Page 24 of Her New Bodyguard: Colton

"You said that your father's clients seem like criminals," I said gently. "Do you know what kind of criminals they might be?"

She closed her eyes, thinking. "A lot of the scraps of conversations I heard were random places and numbers. There were also a lot of tech terms that meant nothing to me, so I can't remember them. I've heard him say the name Smith a lot more the past year, but that's so common, like Jones or Thompson. There are millions of them."

"Okay," I said, stroking the side of her hand gently with my thumb. "What do you know about Darren?"

There was a tiny flinch. "Dad always went to visit him in Europe about once a year. It always felt like he didn't want to go, but felt obligated to stay in touch with his old friend."

"And Darren himself? Is he a good guy?"

Her eyes snapped open. "Quite the opposite. There was an incident when I was young…the police got involved, and Mom threatened to leave Dad over it…I don't know details, but it was something that he and Darren did together."

"But your mom decided to stay. What do you think that was?"

"Because everyone's afraid of Dad," Julia said sadly. "He just has this…sinister side. And you really don't know how deep it runs, but you never want to cross him, just in case."

Her eyes clearly said she felt guilty about speaking badly of her father. "It sounds like your dad could be a criminal as well."

Her bottom lip trembled. "You know, I've never really wanted to think of it, but it wouldn't surprise me at all."

Lifting her into my lap, I held her against me, rocking her gently as I thought it through.

I couldn't ask Julia to speak up against her father. Even if it was the right thing to do, I couldn't have her resent me if I turned out to be wrong.

I also didn't want to start our new relationship off by destroying her bond with her dad. Yet it might be the only way.

My only choice was to sleep on it, and see if the morning would shed some light on things.

There was a chance I could solve this whole dilemma, but it would likely involve severing all ties with Julia's dad. It wasn't the perfect way to start a relationship.

And Julia deserved no less than perfect.

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