Page 56 of Trust

“Yes. I was almost run over in a parking garage.”

“And you had other incidences?”

“One other for sure. The brakes in my car went out. And I’ve felt like someone has been watching me for the last few weeks. I thought it was stress, but now I wonder.”

Anger swelled in Emily. No one should be terrorized this way. But the fact that she was in their office without anyone by her side was telling.

“You don’t trust your family.”

Sadness settled on Lani’s expression. She was far from the happy, sweet girl who had been nice to Emily.

“No.” Shame threaded her whispered response.

Oh, damn. Lani had one brother, Ben, but Emily knew the Kingston extended family was huge. She probably had over fifty people who would want to kill her for the money.

“Okay.” She looked at Conner. “Why do we need to pretend I’m not her protection?”

Conner’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “How did you know?”

“You said it would be good that we knew each other.”

He nodded. “Ms. Kingston doesn’t want anyone to know about the attempts.”

Emily’s gaze moved back to Lani. “You have no idea who it might be?”

Lani shook her head. Emily’s heart ached for the other woman. She seemed to be lost. She looked over at her boss.

“You knew about them though?”

Conner shook his head. “No. I’ve been chatting with Lani about coming to work for us.”

“Do you mind if I used the restroom?” Lani asked.

Conner shook his head. “It’s just outside the office on the opposite side of the hall from us.”

Lani nodded and rose. Her gaze took in Emily. “I hope you can be my protector. I trust you.”

Emily nodded. She watched the other woman as she walked out of the room. She moved gracefully as if she were a princess heading to the palace. Rumors were that the Kingstons were related to the Hawaiian royal family, and it showed in her poise. Emily turned to her boss.

“So, what’s the plan, boss?”

Conner always had a plan. He probably had a plan of all his plans.

“You are going to move in with her. She’s going to start working for us.”

That had Emily blinking. “Wait, doesn’t she work for Kingston?”

“She did. Or I guess she is about to send in her resignation. I’ve been trying to poach her for months. So, we’ll lead with that idea. She’ll put it out there that she’s in our Miami office. She truly has no idea who this could be, and since they have tried twice in less than a month, there’s a good chance they will try again soon. Since most people think you’re admin, it would make sense that you were her executive assistant.”

It was a role she had played a lot, and it always worked. Most of the time, she went into a company to ferret out embezzlers or people selling company secrets.

“You okay with a new assignment?”

She nodded. “I finished that hotel job last week, and my reports have been filed.”

It was what she did a lot. She went in to find out who was embezzling from one of the hotel restaurants. It hadn’t been that hard to figure out which person in management had sticky fingers.

“We’re actually going to put out that she is in Miami. I’ve already talked to my sister about it.”

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