It had been a couple weeks since the night Brock and I had planned to go to the club. Since then, I had been staying in his room, and we had graduated from spanking to a flogger. He still struggled with tying me up, thinking it would bring back memories. It would take patience, and we would get there. I was more frustrated that we hadn’t had sex. He wanted to take his time. I thought men moved more quickly than this.

We were sitting in the kitchen having breakfast when a knock came from the door. Brock didn’t seem surprised to have company. I went to answer it and found Antonio on the other side.

I leaned in and gave him a hug, and he kissed me on the forehead like a sister. Since my boss was his brother, Antonio and I were pretty much like brother and sister.

“Good morning, Antonio.”

“Good morning, Queen and Brock.”

Brock walked over and pulled me from Antonio’s grasp.

“Patty is next in line, not me.” Patty had finally taken her place in line for the crown since meeting Sam. At least that was one less thing I had to worry about. I never wanted to go to Shialia again. There were too many bad memories of what happened to me there.

Antonio chuckled. “I know. I like seeing you get worked up. Are you almost ready?”

I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to be getting ready for. I’d barely left Blackwood Security since the car bomb, and nobody had come any closer to figuring out who had attacked me.

“Ready for what?”

Antonio gave Brock a strange look.

Brock ran his hand through his hair like he did when things bothered him. “Antonio is going to take you to Ross Enterprises for the day.”

I pulled back from Brock’s arms and did a little dance, excited to get out for the day and see my assistant in person. Once the news settled in, it dawned on me—Antonio was taking me. For the past two weeks, Brock had been by my side each day. Since we were working in the same building, we even ate lunch together.

“Why is Antonio taking me and not you?”

Brock fiddled with a folder lying on the white granite countertop before answering me. “I need to help Mia with a case. We’re flying out in an hour. If everything works out right, I will pick you up from work.”

I didn’t like his answer. “What do you mean if everything works out right? What are you going to work on?”

Brock looked over to Antonio. He just shrugged his shoulders, mumbled something about this not being his problem, and headed toward the couch in the living room.

I could tell Brock was trying to get the upper hand when he pulled me into his embrace. “Mia and I are going to help the FBI take down a member of a terrorist organization. Everything will work out, and we will be back before dinner.”

“Are you kidding me? I have a guard on my ass at all times, but it’s okay for you to go play with terrorists?” 

I knew what Brock did for a living. I understood he worked for a mercenary company that also assisted the government. But Brock was the IT guru.

“Why are you going into the field? That’s not your area.” The idea of going to work was not as exciting anymore. If I worked out of Blackwood Security, I could find out how the op was going from the other team members.

“Since Sam is in Shialia, I’m in charge. I did plenty of groundwork when I was a Navy Seal. I can handle this. I want you to stay close to Antonio during the day, and I will try to pick you up from work.” 

I was about to protest again when his phone started to ring. I could tell by the strained look on his face that he didn’t want to leave me, but he needed to pick up the phone. “Take the call.” I kissed him on the lips and headed to his bedroom to finish getting ready.

Working from Blackwood Security had put me behind on my daily responsibilities for Ross Enterprises. I was deep in concentration, looking over the latest project proposals Alex had sent me, when a knock at my door brought me out of my number haze. When I looked up, it was Sophie and Neal.

“Hey, Numbers Woman. What are you doing for lunch?” Sophie was amazed by how naturally numbers came to me, so she had nicknamed me Numbers Woman.

At the mention of lunch, my stomach growled and made me take notice of the clock. It was already a quarter past twelve. I wanted to go to lunch with them, but I didn’t want to make Brock upset by not listening about the whole bodyguard thing. The last attempt with the car bomb still had me on edge.

Neal must have noticed I was having a debate in my head. “Your grumpy bodyguard is pulling the car around. And your angry boss isn’t even here today. Let’s break you out of this place and hit your favorite diner.” The mention of Chubby’s Diner made my stomach growl again.

Once we were seated in the back booth at Chubby’s, I relaxed. It felt good to be around friends. It would have been nicer if Brock had been there instead of the too-quiet Antonio. The only word the man knew was no.

“Neal, have you talked to Patty recently?” I asked. I had been dodging her calls. They didn’t want Patty to know what was going on. Everyone thought she would want to come back to the United States, and that could put her in danger or put more stress on the baby.

Neal responded by pointing his finger at me. “You need to answer her calls. She thinks you’re mad at her, and it’s making her upset.”

“I’m worried I will slip and say something that will make it worse. Is it a psychological fact that people automatically assume you’re mad at them when you’re quiet?”

Before Sophie had time to respond, our waitress, Sally, came over in her fifties-style dress and her hair pulled up into a bun. Sally had to be in her late sixties. She and her husband, Duke, had been running the dinner for the last three years.

“What can I get you?”

Once everyone ordered, Sally roller-skated off, and Sophie gave us her two cents.

“Jessica needs to know what the fuck is going on.” Sophie was a no-bull-shit person and laid things out there. She had almost as bad of a mouth as her boss, Bridget. 

It sounded like she was about to say more when Antonio cut her off with his favorite word. “No.”

“When you learn to use more words, I will let you talk,” she said to Antonio before turning to me. “I’ve contacted some sources and have been looking into your crash and car bomb. Your ex-husband has something to do with these men coming after you.”

Sophie had revealed two things that threw me for a loop. First, I didn’t know Sophie was looking into my accidents. From the way Neal’s and Antonio’s jaws tightened, they didn’t know she was looking into my accident, either. Second, how could my ex-husband have anything to do with the accident when he was six feet under?

Talking about my ex-husband always sent a sick feeling through my stomach. I didn’t understand what he could have to do with this.

“Sophie, you know my ex-husband is dead. I saw his body when the mortician needed verification before burying him.” The thought of seeing his dead body sent another chill down my spine. Doug had no family, and he hadn’t changed his will after we divorced.

For the first time, I saw a tint of pink show on Sophie’s cheeks. “When it came out what your ex-husband had done, I might’ve looked into to him just in case you needed more dirt on the man. I had a contact help me out.”

“Who is this contact, and why does he think Doug has anything to do with this?” Antonio asked, finally developing a vocabulary past the word no.

Before Sophie answered, Sally returned with our food. The smell of my bacon cheeseburger made all worries about Doug fade away. I took a bite of my burger and relished the delicious grease.

Sophie was digging into her salad, trying to deflect the question. Antonio said, “I won’t ask again, Sophie. Who is your contact?” Antonio’s demand didn’t leave much room for argument.

Her shoulders slumped in defeat. “I can tell you what I know, but not how I got it. Doug was in contact with Jessica’s original kidnap—”

I didn’t wait for her to finish speaking. I couldn’t hear it. I took off toward the bathroom and made it just in time for my delicious burger to come back up. The thought of those men made my stomach twist ten times more than thoughts of my ex. The men who had tortured me were in jail. This had to be a mistake.

I slumped to the floor in the bathroom stall, not paying attention to the dirt and grime around me. I wanted to move on with my life with Brock and forget about my past. The problem was that my past wouldn’t go away.

The main door to the bathroom swooshed open. I could hear the clicking of Sophie’s heels walking toward the stall. Once the clicking stopped, there was a soft tap on the stall door.

“I’m sorry I upset you. I want you to know what is going on, and I think Brock and Neal are wrong about withholding information. That information might help you keep yourself safe if you knew what you were looking for.” I could hear the worry in her voice.

Finding out that the men who kidnapped me were behind the attacks didn’t make dealing with it any easier. It just made me more worried. It also made me pissed at Brock for not telling me there was a high chance those men were behind everything.

“Thank you for telling me. Do you think you can give me a ride back to the office? I’m pissed Neal didn’t tell me, and I don’t want to see him right now.” Brock would also get a talking-to when he got back from his mission.

“Yes. Let’s go out the back door so Antonio and Neal won’t know we’ve left. It will give us a few minutes head start before they figure it out.”

I knew I shouldn’t leave my bodyguard, especially now that I knew who was behind the attacks. They were dangerous people.

Sophie and I snuck out the back door of Chubby’s Diner. We made it around the corner of the building where we left the car. When I looked up, I saw Neal looking out the window, and a stream of curse words came out of his mouth.