Page 39 of Guarding Bristol

Chapter Fourteen

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“Targets?Targets forwhat?Who?”Bristol’s voice had a shrill edge to it as TJ ushered her inside the back door and locked up behind them.

Ignoring her for the moment, he immediately moved around the house, pulling all the blinds down on the windows, then retrieved the hidden phone from his bedroom.His day had just gone off a cliff in the most spectacular way imaginable and taken him and Bristol along with it.

It wasn’t her fault, but they were both in danger now, and he didn’t know how much to tell her.For her own good.Goddammit, why couldn’t she ever seem to leave him alone?

He typed out a quick message to his contact as he returned to the main living area of the house.Bristol was still standing where he’d left her.

She had wrapped her arms around her body, a subconscious attempt to comfort herself.“TJ, say something.You’re scaring me.”

He suppressed a sigh.Yeah, she should be scared.But not for the reasons she thought.

When he didn’t answer right away, her expression shifted from worried to annoyed.Her fists slid down to plant on her hips, her chin coming up.“Were you selling or buying from Mark?”

He scrubbed a hand over his face.She had no idea that she’d just blown a critical meeting that had been more than a year in the making, and he didn’t know what protocol to follow now.“Neither.”

“Don’t you dare lie to me.Not now.”

“I’m not.”

She gave him a look that said she didn’t believe him.“Then what did I see?You guys were just catching up, having a little chat in the shadows of the hospital parking lot?I saw him give you something, and you put it in your pocket.Was it drugs?”

Yep.

He gestured to the living room couch under the long, now-covered window at the front of the house.“Sit.”

“I’ll stand, thanks.”

“Fine, then I’ll sit.”He dropped onto the couch, let out a deep breath.“I’m not an addict or a dealer.”

Her posture didn’t change, and he could tell she still thought he was full of shit.Which made sense, considering what had happened with her brother.Addicts were consummate liars.“Then what just happened?”

“You blew my cover.”

Shock filled her eyes.“Cover?”

“Yes, and the entire op with it.So now we’re both in danger.”

She stared at him, her face going slack with surprise.“Op?Cover?”she repeated.

He nodded once, jaw flexing.“I’m undercover DEA.Or was, until about twenty minutes ago.”What an epic clusterfuck.Everything he’d done up until now, everything the agency had put in place to get him to this point, had been destroyed the moment she’d stumbled upon that meeting.

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