Page 40 of Run

Elle tensed, ready to put some distance between them. But his arm tightened, holding her closer still.

“You’ve known for years?” Her dulled, sleep-deprived mind struggled to comprehend what he was telling her.

“About a year or so before you started working for Benson Security, a woman at MI6 stumbled across your new identity and location. Don’t ask me how; I don’t know. She hired me as an outside contractor to keep an eye on you until she was ready to use you against your family.”

Holy Subterfuge, Batman!

Elle wouldn’t have believed anything—other than Naked David—could render her unable to think. She’d been wrong. There were absolutely no thoughts in her head. None. Nada. Zip. The feeling was strange…and unwelcome. All she could do was lie there, frozen, as David carried on talking.

“My contact suspected there was at least one MI6 operative on the James’ payroll and wanted to keep you a secret. Which is why she brought me in. And when she did, she handed over every piece of information she had on you—including the hacking you unwittingly did as a child.”

Elle scrambled into a seated position. “You knew all about me? You were following me? For over a year before I met you?”

“Not all the time, but enough.” He didn’t take his eyes from hers. “I saw what you had to do to survive and not be caught.”

The muted shadows of the room seemed to lengthen, feeling ominous for the first time since they’d entered it. “You were there the night I killed those three men?”

David reached up to brush a stray hair from her face. “I’d been ordered not to break cover. Told that you couldn’t know you were being watched. Hanging back that night was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. Even then, I followed them to the warehouse. I was prepared to end them, if you didn’t. They weren’t good men, Ellie Blue. I heard what they planned to do with you. None of it was good. And there was no way I’d have let them carry out their plans.”

“You would have broken your cover for me?”

“In a second.” He smiled. “But you dealt with the situation before I had to.”

Wow. Talk about a plot twist. He’d been in her life all this time? “And Peru? You already knew me? I was your…asset?”

“I knew about you, but you weren’t my asset. The job ended when my contact at MI6 was killed.”

Memories of the past few years flashed through Elle’s mind, and a pattern began to emerge. Things falling into place suddenly or near misses that saved her life and identity. Never once had she even suspected someone was behind the scenes, pulling strings.

“It didn’t though, did it? Your job didn’t end then. You’ve been looking out for me for years—even after I joined Benson Security.” It wasn’t a question because she knew in her gut that it was absolutely true. Now that she knew to look for it, she could see his hand in everything—even her job. “Did you talk Lake into merging with Harry’s cybersecurity company?”

“You don’t talk Lake Benson into anything, Ellie Blue. You can, however, present him with an opportunity that would be beneficial to him and let him come to the right conclusion.”

“You wanted me working for him.” A warm feeling started deep in her stomach.

“I couldn’t watch over you all the time; I wanted you safe. And Lake’s one of the few people I could trust to do that.”

He said it as though it wasn’t the most amazing thing anyone had ever done for her.

“You knew my hacking caused you to lose your team, your career, and you still looked out for me.”

“It was a job, Elle. You were a job.”

“A job you stopped getting paid for what—at least three years ago, right?”

Superspy rolled his eyes at her and tugged her back down to his side. “You’re deliberately ignoring the truth of what I did. I spied on you. I followed you. I investigated you, and I manipulated your life. I’d say that makes us more than even for any perceived mistake you made as a kid.”

She wasn’t so sure about that. In her own way, Elle had been atoning for all the wrongs she’d done as a child ever since realizing her part in them. But it would never be enough. Each life she’d helped to snuff out was a scar engraved on her soul for all eternity.

“Other women would probably be annoyed you were spying on them for years.” Elle snuggled closer. “But it makes me feel safer knowing you were watching out for me. It’s like Buffy and Angel. Before she knew about him, he was lurking in the background, backing her up from the shadows, making the world a safer place for her.”

David’s low groan rumbled through her body. “I tell you I was paid to stalk you, and you tell me you feel good about it. Seriously, Blue, that’s not normal.”

“I told you I was behind an ambush that almost got you killed and cost you your team, and you said it wasn’t my fault. In what way is that normal?”

He groaned again. “How about we stop talking and go to sleep?”

Elle wrapped her arm around his waist and hugged him tight. “Don’t worry; all couples have their problems.”