Code of Honor. Lenora Worth

it will be local and a random thing, but I doubt that. I’m pretty sure it was a message from Los Andedores del Noche—”

      “The Night Walkers,” Selena translated, recalling the notorious Brazilian gang of smugglers. “They never bothered us before.”

      “There’s a first time for everything, luv. Especially when criminals are involved.”

      A cold reality seeped over Selena while she watched Brice trying to focus on the problem at hand. He wasn’t ready to get any closer to her because he had a job to do—and this time the job involved her. He’d always taken his CHAIM oath very seriously and this had caused Selena to never take him seriously—as anything other than a good friend. They were still that—just good friends. She was projecting her fears into something more—this strong bond between them would naturally grow in the midst of all this danger. But Brice would always put duty first. She’d be wise to remember that.

      “What about you?” she asked to hide her disappointment and this unfamiliar longing. “Don’t you need to get back to Ireland and Whelan Wool?”

      “Whelan Wool runs itself,” he replied, his pacing only adding to her awareness of him. “I have the best management team in the world and I’ll be in constant contact with them, no doubt. They’re used to me being absent a lot.”

      “But you love the shearing season, Brice. You love getting down and dirty and working along with your men.”

      “Aye, that I do. But I love—” He stopped, his gaze moving over the room, one hand lifting out in the air. “But I have a responsibility to you right now, and besides, it’s a couple of months before shearing starts back up. So don’t you worry about any of this.”

      “While you take on the burden?” she asked, seeing him in a whole new light. Or rather, seeing the light that shined through his character much more clearly now.

      “You’re no burden, cara. None a’tall.”

      With that, he bent to kiss her on the cheek. “Sleep well, princess. And say your prayers.”

      And then he left her sitting there, staring after him with her guilt and her secrets pressing on her soul.

      

      Brice couldn’t sleep. So he walked the perimeters of the property, checking on concealed cameras, securing already secure high fences. This rambling old house had belonged to his mother’s side of the family for close to one hundred years. After his father died a few years ago, Adele had immediately come home to Atlanta. She could always be found here when she wasn’t traveling or visiting Whelan Castle in western Ireland.

      Adele loved the castle and its rich heritage, but unlike Brice, she couldn’t stay there in seclusion for months on end. And while she supported Whelan Wool and traveled as a spokesperson to promote the farm and their mills, she would never understand Brice’s need to work with his hands on the land that had been in his family for centuries. That didn’t matter to Brice. He didn’t mind living in two worlds. His CHAIM duties had him traveling all over the world anyway.

      So besides the obvious, he couldn’t figure out why he was so on edge tonight. He longed to be back in Ireland, working the farm, watching his sheep dogs, Greta and Piper, corner a herd of blackface ewes and yearlings to help him bring them down from the mountains. Okay, so he missed Ireland; that was nothing new. And while he loved the cosmopolitan energy and urban intensity of Atlanta, his time here now wasn’t turning out to be a relaxing, fun visit.

      He stopped, the dark night surrounding him as a thousand nocturnal sounds assaulted his senses. Living near the Chattahoochee River made for interesting late-night walks. But tonight even the creatures scurrying and singing all around him couldn’t put Brice on such high alert. No, something else was nagging at his soul right now.

      Yes, he was worried. About Selena. About these nasty people who seemed determined to scare her and possibly harm her. But there was something else hanging like a loose vine near his consciousness. And Brice wouldn’t sleep until he could pinpoint that something else.

      So he walked and listened and went over everything in his mind. Selena’s SUV had been bombed in a bad area of downtown Atlanta, and a few hours later, an unusual sound had come from the back of Brice’s estate north of the city. The bombing was surely a cause for concern, but something about the incident tonight bugged Brice. Charles was a naturalist and outdoorsman. That man knew every kind of bird call and every kind of animal cry in Georgia and beyond. So why had he been so spooked by what he’d heard tonight?

      And what about Selena? She’d been as shaky as Charles by the time they’d taken the golf cart back to the house. At the time, Brice had chalked it up to the events of the day. But now…he had to wonder if he’d missed something.

      Selena was usually very cool under pressure, especially when she was with a patient. She was a top-notch R.N., one of the best. But tonight, she’d been too skittish when she’d examined Charles. Normally, she would have insisted on getting her patient to a doctor. Maybe Charles had convinced her differently, or maybe she’d been too flustered to think straight.

      Brice stopped again, then looked up toward the room where a light still burned. Selena’s room. She was trapped up there like a princess in a castle. And her fears seemed trapped inside her memories and her mind.

      Then he understood. She wasn’t telling him everything. He could sense that each time he asked her about her memories. He’d interrogated enough people in his life to know when someone was being evasive. And he’d noticed a sense of guilt floating like an aura all around Selena each time he asked her for more details. Was Selena withholding information on purpose? Or was she just confused and scared?

      Why would she hide things from him, of all people?

      Maybe because she didn’t want him to find out the truth?

      That was the thing. Selena and he had shared a lot during their years as friends. What would make her clam up now, when he needed to know everything in order to help her? It didn’t make sense.

      Unless she was trying to protect someone else.

      He thought of a James Joyce poem—“Alone.” “The sly reeds whisper in the night. A name—her name—”

      Selena. That was the name calling to him tonight.

      Brice grunted, kicked at the soft grass at his feet. He didn’t like being so helpless and feeling so alone. He needed answers. But how could he get those answers if the woman he was trying to protect didn’t want to tell him the truth? What could be so scary or so important that she felt the need to keep it to herself?

      Saying a prayer for help from a higher source, Brice took a long, calming breath and asked God to guide him. Then he stared up at the big bay window and wondered what secrets Selena had brought home from Argentina.

      And he wondered how he’d ever convince her to let go of those secrets so he could help her and protect her.

      FIVE

      “Is this really necessary?”

      Selena glanced over at the stoic man driving her to work. “Brice, are you listening to me?”

      His sigh slid out through a muttered “Aye.” Watching the rush hour traffic on Interstate 75, he said, “But you obviously haven’t been listening to me. I’m going to be with you, day and night, in one way or another.”

      Selena groaned her own frustration. “We were together on your estate all weekend, Brice. And nothing else out of the ordinary happened. Do you really think it’s necessary to stay with me at the clinic all day long, too?”

      “Yes, I do.” He merged onto Peachtree and sat silent in the stop-and-go traffic, then finally turned off onto a side street that took them into an aged, boarded-up neighborhood. “My estate is airtight and heavy on security, but working in this part of the city makes you an open target. It was too easy for someone to walk right up to your car and stick explosives underneath it.”