Page 67 of Forged in Peril

“You’re right,” she said at last. “I’ll stay here until you guys catch the baddies, but after that, I have to find something else. Deal?”

He finally broke the connection between them, running his hand through his dark hair, contemplating.

“Fine.”

“Good,” she said, giving him a brisk nod.

“Are you willing to keep sleeping here in the office for now? I’ll be able to find you a more comfortable bed before a safehouse opens up, I promise.”

His tone was casual, but she could read the underlying concern, and her heart began to ache anew.

“For now, I would rather be here than at home, bringing this chaos straight to mom’s doorstep,” she admitted. “Though if we could find a better arrangement for her, at least until we know that no one is going to go after her, I’d appreciate it.”

Cameron nodded. “I’ll figure something out.”

“Thank you,” Bristol said, giving him a final glance before turning toward the door.

“Where are you going?” he asked. “Are you sure you’re okay? You should rest for the rest of the afternoon.”

She shook her head, pausing against the doorframe.

“I have to catch up with Jaclyn. Attempted kidnapping or no attempted kidnapping, there’s a lot to do today. And after that, I have my own research to do on Dorling & Porter, Attorneys at Law.”

CHAPTER

TWENTY-ONE

BRISTOL

“Hey, I have the records you asked for,” Cameron said, lingering at the threshold of her office.

“Great,” Bristol said, smiling a little too brightly as she got up from behind her desk. “Jaclyn did say something about the El Paso job, though, so I might need to email you about those records, too.”

“No problem,” he replied easily, reaching out to hand her the stack of papers.

His fingertips brushed hers for less than a second, but it was enough to make her heart flutter.

With an awkward wave, Cameron headed out of the office, said goodbye to Melanie as he passed her desk, and strode off down the hall.

She let out a puff of breath, sinking back into her chair and adding the new paperwork to the pile that had accumulated on her desk over the course of the morning.

More than two weeks had passed since she’d told him she was pulling away from him, and no one had made much progress on figuring out who was after her.

Fortunately, there had been no further incidents, but seeing as an open safehouse had yet to materialize–apparently, winter was a busy time of year for personal protection services–she’d spent most of her life trapped within the four walls of Forge Brothers Security.

She’d used the time to focus on her work as intensely as she could, and it seemed to be paying off in her working relationship with Jaclyn. She’d finally begun to really feel as though she had a handle on how things worked in criminal law, and it pained her to think that soon enough she’d have to leave.

Despite how much easier it would make things, it was impossible to avoid Cameron entirely, and whenever he was around, awkwardness and longing mingled in equal measure.

No matter how hard she tried to avoid so much as meeting his eyes, her sweaty palms and racing heart would not let her deny the emotions that still ran strong.

No, she had to leave FBS, and that meant that there would need to be a break in the case. But only God knew when that stroke of good fortune would come.

“Hello? Hey, Bristol, are you alive?”

Bristol’s attention snapped to the door, realizing that she had not even noticed that Grace Hinton had made her way into the legal department.

Her friend stood there looking as stunning as ever, with her hair flowing in loose waves at her shoulders and her eyeliner applied in the sort of perfect cat-eye wing that Bristol had never once managed to achieve.

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