“I assume I’m not supposed to tell anyone.”
“Absolutely not.”
I shook my head. “I only have Gemma, and she needs to know,”
“It’s not wise.”
“I’m grateful. I am. But she’s all I have. And I need to go to school. It grounds me. And I have some things that are nonnegotiable. I'm looking for my mother. I need help with that, and I need to be able to search for her."
He worked his jaw. "That's not wise either. Like I said, give it a couple of—”
I shook my head vehemently. “Like I said, I'm grateful, but that's something I need, and I'm going to do it anyway.”
He sighed. “Okay, as long as you don't do anything reckless, I'll help you. And before you can argue, you are staying here. We’ll work it out. While you're under my protection, you're mine. No one touches what's mine."
A shiver ran up my spine at the determined look in his eyes. He was serious. He was willing to put his life on hold to save mine. And I was just desperate enough to let him.
CHAPTER 12
SAINT
Lachlanand I were putting the new Rogues potentials through some training as we sat in the woods just off campus, picking them off with paint guns.
He turned from his perch and asked me, "So, are we going to talk about this whole getting-married thing?"
I should have known he wouldn’t let me get away with not talking about it. "What?You'regetting married. What's the big deal?"
"Well, the big deal is I love Saffron. Do you love this random woman? What's her name? Kaya?"
I glowered at him. "Spit it out. What are you trying to say?"
He casually picked off another recruit who was moving in the opposite direction from the target. Pink paint splatted on his arse as he careened into a bush. "Okay, look. I'm all for doing the right thing, protecting the asset. Which, by the way, you should have said yes to thefirsttime."
Of course Lock would get in a dig. I’d fucked up. I should have just taken the goddamn assignment the first time Gabe offered it to me. Now I had to fucking contend with Rook as well.
"I have my reasons."
Lock grinned. "Oh, you mean like All Saints reasons? Like she's saving your arse?"
I blinked at him. "How the fuck do you know that?"
"Mate, you have a lot of conversations with your sister in the bungalow. She’s been berating you for months."
"Fuck."
"Are you going to tell Kaya that's why you're marrying her? To save your own skin?"
Why did he have to say it like that? I narrowed my gaze at one of the recruits who was trying to outsmart the others, following along their chosen route but staying hidden. He hadn’t broken any rules yet, so I let him carry on before turning back to Lock. "I'm notactuallygoing to marry her. This is just to buy time."
Lock laughed. "How is this going to work?"
"Look, we're just going to go through all the pomp and circumstance and do the dance. And then, while we're getting ready to get married, I’ll be looking for a way out. There's a loophole in the clause. I just haven't found it yet. I have no intention of getting married to her. But my name does provide protection.Andit buys me time. Two birds, one stone."
Lock shook his head. "And you don't want to tell her all this?"
"No, it's too complicated. I can tell she trusts nobody. She’ll run, which will get her killed."
He shook his head at me. "I don't know, mate. This just seems like you’re playing with fire. Maybe you should just tell her."