Page 37 of Unguarded

Once the doors part, armed policemen are guarding the door.

Funny how Fidel pulls out all the stops when his moneymaker is actually gone.

He didn’t give a fuck about the safety concerns I’d raised countless times. I step closer to her.

“Gentlemen,” I say, barely restraining myself from scoffing.

The taller one of the two sweeps his eyes over me once before stepping toward Monroe. “Miss Blue, are you unharmed?”

She nods curtly. “I’m fine. Where’s Fidel?”

The agent raises his eyes to meet mine as he knocks on the door. When it opens, Danny’s cold gaze lands on me, sparking with rage. Again, I resist the urge to scoff or smirk in his face. Monroe steps toward him. I can feel the hot anger practically wafting off of her head of security as we enter.

“Holy shit! You’re here!” Ember lurches forward from her place on the sofa, crushing Monroe in an embrace. Tearsimmediately begin spilling down her cheeks as she sighs in relief. She looks haggard, her violet-red hair sticking out around her ears and mascara smudged under her red-rimmed eyes.

“I’m so sorry for worrying you. I didn’t mean to cause you so much stress.” Monroe hugs her back tightly.

Fidel’s angry eyes cut from her to me. His phone is pressed up to his ear. “Yes, sir, she just walked through the door. No, no, but I will update you as soon as we have something. She seems unharmed, praise God.”

He lowers the device. Ember releases Monroe, and her manager steps close to pull her toward him with a side hug.

“I’ve never been so terrified in my life,” he chokes out.

A stab of guilt shoots through me. I could’ve let them know she was okay—Ember at least. I wasn’t convinced they wouldn’t be able to track us somehow. I feel confident that Monroe’s phone would’ve led them straight to us if she’d had it, and at this point, I don’t trust a single one of these fuckers, aside from Brooks and Ember.

Monroe hugs him back, smiling sweetly. “I’m fine. I didn’t have my phone, and Cash’s battery died.”

A white lie, but she doesn’t give it away. I told her I was keeping my phone off so they would think it had died.

“Why didn’t you bring her here last night? You ignored protocol.” Fidel turns to me, redness spreading up his neck.

Danny comes around to stand behind him, arms folded and feet spread wide. His jawline is set. The detectives have quietly left the room, so it’s just Danny, Fidel, Ember, Monroe, and me now.

Fidel shakes his head, pointing a fingerat me. “You should have brought her back here. Where did you take her?” He turns to her. “What did he do to you?”

Monroe rolls her eyes at him. “He did hisjoband took me to a safe place. We were exhausted after escaping the fans, and I just wanted to lie low until today. This morning, we had breakfast, and then we came straight here.”

She collapses on the sofa, grabbing the remote. I didn’t want to bring her back here at all. I told her we should be on a plane back home, postponing the tour until she could increase her security team. She said no. I get it, but her refusal basically means I’m stuck here as the full-time bodyguard on duty because I clearly can’t leave her with any of these fuckers.

Who knows what could have happened if I hadn’t stolen a moped instead of waiting in the dressing room … like I was supposed to.

Fidel exhales slowly, closing his eyes. “I would have appreciated a heads-up. You disappeared. We searched the entire venue and contacted the CIA. We had no fucking clue where you were!” The vein in his forehead pops out as his volume increases.

Danny raises his hand to point a finger at me. “I want him gone. He’s a fucking clown for taking her like that. He knew better. Keeping him on the team is a liability.”

Monroe snorts, grabbing her phone from Ember’s outstretched hand. “I wasn’t aware I was aprisoner.Cash stays, and that’s final. He saved me from the mob that had somehow been let into the passage from my dressing room to the car. He got me to safety. We stayed at another hotel to avoid any more unruly crowds since the whole night hadgone to shit. If anything, he’s the only one I view as capable on thisentiresecurity team.”

Danny’s face pales. He lowers his finger, but my eyes don’t leave his face.

“Mija, you have to realize how precarious this situation is right now. You can’t just up and disappear. You could have contacted us, and then if you wanted to switch hotels again, we could have made it happen.”

Could have,notwould have.

She sighs, tapping on her phone. Her persona has shifted completely. The woman she is with all of them is vastly different from who she was in the hotel, fragile and terrified, asking me to sleep with her to keep her warm.

The doorknob clicks. I reach for the gun in my waistband, placing my hand on the pistol before seeing that it’s Katherine, Franky, and Brooks. Brooks’s face breaks into a wide grin when he sees me. He looks down at Monroe, smiling wider before stepping to the side.

Relief sweeps over Franky’s wrinkled face. “I told them you were probably just off souvenir shopping.” He goes up to her and presses a kiss to the top of her head before finding a chair to sit in.

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