Page 112 of Guarded Knight

I want to give her a future, no matter how short or long. But the danger circling us isn’t waiting for me to figure it out. Kevin isn’t working in the open, and I don’t know how deep this goes or who else has skin in the game.

There are too many unknowns to focus on the one in our hearts.

And if I don’t get ahead of it, she won’t just lose her peace.

She might lose her life.

28

Xanderand the girls left for his meeting in San Francisco, and I’ve never felt the silence settle so heavy. Xander squeezes me harder than normal, apologizing when I cough under his loving pressure, and the girls both cried when hugging me goodbye. Watching their car disappear felt like watching the last thread of peace unravel.

I’m not sure they like it out there and I question how they’re settling in. When we were with the horses, they both confided in me that the kids at their new school have all been tolikeevery country and that speaking only one extra language isn’t all that great. They told me all the kids were sept-lingual, a made-up word I’m sure, and a made-up fact as well. But it tells me they don’t think they fit in and are, heartbreakingly, feeling less than.

Now I see that their Spanish with Gabriel was even more than simply impressing their favorite grump.

The wind kicks up as we leave the giant gate out front. Monarch Hills smells like summer clinging to fall’s edges—warm hay, sharp pine, and something impossibly golden in the air.

I wrap my arms around myself as we cross the gravel lot to the main house, my sneakers crunching softly beside Gabriel’s heavier boots. He walks like a storm bottled tight, each step precise, as if keeping pace with me is the only thing anchoring him to the ground. I wonder if he’s replaying whatever Xander said, if it made him doubt. He told me he was certain about me, but what if certainty can crack under pressure?

I’ve never seen them so serious nor exchange quite so many words in one sitting, and what could have been said makes my stomach twist. I haven’t let my guard down in years. Hell, ever since we kissed back in that hospital room. What if that talk with my brother scrambled him all up again?

I don’t give a crap.

I’m not taking no for an answer, and Gabriel should fight for us, too.

I hope he did.

I want to believe we’ll have time to figure out what last night and, well, everything means. But time isn’t something I’ve ever had much of.

Instead, I need to turn back to this dumpster fire I call my reality and put it to rest once and for all. Anton and Freya walked down to summon us back to the boardroom, so it must be serious.

We walk toward the house, the silence between us taut as a bowstring. Somewhere in the barn, a horse nickers. A dog barks twice, then goes quiet. Life at Monarch Hills keeps pulsing forward—easy, natural, unbothered.

I feel anything but.

The cold edges its way down the back of my neck. I hug myself tighter, but it’s not the weather that’s getting to me. It’s the wait. On everything. On Gabriel. On what my brother said. On catching Kevin so I can breathe easy again. On just… living.

Eventually, we reach the family offices, where we join Rio, who is pacing up and down along the wall of windows, shadows catching on his angular, handsome face as he orders someone to solve it before he has to.

He hangs up and turns toward us. “I look forward to having a beer with you guys at the Cantina instead of meeting here one day.”

“Trust me, Rio,” I agree. “I’ll be buying if we can end this drama once and for all.” I let myself fall into one of the leather conference chairs. “Thanks for helping. I know you’re busy.”

Rio takes a seat in front of his laptop which he taps a few times. “I have a folder here with some evidence. We found facial recognition matches for both Belinda, if that’s her name, andKevin, if that’s his name, on the CEO pages of multiple charities across the country and even one in England and another in South Africa.”

The list of charities and shell boards drones on. I should be scribbling notes, but all I can think about is Gabriel. About whether I’m still the woman he worshipped like a goddess last night, the one he’s certain of, or if my brother made him second-guess it.

Rio keeps going, saying he’s reached his technical limit with the tools, that he doesn’t have manpower for a few days at HQ. Without Ava and Enzo here it’s the best he could do, but at least we have motive. “In a few days, my guys in San Francisco will connect the dots and then we can take this to the Feds.”

Anton continues. “The motive is definitely there to get Lara out of the picture. He knows you have information, maybe even more than you’ve let on. He can’t fire you without cause, so we think he’s playing as a stalker, hoping to either scare you out of town and into hiding, like sadly happens in many cases, or maybe you’ll get frazzled enough to mess up and give him reason to fire you.”

“Or maybe he wants to actually hurt her.” Freya’s jaw is tight and her brow furrowed. “Can’t we get him taken into custody with all this?”

Gabriel’s jaw tics like he’s one breath away from detonation. “We can’t get law enforcement on him with what you found?”

By the look on his face, he’d rather take care of Kevin himself.

Rio rolls up his sleeves, and I catch the flash of ink across his forearms. He looks every inch the man who makes problems disappear.