Page 9 of Twilight Tactics
“It’s not your fault.”
“Isn’t it? I’m asking you to trust me to keep you safe, and someone keeps showing up to kill you. I wouldn’t trust me at this point.”
She laughed. More of a snort and a choke, but her eyesheld a shimmer of mirth. “That’s the first real funny thing I’ve heard you say since you got stuck with me.”
“Aw, Ollie, I didn’t get stuck with you. Sure, you’re my assignment, but the truth is, you’ve grown on me. I like you. I care about what happens to you.”
She narrowed her eyes and looked away. “Whatever.”
They fell silent. Her walls were still so high and thick he wasn’t sure he’d ever manage to reach her. Then again, maybe he shouldn’t try. Shouldn’t let himself care too much.
“Why now?” she asked.
He blinked. “What?”
“You’ve been protecting me for a little over three months now. The boredom was real, but at least no one found us. So what changed?”
He frowned. “I don’t know. I’ll confess I’ve wondered the same thing.” He shouldn’t be surprised she’d thought of it too.
She crunched a chip. “And?”
He sighed. “We’ve had our analysts check the computer you were using. There was no breach. No one found you that way. All the agents who were watching out for you came back clean.”
“Y’all checked that?”
“Of course. And yet one day, hit men show up to the safe house and we barely escaped because one of them tripped the alarm system.” He shook his head. “I keep going back to ‘what changed?’”
She frowned at him. “But that’s just it. Nothing did.”
“I know it looks like that on the surface, butsomethingdid. I just can’t figure out what.”
“I don’t know either. I just know that the trial is next week and they’re closing in.”
That was the first time she’d expressed her fear like that. He had to admit he felt the same. “Yeah.”
A knock on the door brought Sully to his feet, hand on his weapon.
Ollie raised a brow at him. “You really think the bad guys are going to knock?”
He relaxed a fraction. “Probably not.” But he’d still be careful. He walked to the door and saw Piper in the hallway, hand on her weapon.
“Hey, it’s me, Elena,” a voice called. “You texted?”
Piper slipped back into her bedroom, leaving him with the one woman who made his heart squirm and his emotions roller coaster.
Great.
He opened the door.
Elena ignored thesudden surgein her pulse when Sully opened the door and smiled. “Ollie wanted to talk to me?”
He stepped back and let her in, his eyes sweeping the area out of what she figured was pure habit. “That’s what she said.”
“Sounds good to me then.” She stepped inside and spied Ollie at the table, chin resting on one hand.
“I’ll just leave you guys to it.”
He disappeared downstairs and Elena took a seat across from the teen. The girl was pretty in an understated way, with thick blond hair, gray eyes, and clear skin that looked like it would tan easily in the summer. Right now, she looked pale, timid, and bone-deep weary.
