Page 23 of Big Bodyguard
An unreadable emotion flickers in his eyes. His lips part like he wants to say something, but then he clenches his jaw again, the muscle ticking hard.
“Charlie…” His voice is low, rough. “Don’t ask me for that.”
“I’m begging you!” My hands ball into fists at my sides. “I don’t care where we go. We’ll disappear. You and me. I don’t need the mansion, the money, or the stupid name. I just need—” My voice drops to a whisper. “I just need you.”
“You don’t understand,” he says, firm now, controlled. “Right now, you need to be safe.”
My chest burns. “Safe? You think being locked in here, watched twenty-four seven, suffocated by my father, is safe? I’ll lose my mind, Jack. I’ll disappear into nothing. But if I was with you, I know you would always keep me safe.”
He shakes his head slowly. “And that’s exactly why I need to let you go. These threats won’t last forever—one day you’ll have the freedom you crave. But I willalwayskeep you safe. If you’re mine, then I’m keeping you. Forever. Never letting you go. And I can’t let myself become just another cage to hold you down.”
For a moment, I’m speechless. He’s right—after all my protests, do I really want a bodyguard for the rest of my life?
It only takes me a second to realize the truth—if Jack’s the one protecting me, then yes, I choose the cage. I thought I wanted freedom, but now I know that what I really want is his arms around me, holding me tight.
Tears spill hot down my cheeks. “You said I was yours. Did none of it matter to you?”
His throat bobs, his eyes locking onto mine for the briefest, devastating moment. And in that single heartbeat, I see it. The truth. It did matter. It matters too much.
He straightens, cold steel once again. “Goodbye, princess.”
My heart caves in.
He brushes past me, his shoulder grazing mine, and every step he takes toward the door feels like a nail hammered into my chest. I want to scream. To throw myself at him. To drag him back.
But my feet stay rooted, heavy with heartbreak, as I watch him walk away.
The door shuts with a final, echoing click, and I crumble, feeling like he just tore my heart out and carried it with him.
Chapter Ten
Jack
The words in the briefing blur together, just noise in the background. Numbers. Threat levels. Movement of assets. Doesn’t matter. None of it matters. Not when every cell in my body is screaming at me for what I did twelve hours ago.
Twelve hours. That’s all it’s been since I walked away from Charlie. It feels like a lifetime.
I tell myself I did the right thing. That she’s safer with her father’s team, behind those gates, surrounded by more protection than I alone could ever give her.
But the truth? I feel empty.
I close my eyes for half a second and she’s there. Her laugh. The way she wrinkles her nose when she pretends to be annoyed with me. The heat of her body against mine, her voice whisperingDaddyin the dark like it was meant only for me.
Christ. I left her.
And I’ve been trying like hell to convince myself that it was necessary. That it was the smart choice. That it was the only choice. But every time I replay the look in her eyes as I walked away, I lose that argument. Over and over.
I’ve spent my whole damn life building walls. I didn’t think anyone could break through them. But Charlie? She didn’t just break them, she tore them down and set them on fire. And now there’s no going back.
“Steele?”
My boss’s voice snaps me out of it. I blink, realizing everyone at the table is staring at me.
“Status report?” he prompts, his brows knitting.
I look down at the files spread in front of me. Intel. Briefing notes. The job. The life I’ve lived since the day I put on a uniform.
For the first time in years, it all feels meaningless.
