Page 20 of High Stakes

Tobias shakes his head.

That means we should be safe, but I get into another camera near where the bike turned just to be safe.

“Let’s switch cars.”

Tobias makes a call before I can answer him, and five minutes later another car is pulling up beside us.

Begrudgingly, I make the switch, but I tap a few buttons on the dashboard screen and wipe the call history and navigational data in the SUV. Just in case.

Tobias gets to the driver’s side of the new car before I can.

“You clearly have some fancy gadgets there. I’ll drive. You keep an eye on things.”

It’s petty, but I agree just so I can sit in the backseat with Bellamy.

Tobias races through the city as I tap into cameras along our route. So far, all is safe. “Are you sure this place is safe? We have no idea who this was or what they wanted. Who has access?”

Tobias glances at me in the mirror. “It’s safe. It’s mine. Belongs to my company. Not the family.”

For now, that’s enough for me. It would be the equivalent of me taking us to The High Card in Las Vegas.

We’re outside of the city proper now, and Tobias pulls up to a gate and scans a card. It whirs open, and we pull up a long drive.

The house is smaller than I expected it to be for such an ostentatious drive, and I wonder why his company owns it. It’s still good sized, and there will be plenty of space for me to work inside.

We rush inside, and Tobias leads us to the second floor where there’s a conference room.

“We’ll be safe here for now. I need to check in with my family and find out if we lost anyone.”

“Fine. I need more tech to be able to properly run an operation. What do you have in the building?”

“Laptops, tablets. Just tell me what you need, and we’ll find it.”

At least he’s not objecting to my help. We may have grown distant over the years, but if he’s smart—and he is—he’s tried to keep tabs on me all this time because I was protecting his fiancée.

He holds up his phone as he steps out of the room. I try not to look at Bellamy as I set up my laptop and log into all of my systems.

“It would be nice to get out of this dress,” she says quietly after a few minutes.

I glance up at her. “There are sweats and a t-shirt in my bag if you want to borrow them.”

She frowns and looks down at the gown she’s wearing.

It’s stunning, but I can’t stand the sight of it, knowing what it represents.

I jerk my head toward the bag I’d tossed in the middle of the table, and she hesitates. She fucking hesitates, and it kills me.

“Jesus Christ, Bellamy. Don’t act like you haven’t been free to go through my stuff for the past seven years. You know where they are.”

Her shoulders droop and she plays with a piece of beading on the front of her dress. “I’m sorry. Things are different now. You have to admit that.”

“Don’t apologize. Just go change if you want to.”

She opens the bag and grabs my clothes then ducks into a bathroom Tobias pointed out.

A few minutes later, as I’m scrolling through footage from a camera near the church, I hear a loud noise outside the conference room as Tobias curses.

Jumping up, I reach for my gun and ease into the hallway. But Tobias is alone, and there’s a hole in the plaster the size of his fist.

---