My stomach flips.
Monty watches my face like he’s reading subtitles.
“The good news,” Harvey continues, “is the apartment where Wade is staying is under the team’s name, so they don’t know who’s inside or why you’d be there.”
“And the bad news?”I ask, because there’s always a bad news with my family.Always a hook.
“As I mentioned in my text, they’re tailing Ms.Lafontaine too,” Harvey says.
My throat turns dry.I can taste metal like I bit my cheek, even though I didn’t.
“We realized it when the technician went to draw her blood,” Harvey adds.“I contacted a company that’s sending a full security team.I’m guessing Mr.Wade requires protection too.”
My eyes flick to Monty, who is still watching me like he’s deciding how much he wants to rip out of the world with his bare hands.
I nod, even though Harvey can’t see it, because my parents don’t need to know my history with Monty to use him.They’ll grab anyone close enough to get leverage.
“Cal?”Harvey’s voice sharpens.“Are we setting protection for him too?”
“Yes,” I say immediately.“Of course.”
I drag a hand down my face, trying to keep myself from breaking into a thousand pieces.
“I’m just—” My breath catches.Anger surges, hot and reckless.“Fuck.”
“It’s going to be fine,” Harvey assures me.“We caught it early.”
“That’s not fine,” I bark.“That’s them getting bold.What the fuck are they doing?”
“My guess is they’re trying to get you kicked off the new team,” Harvey says, clinical.“That should send you back to them.”
“No,” I snap.“It wouldn’t.”
Harvey exhales.“Obviously.That’s why we’ve been growing the business and your investments.You don’t need them.”
My fingers curl around the phone until my knuckles ache.
“Now,” he adds, “let’s focus on the plan.”
“What’s going on with Ves?”I cut in before he can move on, before he can turn her into a bullet point.“You said she wanted to go to the airport.”
Monty starts walking again, and I move with him because standing still feels like dying.We reach the exit.A dark SUV idles at the curb, windows tinted.
Monty opens the back door and waits for me to get in first, a small courtesy that catches me off guard.
Harvey says, “She asked John—her temporary bodyguard—if he could drop her off at the airport.”
My skin goes tight.I groan, but not one word comes out.
“No worries,” Harvey continues.“She’s currently at the apartment.”
“No worries,” I repeat, and it comes out like a threat, because there are so many worries I don’t have words for.
I slide into the SUV.
Monty follows—close, unbothered, like being near me doesn’t shake his world the way it shakes mine.He shuts the door behind him, not hard, but final.It makes something shift inside me, fast and low.
He doesn’t speak or push.He just settles beside me quietly, with a calm that used to soothe me when I didn’t have words for why I was hurting.His knee barely brushes mine, and even that small contact feels like history settling back into place.
