“Aren’t you supposed to be in the gardens?” he stated matter-of-factly. He was Irish, judging by the accent.

I could feel his penetrating glare through the glasses; it made me uneasy. Crossing my arms over my chest, I stood firm. “Am I not allowed to look around?”

“You are, but I believe it’d be in your best interest to keep an escort.”

“Am I in prison?” I snapped.

“No, and I’d be more than happy to assist you in anywhere you want to go.”

“I don’t think that’s necessary,” Connor spoke up. He grasped my elbow and pulled me into his side. “Let’s go, Hadley.” I went with him willingly and glanced over my shoulder at the other guy who turned and headed back to the front of the house.

“What was that about?” I inquired, not wanting to run into that guy anytime soon.

“I suggest you stay away from him.”

“Why?”

“He’s not as nice as me. Now let’s eat.” Back in the gardens, there was a whole spread on a table—from roasted chicken and potatoes to a strawberry salad. There were even chocolate covered bananas.

“Who cooked the food? I must give my compliments. They fixed some of my favorites.”

He pulled out my chair and I sat down. “Her name is Ingrid. I told her what you liked and she fixed it,” he added, taking the seat across from me.

I ate all my food, along with a couple of extra bananas I really didn’t need. I watched Connor eat and he deliberately avoided my stare. “When are you going to stop feeding me bullshit, Connor?”

His head jerked up. “What are you talking about?”

I guzzled down the glass of wine and chuckled. “You know what I’m talking about. I’m fine and I’m ready to go home. I don’t want to be here, in some backwoods paradise. Shades said it wasn’t a prison, but it sure as hell feels like one.”

Sighing, he poured me another glass of wine. “It’s not a prison, Hadley. Whatever you want, we can give you. There aren’t any bars covering your windows are there?”

I glanced up at the house and snorted. “Probably because there’s a security system.”

By the look on his face, I was right. “You’re more than welcome to move about freely. I’ll take you anywhere you want to go. There’s even a library here.” Grabbing my wine, I got to my feet and almost lost my footing, but Connor caught me. “What the hell? You only drank one glass.” He took my glass and set it down on the table.

“I feel . . . strange. My whole body tingles,” I slurred. The feeling was familiar, like how’d I’d felt the night of the accident.

“Fuck me,” he growled, picking me up in his arms. He carried me inside and up the stairs.

“You drugged me,” I hissed angrily. “Why?”

Everything sounded so far away, yet I heard voices all around me. I wanted to scream, to demand to know what was going on. Connor laid me down and the feel of soft satin sheets wrapped around me. My eyes closed and I couldn’t feel my body.

“Why the fuck did you drug her?” Connor growled.

“She was asking too many questions.” The sound of the voice was oddly familiar, but the accent threw me off.

“Of course, she’s going to ask questions. You’ve known Hadley for how long now? She’ll be pissed when she finds out.”

The other guy snorted. “She can blame that on her father. Besides, once we get to Ireland and she see’s everything I can give her, she’ll be all mine.”

I was in a dream. There was no way what I was hearing was real. The fogginess started to close in and I could feel myself slipping away. I struggled to stay lucid enough to hear more.

“What the hell are you talking about?” Connor spat. “That was never part of the deal. She doesn’t belong to you.”

“Nor you, my friend. You’re getting too close to her and I don’t like it. When we get back home, I want you to stay away from her.”

Connor growled low in his chest. “Have you forgotten who you’re talking to? I will do whatever the fuck I want. She’ll hate you after she finds out what you did.”

“Nonsense. Once she finds out her lover is dead, she’ll be ready to leave the country. I’ll be there to fill the void, and anything else that needs filling.” He chuckled.

“But he’s not dead.”

“Yet.”

“What did you do?”

“Let’s just say, I have Dillon taking care of it. It’ll be a shame when loverboy doesn’t make it out alive.”

I wanted to scream and cry, but I was a prisoner in my own body. Blake needed my help, and there was no way I could help him. The only thing I knew was, when I woke up in the morning, he could be gone.

Blake

“Fuck me,” I growled. By the time the tracker linked up to George’s phone, he was on the move and heading south to New York.

“Where do you think he was?” Nick asked.

I shrugged. “I don’t know, somewhere north of here. Maybe Canada? I’m checking his credit cards to see if he purchased anything in the past two hours.” I searched and couldn’t find a fucking thing. He was probably paying in cash. Smart bastard.

Logan was running a background on Connor MacCabe and so was I. His files were hard to find, immediately causing red flags to go up. The only people who had secret lives were people in the government, or people with enough power to hide what they do. Those were the ones you didn’t want to fuck with, but I’d take down anyone who stood between me and Hadley.

Nick pulled up a chair. “Any luck?”

“I’m getting there. Just a few more clicks and I think I’ll have it.” Searching through the government database was tricky. There were all sorts of codes you had to enter to access everything. They made it that way so others couldn’t hack in and get the information. Only one more code and I’d be in. “Okay, here we go.”

His file came up, but before I could read anything, my phone rang. It was across the room, connected to the charger.

“Keep reading, I’ll get it,” Nick offered. Rushing over, he grabbed my phone and froze, mouth gaping.

“What the hell are you doing? Give me the phone.” I stood up and made my way across the room.

“It—it’s Hadley,” he stuttered, quickly handing me the phone.

Heart racing, I swiped my finger across the screen. “Hello?” I wanted to hear Hadley’s voice, but that wasn’t what I got.

“Be ready. They’re coming for you,” the caller replied.

“What the fuck are you talking about? Why do you have Hadley’s phone? Where is she?”

“No time to explain. If you’re still alive tomorrow, I’ll let you know more.” He hung up and that was it.

Nick lifted his hands in the air. “Who was it? What was that about?”

I set the phone down and rushed over to my bag. “Looks like we’re gonna have some company. Hope you’re ready.” In my bag, I had my gun and several magazine clips. The second I pulled it out, Nick’s eyes went wide.

“You’ve gotta be shitting me. Who’s coming for us?”

“I’m about to find out. Kill the lights.” He turned off the lights and I hurried over to my laptop. Connor’s file popped up and I searched through it as fast as I could. “Dammit to hell,” I groaned.

“What? What do you see?” Nick demanded, hissing low.

I turned the laptop toward him. “Connor’s part of the Irish mafia. Everything just got fifty thousand times more difficult.”

“I don’t understand. Why would George hire one of them to be Hadley’s bodyguard?”

“I don’t know, but if George pissed them off in any way, they’ll use her to get back at him. I know what those guys are capable of.” I’d seen some of the people they’d killed over the years. Their tactics were brutal. If they so much as hurt Hadley, I’d spend the rest of my days hunting them all down.

Nick peeked out the window. “And they’re coming to kill us? How did they know we were here?”

“They’re good at what they do, that’s why.”