Page 18 of Under Arthur’s Protection

“She called me at ten o’clock at night, terrified.” Lance’s voice was strained, barely held together. “She was alone in a room someone had broken into. I held her because she was fucking crying, Arthur. I sat next to her because she was shaking. I offered her my apartment because her hotel room had been violated and she had nowhere else to go. And you’re sitting there accusing me of trying to get into her pants?”

I stood, both hands out, like I could contain the conversation to our corner of the café. More than a couple of heads had turned. “I said sit down.”

“Fuck you.” He jabbed a finger into my chest. “Gwen and I are ancient history. And it’s none of your fucking business.”

“Lance. Mind your volume.”

“And she was right to call me,” he said, dropping the decibels but not the edge, “because I drove back to Sam and Antonio’s building after you dropped me off.”

He what?

“I couldn’t sleep. So I stayed in the parking lot for a while.”

The coffee shop noise went distant. Grace’s espresso machine, the clatter of plates, a woman laughing near the window. All of it faded. He’d done exactly what I’d talked myself out of doing. “And?”

“There was a car idling in the lot. Someone just sitting there with their engine running and lights off. I walked toward it, and they pulled out before I got close enough to question them.”

Fuck.

I lowered myself into my chair. Slowly. “When?”

“Around two.”

“And you’re just sharing this now?” God help me, somehow, I kept my voice from rising. “You sat through this entire conversation, the pitch, the PR angle, all of it, with this intel in your back pocket?”

“The close protection proposal is a smart recommendation on its own.” Lance stayed on his feet, but the heat was draining out of him. “Based on the break-in alone, it made sense. I didn’t need an idling car to sell it.” He finally sat, pulling his chair back harder than necessary. “But you wanted to make it about her pants instead of listening to me.”

“Someone was watching the building where she’s staying?” I said, more to myself than him.

“Yes.”

Not yes. I was jumping to the same conclusions he was. A random idling car meant nothing. “We don’t know they were watching her. It’s the middle of October, and it’s chilly out at night. It could have been someone waiting for their car to warm up.”

“But it could have been about her,” Lance said. “Why drive off when I approached them?”

“Because you’re a big guy who’d scare anyone walking up to their car in the dark.”

Lance threw his head back, looking at the ceiling as though he could find a convincing argument printed there. “Why are you fighting me on this?”

I picked up my phone, turned it over, and set it down. People were probably still staring. I didn’t care anymore. We were all supposed to be equals in this company, but I was falling into my old role, and the guys expected me to make the decision.

Lance waved his arms at Tristan and Galahad. “Tell him he’s being thick.”

Tristan held up both hands as if in surrender. “I learned a long time ago not to get in the middle when you two are fighting over a woman.”

“We’re not fighting over a woman,” I said.

Galahad frowned and stood. “I need more coffee.”

“We’re not—” I started to call after him.

But you are, Arthur. Admit it—you saw red when Lance suggested she stay at his place.

Either way, the idling car didn’t prove anything. It could have been someone waiting for a passenger, a delivery driver on his phone, a couple making out. But it was suspicious. And with the break-in and Gwen authenticating an item out of an FBI raid, it added up to something. What exactly? I wasn’t sure, but I couldn’t ignore it and hope it went away.

“Here’s what we’re going to do,” I said. “The proposal is smart. The PR angle holds regardless of whether the break-in is connected to the sword. But we’re not spinning theory into fact, and we’re not deciding this for her. We take it to Gwen. We lay out the situation, we tell her about the car, we tell her we can’t confirm what it means, and we let her decide.”

“My instincts say it’s connected,” Lance said.