Every inch of him tightened.He was used to danger.He knew how to act.If he was protecting a client, they would have already worked out a safe place for them to hide while he investigated the danger.But Harmony was different.He had no backup since Jude, Rhett, and the others had been pulled into another assignment.Damien had no way of knowing if whoever broke in was still in the lab, or the building, or if they were gone.If he told Harmony to hide, and the perpetrator was hiding in the same place, Damien would be sending her right into their grasp.
“Stay behind me,” Damien whispered, grabbing his gun and pointing it at the door.He took her hand and brought it to his waist.She hooked her finger in his belt loop.He eased forward, hoping it was the right move and danger didn’t come up from behind them.
Damien pushed the lab door open and stepped inside.Everything was shattered.The equipment was bent like someone had taken a bat to it.Glass littered the floor.Cold storage was open and exposed.Everything Harmony had been working on was ruined.Everything all the students had been working on was ruined.
Damien continued through the lab, his boots crunching on the shards of glass as he moved, Harmony holding on to his belt loop.He knew she was cataloguing everything that was destroyed, but she didn’t say a word as they moved.
When Damien didn’t find anyone else in the lab, he pushed Harmony toward a storage cabinet.“Hide in there.I need to check the rest of this floor.”
“You think someone’s still here?”
Damien watched behind him as he encouraged her to hide.“I don’t know, but I can’t risk your safety.”
“What about your safety?”
“I’ll be right back, Harmony.I promise you.”
She grabbed his shirt and tugged his lips to hers.“You better be.”
Damien nodded, then closed her in the cabinet.
Fifteen
Breathe.In.Out.In.Out.It was the most basic of human functions.Harmony had been doing it forever.She didn’t need to think about it.
Until she was closed in a storage cabinet with the man she was starting to feel way too many things for was wandering the halls of her lab looking for the person who destroyed her research.
Harmony wanted to cry.To scream.To throw things and cause her own destruction.
But first, she needed to be okay.
Every breath burned her lungs.She fought herself to keep going, to make her breathing steady.Hyperventilating wouldn’t do her any good.
The last month was fucked up.Watching men break into a building.Meeting a billionaire who seemed to think she was someone she wasn’t.Meeting a man who kept her safe and made her feel things she’d never felt.Being followed.Being stalked.Being doxed.Her apartment broken into.And now her lab.
She’d never imagined any of those things, let alone all of them coming on the heels of each other.If she could go back…
No.She would still make that phone call.She would still report the break-in to the police.She would still make the same choice.
But why did all the rest of it have to happen?
Tears welled up, but she choked them back, knowing if she started crying, she would give away her hiding spot.And she still wasn’t sure if the person who broke in was still there.If they were hiding and waiting for Harmony.If they’d surprised Damien and he was knocked out or injured or dead.
Panic rose up again, flushing her skin hot.She strained to hear something, anything.Her heartbeat whooshed through her head, drowning out all other sounds.
Wait.Were those footsteps?
Were they Damien’s or someone else’s?
How long had he been gone?How long did it take to check all the rooms?What if he couldn’t get into them?If he couldn’t, the person who broke in couldn’t.Right?
Unless it was another student.
Harmony trembled so hard she was sure anyone outside her hiding spot would hear the cabinet shaking.She’d never been more scared in her entire life.She might not survive the next few minutes.Damien might already be dead.They could be coming for her.
The cabinet door opened, and she screamed.“Ahhh!”
“It’s okay, Harmony.It’s me,” Damien said, reaching for her and pulling her into his arms.“I’m so sorry I scared you.”
