Page 30 of Undercover Shadow

“This is on you, Tag. Not me.”

I nodded once. She was right, and I was powerless to change it.

I lay awakethe rest of the night, talking myself into going to her, lying beside her, just holding her. Then, I’d talk myself out of it.

Zero two hundred came and went. Then three. Then finally, at four, I heard it—the quiet sound of her door opening, the soft footsteps of someone trying not to be heard. I listened as her heavy boots landed on each step of the staircase, then counted several seconds before slipping out of the room. I raced down the servants’ stairs, the ones that would get me to the main entrance before her.

When she turned the corner, pack over her shoulder, I was leaning against the door, waiting.

“Going somewhere?” I asked.

She froze, resignation replacing surprise on her face. “Let me go,” she whispered.

“You know I can’t.” I straightened.

“Why not?” Her voice broke, and she turned her back to me.

“If anything happened to you, it would destroy me.”

She faced me again, wiping at her tears. “Then we’d be even.”

She fought as I pulled her into my arms, but soon, she buried her head in my chest and sobbed.

Eventually, I carried her up the main staircase and rested her body on the bed we’d shared. I covered her with blankets, then lay behind her with our bodies flush.

“Don’t make me go to Glenshadow,” she whispered.

“You’ll be safe there.”

She shook her head. “I won’t.”

“I promise you will be.”

“The only way you can keep that promise is if you aren’t there too.”

Understanding dawned on me. What Leila was saying was that, more than whoever followed her to London, I represented the most danger.

Within minutes, she was sound asleep.

When she wokewith the sun, we were in the same position.

“What time do we leave?” she asked without raising her head.

“Eleven hundred.”

“You’re a bastard,” she whispered.

“Yes,” I agreed.

“Just because I’m going with you, doesn’t mean you win.”

“I’m not trying to win. I’m trying to keep you alive.”

We lay side by side for another few hours until I heard someone knock on the kitchen door.

“That’s probably the MacLeods,” I said. “I’ll go let them in.”

Leila’s eyes were on me, and I knew she’d heard what I said, but when she didn’t respond, I left the room and rushed downstairs.