Page 23 of Deny Me
“No.” She forced herself to look at King. “You are here to protect us.” She turned back to her dad. “And nothing we do will interfere with that.Nothing.Becky’s safety is the only thing that matters right now. King needs to be free to do his job, and we are going to support him and his team completely.”
“Charlotte, you can’t—” The faint sheen of moisture in her father’s eyes ripped at her heart. “After everything…we can’t just allow this man back into our home, into our lives.”
“Completely, Dad.” Her own eyes tingled with the need to cry, but she fought it back, fought back the memories biting at the edges of her mind. “What happened, happened. It’s in the past. King and I aren’t the people we were back then.” She could never go back to being that young, naive girl, even if she’d wanted to. “Let him do his job.”
She turned back to the foyer, hurrying away before the tears she’d barely held back leaked out.
Chapter Eleven
“Charlotte has some interesting friends,” Dain observed as he entered our dining-room “office.”
“You mean Mr. Menace?” Saint asked, bringing up the rear. Elliot was escorting Charlotte and Becky upstairs to do whatever it is they were doing before dinner.
“I’ve seen Levi Agozi in the news,” King said, “but he never came across quite that…”
“Lethal?” Dain rubbed his chin. “He’s the head of the largest tech firm in the US, with multiple top-secret government contracts. They would have run their clearances, but”—he frowned—“he makes me uneasy.”
Anyone with eyes that coldly laser-focused would make people uneasy. For a member of their team, trained to recognize danger at a glance, Agozi was a flashing neon sign to watch their back.
“Want us to do some digging?” King asked. How Agozi, lethal or not, could tie in with their current situation, he didn’t know, but they couldn’t ignore any possibility.
Dain eyed him, and King fought the urge to squirm, though he wasn’t certain why. Finally his fearless leader spoke. “Interesting conversation you had in the hallway earlier.”
Well fuck. He clamped down harder on the itch running up his spine.Never let ’em see you sweat.“Didn’t know you heard that.”
“I hear everything.” Dain’s cocky grin lightened the intensity of his warrior facade. “I think we need to keep that particular ball moving in the right direction.”
“What direction? What ball?” Saint’s confusion was plain.
“The direction of an unfettered investigation,” Dain said. “Why don’t you head upstairs, King. Relieve Elliot. We’ll need her hacking skills if we want to get any information on the Agozis. She can work on some deep background while you question Becky and Charlotte about those employees we flagged.”
The sinking feeling in King’s stomach was his career going down in flames, wasn’t it? Ben might acquiesce to his daughter’s demands in public, but that wouldn’t keep him from blackballing King in private. “I don’t think that’s such a good idea.”
“You are acting second in command of our team,” Dain pointed out. “And the only way to get our clients used to your presence is—”
“To rub it in their faces?”
“I was going to say constant exposure, but whatever.” Dain jerked his chin toward the files on the table. “Head out.”
“Good luck,” Saint called as King made his way toward the door.
He shot his friend a wry glance. “You know Ben might shoot out my kneecaps, right?”
“Nah.” Saint’s white teeth gleamed against his dark olive skin. “He’ll aim for your junk if it comes to that.”
Comforting thought.
Elliot didn’t blink when King knocked on the door of the guest suite. She never did. Ready for anything and everything, that was Elliot. And tough enough to handle either one. He dropped his voice so as not to release the female ire he knew would arise if Elliot’s charges heard what he needed. “Dain wants some background on our recent guest.”
Elliot nodded. “I figured.” She moved into the hallway, allowing him inside. “Back soon.”
Becky and Kim sat on the far couch, facing him. The girl eyed him a bit warily still, not that he blamed her. She’d been through hell; she had every right not to trust men. Kim’s gaze was dark for a different reason—she trusted men, just not him.
At their expressions, Charlotte glanced over her shoulder toward him. Shock flared in her eyes, the same jolt that hit him every time he saw her. Gray eyes darkened to midnight before she turned to face forward in her chair.
He told himself it didn’t matter, that he didn’t feel anything at her rejection. Yeah, right. He could pretend he didn’t feel the punch to his gut, but that didn’t negate its existence.
Rounding Charlotte’s chair, he firmed his voice. “I have some questions if this is a good time, ladies.”
