Page 16 of Taylor’s Warrior

She’d taken a look at the menu but none of the choices had particularly piqued her interest. “I’ll have whatever you have.”

Rhys nodded. “Okay. I was going to do that in about an hour or so—if you change your mind about what you’d like before then, let me know.”

“Thanks, I will.”

She should have expected the escort to the connecting door. He reached for the handle, but didn’t immediately open the door.

“Taylor, I’m not your enemy.”

Hearing him say such a thing was sobering. “I know. If it helps, I’ve never really thought of you that way.”

As the words left her lips, she recognized them for the truth. While she might have displayed a certain degree of animosity toward him, there’d never been any real bite to it. How could there be, when she was so drawn to him?

“Same here. Sleep well. I’ll see you in the morning.”

Same here? If he’d never viewed her as an enemy, exactly how had he viewed her? One question, but so many potential answers. One possibility made her pulse quicken.

This time she did make it back to her own room. Out of habit, she checked her cell phone and found a missed call from Charity. She wondered briefly if her friend had somehow picked up a long-distance vibe about needing to talk, then shook her head at her own foolishness. She really was tired.

“Tay, I was getting worried when you didn’t answer. You okay?”

“Yeah, everything’s fine. I was just with Rhys.” She chuckled. “And no, I haven’t killed him.”

“Yet,” Charity added darkly. “It’s okay, Nick did mention he called. Please tell me he at least found a half-decent hotel for you, and didn’t make reservations for something in the back of beyond that looks like it belongs in a war zone.”

Taylor pinched her lips together to stifle another laugh. “No, he didn’t do that. It’s a pretty nice place. I can’t complain. It has room service, and our rooms are adjacent.”

“So, you had dinner in your rooms tonight?”

Taylor winced. She couldn’t lie to her friend, not when this whole situation had arisen from a lie of sorts. “In a way. We had it in his room.”

Charity groaned. “Please tell me he didn’t tell you you had to do that for reasons of safety? So help me… If we’d had anyone else available⁠—”

While she might have welcomed the assignment of another operative a few days ago, the idea wasn’t so appealing now, for reasons she wasn’t ready to dissect. “No, it’s okay. Seriously. It’s a good thing you didn’t have anyone else available, because it means business is going well. And… it was my idea to eat together. I mean, he’s not so bad, now I’ve spent some time with him.”

Silence. Taylor’s brow furrowed. “Charity? Are you there?”

“Just picking myself up off of the floor. Who are you, and what have you done with Taylor? I really thought you’d have killed each other by now. Glad to hear I’m wrong.”

Taylor heard the subtle insinuation underscoring her friend’s words. “Yeah, well, don’t start with the romantic fantasies. You might have fallen for the accent and all, but I’m doing no such thing. And if this goes the full two weeks, there’s plenty of time for me to kill him yet. This is still day one. Are you any closer to finding out what’s going on?”

“Nick’s finished his assessment of the financials. Based on his findings, he’s passed everything over to an expert in the field for a full, detailed report. He’s also still waiting to hear more from the company counsel about the contracts, and from a friend with friends in high and low places about the technical information.”

Charity paused; Taylor could sense her discomfort with the matter, as if her friend didn’t want to upset her. “It’s okay. You can tell me whatever it is that’s bothering you.”

“The deeper he’s digging into the information, the worse his bad feeling about it all is getting.”

Taylor’s stomach rolled. How bad was this going to get? “I’m not sure I can add anything useful, but you know I’ll do anything I can to help.”

“The best way you can help is do what you’re doing right now, Tay. We know you’ll be safe with Rhys—he’ll take good care of you.”

Taylor knew exactly what her friend meant, but a wayward part of her brain conjured up thoughts of him taking care of her in an entirely different way. This conversation needed to take a diversion, and fast. “I hate feeling so out of control of my own life. This is worse than when I first left New York. And I totally hate that I’ve dragged you into it all.”

“Enough already. We’ve done that to death. You can’t handle this on your own. All you have to do is let us help, like we agreed. Stop fighting it, Tay, because it’s a battle we are never going to let you win.”

The solid statement helped to ease a little more tension from her soul. “I guess you’re right. Okay, I give in.”

“Good. Now go get some sleep. It’s getting late, and you’re on the road again tomorrow.”