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So for the past three years, Shay and I have been working for him. Before this job, it has just been general muscle work along with security investigations and some bond collections, all done through the boss’ legitimate security business. Very rarely he would require us to break the law. I definitely can’t say that I’m a saint, but I’ve tried my best to avoid anything that would bring me close to Evans’ line of business.
When I was given the file by Gibbons and I saw Elle’s photo, I accepted the job immediately. I knew that there was something about her that was drawing me in, like I was meant to meet her. Along with Shay, it was agreed that we would move to where Elle was and I would pose as a bona fide college student studying Economics alongside her. The original plan was to get close to her, assess the risk, and determine whether she had any idea that there was a threat to her safety. Then, when the boss pulled the plug, we would leave.
When Elle became the majority stakeholder of her father’s company, Harry started making moves to increase his stake in the company. He was annoyed that Benjamin didn’t give him the first option to buy and was even more incensed when his will stated that Elle would be the CEO at the completion of her college studies. Harry had always planned on increasing his stake, but Benjamin’s death simply brought forward his takeover plans.
Now for the difficult part—for me anyway. If Elle was to become incapacitated or was to pass away before taking her place as CEO, Brimstone would automatically be given the option to purchase her entire stake in the company. When Elle declined Harry’s office to buy her out, this became his only option to make the company his own. My boss doesn’t want this to happen because of his close relationship with Elle’s father, as well as the fact that he still has a lot of his money tied up in the company. It may be well hidden, but there is still a paper trail that we can’t destroy yet. We do have someone on the inside at Brightlight who is working hard to find and destroy any evidence of the money’s existence, but Brimstone has been getting suspicious and using his power as acting CEO to dig a little deeper.
We’re still not sure how Brimstone connected with Evans, but given that he still has a lot of contacts within the FBI, it doesn’t surprise me that Harry is trying to keep him onside. We know that Evans and Brimstone have kept an even closer eye on Elle since I came on board, but even before that Brimstone was already making moves to ensure that his takeover bid would be accepted, whatever the cost. As soon as our boss got word of what Brimstone was up to, and heard that Evans was involved, he rushed us in.
What I didn’t count on was falling in love with Elle. At first it was her gorgeous, but lifeless green eyes staring back at me from the surveillance photo in her file. But when I met her, I knew my life would never be the same again. It was like every good deed I’d ever done in my life had brought me to her, but now I know it may end up being the ultimate selfless deed that could almost cost me everything.
I’ve been close to telling her the truth so many times. When she finally told me about her family and her father, whom she still idolizes to this day, I didn’t have it in me to shatter the only good memories she has of her past. She was crushed by their murders and it took a lot for her to open up to me and allow me to become a part of her life. I struggle every day with the face that I’m lying to her about who I work for, what I do, the truth about Brimstone and Evans, and the truth about her father.
I’ve been trying to appease both Gibbons and Shay. Shay has been telling me for weeks now that the three of us should just leave and take Elle away from all of this, go into hiding somewhere until this all dies down. It’s getting too dangerous for us to be here, but Shay knows that the only way I’ll leave is if she comes with me.
Now that it seems that Brimstone has connected the dots and has worked out who I am and who I’m working for, it is just a waiting game until he makes his next move. The threats he made during his last phone call with Elle all but confirmed that. It’s like a bomb with a faulty detonation switch—we can’t predict when it is going to go off.
We no longer feel we can trust Gibbons. He has been talking about pulling us out early. I don’t know why he is so desperate to pull us off the job. Shay and I have our suspicions, but without proof we can’t do anything, and that is all they are right now. Suspicions. We think he is compromised. This is from his actions in the past few months, starting with not tracking Shay the night he was taken to Boston and not giving us all of the information about the notes we’ve sent to HQ. All of this has made us wary of him.
At the end of the day, I don’t think there is any way I could leave Elle. We’ve come so far in the past few months, she has blossomed in front of my eyes into a vivacious, sexy-as-hell woman that I love more than life itself. If I was to tell her the truth now, that I’ve been living a lie for the past eight months, it would break us.
Being adopted at two years old and finding out at fifteen that I have a monster for a father—I’m used to lies, both telling them and living them. Having Elle in my life makes me want to be better, she makes me want to be better for her. A large part of me hopes that she loves me enough to see through my past and believe in the unequivocal love and devotion I now have for her.
It’s that hope I cling to while I hold her close to me as she sleeps peacefully in my arms. Tomorrow morning I’ll tell her the truth. I’m hoping with every ounce of my being that she will see past it and realize I am only protecting her.
I have to believe in her. In us.
I feel Brax pull me in closer against his naked body and I can’t help but sigh with contentment. He has made me so happy since he came into my life. He loves me, warts and all. Despite my horrific past and the details that still haunt me today, he still wants to be with me. He took away my nightmares, just like that. Three years of horrible memories replaying in my dreams every night have disappeared. He is truly my salve, my savior from a life of being completely alone.
I drift off to sleep in his arms, looking forward to the future. There is no way my life could get better than it is right now.
I hear Brax’s phone vibrate on the side table and feel him reach over to read the message, never letting me go. I fall asleep again before he has even put the phone back down, resolving to ask him about it in the morning.
I’m just about asleep when I hear my phone vibrate with a text message. I check the time, 1.16 a.m. This can’t be good. I open my messages and see the one message I don’t want to see
