Run To Me (Lazarus Rising #4)(15)

Her eyes narrowed. He was saying he didn’t need her. Bull. “Sawyer and Flynn are great.” Flynn Haddox was another super soldier who’d been put inside Project Lazarus. The first time she’d met him, well, that little meet and greet hadn’t gone so well. Mostly because she’d been told he was the enemy. That he wanted her dead.

The man who’d told her that particular lie? Bryce King? He’d turned out to be an absolute psychopath who wanted to use her for his own agenda.

A liar she couldn’t trust.

She had a tendency to put her trust in the wrong places. No, in the wrong people. And that was why she couldn’t, wouldn’t, allow herself to trust Jay. “They’re great,” she added with a nod, “but they aren’t me.” She marched toward him, aware that the sleek, red dress she’d put on felt way too tight against her skin. Body-hugging to the extreme, but it was the look she’d need for this particular club.

Jay’s gaze dropped to the dress. To her body. He swore.

“The media is in a frenzy.” A quick glance online had shown her that. “Someone at the police department leaked the news about me being your bodyguard. If you go out and I’m not with you tonight, what do you think that will do? Won’t they just start up with the stories again about me being hurt? Dead?” Willow didn’t give him a chance to answer. “But if I show up at your side, those stories will stop.”

West scratched the back of his neck. “She has a point.”

“You aren’t helping,” Jay immediately groused at him.

West just laughed as he lifted his hands, palms out, toward him. “My mistake.” But he winked at Willow. West was also dressed in a suit. One that fit his muscled body perfectly. Jay and West both always looked like, well, money.

Because they were.

Absolutely rich.

While she had nothing. Jay had bought her everything she had in her closet upstairs. All that she had. It was time she started paying him back. “I want the job for real.”

Jay lifted one brow. His right index finger began to tap against his leg. “What job?”

She’d thought about this all day. Now Willow smiled at him. “The job of your bodyguard.”

He stopped tapping his finger.

West let out a laugh, but quickly smothered it when Jay glared at him.

“It’s not funny,” Willow announced, just so they were all clear. “You both know I’m more than capable of doing the job.”

“Oh, I wasn’t laughing at the idea, Willow. I promise, I wasn’t.” West’s voice was gentle. “I was laughing because I know Jay isn’t going to be able to find a way out of this one.” He straightened his shoulders and his voice sharpened as he added, “Jay, as your head of security, I think you absolutely need a twenty-four, seven bodyguard. In light of the attempt made on your life last night, this is another security measure that I feel is necessary for your safety—”

“Screw off, West,” Jay growled at him. “You’ve already got five new bodyguards on me. I know they’re going to be tailing me tonight.”

West shrugged. “Yes, but they’re just, well, not Willow.”

Her chest warmed. “I’m the best. I can stay at your side and no one will—”

“Everyone already thinks you two are sleeping together,” West tossed out.

Willow’s lips parted. Her cheeks heated. They had slept together. They just hadn’t actually had sex.

“The story is everywhere online. ‘Tech guru falls for hot bodyguard.’” West strolled around the room. “It was your face that gave things away, buddy. After the shot was fired. Reporters were snapping pics, hell, anyone with a phone was taking pics, and apparently, your expression was quite revealing.”

“Screw. Off,” Jay ordered again.

West just laughed.

She wasn’t sure what West meant about Jay’s expression. She’d been bleeding all over him, so she figured the guy must have looked horrified as hell.

“It’s settled.” West clapped his hands together. “Willow will stay at your side because she can keep your ass safe, and we can continue trying to draw out Wyman. Not much has changed, except,” now his gaze sharpened, “another one of Jay’s enemies has come out from the woodwork.”

“Give us a minute alone,” Jay said. His face was locked in angry lines. “Now.”

West shrugged. “The cars are waiting. I’ll be in the lead vehicle. You take the second one. Don’t linger here too long. You two can have a private talk in the limo.”

He gave a salute and strolled out.

Jay put his hands on his hips as he focused all of his attention on Willow. “You took a bullet last night.” He stalked toward her. “Maybe you should just sit this one out. Did you consider that? That instead of getting right back into the line of fire you should, oh, I don’t know, take the damn night off?” His eyes glittered.

She tilted back her head as she stared at him. “You’re not taking the night off.”

“I’m—shit, no, I’m just going to a club, okay? Blowing off some steam.”

That was total crap. “You’re trying to find the shooter. You figure that if someone wants you dead bad enough to take a shot at you, then that person might be tailing you. You’re luring him to the club because you’ll have your men there—and I’m betting you’ve already talked to the club’s owner, haven’t you? You got him to make sure all the cameras were working, that his crew was monitoring the scene for you.”