Page 15 of Guarded Knight

“You’ve got five minutes,” she says, biting the corner of her thumbnail.

“I’m not going to bulldoze. I want to be your teammate in this…”

Something shifts in her, like a shield that wasn’t there before now is. I said something wrong…

“I’m not your enemy, Lara.”

She lets out a humorless laugh. “You’re not my anything.”

A thousand knives slice through my chest. I’d prefer anger to indifference.

But this isn’t about us.

Not until Cameron is gone. I’m not going to prioritize anything but her safety, not even if I’ve been waiting for a chance to make amends for years on end.

“I don’t need to be anything to you,” I say evenly. “But you’re something to me. So let’s work together and make sure Cameron gets handled.”

Her jaw tightens. “I’m something to you? Let’s be precise. You’re doing this for Xander.”

“Lara. Don’t…” I have a million more words lined up.

Don’t belittle the greatest time of my life.

Don’t say I don’t care about you, it’ll kill me.

“I wanted to sort this out myself for the record.” She exhales hard, all fire and frustration. “Reddit says restraining orders don’t work which is why I didn’t bother.”

“Well,Iwork.”

Her jacket has come off both shoulders now, and her top is low-cut and inviting.

“What are you going to do? Beat him up? Like when Henry Sherman thought I just had a constant cold all the time and called me Loogie? This isn’t high school.”

Xander hasn’t told her anything about the exact plans we’re putting in place. Guess for now, I shouldn’t either. Maybe we can still get Cameron without entrapment. Maybe we can find evidence in Santa Fe… a witness. Anything that doesn’t put Lara at the center of nabbing this guy.

I don’t indulge her question, and it frustrates her, but I don’t want to lie or withhold. Silence is the only truth for now.

“I don’t need tailing.” She pushes up and brushes past me, muttering, “Not by you anyway…”

She heads back toward the shop, but her phone buzzes, and she flinches. Not a twitch. A full stop.

It might not be Cameron, but he’s the reason the simple buzz of her phone has her stopping in her tracks, because from what I’ve heard from Xander, it’s buzzing all the time with unwanted messages.

I will make this motherfucker pay.

She slides her phone out, slow and deliberate. Doesn’t turn and angles the screen close so I can’t tower over her and see it.

But sometimes you know things not from what you see but from what you don’t.

Lara isn’t breathing. She’s still as if stunned.

I shift behind her, lowering my voice. “Lara.”

She puts the phone against her chest. Her shoulders still haven’t lowered.

“Let me see it.” I already know she won’t show me but I know it’s him.

She slides the phone halfway into her pocket. “No.”