Page 57 of Guarded Knight

She freezes, wide-eyed, lips parted in shock.

Freya puts her hands up. “Gabriel, we were just…”

“Out.” The word is a bullet.

Freya is stunned.

“Now.” My tone is deeper than I want it to be, but the last few minutes have been enough to drive me to dark places.

She scurries out, sneakers squeaking, and I don’t spare her another glance.

I was probably harsher than she deserved, but when Lara wasn’t there… things inside me got ugly. The fear raking hot metal through me doesn’t make room for manners.

I’ll worry about manners later. Right now, all my focus is on Lara.

Her chest rises fast with quick, shallow breaths, and rage steams off her small frame. She was dancing to my family’s music a heartbeat ago, making me believe, if only for a song, that nothing could take her from me. Now she looks ready to strike me down.

The whiplash nearly guts me.

Damn, I would have died ten minutes ago if I could have.

But we’re here now instead, with me acting like an ill-mannered monster with a need to protect what’s mine.

“What the hell were you thinking?” I crack open. “Sneaking off with her? After last night, after that fucking note?”

I glance at the door. Freya’s gone, but her shadow lingers, a threat in the back of my mind. I don’t want to scare Lara. Don’t want her to see the suspicion that’s been chewing me alive when I don’t really have any basis yet for why Freya might work with Cameron or ever try to hurt Lara.

But I’m still emotional and unfiltered.

“She was home when that smoke bomb was planted,” I snap. “She had the keys, Lara. How the hell do you know she didn’tlure you out here so someone could finish what they started last night?”

Lara sets her jaw, and her words rumble out like thunder. “How dare you? She’s my friend. She’s the only one who…”

She shakes her head like she’s trying to hold back from lamping me.

“She went out yesterday. It clearly was planted when she was gone,” she grits out. “I trust her.”

“Yeah? I’ve seen trust put men in cages.”

“Gabriel…”

I cut her off not with words but by stepping closer, every muscle taut. My heart is pounding so loud I swear the horses can hear it. “I turned around and you were gone. Do you think I’m gonna let that happen again?”

She doesn’t back down. “What? So you’ll put me in a cage, too?”

“Maybe I’ll have to.” The words scrape out, more confession than a warning.

Her eyes flare with heat and challenge because she is Xander’s sister, a soldier in a dress, and I might have just started a war.

What I wouldn’t give to end it by locking her in my bedroom, safe, mine, breathing only for me.

“You’re mine to protect,” I grind out. “And I don’t give a shit if you think that’s too much.”

Every cell in my body is screaming to take her. To press her so close she can never disappear again.

She tries to jab her finger at my chest, and I grab her wrist before it makes it there. My pulse slams so hard I can’t hear anything else. Her heartbeat thrums on my fingertips.

She hisses. “You’re only able to watch me because Iletyou.”