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Her eyes flared with alarm. “I told you, the FBI can’t get involved!”
“Calm down. They’re looking into her as a missing person, not as a woman who committed corporate espionage. Besides, you locked in that deal with Morgan. Your company is safe.”
She managed a jerky nod. “I never wanted anything bad to happen to Angelica, even if I’m still really angry about what she did.”
“I understand, and I know you’d never wish ill on anyone. While we search for her, we’re hoping to lure out a rat tonight at the dinner.”
She met his eyes. “The Broker.”
He nodded. That time he couldn’t stop himself from dragging her close and pressing a kiss to the tender skin between her brows. Emotion coursed through him, and he pinched his eyes shut on the sensation of his heart being ripped out of his chest. If anything happened to her tonight…
Over my dead body.
After several heartbeats, he released her. She gave herself a small shake to compose herself. “I just need my purse.”
He watched her cross to the luggage rack and her open suitcase at the foot of the bed they’d be sharing later tonight—if she’d have him.
She hooked a thin gold chain strap over her shoulder and tucked the matching satin bag close to her hip. When she returned to his side and faced him, they stared at each other. The weight of the situation struck him.
He was about to walk his ward into the most dangerous situation of her life. The Broker liked to terrorize people on the sly, not out in the open. He used handwritten letters that had yet to be traced and sent similar messages through burner phones. He might not even show his face at the dinner tonight.
Bronte stiffened her spine and thrust her shoulders back. “I’m ready.”
He admired the hell out of her, for so, so,somany reasons.
And…there goes my heart.
He held out an arm to her. She curled her hand around the crook of his elbow and together they went to face the flames.
* * * * *
The first person Bronte spotted when they entered the packed room was Miles Morgan. He gave her a chin lift of recognition, and she returned the acknowledgement with a smile and a small wave.
Jace saw the exchange as well. “Annnd now my team’s running a check on him.”
She rammed the point of her elbow into his side, earning a low grunt from him. “If I thought Miles was a terrible person, I never would have asked him to partner with me on the software.”
Her mind shot to Angelica. God, gaining that collaboration was exactly what she and her former partner had dreamed of for Artemis. And now Angelica was missing, possibly dead.
As if sensing her despair, Jace tilted his head close and whispered, “You’re safe. Nobody is getting through me or my guys in this room.”
She glanced around the perimeter but couldn’t pick out the WEST team from the other guests. Of course, they knew how to blend into a crowd.
“If you’re pretending to be my fiancé, what are your guys pretending to be?”
“Since everyone here’s married or in a committed relationship, I doubt they’d fake an engagement.”
She still didn’t understand the workings of Jace’s mind and what made him spit out the fiancé thing to her client. He could have told him any other lie.
Sliding her thumb over the ring at the base of her finger, she tried to think about going back to not wearing the ring. It was fake in all ways, including its cultured stone. So why did it make her eyes prickle with tears to think of Jace taking back the ring and leaving California?
As he guided her through the crowd, she suddenly realized what he was doing—putting as many faces as possible into the WEST team’s system and searching for The Broker.
“Do you even know what he looks like?” she said to him in a quiet tone.
He knew what she was talking about. “We thought we had him once before. It was a surprise to learn he was at his old tricks again.”
“What happened to that man?”
