Page 22 of Guarded Knight (Echo Valley #3)

It should settle me. It almost does. But unease creeps in anyway, a shadow at the edges.

I can’t shake the feeling of that smoke bomb going off.

Last night was too close. The note too specific. Too… inside. It was almost as bad as those photographs of me sleeping, and those chilled me to the bone. I never thought Cameron was even smart enough to do something like this.

She looks better in a hospital bed than in yours.

A threat dressed up as intimacy. It makes me feel dirty in all the wrong ways.

Luis rolls three hot dogs into the center of the grill. “Hijo…” he says to Gabriel. “Can you get me my basting sauce? I need more salsa magica…”

Gabriel hesitates, scans the backyard, stiffens.

I know he doesn’t want to leave me, but gosh, if I’m safe anywhere, it’s here. This place has security all over the place, and unknowns have to show ID at the gate.

“G, the ribs are burning.” Luis is more urgent now, like the sky is falling.

“You better get the sauce, Gabriel, or I’m blaming those dry ribs on you,” I joke. And then I mouth… I’m fine.

He places her beer on a nearby prep table and bounds up the back stairs and into Luis’ house.

He disappears; the space beside me suddenly too open.

Just then, Freya slides in next to me.

“Hey,” she says. “Can we go for a walk? While G isn’t listening? I… I had a weird call with Kevin earlier and…” She looks hassled. “I want to keep it private, and you haven’t been alone since yesterday.”

“Of course we can chat,” I say. “Shoot.”

“Not here, though?” She lowers her voice to almost a whisper. “I don’t really want anyone else to chime in. I feel like Anton and Gabriel see and hear everything these days…”

It’s true. I’m not the only person having to deal with a bodyguard.

“Yeah. I get that. But you know this place is probably bugged,” I joke. Sort of.

“I’m sure it’s safe to walk around? Let’s wander over to the barns?” she suggests. “Then I can double dip and see the horses again.”

Gabriel will probably not be thrilled when he gets back and I’m gone. But equally, I’m putting Freya through so much…

“Just wait a second, and I’ll tell G when he’s back.”

She shoots me a pained look like she doesn’t think we’ll get time alone if I do that.

She’s probably right.

It’s okay. Gabriel’s not the only bodyguard at Monarch Hills.

She adds, “It’s not a long conversation. We’ll only be a minute.”

I grab her arm and rush off. “Let’s go.”

Luis’ house is the closest to the stable yard, and it’s a short stroll down a gravel path away from the houses and toward the outbuildings and stables. Earthy, horsey smell replaces the scent of barbecue on a pleasant cool breeze.

Once we’re out of earshot, she dives in.

“I’ve been thinking about that contract I have where I can’t drink in public.

It’s been bothering me since I saw how the boys twisted their faces when I told them.

It’s not that I want to get shit-faced, but the other day at the bar with Santi and Kat, they offered, and I thought, just one beer. It would have been nice.”

She glances down at her cell, distracted, as if waiting for a text to come in and rescue her from her feelings.

I can’t stop thinking about how tense Freya’s been at work lately, how her smile never quite reaches her eyes like it used to.

When I asked her a few weeks ago if she still liked working at Scarlet Hope, she just said Kevin’s under pressure.

She’s always been the nurturing one, always looking out for everyone but herself.

I’ve long thought the no-drinking contract was bullshit, but it’s not unheard of in nonprofit work. Kevin is a serious guy. There’s a lot at stake when it comes to PR, which is why I take my newsletter so seriously.

It’s not that Freya cares about getting drunk. But what thirty-one-year-old wants someone telling her what to do? Still, as her friend, I don’t rail against Kevin. Not immediately.

“Did you bring it up with him? Now that you’ve been together a while, surely, he’d trust you?”

We hit the double doors of the barn and step inside to the sweet smell of musk and grass.

Freya wanders over to a dark bay thoroughbred’s stall and runs her hand along its muzzle. She glances around, maybe looking for the bugs I mentioned. Shit, now she’s paranoid, too. Is it because of the smoke bomb? It would make sense. It was her apartment that was broken into as well, after all.

“I understand how important the reputation of Scarlet Hope is for fundraising,” she says, voice low, “but I deserve to be trusted.”

“You definitely do.”

She rolls her cell phone around in her hand, fidgeting. She doesn’t usually walk around with her cell like that. Is she waiting for a call or something? Or is Kevin that intimidating?

She seems so uncomfortable, and the fact that she struggles to have a single serious conversation with Kevin makes me want to tell her this guy isn’t worth it. And that’s without telling her about the financial issues I found.

But one problem at a time. I let her speak.

“I finally brought it up with Kevin.” She sighs. “He gave me the cold shoulder.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, we’re supposed to meet up this weekend, and he texted that he was busy.” She rolls her eyes; her words lack confidence. “I thought we’d hang out more now that we can drive to each other, and the first weekend I’m here, he’s busy?”

That’s immature for a forty-two-year-old if he is ditching her because she asked him for an honest discussion, but I try to give him the benefit of the doubt, even though I don’t want to.

I’ve given friends advice to ditch dudes before, and they ended up back together. The decision is Freya’s to make and mine to support. She needs food for thought, not a pitchfork.

“It is possible he had work,” I suggest. “You said he’s had lots of functions.”

Even though, as mentioned before, he should be taking my gorgeous friend to said galas with him as arm candy. She is so much hotter than he is.

“Can you look into it for me?” She offers a crooked smile. “Maybe you’ll see if he has a work thing in your schedule? You have access to funding meetings and events that aren’t on mine.” She leans against the stall. “I don’t want to bring it up with him if he actually had something on.”

“Yeah. I’ll check.”

She turns her gaze on the barn door. “I can’t shake the feeling he’s trying to punish me somehow. And if that’s true, then he’s not the guy I thought he was. I’m not getting myself into some…” She trails off.

I know exactly what she’s thinking. Cameron was my problem and her cautionary tale.

“Sorry,” she whispers, knowing I’ve read her thoughts.

“Hey,” I say gently. “I’m glad you’ve learned from my fable about men who don’t get their way.” I place my hand on her shoulder. “But I hope it’s not like that…”

I stop short of everything else I want to say. I’m protective over my friend, and at this point in a relationship, it should be rainbows and butterflies.

“It’s complicated.” She sighs. “I wanted to talk to you because we work together, and if anything happens between me and Kevin, I don’t want to put you in an awkward situation.”

“As if…” I wave her off.

But on top of the fact that I’d stand by Freya over anything, I haven’t had a chance to tell her how I might end up making things awkward myself.

For the whole organization. The last thing I wanted was to bring this up before knowing for sure that the charity needed some auditing. But now feels like the right time.

“Don’t ever worry about making things awkward with me. I’ll bounce back,” I offer. “And especially around a job. But since you’ve been dating Kevin, I found it a little hard to tell you…”

I must be wearing the problem on my face because dread crosses her features.

“What is it?”

I might be wrong and should I really tell her now when she’s already worried about this weekend and the drinking clause…

“Lara?”

Too late to turn back now.

“I think someone at the company might be doing something… sketchy.”

“Kevin?” Her eyebrows shoot straight to her curls.

“I mean…” I sigh, tracing my thumb along the stall door.

Kevin has always been so… intense about work. Like he can’t relax, even for five minutes. And once in a while it does come across as sly or that he’s hiding things, but accusing my friend’s boyfriend, even if they aren’t that serious…I have no proof yet.

I hurry to reassure her. “I don’t know who but I’ve just not been able to trace our activities with other charities who are receiving our funds.

And Scarlet Hope is sending a lot of funds out.

It’s like we don’t offer any real services ourselves.

It might be nothing. It could be aboveboard, but I can’t see why reports haven’t been produced for me to see and I started asking about these transactions a month ago. ”

“I hope it’s nothing,” she says softly. “I want this charity to succeed, and I’d be mortified if I was dating a criminal.” She laughs, but it’s shaky, like she’s trying to convince herself she isn’t.

Boy, don’t I know how that feels.

Freya glances at the barn doors twice in quick succession, chewing her lip as if expecting Kevin to burst in any second. She shifts her weight as if preparing to bolt.

She mumbles. “Plus, we can’t afford to lose our health insurance… especially you.”

How true that is. I just switched clinics… Maybe I should stop poking around Scarlet Hope until all this Cameron stuff blows over and I’m able to move freely about the country…

“Lara!”

A booming voice cuts through the barn, and the horse under Freya’s hand jerks its head.

Gabriel storms in, his eyes two heat-seeking missiles. Freya’s eyes blast open, and I fight to keep mine from doing the same.

He’s not just annoyed, he’s practically trembling, every muscle a live wire, every breath a fuse.

I open my mouth to speak, but before I can say a word, he’s across the barn in three strides, eyes dark, every step threatening to split the earth in two.