“You trained me to be careful when I was a teenager,” she said then. “You taught me how to fight. How to make rational decisions, then overnight you decided to take all that away from me.”
“This isn’t the time for that argument,” he snapped.
She continued to stare at Kell. “I’m right, and you know I am.”
“You’re asking a man to die for you, Emily,” Her father’s voice filled with anger now. “A damned good man.”
“No,” she whispered, shaking her head. “I’m asking him to live with me. I can’t live in a bubble anymore. I won’t hide like this. We have three nights until the next party. A party where Fuentes’s spy and his kidnapper are supposed to be in place. Why would he bring in an assassin at this date? Fuentes wants me as insurance. He doesn’t want me dead.”
“But that spy does, Emily.” Her father’s voice rose. “You’re acting like a child now. Don’t you see what’s going on here? You’re being caught between Fuentes and that son of a bitch he works with. There’s no winning here. You don’t have a choice.”
She didn’t take her eyes off Kell.
“Can you protect me outside the safe house?” she asked then. “Without getting yourself killed.”
His gaze flicked to Reno.
“She’s an adult,” Reno answered neutrally. “I can’t force her into the safe house.”
“With help.” He nodded, glancing at Ian.
“We’ll have to pull in the se
nator’s agent in Atlanta,” Ian answered. “But we can do it. It’s just three days.”
“And give Fuentes a chance to kill her?” her father yelled. “I forbid it. I won’t allow it.”
“You don’t have a choice, Daddy.” She didn’t feel triumph, because Kell’s expression hadn’t changed. If anything, it had grown colder, more distant.
“Kell—” he began.
“She’s right.” His fists were curled at his sides. “If she hides now, the game is over before we find the spy. The only way to finish this is to play it out. We’ll play it out. But you’ll play by my rules,” he informed her. Without expression. Without emotion. “Or I’ll tie you up, gag you, and stuff you in the nearest safe house. Are we clear?”
She nodded sharply. “We’re clear.”
“What do you need, Kell?” Reno asked then.
“He needs a fucking brain,” her father snapped. “Because he’s lost his goddamned mind with her just like every other man does.”
Emily felt her face flame in embarrassment. Her father was enraged, and if the flicker of response in Kell’s gaze was anything to go by, then the cold inner fury he was keeping banked would more than meet it.
“Senator, this isn’t your operation,” Reno reminded him. “You’re the target, not the commander.”
“I outrank you.”
“Not in this instance.” Reno never raised his voice, but it firmed, grew harder. “Stand down, sir.”
“Emily, this is foolish.” He buried his hands in his hair and grimaced tightly. “Just go to the damned safe house.”
“If I go to that safe house then I may as well resign myself to living in it for the rest of my life,” she told him wearily. “Because whether you catch Fuentes or not won’t matter. None of us will ever know if I have the ability to face life myself. And that matters to me, Dad. It matters more to me than you know.”
“You’re not trained,” he snapped back.
“Because I loved you too much to sign up for the training I wanted. And through the years, I’ve loved you too much to fight the hurtful words you throw at me when I’ve tried to stand against you. I’m doing more than standing against you now, Dad. I’m taking what’s mine. And my freedom means more to me than you will ever know. More than either of you will ever know.” She shot Kell a look as icy as the one he was giving her. “It’s easy to mouth platitudes when it suits you,” she told him. “Now, let’s see if you can put your money where your mouth is.”
His eyes flicked over her before pausing at her stomach then rose to meet hers once again. “I’ve already done that, Emily. Now let’s see if you can learn how to follow orders.”
She almost snorted at that. “Follow orders? Kell, I’ve done nothing else for nearly twenty-five years. Following them has never bothered me. Being restrained by them is another thing.”