Page 54 of Iron Willed Warrior

I slammed the door closed. Locked it, then flipped the security bar. Once all that was finished, I turned around and leaned against it.

“What the hell were you thinking?” I asked.

She went over to the bed and sat on the edge of it, kicking off her sandals and setting her purse aside. “I was doing my job.”

“Without telling me what you were planning?”

It had been awful enough watching her dance with Westwick. Seeing the man touch her, while knowing the things he was responsible for. This whole time I’d known Brynn would play the honeypot. And there she was, laying the trap. Being as sweet and naive as possible to draw him in. I could imagine the possibilities that had been running through the man’s mind, and it had made me sick.

“Westwick got a phone call,” she said. “He mentioned it was important. I had to try to learn more.”

“Did you?”

“Not as much as I would’ve liked.”

I ran my fingers through my hair. I’d seen Westwick leave to take the call. I’d seen Brynn’s curiosity too, but she’d gone for the bathrooms. I had wondered if she was foolish enough to try following the man when his bodyguards were just yards away. But I’d decided to give her space.

Then Ryker had left the bar. Brynn hadn’t come back. And that had been enough for me.

“You should’ve let me know,” I said. “You could’ve signaled me.”

“I couldn’t risk it. Ryker and Manning were right there watching us.”

That was a fair point, but I was still pissed. “I’m supposed to be your backup. How can I back you up when I don’t even know where you are? Anything could’ve happened in those few minutes.”

“You got here in time, didn’t you? I’d say it went fine. I was trying to take advantage of an opportunity. I’m trained for this. The only thing at risk was my cover. If I’d had to kick Ryker’s ass, it would’ve meant a lot more questions.”

Her voice was all confidence, yet her hands were shaking. I suspected it was anger rather than fear. The fight in the hallway had affected her far more than she wanted to admit. But it had affected me too.Terrifiedme when I hadn’t been able to find her.

I walked over to her. Sat beside her on the bed. “There was a lot more at risk than just your cover.”

She exhaled a shuddering breath.

“Brynn, listen?—”

She interrupted me. “Clearly we’ve made an enemy of Ryker, but I can fix this. I’ll smooth things over with Westwick. The important thing is, I don’t think Ryker suspects I’man undercover operative. He thinks I’m a nosy kid who’s going to overhear the wrong thing.”

“Our cover isn’t my primary concern right now.”

But she went on. “If anything, Westwick will take it as a good sign that I came to his hotel room. He’ll think he’s got me wrapped around his finger already.” She stood up, hugging her elbows, eyes darting over the room. “I could act shy around him tomorrow. Intimidated, even. He’ll like that. We can spin this so that it’s?—”

My jaw creaked as I gnashed my teeth together. I closed the distance between us. The absolute fury I’d felt in that hallway, the sheer violence I had wanted to inflict on Ryker for hurting her, it all reared up inside me again.

I spun her around to face the full-length mirror on the wall. “Look at this, Brynn.” I lifted the strap of her dress so her shoulder was clear in the reflection. Red marks showed where Ryker’s fingers had been digging in. “If Ryker was so brazen in a public hotel hallway, what would he do if he caught you with that flash drive? What if I can’t reach you then?”

I’d barely been able to stand watching Westwick with her. After knowing her for a couple of hours, the man was already trying to seduce her. I could only imagine what that trash had planned for her.

But later, when I’d walked down that hallway, found Ryker with his hand squeezing her shoulder and the look of terror on her face, my guts had dropped to somewhere near the southern hemisphere.

When I’d pulled Ryker off her, I hadn’t been thinking about the mission. Only Brynn.

How she had felt in my arms when we had been dancing. How I’d wanted to keep her safe. Not just as her undercover partner, but as a man who wanted to shield a woman he was starting to care about.

“We’re supposed to be teammates in this, remember?” I asked. “Equals. Yet you’re taking the brunt of the risk.”

“I can handle it.”

“I know you can. That doesn’t make it sit well with me.”

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