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Then she’d stick with that family. Yeah. He’d laid it out more clearly than I’d let myself even in my head.
I swallowed against the tightness in my throat. “I know that too. But there’s nothing wrong with making absolutely sure that she knows what she’s getting into, right?”
Garrison snickered, back to his usual obnoxious self. “Nothing at all. Just don’t blow a circuit trying to make it happen.”
Maybe he was right to hassle me about this. How could I say that all I wanted was for Dess to be happy when at the same time some part of me was desperately hoping I’d come across evidence that would destroy the image of the happy family she’d thought she’d found? Just so that we wouldn’t lose her.
So that I wouldn’t lose her. I sure as hell didn’t know where I’d find another woman to match her. But I’d let her go if I had to. I just wouldn’t like it.
My laptop dinged twice with an alert I hadn’t anticipated. It had nothing to do with my searches for information but instead the temporary security systems I’d put in place in the neighborhood of the hotel.
I snapped to attention, leaning close to the screen. My fingers flew across the keyboard as I checked out the movements it’d picked up on nearby streets. A group of men had walked by one of my surveillance cameras, half of them with obvious guns protruding from the backs of their jeans.
They didn’t appear to be heading in our direction. Who the hell were they that they’d saunter around so casually while armed? With those tattoos and piercings, they definitely didn’t look like cops. Normally regular citizens were a little more discreet.
Furrowing my brow, I dove into the data further to try to trace their path into our neighborhood and figure out where they’d come from while still keeping an eye on their path through the city as they passed us by.
Garrison stepped closer. “Why so serious?”
“Serious gets the job done,” I retorted.
“Not for you. You’re usually cracking a million jokes a minute while all our lives hang on the line.” He folded his arms over his chest. “Seeing you all somber is kind of scary.”
I rolled my eyes without meeting his and confirmed that the armed men were still heading in the opposite direction from the hotel. Whatever they were up to, it definitely didn’t appear to have anything to do with us.
But we couldn’t be too wary. I had to be strong to protect Dess properly, and maybe that did mean I should let go some of my usual carefree approach. Jokes weren’t going to deflect bullets aimed her way.
Whether she stayed with us or moved on, I’d never forgive myself if something happened to her that I could have prevented. Even the thought of her taking another wound, physical or emotional, made an ache form around my heart.
The men with the guns had shown up on one street cam outside my private surveillance network. When I tried to trace their path farther back, I didn’t spot them. It appeared they’d gotten out of a vehicle hidden within somewhere in a gap in coverage.
They’d gotten out just a couple of blocks from the area I was monitoring, and then walked right through the edge of that area with weapons on full display before sauntering on out of that area again.
My instincts twitched with apprehension. That didn’t feel right at all. It was almost as if they’d purposefully come through to catch our attention…
And draw it away from what?
Panic flashed through my nerves. My hands leapt across the keyboard. In a matter of seconds, I’d brought up the feeds closest to the hotel building.
Just in time to spot several forms in normal clothes with no overt equipment that would have alerted my systems converging on the building with a purposefulness that had me jumping to my feet. Even as I opened my mouth, all those feeds blinked out into static.
“We’re under attack!” I hollered.
The words had barely left my mouth when the windows along the side wall exploded with a hail of glass shards and intruding bodies.
