As his eyes sweep the empty street, my bodyguard acknowledges me with merely a grunt.
“Did he have a weapon?”
That catches his attention, and he looks at me with a furrowed brow. “What?”
I fold my arms. “This ‘possible hostile.’ Was he armed?”
“Freya.”
“Did you see a weapon, Elliot?”
He grits his teeth. “No. But that doesn’tmean—”
“It doesn’t mean you need to jump to the worst conclusions, correct,” I finish for him, anger rising in my throat. All of this madness for what could be nothing at all?
Elliot narrows his eyes. “Three sightings in four locations is a pattern.”
“Markham has been at all four.”
“And you know how I feel about Markham Grimstad,” he snaps.
The two guards outside with us glance at each other with wide eyes, and I can only imagine their thoughts.The princess is arguing with her bodyguard yet again.It was foolish to think Elliot and I had come to trust each other enough to not get on the other’s nerves so thoroughly, but before Markham proposed, things had felt different between us. Elliot had relaxed and let me see not the soldier but the man. He had trusted me to take command of the day, and we were both happier for it.
One possible threat, likely nothing dangerous at all, should not be enough to send us right back to the beginning.
“Leave Markham out of this,” I say, keeping my voice at a calm, normal volume despite my frustration with the man in front of me. “What do you plan to do when Sander finds him?”
Elliot folds his arm, and the gun still clutched in his fingers catches the light from the inn’s windows above us, putting me on edge. “I plan to get answers.”
“If he does not have answers?”
“He will.”
I glare at him. “Humor me.”
Clenching his jaw, Elliot signals to the two guards, sending them to each corner of the narrow block and leaving us alone. “What are you doing?” he asks, his voice strained.
I lift my chin. “I am questioning your judgment, Mr. Reid.”
“My—” He huffs, shaking his head. “This ismy job.”
“And this ismy country,” I counter, waving a hand around us. “I have spent my entire life in Candora, and while we are not a perfect countryand have our share of problems, in my experience, Candorans are good to each other. No one would resort to threatening me if they did not have a legitimate reason.”
He groans. “That is a naive and dangerous way to look at the world for someone planning to lead a country of flawed human beings, and it’ll get you killed. People do selfish things. All the time.”
“Yes,” I agree, “but if you are going to expect every stranger you come across to be inherently evil instead of choosing to trust them, then how can I expect them to trustme?”
Holstering his gun, Elliot shakes his head and looks at me like I have no comprehension of what is happening around me. “Freya, this isn’t—”
“I am not saying you are wrong about this lurker,” I say, “but I am asking you to be less rash. Tothinkbefore you act, Elliot!”
“How can I think when I can’t focus on anything butyou?”
As Elliot freezes, his eyes wide, my breath seems to turn to ice in my lungs. He looks as shocked by his admission as I am. Whether it was a secret that slipped out or a revelation to us both, I cannot say.
“What does that mean?” I whisper, once again thinking of the way Elsa’s mum thought Elliot and I were romantically involved.
He shakes his head. “I don’t know.”
