Page 99 of Under Arthur’s Protection

Did your father ever notice that look on your mother’s face, Penn?

He must have. He’d been married to her for thirty-nine years. He’d watched her smile for cameras and go quiet in private. He’d watched her light dim, year by year, and he’d never stopped performing.

I knew exactly what I was doing to Gwen, and I was doing it anyway, because the alternative was letting her all the way in, and letting people in was too dangerous. People who got all the way in did stupid things like picking up stone planters instead of running to safety.

She sipped the coffee and winced. “You weren’t kidding.”

“I wasn’t.”

She sat in one of the chairs and pulled a leg up beneath her, giving my dick the confirmation it was wrong. She was wearing her underwear. I shouldn’t have been relieved, but I was, because my brain was barely functional.

“Merlin sent a location for a vehicle swap,” I said. “New car and fresh clothes. We can head out whenever you’re ready.”

She set the mug on the table. “I’m still planning on going to Tintagel.”

“I told you last night, it’s too dangerous.”

“And I told you, I’m going. Whether you’re with me or not.”

I blinked at her. How the hell could I convince her this was foolish?

“Whatever they’re protecting, it’s at Tintagel,” she said. “If we don’t go, we’re just waiting for them to find us again.”

“If we go, we’re walking onto their ground.”

“I know.”

“Rick might not even be the most lethal person working for whoever this is. They have money behind them, and he knows my operational patterns.” I lifted the mug to take another mouthful, but the scent put me off. “Tactically, the best option is to stay hidden and let Merlin work the intelligence angle.”

“You also thought splitting up and sending Lance to Malta was the smart idea, so I think your tactical instincts may be wrong.”

Fuck. Fucking fuck.

“Arthur.” She set her leg down and faced the table. Because she couldn’t look at me anymore? “They want to take my research.”

My arms wanted to reach for her, but my brain kept my fingers locked around the mug where they belonged.

Her voice dropped like it did every time she was dealing with a blow from the universe. “That’s the same thing Lionel did, and I’ve spent so long⁠—”

She stopped, and I had to close my eyes and breathe. After last night, after I’d confessed how I felt, after I’d made love to this woman, I should have been next to her, holding her, comforting her. But I had to keep her safe.

If I kept her hidden, she’d be physically safe. But her heart might break for good.

Your father would keep her hidden. He’d deploy his resources, buy off the problem, and tell her it was for her own protection. And he wouldn’t bother to ask what she needed. Let alone what she wanted.

My father was right. That was the way to keep her safe.

Lose the battle to win the war.

But what war would this win her? I’d sworn to get her a win, not a pause.

I couldn’t stop them from taking her research and burying the connection she’d found. That was a fight I didn’t have the tools to win.

But I could protect her body. I could put myself between her and every physical threat from here to Tintagel and back. And maybe she’d get the win she deserved…

And maybe if she was right about Tintagel, she was also right about me. Maybe I wasn’t my father. Maybe I wasn’t the man the Crécy Defense Review article accused me of being.

Maybe I had to stop following my father’s playbook.