Her gaze scanned me. "Why would you do this? This is insane. Even for you, this is insane."
Again, not wrong.
"This is your room. You'll stay here. I know our plan was for you to leave Middleton Communications, but we have a new plan. You'll go to work as usual, but you will have security on you at all times. And you will be tagged. Do not pass go. Do not collect two hundred quid. For a normal person I wouldn’t have to tell you that it’s important to keep your bloody mouth shut about where you are staying and your movements. But you’re you, so I’m verbalizing it."
"What, so I'm under house arrest now? Where the fuck am I?"
"You are in the Elite headquarters." I said it slowly, deliberately, so she would understand.
Her eyes went wide. “That fuck-off castle?”
“Yeah. It’s meant to be the Director Prime’s primary residence, but Ben doesn’t live here, obviously. And your stalker is only here about once a month. So it's the safest place for you. He won't think to look for you here, and you still get to keep up day-to-day appearances."
She opened her mouth and then closed it again. Opened. Closed. It was as if her brain was working through the rationale of this location and couldn't find a problem with it except for the fact that I had brought her here against her will.
Oh, you know, and her brother died here. But I wasn’t telling her that.
“This is mad, Bridge.”
“This is your doing.” She wasn't trustworthy, therefore, she didn't deserve to be treated like she was trustworthy.
"So you kidnapped me?"
"Well, you see, you and I had an agreement about your safety.” We’d been on the same page. Then, Emma being Emma, she’d flipped the bird to staying on the same page and just did what she wanted. I couldn’t trust her.
“I—” She started to speak then stopped and pursed her lips. “Yes, we did, but—”
I shook my head. “I’m not interested in your excuses. Not only did you spit in the face of the tenuous truce we had, but you put yourself in danger. You were hurt that I wanted to put you on a plane to keep you safe.”
She tried to interject again. “Fine, not the best choice, but—”
I cut her off again. “And not only did you put yourself in danger after we made promises, but you also went to see my father. The man who has made it his life’s mission to ruin mine.”
She swallowed hard, tears brimming. “I’m sorry.”
“The time for apologies is over. When you slipped your detail for a clandestine meeting, it proved that you're not trustworthy. And since I can't trust you to do as you're told for your own safety, I’m putting you under protective custody."
Ever stubborn, she lifted her chin. "The only problem with that is you're not the police."
"No. But I have the best interest in your safety. You are, after all, my wife, right?"
Her gaze narrowed. "Bridge, look, we can argue about this later, and I know I broke your trust. And whether or not you accept my apology, I do mean it, but there's something—"
I shook my head. "No. We're not going to talk. You lost all rights to have any conversation with me the moment you met with my father!" My voice boomed, making the glass in the room vibrate.
Her face fell, and a flush spread up her neck and her cheeks. She reached for me and then dropped her hand. "Bridge, it's not what you think. I'm not… I'm not her."
I almost gave in to the softness in her voice. "You will forgive me for not believing you, right?"
"Fucking hell, Bridge. Look, I know I fucked up. But we can talk about this. You don't have to go to such extremes."
“Too late for pleading.”
She threw up her hands and glanced around. “I don't want to be in prison. You and I, we don't have to be at odds with each other. We don't have to be at war. Come on."
"That's the problem, Ems; we will always be at odds. I'm trying to protect you, but you don't want my protection. You won't listen to reason, and then you run right into the heart of danger and betray me in the process."
"Look, there's a lot we have to talk about, okay? We can fix this, but holding me hostage is not the answer."
"You want to tell me what the fucking answer is? Please do. Let me guess, something that my father suggested would be your answer.”
“Bridge…” Her voice broke.
I leaned in close, and her gaze flickered to my lips. I hated the way my body automatically responded to her. My blood went hot, and my dick got hard. "Do you recognize that I will not trust any words that come out of your mouth right now? Not now, not ever. You and I, we're done."
Her face fell. "We're not done, Bridge. I was trying to help. I know meeting with him was probably a mistake now, but what you're doing… We can't—"
"My job is to keep you safe. I'm doing that. The moment we have something on Middleton and can put him away, you’ll be free to go. And I never want to lay eyes on you again after that. Do you understand?"
She flinched as if I'd slapped her. "We can't have a conversation if you're unwilling to talk to me."
"Oh, is that what you said to yourself before you went and met with my father?"
She did that start-stop thing again before she finally spoke. "That was a mistake. But listen, Bridge, we need to talk."
Did she think I was stupid? "No."
My one word was final. I wasn't talking to her anymore. The chopper would take us back and forth to the city. We would work, and security would stay on her all day. Then I would pick her up and have eyes on her at all times. I was taking no chances.
“You can't just say no. We're a team, you and I, whether you like it or not."
"We ceased being a team when you betrayed me."
The image of her climbing out of that limo, my father calling her back and shoving something into her hands, kept playing over and over again in my head. Liam and Ollie had picked up the folder he’d given her, along with some of her personal items from the house before they’d grabbed her, but I hadn't looked at it yet.
Too busy kidnapping her?
It was all such bullshit. I didn’t care what she was doing with my father.
I'd had the idea that we could be a thing, that we could be real, but that was all bullshit now. She was just another way to be controlled by the old man. And that wasn't happening. I'd been burned before, and I had ignored all of the signs. I wasn't letting that happen again. "You have everything you need here. If there's anything else you need, make a list. I'll have someone pick it up."
"Bridge!" She shoved to her feet. "You cannot do this. I'm not a child."
And there it was. I couldn't help my gaze drifting down her body, but I quickly forced my eyes back to hers. "I'm aware of that. But I want you to be aware that your every move is being tracked and by someone far less friendly than me. Your little stunt put us all in danger. You only think about yourself. This time it was just about you betraying me, but imagine you vanish… What happens to your mum? What if you pull a stunt and Middleton thinks you’ve run to her?”