Page 6 of Let Me Protect You

Anita’s voice follows us, but we don’t stop. We gave them their closing statement.

The five of us head toward Victor’s wing, so I don’t recognize the hallway. None of the women were allowed down here. Everything is white, as if a blanket of snow covers the corridor: the walls, benches, even the framed art.

We enter another hallway that looks exactly the same as the last, and Victor immediately opens a door to the right, ushering us inside. Darkness swallows us.

Summer’s wailing breaks the silence.

“Where’s the light switch?” Serenity searches for my hand and squeezes. “Summer’s scared of the dark.”

The light flickers on.

Serenity heaves a big breath. “Thank you.”

Victor winks at my niece. “Anything for the young lady.”

My sister rolls her eyes so hard I’m sure she can see her brain. Before I can question her, Victor’s bedroom steals my attention. I’m certain my eyes are double the size as I take it all in. His room is as big as Serenity’s whole first floor of her condo—bigger than the one I had to share with three other women. A large, perfectly made four-poster bed takes up half of the bedroom, almost as if it were never slept in. Other than the bed, the furniture is sparse, and the room is a little too clean. There are no shoes by the door, and from my spot, I can’t see a single piece of clothing, not even a jacket hanging on the coat rack. It’s almost as if he didn’t live here during filming.

We push farther inside, and Victor leads us over to a door on the back wall.

I turn to him. “Where are we going?”

“That door right there,” he says as he points to the exit I already spotted. “It’s a little more private, so we don’t have cameras filming us. I’m sorry that I can’t go with you. I need to do some damage control.”

Damage control. Because of me. “I’m sorry for whatever mess I caused.”

He flashes me a charming smile. “Everything will be okay. But I have one question.”

“Yes?”

“Who is he?” Victor asks, motioning at Elias’s overbearing form.

At this point, I prefer him believe Elias is a lover rather than tell him the truth. There’s no need to add more onto Victor’s plate. And if he found out that Elias is here to be my bodyguard because of him … I’d add guilt to the list of problems I already gave him.

“Forget I asked,” Victor says with a wink.

He reaches for the doorknob, but Serenity stops him. “Why are you helping us?”

“Because I’ve grown to respect Harmony during our time together, and even though we didn’t fall in love, she’s my friend.” He opens the door, and a whip of freezing winter air lashes against us.

My sister huffs and says something under her breath that is swallowed up by the sudden stream of air.

Victor holds the door open and turns to me. “We’ll talk after I figure out what to do.”

Chapter 5

Elias

Two Days Earlier

“Are you okay working an assignment where you may have a personal attachment?” Sully, my old mentor, asks right after I arrive back home from my morning shift.

“You live in New York now. Why are you calling me about a job?” I reply, deflecting, because no, I don’t want to work on an assignment where I have a personal attachment. My judgment will be impaired. Or they’ll fight me when I have to get them to safety and then dive back into danger.

“She didn’t realize I lived in New York when she called.”

She? I only speak to two women: Tía Vicki and my sister, Kami. And they both know that Sully moved. “Who?”

The line is silent for a moment, and I start to pace around my living room. I’m about to wear my wood floor out with how many times I’ve strode across it in this short conversation.