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The way her voice cracked over the last words damn near killed him. He exhaled slowly. “I’m sure he loves you. He’s your father.”
When she didn’t answer, he forced himself to focus on the task at hand. She didn’t want to believe bad things about her father, which was understandable, but that didn’t make the accusations any less true. “Okay. Suppose your dad doesn’t know about the hidden files.”Yeah, right.“Maybe someone at the manufacturing facility for the devices is loading them on there. Or the person who prepared the files to send them to the manufacturer. We need to find your father so we can question him. He knows how his business operates—he’d be able to help us figure out who’s really responsible. And if you’re right about him being a patriot, he’ll want to help us find the person who betrayed our country—and murdered a Navy SEAL in cold blood. He might be our only shot at solving this whole mystery.”
Toni stood motionless, all the fight seemingly gone out of her. Spencer missed the spark of defiance in her dark eyes. Seconds ticked by, and it seemed more and more likely she’d walk out without another word. Then, finally, she sighed and looked at him again, her expression defeated. “What kind of tracking software?”
“Not sure yet. Hayley—that’s Scotty’s girlfriend—only broke through the coding yesterday. I’ve only gotten a few text updates since then. My team leader still needs to brief me on all the details. I’ll let you know when we find out, though. Will you let me take another look at your phone?”
Her gaze narrowed. “Why should I trust you?”
He rose to his feet and moved closer, as if drawn by some invisible cord. Leaning a hand against the wall beside her, Spencer felt the heat of her penetrate the crisp cotton of his dress shirt. “Because right now, I’m all you’ve got. And I made a promise to protect you no matter what. A promise I intend to keep, sweetheart.”
“I told you not to call me sweetheart.”
She looked up at him through her long, dark lashes, and Spencer’s pulse kicked higher. The spark was back in her eyes. “What should I call you, then?”
“Considering what you just told me, how about partner? You help me make this trip a success for the foundation, and I’ll help you find my father so you can try to get your answers.”
Spencer stared at her extended hand, his gaze flickering to her lips before meeting her eyes. He grasped her hand tight, feeling the connection between them throb stronger, brighter. “Okay, partner,” he said, putting a twang onpartner, doing his best John Wayne impersonation. “So who do you think would want to kill you?”
“I don’t know.” She shook her head and frowned.
* * *
By the time that afternoon rolled around, Toni had racked her brain about who might want her dead and had come up empty-handed. Sure, her dad had made plenty of enemies on his rise to media mogul, but she helped underprivileged kids for a living. She finally had called security up to the room and explained about the shots that were fired. They’d brought in the police, and she’d told the same story over and over again—but no matter how many times or how many people asked, she stayed stuck on that question. They all wanted to know who she thought might be responsible, and she replied, repeatedly, that she had no idea.
Who would care enough about her to have her assassinated? Even if her father was somehow involved in the awful things Spencer had accused him of—which she had a hard time accepting—that had nothing to do with her.
Spencer had been on the phone with his team for most of the day, discussing what had happened and running possible scenarios for the days ahead, coordinating her security and looking totally in his element. Now that she knew what was going on, she felt she could trust him—at least when it came to her safety. It helped, of course, that he’d saved her from a sniper’s bullet twice already.
She needed him, pure and simple. Even if she didn’t want to tell him that. Not yet, anyway.
In the midst of all the chaos, she’d managed to hold her press conference and get some of the preliminary setup done for the huge PR event the next day in the resort’s massive banquet room. Thanks to the sheer number of invitations Sheik Saaed had sent, what had initially been planned as a simple speech followed by a sit-down dinner had morphed into a full-blown extravaganza—a seven-course fundraiser dinner with a black-tie gala ball to follow, and an antiquities auction to boot—all thanks to the nearly round-the-clock efforts and seemingly endless resources of Sheik Saaed.
“Hey, can you pass me the leftover hummus?” Spencer asked from across the table.
She shoved the bowl in his direction, along with the plate of fresh crackers Ayaan had provided, then continued typing out her list of needed items for the banquet hall caterers. Always lingering in the back of her mind, though, was their conversation from earlier. The truth about why Spencer had come to work for her, and his accusations about her father.
She’d suspected her father might doing something shady, but she never would have imagined it would be anything involving helping terrorists. He had made his fortune in defense software, and he was always so proud of making the country and its servicemen safer. No, he wouldn’t betray all that. She would believe a lot about him, but she refused to believe that. Not without Spencer and his team providing her with proof. She was a trained attorney, after all, even if she’d never sat for the bar exam. Her law school professors had trained her to depend only on the evidence she could see and verify. Speculation could lead you in interesting directions, but it wouldn’t necessarily lead you to the truth.
“You okay?” Spencer asked, his gaze concerned as he peered over at her.
“Fine.” She looked away fast, but not before noticing a cracker crumb stuck to the side of his mouth. She wanted to reach over and brush it off for him.
Nope. Not going there. After all, the guy had hacked her personal files. One didn’t just forget about that, no matter how handsome he was or how noble his intentions. She’d gone in first thing afterward and changed her passwords, then continued to do so every hour since, just to be on the safe side. They might have formed a partnership, but that didn’t mean she trusted him completely. Not yet, anyway. “Isn’t it time for your hourly perimeter check?”
“I didn’t realize my schedule was so important to you.”
“It is when you’re on my payroll.”
Spencer stood and patted the weapon holstered at his waist. It still bothered her, having a loaded firearm around. She supposed having an armed bodyguard should make her feel more secure, but it only made her jumpier and more nervous than ever. Every loud noise—every sound, basically—made her twitch and duck and want to hide under the nearest table.
He’d gotten up every sixty minutes, like clockwork, to assess the area for threats, checking all the doors and windows before creeping out onto the balcony to scan the rooftops of the adjacent buildings. Toni had never been one for brute shows of force, but she had to admit having her very own private SEAL protector was pretty damned hot. She glanced at him as he stalked out of the room, doing her best not to stare at his muscled, tight butt. Even dressed in what should’ve been boring business attire, the man was entrancing. The fact that he’d removed his tie, leaving the collar of his shirt unbuttoned to expose a few tantalizing inches of his tanned throat, didn’t escape her attention either.
Twenty minutes passed before he returned and took his seat in the interior dining room again, clicking the safety on his weapon before replacing it in its holster. He cocked a brow at her and gave her a challenging stare. “Satisfied?”
“Yes.”No.The hint of suggestion in his tone had her wondering if he’d intended the word to carry a double meaning, but she refused to take the bait and ask. They were probably both a bit restless, having been holed up in here since the press conference, but she wasn’t sure he’d approve a trip downstairs, so she tried some small talk instead. “Your team have any new thoughts on who might be behind this SHEEPSKIN organization?”
“A few.”
