Page 29 of Her Chosen Protector

Asher laughed. “Have trust issues much?”

Leo snorted.

“No, I trust my family implicitly. Anyone else? It takes a little bit more than a minute.”

Asher winced.

“Is this going to be a problem with you helping us?” he finally asked.

“Nope. I see you as our best shot out of here. I’d have to be an idiot not to help in our rescue.

With that said, don’t think I’m just going to follow orders blindly. You better give me a good reason if something seems stupid.”

Leo rolled his eyes.

“That’s not going to be a problem, Eden. We’re going to have damn good reasons for everything we ask you to do. First thing? Put your phone on vibrate. Second, do you have someplace you can conceal it on your person?”

“Yes, and yes.”

“Third, check your settings, make sure that when you get a text, it only vibrates once. This will be the way we will communicate back and forth. One vibration means you have ten minutes to get back to us. Two immediate vibrations in a row means drop everything and find a way to get us on the phone. Three immediate vibrations in a row means you have one minute to duck and cover.”

“And in one of our many tête-à-têtes, will you have appraised me of the duck and cover potential?” He heard laughter in her voice.

His lip twitched. “If all goes to plan, then yes.”

“So, there is a plan?”

“One is beginning to take shape.”

“That’s what my brothers used to say when they were flying by the seat of their pants,” Eden

sighed. “But they always came out alive, so that’s something.”

“Count on it.”

He could hear two female voices who must have just entered the bathroom. Eden hung up the phone.

C H A P T E R 7

Her hands were sweaty. Not clammy. Actually sweaty. And her blouse was getting sticky because she’d been wearing it since yesterday morning, and now it was almost four o’clock Friday afternoon.

She rubbed them against her skirt and cursed Asher Thorne. It had been five hours since she’d first talked privately with Asher, and on the last phone call, he’d told her their plan. It was worse than anything her dumbass brothers had come up with in their wild, drunken, teenage years in the wilds of Montana. They were going to have to be smarter, better, and really, really lucky to pull this off.

Since her phone was stuck deep in her underwire bra, she glanced over at Carlson’s phone. It was thirteen minutes to the top of the hour. Señora Azua’s executive office was on the opposite side of the huge open bank area. As soon as the explosions started, she was going to need to get her down the stairway to the vault. This floor and the two below it would be toast. She needed to give Suzanne a head start.

Eden’s head swiveled away from Carlson’s phone to look at Suzanne’s pale face. Despite the intermittent ice packs, Eden hadn’t seen a discernable reduction of the swelling on her neck. She needed to be seen by a doctor, not some wanna-be-veterinarian. Eden had been giving her slow sips of water to ease the pain in her throat, and now it was time for her to pee, whether she needed to or not. The fact that the woman’s bathroom was next to the stairway was just a happy coincidence.

She leaned over and put her ear near the woman’s face.

“You need to use the restroom?” Eden queried. “Yeah, we can arrange that.”

Suzanne’s eyes fluttered open, but the woman looked at her with keen intelligence.

“Help me up,” she whispered.

“Leland?” Eden turned to the man to see that he was already standing up.

“I’ll help.” All of his attention was focused on Suzanne.