Page 207 of No Headlines Please

I gave a shaky nod.

"You're doing damn fine on your own." He leaned close to whisper, "And you're hot when you're pissed."

What? My mouth started to twitch. And then, in spite of everything, I laughed. It wasn't a normal laugh. It was too high and frantic, but it felt good just the same.

It was incredible, really. Maddox always seemed to know exactly what to say. Or maybe we were just stupidly in sync, because none of this should've been funny.

Still, the distraction was exactly what I'd needed to get a grip. I looked back to Brian and said, "Forget the questions. Just go ahead and explain, okay?"

And so he did.

Long story short, Lacy had been sleeping with the married congressman on the sly, but had broken it off just as the wife had decided to dump the guy's cheating ass for good.

Fast forward to the messy divorce, and Brian had been tapped to warn Lacy to keep her mouth shut until the court case was over – except all he'd been given was Lacy's name and street address.

Apparently, the relationship was so secret that Brian didn't even know about it until he was asked to scare her off.

The whole thing was like something out of a bad movie – the kind where this sort of thing actually worked.

And me? I'd been caught in the crossfire.

When Brian finished, I sat in stunned silence for a long moment before asking, "And when did you know?"

"You mean that I got the wrong girl?" He paused as if thinking. "Maybe a month after it happened."

Holy hell. "And you never told me?"

"Why would I? You looked like you were doing fine."

My jaw dropped. "Fine? Seriously?"

He glanced away. "Well…it's not like you moved to Alaska or anything."

No. I hadn't. But I'd done things just as foolish. Stubbornly, I said, "But I saw you parked outside my apartment. And more than once, too."

"Yeah, because I was watching her, not you."

"But what about that time in the grocery store?"

"It was before I found out." He grimaced. "The boss wasn't happy about that, I can tell you."

I couldn't quite contain my sarcasm. "Funny…I wasn't happy either."

Now that the initial shock had passed, I felt like kicking myself. I'd been such an idiot. I'd lost more than a year of friends and family because one stupid jackass had threatened the wrong person by mistake.

I was still trying to make sense of it. "So, what are you doing now? Watching Lacy?" I paused. "Wait. Never mind. I'm guessing the court case is over, so you're what? Not watching anyone?"

The guy brightened. "Oh, I'm still watching her. But now it's no secret."

"But…why?"

"Because she and the boss got married last month. And I'm still head of security, see? So now I'm watching both of them. But it's on the up-and-up."

I had no idea what to say – well, nothing that didn't include a whole bunch of profanity.

A whole year.

Lost.