Die for You

Chapter 9

Miss Armstrong looks so damn fine in the photo. 😍

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"Do you want to stay here tonight or are we going back to my place?"

My mind snapped from its playback of the day's events and back onto the brunette that had graced me with her attention. I was taking the dishes and started cleaning up. JJ and James had left just a few minutes earlier.

"Sorry?" I asked, sort of distracted by her comment.

"I said, do you want to stay here tonight or are we going back to my place?" She shook her head at me as if I was stupid. "Seeing as my father decided to put you in charge of my fucking life."

"Miss Armstrong," I replied, a little snottily, "I don't know what your father or anyone else might have told you, but if I'm protecting you, that's all I'll do. I'm not your your servant, your mother or your guardian. I can assure you I have no interest in being in charge of your life. My only concern is your safety and unless you do something to sabotage that, you can do whatever the heck you like."

She stared back at me, was I imagining things or were those eyes a little softer?

"So if I wanted to go back to my flat I could?"

"If you insisted on it, yes. But as I said earlier, I think it would be foolish to go back there tonight. If those people are serious, and it seemed they were, that would be the first place to try and pick you up."

I yawned, covering my mouth as I did so, "That's what I'd do anyway, stake out your home or your office and wait for you there."

Her eyes narrowed, "So I'm stuck here, with you?"

"If you don't want to put yourself at risk, then yes. Maybe the risk will be lessened after the negotiations that James mentioned tomorrow; and things can go back to normal. I don't think that the attack today was a coincidence."

She spent a bit of time thinking about this, obviously considering. At least I was able to be honest, I didn't have to lie to her. Idle threats are one thing, but you can only stretch coincidence so far before it comes crashing down around your shoulders.

No, it seemed more likely that the attack on Miss Armstrong was designed to either scare her off the meeting with India's Border Security Force, or kill her and get Armstrong Industries to pull out of the deal. Either way, it had failed.

"I don't know why my dad even asked you to look after me."

"Maybe because he wants to keep you alive...or maybe he just wants to screw me, like his secretary." I answered quickly. Her head snapped up and she stared straight at me, her eyes wide.

"You heard that?"

"Miss, most of the staff in your house would have heard that if I hadn't sent them away."

"How much did you hear?" she snapped, suddenly looking angrily at me.

"Enough to know you aren't happy with me being assigned to protect you, enough to know what you really think of me. Enough to know that, for someone that's supposed to be keeping her father's secrets, you have a very loud voice when you're angry."

"Yeah, well, you weren't supposed to hear that; fucking spying on us, who do you think you are?"

I just looked at her and raised an eyebrow in amusement as she paused in her tirade for a second before continuing; her voice now lower and calmer.

"You shouldn't judge him you know, or me for that matter, that wouldn't be fair. It's not as simple as you think."

I had to sigh at that; it's sad really that someone can think so little of someone they've never met before and barely spoken to.