Page 21 of Midnight Torment

His eyebrows shot up, but he had the good sense to keep his mouth shut. That squirrel was the only thing putting a smile on Megan’s face right now, and I didn’t care if I had to go into the woods and coax a lady squirrel down with an entire hamper filled with nuts to keep my arch enemy in a fur coat happy. There was nothing I wouldn’t do to keep that smile on her face and those tears from falling.

I released Megan to grab her coat.

“My laptop,” she said, turning as if to head to the door.

“Is in the middle of a crime scene,” I said. “Also, I refer to my previous point of not giving a fuck about anyone else’s problems.”

“This is my business and those clients need me,” she protested.

“Those clients made you vulnerable today, so I don’t care. You’re retiring, resigning, becoming a lady of leisure, retraining as a squirrel therapist. Whatever makes you happy. What you are not doing, is setting foot back in here again.” She opened her mouth to protest and I slowly shook my head. There was no way it was happening. My heart had nearly stopped when I walked into that room and saw her in danger.

Her eyes narrowed. “I’ll phone Horatio,” she threatened.

“And Grampa will happily tell me to get you pregnant and lock you at home.”

Ash laughed and shook his head. “He would actually. He’s obsessed with the notion of great-grandchildren from as far back as I can remember. I wouldn’t put it past him to be stabbing condoms and replacing birth control tablets with sweeteners.”

“I need my handbag,” she said as if I had it hiding behind my back. I raised an eyebrow in question. “It’s in the other room.” Her tone lowered on the last part.

I nodded once and left her with the others. The pot had been heavy and insulated, so it contained most of the fragmentation of the grenade. Their shrapnel at high speed did the most damage. It hadn’t been thrown, so the explosion wasn’t as great as it could have been. The sturdy table and the corner between the floor and wall took most of the damage.

“What a fucking mess.” James Parsons had followed me in.

“A stalker has been following Megan,” I replied. It fitted with what I’d told Kerri and why Megan was supposedly working from home. “You’re lucky I had a security detail with her today or the result would have been horrendous.”

He watched our fixers remove the damage. “I take it there will be no investigation.”

“Do you want the police crawling through your firm in their search for answers?”

“Hell no!” He shot me a look that told me the thought horrified him. “I’ll tell the partners I’ve spoken to the police and they are looking for a disgruntled ex-husband and that Megan is taking a leave of absence until this is over.”

“Thanks.” I retrieved her handbag. James had kept an eye on her as a favour to me, in return I’d taken care of a little problem he had. No one had seen that problem since I encountered him in the dark a few years ago. No one would ever see them again. It was the way of our world and I would never apologise for it.

“The safety of my staff is my main concern.”

Like hell it was, James was covering his substantial ass and had no problem eradicating any problem that got in his way.

“I appreciate your concern for Megan. My team will have this room as good as new before they leave.”

“I have no doubt of it. Thank you for keeping the law out of this.” James glared at the damage to his room.

I glanced at him. “You do realise that we are men of the law?” I queried.

The smirk on his face said that he didn’t care one iota for the law. He knew enough to avoid detection the same as the rest of us.

Megan sat on the sofa against the wall in her office, her hands in her lap and her head down.

“Ready?” I asked and her head snapped up. “Let’s go home.”

She stood without a word. I held my hand out and she took it without comment, claiming her place at my side. That was a place she was no longer safe, and for the first time in forever I was unsure what to do.

Since my enemies had figured out her existence, I would make sure they knew if they so much as looked in her direction, I’d blow them straight to Hell.

***

Chapter Eight

Megan

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