Page 80 of The Bodyguard's Fall

I watched her. My eyes narrowed. “How are things going with you two?”

“Fine. Good? Good.” She didn’t meet my eyes.

That shifty little rat. My suspicion meter was at an all-time high. And it felt amazing to think about something else.

“Been busy spending copious amounts of alone time with your ex?”

“You’re one to talk, tractor girl.”

“Nice subject change.”

She took another handful out of the bag. “I thought so. Just don’t do anything crazy without talking to someone first. You matter to everyone here, no matter what you might think.”

“That was a beautiful TED Talk.”

“Thank you. Now let’s think about something happier. Let’s plan out what we’re going to do to this nut job when we catch him. I lean more toward the old medieval ways of punishment. Things like stretching, burning at the stake, stuffing him in the stocks…all that good stuff. What do you think?”

With a lighter heart, we spent the next few minutes concocting revenge tactics before she had to go, promising me a phone call later tonight.

I needed to leave.

If the Walkers knew that, they’d have a guard around me all night. While a part of me wanted to sneak away in the cloak of darkness and stop being a burden on this sweet family, another part of me knew I couldn’t do that to them. It would be selfish to sneak off and make them worry like that. After all they’d done for me, that wasn’t the answer. Besides, I didn’t have anywhere to go. That left me with one person able to help—the person who got me in this mess in the first place.

I picked up my phone to call Will, but not before I glanced again at the email from my boss, my heart sinking at each word.

It was one more problem to add to the mix. One more iron on the fire, so to speak. But in this case, it would only help my insistence on leaving.

Because if I wanted to keep my job, I could no longer stay in this house.

I dialed Will’s number.

“Hey,” he greeted.

“Are you back home now?”

“I’m still on the road. Almost there. How are you holding up?”

“You need to get me out of here.” I used my best no-nonsense voice for this speech. Will bulldozed right through it.

“No.”

“Yes.”

“No. You will stay with Tate until we catch him.”

“What if that’s never? He has to go back to his job eventually. What if Leroy sneaks in again and hurts somebody?”

“He won’t. We’ve got cameras everywhere.”

“I don’t want to do that to this family.”

“They’ve already agreed. Tate won’t let me take you anywhere else.”

“I don’t care. This started as your operation! Not Tate’s. Get me out of here.” In a last-ditch effort to make him take me seriously, I threatened, “Or maybe I’ll just find my own arrangements out of here.”

“Olivia,” he growled. “Don’t even think about it.”

“You have two days to make it happen, or I’ll figure something else out. Either way, I have to leave.” My words felt big. Bold. Words a main character would be proud to say. But I didn’t feel proud. I felt lost and confused and absolutely terrified.