Page 31 of Too Guarded to Love

She smiled. The normal day-to-day things like husbands and wives and a birthday party, even if it was for the president, grounded her enough to think rationally. If someone was following her, or sabotaging her, or—she couldn’t believe she was even thinking this—trying to end her life, they weren’t getting anywhere near this room.

She looked over her shoulder, slowly twisting as much as she could without causing too much discomfort, hoping Jonathan would appear. Watching the VIPER boys, as Patience had called them, interrogate him about his lies would be entertaining.

“Olivia.”

She jerked toward Nic’s deep, clipped voice. The sharp movement speared a jab of pain through the injured side of her body. Sweat erupted on her forehead as the crackers she’d eaten before she’d left MedLab curdled in her belly.

She’d heard Kane say her name, but her attention remained on Nic. The alertness in his posture and gaze equaled the intensity of the Secret Service agents, but she’d caught the slight twist in her direction.

Kane knelt by her side. “Get back to your room. We can finish this discussion tomorrow.”

Olivia accepted the can of ginger ale Linc offered her. “I’m fine. I just moved too fast.” She took a sip of her drink. Closing her eyes, she let the bubbles fizz down her throat and douse the acid in her belly. “I’m okay now.”

She waved her brother away as she chanced a look at Nic again, this time slower. “Did you have a question?”

“Yes, lots of them, but they can wait. You need some rest.”

“Stop siding with my brother, or I’ll shove my boot up your…” She looked down at the ugly beige slippers Patience had given her. Were her boots still at the beach bungalow? Her feet already missed the soft leather. Would VIPER make their retrieval a priority?

You own a dozen other pairs. Focus.

But she couldn’t. The pain and fatigue she’d brushed off clamored to be taken seriously. She still wanted answers about who shot her. Still wanted to know how Jonathan had found her, and oh crap, she needed to let Harlee know why she hadn’t made it to her condo.

Olivia moaned. That was going to be difficult since the unknown number Harlee had called her from was on the smashed cell phone at the beach.

She opened her mouth to explain all that, but the contents in her belly pitched up her throat. Doubling over, she swallowed it back as the room spun around her ugly beige slippers.