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A cold feeling had settled in Colum’s gut.“He wasn’t planning to break in and search for the manuscript.He was going to break in and torture people for information.”

Annie grabbed Colum’s hand, squeezing tight.

“And the man last night had a gun,” he added.

Sebastian acknowledged that.“We don’t know what your attacker from last night’s orders were.Once we do, we’ll follow up.”

“Whoever is instigating all this doesn’t have any clues about where to look for the manuscript,” Annie said.“But they’ve figured out that either Colum or Xavier have clues as to where the rest of the manuscript is.”

At the word “clues,” Xavier flinched.

“They’re not chasing the manuscript,” Annie reminded them.“They’re chasing us.”

“That’s our conclusion too,” Sebastian agreed.“Which means you three now have a security team.”

Colum let his head hang, processing.

Annie started asking questions about their security that would have made it very clear she was far more than an art expert if she hadn’t already confessed her past.Colum’s thoughts had turned inward until he heard Sebastian say, “No, you won’t see them.”

“What?”Colum asked.

“We’re going to have clandestine security,” Annie said.“We won’t see them, which means anyone following us won’t either.”

“But they’ll be close enough to stop us from being shot?”Xavier asked, then grimaced.“Or having a knife thrown in our eye?”

“The security team will be close enough to step in if you’re attacked,” Sebastian answered.

“Not stop the attack,” Franco called out.“We probably need you to get jumped at least once more, so we can figure out who the bad guy is.”

Xavier fell back against the couch, muttering.

“I don’t want to get jumped,” Colum said.“More importantly, I don’t want Annie throwing knives.”

“Into eyeballs,” Xavier added.

Franco leaned in, the upper half of his face taking up the whole screen.“He’s really stuck on the eyeball thing, isn’t he?”

“It was gross,” Colum said in Xavier’s defense.

“The point is,” Sebastian all but shouted, “Annie is capable of holding the line long enough for your security people to step in.”

They talked for a few more minutes, telling Sebastian that they didn’t know where they were going next, so they would be staying in New York for a few days.Xavier shifted uneasily during that part of the conversation, while Annie shot him periodic irritated smirks.

Colum rose as the video call ended, headed for the bedroom with his phone.

“Colum?”Annie called out.

“I need to talk to the fleet admiral.”

Colum slid into the bedroom and called Eric.

Eric stoppedat the edge of the cliff, panting.Behind him, two members of the Spartan Guard also paused.Tobias was an avid runner, so he kept jogging in place as Eric braced his hands on his knees, bent at the waist as he tried to catch his breath.He much preferred strength training to cardio, but he knew the running was good for his stupid heart.

His stupid, broken heart.

Regina, the captain of his guard, was standing several feet away, pointedly ignoring him as she adjusted the laces of her running shoes.In the past, she would have been standing beside him, chatting or making fun of how much noise he made while running—he was a big guy with heavy footfalls.

But Regina was pissed at him and had been for weeks.She maybe even hated him.