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“From Nate Quest’s hotel room.Yes, I know what time it is.I want them sent over to me immediately.Get them emailed.Get them texted.Just get them.”A brief pause.“Yeah, yeah, I tried reaching Jase already.I think he was first on scene, but he’s not picking up.Last I heard, he’d been the one assigned guard duty with Blain Montgomery because Colby feared Lane might be going after the representative.”Oliver looked up and met her gaze.“I am aware another plan is in motion.So maybe Jase has been reassigned, and I wasn’t briefed on it.I should have been.Why?Because consider me off thebreak.Shortest fucking break on record.Now, just get me those pictures, will you?We both know you had a fling with the guy who takes the photos.Send them to me.STAT.”He lowered the phone.His stare swept over her.
Lingered on her neck.
“How are you feeling?”Oliver asked.
She rose from her perch on the side of the bed.“I’m feeling like we need to talk.”
His lips twisted.“You should be feeling like you want to crash.”
No, she wasn’t tired.At all.Her throat felt tender, her temple still ached, but adrenaline pumped through her.Lark knew sleep would not be coming anytime soon.
What was the saying about sleeping?Some rock star had been credited with it ages ago.Maybe Warren Zevon?Something along the lines of… “‘I’ll sleep when I’m dead,’” she murmured.
He immediately surged toward her.“You’re not dying.”
“No, thanks to you, I’m not.”
He stopped.His hands fisted.
He hadn’t come all the way to her, so Lark closed the last few steps between them.“You didn’t tell Theo that you were the one who got a guard placed on Blain Montgomery.”
He shrugged.“Protecting and serving,” he said.“My gig, right?”
“You’re not protecting him.”
“No?”His eyes narrowed.His hand rose to her throat.Hovered over the bruise.Then touched the line lightly as rage darkened his face.
“You’re protectingme,” she returned with certainty.“You got Colby to put an agent on Blain not because you were worried Lane would go after the guy—”
“Oh, make no mistake, your brother hates Blain and the feeling is mutual.”
Yes, she more than suspected it was.But she also suspected… “You tricked Colby into placing a guard on Blain because you’re worried he will come after me.You wanted eyes on Blain.Someone following his every move.”
Oliver smiled.“Guilty.”Then he leaned forward.His mouth pressed a soft kiss to her throat.“Ihateyou were hurt on my watch.”
Her eyes closed as she tilted back her head.One soft kiss on her skin.Then another.Featherlight.“I hate that I lied to you.”Her hands rose to curl around his arms.
His muscles went tight beneath her touch.His head lifted.
Her eyes opened.
“I’m sorry for lying.”This needed to be said.“I was desperate.I just needed the Ice Breakers to help me.I thought…if I can convince them to look at the case, they’ll find something.They’ll see something…”
“That I missed?”Oliver finished.
“That everyone missed.”That she’d missed.Because she’d tried and tried to find evidence to use that would exonerate her brother, and she’d kept turning up nothing.“I knew Memphis would want to see the footage.”Footage that didn’t exist.“I thought I could delay him a bit, thought that if he just started digging, he and the Ice Breakers would turn up new evidence and by the time they learned the package didn’t come to my shop—”
“Sweetheart, Memphis suspected that story was a lie, too.Otherwise, he would have gotten the video footage instantly.He took the case because of you.Because you were fighting for your brother the same way Memphis fought for his own brother.”
Her heart ached.“Lane lied to protect me when we were kids.So I lied to protect him now.”She didn’t let Oliver go.
“Any other lies you’ve told me?Things you want to clear up now?”
Lark’s throat went dry.
His phone dinged.
The crime scene photos that he’d requested?Already?Theo sure moved fast.
