AllFreeNovel
Share Us
My declaration seemed to have stunned Serena’s father. She clung to me for a few more seconds but then regained her balance and composure and straightened. “Duke, I’m okay.”
I nodded and let her go, save a protective arm around her waist. She was mine to protect, regardless of where the threat originated, and everybody needed to know that.
“Munchkin, you remember Lucas from before,” Benson continued.
What was with him calling her Munchkin like she was a seven-year-old? He had to realize she found it demeaning.
Surprisingly, Lucas nodded at Serena.
That floored me. He’d kept from me—from all of us—that they knew each other. And Serena hadn’t told me either.
“Dad, stop.” Her words were firm.
Her arrogant father ignored her. “Listen to me, Serena. I want Lucas to put a team on you to keep you safe. Just in case.”
“I’ll keep her safe.” Had what I said before not registered with her father? I tightened my arm around her.
Ignoring me, Lloyd Benson repeated himself. “I’m hiring Lucas to put a team on you.” The man lacked the ability to deal with any challenge to his plans.
Serena shivered. Her steadfast rule was that her father not learn about the accident, about the psycho Spinelli hunting her, about her hiring us.
This conversation threatened to uncover all of that, so I improvised. “She hired us last week.” It was the perfect way to hide the current assignment, by attributing it to whatever threat Harvey Fox presented.
Lucas gave me his version of a knowing smile.
I took the leap, hoping Lucas would cover for me. “When we learned of the parole?—”
“I informed Serena,” he filled in smoothly. “And she hired us.”
Benson’s eye twitched. “Why didn’t you mention this?”
Lucas snarled. “I don’t discuss clients with anybody, including family members.” Lucas wouldn’t intentionally antagonize a man as powerful as Lloyd Benson, but it didn’t pay to question Lucas’s ethics. He wouldn’t back down against any opponent.
To defuse the tension, I added, “So you don’t need to worry. We’re on the case.” We had successfully spun a tale to keep Serena’s secret safe.
Benson looked at me like I’d sprouted a second head. “Who iswe?”
“Duke works for me,” Lucas explained. “He’s heading her team. He’s also my brother.”
Her father looked at me and then Serena. “I thought he was your boyfriend.”
It was decision time. “I’m that too.” I pulled her close. “For real,” I said for both Serena and Lucas’s benefit.
“You’re dating…” Benson pointed at me. “The brother of the man who?—”
“Enough, Dad,” she said forcefully. “Yes. No question about it.”
“But I don’t know anything about him,” Benson complained. “I don’t think?—”
“It’s not your decision to make,” I interrupted, stepping forward. He needed to back off. “I’m dating your daughter. Get used to it.”
Benson’s eyes narrowed. He was clearly not used to being contradicted.
Lucas moved forward. “I’ll vouch for my brother’s character. That should be sufficient.”
Benson turned to Lucas. “And you’re okay with this, er, dating arrangement?”
“I married a woman I was protecting.”
