Page 15 of Bishop's Queen

Maybe it was a test. Then again, did Titan mess around with crap like hazing? And they had already seen him in the field, had already recruited him and signed him on. Okay, so Eco-Ella was either dead in the bathroom, and he’d lost his job at Titan—death by jerky—and he would never work at a private security firm again, or in their one-point-five-second-long interaction, she’d determined that she didn’t want to work with him.

Screw it. He powered out in search of the ladies’ room. He walked down the hall and to the right then stood there like an asshole, thumbs in his pockets, having no fucking clue what to do.

If someone gave him a gun and an enemy, no problem.Bang, bang, dead.

A mission objective? Consider that gig complete.

He was one of the best and usually didn’t have any questions on the job. Except thiswasthe job, and he was standing outside a women’s bathroom door, lost on what to do.

“Hey.”Ecopopped into his head like a jingle. “Ella, you okay in there?”

No answer.

He knocked on the door with his boot. Maybe she wasn’t in there. But this was Titan HQ. She couldn’t exactly wander around without a fingerprint and retina scanner allowing her passage.

What would a bodyguard do? Well, he would go in after his client. But, hell. What if he’d been the one who sent the client running… while gagging? “I’m coming in.”Eco. “Ella.”

Bishop pushed the door open with his foot as if he were entering the Twilight Zone, toeing it open an inch, then another. “Hello?”

The bathroom was nice, as bathrooms went, complete with a little sitting spot before the down-to-business area. And there Crazy was, ignoring him, pink-faced and somehow pissed, upset, disgusted, and nauseated all at once.

And without question, it was a time-hop to the pain and memories that he would never forget. That was his Eloise.

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