now and it might not have always been smooth sailing, but she has options. As someone who didn’t come from a penny, I know all too well what a life without options looks like. My mom didn’t have a choice but to die when she got sick. She didn’t have an option about how and where to raise me. She wasn’t even allowed to stay alive long enough to see me succeed.

Petra has been given a choice and she has chosen to hide out. Whether she likes it or not, it is keeping her alive and safe. She can’t get all pissy because it isn’t a life of luxury or whatever.

“My dad is all I have left.” She folds her arms defiantly across her chest, but I see her bottom lip wobbling. I’m not a fool. I can see that she’s trying to keep her tears inside. “You don’t need tomake me feel guilty for wanting to know that he’s okay. I don’t need the fucking emotional blackmail about it.”

“You know that isn’t what I’m trying to do.” My mood darkens as Petra attempts to turn this around on me. “I’m just trying to make you see that this isn’t black and white. You aren’t in the worst place in the world, even if you don’t want to be here around me, and you did choose this path.”

“This path was chosen for me. I was too much in shock to tell my dad no.” She offers me a one-shouldered shrug as if this explains everything away. “I was too scared as well, but maybe this isn’t the best plan. You have your money now, you’ve been paid, so you can’t be mad if I want to go home.”

“I’m not taking you home, Petra,” I interject quickly. “You’re drunk. You don’t mean this.”

---