Page 153 of Defenders of Jawhara

She was staring at him, eyes wide. “I can’t just hop on a plane and fly off to Jawhara. I’ve got my dad to think about.”

“If you’re on a business trip, Slade Security will take care of your dad. We’ll keep you in touch with him, make sure he has visiting nurses, even get him out and over to a stable where he can spend some time with horses. That should cheer him up. Just don’t think about it too hard.”

Rubbing her arms, she told him, “This is all so crazy! I mean, is your name even Trent?”

Trent took her hands. “Chloe, my name is Trent Larson. I’m a former Navy SEAL who does private security now. I have a twin brother—you met him. Slade is our boss, and don’t bother asking about his first name. Come with me to Jawhara. You want the truth—well, it’s being served up on a platter.”

She frowned and tugged at her hands. He wouldn’t let go. Her frown deepened. “Why didn’t you just tell me who you were to begin with?”

“Because I had to make sure you weren’t part of the bad stuff going on at the Guardians. I’ve seen and done a lot of things, and I’ve learned one thing—trusting the wrong person can get you killed. I’ve learned to be cautious. But don’t listen to me. Listen to your heart. Go with your gut instincts. The real question here is how much do you trust yourself?”

* * *

Chloe wasn’t sure what to believe. She knew that she had started to develop deep emotions for Trent—she knew it because it hurt so damn much.

He lied to you. He used you. He’s just like Sam—he’s worse than Dad.

But was he?

She didn’t know, and she kept wondering if Mr. Myers had been in the office that first day, would Trent have still asked her out?

The idea that he wouldn’t have hurt even worse.

She’d never felt so connected to another individual, and the thought of leaving California and never seeing Trent again started an ache deep inside. She didn’t want to leave and never see him again. But she felt like she was Alice, and she had stepped through the looking glass—everything was backward or wrong. It had been ever since she’d seen Trent’s twin. He’d told her a bit about his job, but nothing more about his family. How could she move forward if she couldn’t trust herself to know if he was lying?

Even worse—she didn’t know if she did trust herself.

For years, she’d believed her father’s promises. He’d broken all of them—all of them, except for one. He’d bought her Beanie—her first horse. She’d fallen in love with Beanie at first sight, had begged her father for the flashy buckskin. Her father had promised if she got straight A’s in school, he’d buy the horse for her. She had—and he had. Beanie had been her pal, her companion, and now he was happily retired on Mrs. Smythson’s range.

She looked up at Trent. Then stepped toward him. Going up on her tiptoes, she brushed her lips across his but stepped back when he attempted to deepen the kiss. “I need time to think. Go to Jawhara. Save the world. We’ll talk when you get back.”

“Will we?” The anguish in his voice startled her, but she needed to be strong.

She opened the door and was about to step through, “And Trent? Don’t ever lie to me again. I mean it. If you lie, if you break a promise, I will find out. And there is no coming back from that.”

16

They hadn’t left the next day as planned. As Trent was pulling together his go-bag for the trip, he had gotten a phone call from Bradley Myers asking him if he’d be willing to delay his trip by a day. He’d gotten some new marketing materials in and was hoping that Trent would take them with him.

As soon as he’d gotten off the phone, he tried to reach Chloe to see if she would have breakfast with him and they could talk more, but his call had gone to voicemail, and she wasn’t responding to his texts. He knew he was blowing up her phone but with each unanswered message, he was growing increasingly concerned. He also had the mission to concentrate on, but he really needed to talk to her, to make sure she was okay.

Late in the morning, he arrived at the Guardians' corporate office and was surprised that there weren’t any other cars there. Parking, he headed to the building and noted that the lights were off inside. For the first time in a long time, Trent wished he had a weapon on him as he walked inside. He immediately headed over to Chloe’s desk and everything was stacked neatly near her computer, and it didn’t look as if she’d been there in days. Did she quit and not tell him?

The overhead lights came on, and he looked up to see a guy walking down the hall carrying two heavy-duty boxes with locks on them. Trent could tell in an instant that he was a vet, and he immediately shifted into surfer mode hoping the guy wouldn’t pick up the wrong vibe off him. Vets were a lot like ex-cons, easy to pick each other out of a line-up, and that was the last thing Trent needed.

“Whoa, dude. I thought Brad said he wanted me to bring a few things. No way this is going in my carry-on.”

The stare he got in return had him wanting to find a weapon, but he kept his composure and rattled at the locks. “You sure these will be okay? Doesn’t look like something customs will be too keen on.”

Tapping the envelope on the top, the guy thrust the boxes at him, and Trent pretended to stagger a bit under the weight, which had the guy narrowing his eyes at him. “Everything you need is here. When you land, you’ll want to make sure that Raed Mehalel is the customs agent who processes you. Do you think you can handle that?”

Holding the boxes, Trent backed his way to the door. “Got it. Mehalel. Do I need to call anyone once I’m there?” But the guy didn’t respond. Once Trent was outside, he heard the snick of the lock being turned and when he turned to look back inside, the lights were off again.

Instead of returning to his own office, he met Slade and Travis at a warehouse just off the freeway along with a friend who worked with SDPD’s bomb squad. The canine didn’t detect any explosives, so the officer left along with a very happy canine clutching a roasted pig ear in his mouth.

They read through the info in the envelope. “Is this Raed person related to Kam?” Trent asked as Travis tapped away on his tablet.

“Looks that way. Some sort of distant cousin. Presently running a search of any online activity to see if we can link him to Bashiria.”

---