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Jake dipped his chin at my command and asked, “What are you going to do?”
I took a moment to consider his question. Fuck. She was married. That tidbit of knowledge had set me on edge, and I hated to admit the reason for it.
I had already known I couldn’t get involved with Ellery beyond having a professional relationship with her, but I think I had the thought somewhere in the back of my mind that maybe there would be an option later down the road, maybe when she’d learned all she needed to learn.
Now, there was no hope.
No chance.
Because she was tied to another man.
Then again, if he was a man worthy of her, I had a feeling she wouldn’t have been sitting in the conference room here at Harper Security Ops, pleading for us to train her in self-defense techniques. She wouldn’t suddenly want weapons training when she’d been keen to hold off on it before.
So, I knew what I was going to do.
“I’m going to give her what she’s asking for now and teach her everything she needs to know,” I started. “But I’m going to be the one to make sure she never has to execute a single move on anyone.”
For the first time since I stepped out of the conference room to speak with Jake, he relaxed. His lips twitched before he said, “I had a feeling that you were going to say something like that.”
“Yeah. Here’s hoping she’s going to give me the truth when I go back in there, though,” I muttered.
He shrugged. “She came here, Kane. That’s got to mean she has faith in us to do right by her.”
Jake made a fair point. We weren’t just some run-of-the-mill company. We were the best there was. We had the best men and the most dedicated team. Ellery was here, because, by some miracle, she’d found us and knew we were her best option.
“I better get back in there,” I told him.
“I’ll talk to Leo.”
“Thanks, man.”
With that, I turned away from my friend and moved back toward the conference room door. I put my hand to the knob, took in a deep breath, and let it out. Then, I opened it up and went inside.
It became immediately clear that in the time I’d been outside the room with Jake, Ellery had grown only more tense about her situation. I didn’t know why she hadn’t yet decided to share it with me, but I figured it was best to get the hard part out of the way for her.
“You’re running,” I declared.
“What?”
Her voice sounded horrified.
“You’re running,” I repeated as I moved back toward the chair I’d been sitting in before Jake interrupted. Only after I sat back down, leaned forward, and stared into her eyes did I speak. And when I did, I hoped she couldn’t mistake the tone of my voice as being anything but reassuring. “I think before you say another word to me, I need you to know that I’m more than prepared to teach you everything you want to know for your own peace of mind. But formyown peace of mind, Ellery, the bottom line is that I’m going to do whatever I’ve got to do to keep you safe. And the only way I can do that is if you tell me everything about your husband and why you want to get away from him.”
Suffice it to say that Ellery was shocked by what I’d just said.
I just didn’t know if it was because she didn’t think I’d find out, or if she was surprised that I’d want to be the one to help her.
TEN
Ellery
This had to be a dream.
There was no way this was happening.
No way.
For a moment, I started to feel like I was a heroine in one of the romance novels I spent the better part of the last five years reading about.
