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“The worst kind,” Leif plays along, as if he’s used to it… And knowing the Harknetts, he probably is.
I turn back to the speaker and gesture at the room. “Please, carry on. Excuse me.”
And just like that, Leif and I make a swift exit, never looking back.
“You had no idea what they were talking about in there, did you?” Leif asks once we’re safely outside the building.
“Leif, I spend my life surrounded by canvas, paint, and statues. Of course I have no fucking idea what that man was talking about.”
“And was that bit about giving your wife a tax-free gift from The Shawshank Redemption?”
“No… maybe. Yes…”
Leif throws his head back and bursts out laughing.
“Oh, man, Knox would’ve loved that,” Leif chuckles, and my heart aches as if it’s just been stabbed.
“Hey! No talking about Voldemort.”
“I don’t know who that is.”
“I’m seriously judging your taste now…” I frown at the smiling Viking. “But just so you understand, he is a man who ‘shall not be named.’”
“Got it.” He nods. “Are you going to tell me what happened now?”
“Nothing happened…”
“You took Knox—” he begins, but my scowl stops him. “Sorry. You took Voldimumu off your shadow detail, you don’t even want to hear his name, and I’m pretty sure we just lost forty minutes of our lives listening to tax law just to run away from him.”
“Ugh… you saw him?”
Leif glares at me and gestures to himself. “Uh… elite security agent here. Of course I saw him. I saw him ten minutes before you did.”
“Well, you’re wrong. Nothing happened, and I am not hiding from—”
We turn the corner, and Knox is standing right there with his back to us.
I spin around and push Leif back into the corner. “Okay, fine! You’re right. I am hiding, something awful happened, and I can’t talk about it, but you need to save me right now.”
Leif looks around as he thinks it over for a couple of seconds. “Are you afraid of heights?”
“No… Why?”
“Whatever you do, do not tell Logan about this.”
“Tell Logan about what—” But before the words leave my mouth, Leif scoops me up, throws me over his shoulder, runs, and jumps over the balcony railing.
“AAhhhhh!” I scream as we fall a good ten feet.
Midair, Leif shifts my weight to absorb the impact, hits the ground below, rolls across the lawn, and pops right back up on his feet as if he belongs in a freaking circus.
“Jesus Christ, Leif!” I gasp, my legs shaking. “You are insane.”
“Aaaaand?” He looks at me expectantly.
“And Logan won’t ever hear about this.”
“Perfect! Now where to?”
