Page 19 of Guarded Knight

His gaze drops back to the ground, and he shakes his head. “What the hell am I going to do with you?”

My heart kicks like it did when we were younger and he used to say that.

Damn you, heart. Get a brain cell.

We fall quiet again, but this time the silence feels different. Heavier.

I pick at a loose thread on my sleeve, avoiding his eyes because they see too much. “I didn’t want it to get this far.”

“I know.”

I concede a little more. “At the beginning, I did sense it was wrong, but I thought maybe I was overreacting.” I sigh. “That I could handle it. It was just phone calls and texts.”

He doesn’t say I told you so. He just nods.

“I was careful,” I add, flicking my gaze upward to see if he believes me.

“I’m sure you were. I know how smart you are.”

His gaze rakes over me as if he’s approving more than just my intelligence and I set on fire inside.

“But we’ve got someone who knows how to get past careful.”

How true. Cameron got past careful getting into my locked home, and now that I’m having a frank conversation with Gabriel, a man who can read things for what they are; I should have raised alarm bells sooner. Maybe Cameron would have stopped if I got a restraining order. Maybe I could have retaliated and messed up his life if he didn’t.

Now, it’s gotten too big. Too dangerous. And I’ve had no choice but to go to my brother and now…him.

I steal a glance at G, still staring at the ground, concentrating. His dark eyebrows are pulled together. His jaw is clenched. There’s care there.Brotherlycare. I’d do well to remember that when the mere sight of how damn hot he is starts tugging at something deeper.

I need to solve this and get the hell out of Echo Valley.

“What do we do now?” I ask.

He leans forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “I need access to everything—socials, call logs, emails. Trust me. I’ll figure out a way to end this, but I need info first.”

I nod slowly, then risk a glance at him. “You’re still the same.”

His brow furrows. “What do you mean?”

“Still the guy who thinks he has to fix everything.”

“Someone has to,” he says.

And I believe he’ll fix it. That he’ll stop Cameron. That if anyone can walk into my life and burn down the threat, it’s him. I hate how easily that belief slides back into place. Hate that even after I cried enough tears over him to flood the Nile, I still feel safer now with him near.

I sit back on the bench and cross my arms, sealing myself back off.Boundaries, Lara.“All right then, fix it.”

And I stand quickly to avoid falling any closer to him. I head back to the bookstore, and he follows.

He doesn’t need to know how much faith I still have in him.

And I’m sure as hell not going to say it out loud.

5

Lara didn’t sayanything else after the trail. She just left me, watching her push back into Pages and Perks, disappearing without a glance in my direction.

We talked. For the first time in years, we weren’t on opposite sides of a locked door. We stood together—me and her—against something bigger. And God help me, it lit me up inside, that tinyshred of us still alive. Even if I hate myself for finding any light in this hell.