Her Soldier Protector. Сорейя Лейн

      Logan shook his head. “I think we’re best to leave immediately, before anyone expects you to depart. My truck’s parked around the back and we should be able to get in before anyone realizes it’s you, so long as we move quickly.”

      Candace wasn’t convinced, but then she also usually timed these kind of things all wrong anyway and ended up in the middle of a hundred fans, trying to reach her getaway car. Or else her manager set things up to happen like that for maximum publicity when she gave him explicit instructions to the contrary.

      “I don’t believe you, but I’m prepared to give you the benefit of the doubt,” she said.

      “Good. I’ll go check the exit now and be back in ten minutes,” he told her. “Shall we meet in your dressing room?”

      Candace nodded. “Let’s do it.”

      The idea of a night out was exciting—she’d become used to feeling fantastic, on a high from singing, then going straight back to a hotel room, alone. Most of the time she ended up ordering room service, watching an old movie and going to bed, before receiving her wake-up call and taking a car to the airport early the next morning. Before she’d become recognizable, she’d always had a fun night out after any gig, which was why tonight was like a blast from the past for her. Add the tourism campaign she was the face of, and she didn’t have a hope of Australians not realizing who she was.

      It was yet to be seen whether she could even manage to leave the building without being recognized or followed, so she could easily end up holed up in her hotel room just when she least expected it.

      Candace closed her dressing room door the moment she stepped inside and slipped the feathery minidress off, letting it pool to the floor. She rummaged around in her case for the casual clothes she’d packed, in case she needed them, pulling out a pair of dark blue skinny jeans and wriggling her way into them. She didn’t have anything other than a T-shirt to wear, so she flicked through the tops hanging on her racks, wishing they weren’t all so costume looking, until she spotted a sequined black tank. Candace pulled it over her head, grabbed a studded leather biker jacket, and slipped into a pair of dangerously high heels she’d worn on stage earlier in the evening.

      Glancing at the clock on the wall, she stopped, took a deep breath, then sat down at her dressing table. Her makeup was excessive—thick false eyelashes and sparkly eyeshadow—but she didn’t have time to change it. Besides, Logan had seen her looking like this all evening. She did run her fingers through her hair to flatten it down a bit, teasing the hairspray from her curls so it felt like real hair again, so it was touchable.

      There was a knock at the door. Candace jumped, glaring at her reflection at the same time. It was just Logan, and it wasn’t like she hadn’t known he was coming, but her nerves had been permanently on edge for weeks now. Maybe she could talk to him about it and see what he thought the best way to react to the threats was.

      “Just a minute!” she called out.

      Candace jumped up to grab her purse, checked her credit card, phone and hotel swipe card were all inside and swung open the door.

      “Wow.”

      Logan’s approving smile and the way he looked her up and down made her laugh. He seemed to say what he was thinking, and she liked the fact he was a straight shooter with her.

      “Are we cleared to leave?” she asked, trying to ignore what he’d just said even though she couldn’t stop smiling.

      “I told your manager and the rest of the team that you’re feeling ill, and you wanted me to escort you straight to the hotel. I said we’ll be exiting from the side entrance, and I have a feeling there’ll be a lot of fans waiting there, if you catch my drift.”

      “So we can’t go?” she asked, hearing the disappointment in her own voice.

      Logan gave her a wry smile, a dimple flashing against his cheek at the same time. “We’re going out the very back. My vehicle’s parked down the alleyway, so no one will see us.”

      “So you lied to everyone?” she asked.

      “I expanded the truth,” he said, winking as he gestured for her to follow him. “I have a feeling your manager is more interested in getting publicity than a quiet getaway for you, and given that I’m your head of security, all I care about is your safety. You say no fans or paparazzi? That’s what I give you.”

      Candace shook her head. “I think I underestimated you,” she said with a chuckle.

      “I also told them that you’d be exiting in fifteen minutes, so if we’re going to do this, I think we should hurry, just in case someone comes looking for you before we go.”

      He waited for her to nod, then clasped her hand firmly, walking fast in the opposite direction to which they’d arrived earlier in the day. Candace had to almost run to keep up with his long, loping stride, but she didn’t care. Logan was going to get her out of here without being mobbed, without even having to come face-to-face with her manager, and she might actually have a drink at a bar before anyone figured out who she was. Adrenaline was starting to fill her with hope.

      Her phone started to beep in her purse, and she managed to open it without slowing down. She glanced at the screen.

      “It’s Billy, my manager,” she told Logan when he looked down.

      “Text him from the car when we’re driving away,” he said. “You can tell him we’ve gone once we’ve hit the main road, but not before.”

      Candace slipped the phone back into her purse and hurried along with Logan, trying to concentrate on not falling off her stiletto heels. A few little white lies weren’t going to hurt anyone, especially not her manager, who didn’t seem to care that she’d spent the past few weeks frightened out of her own skin about the thought of being in public.

      * * *

      “So did you believe me when I said I’d get you out of there?”

      Logan glanced over at Candace and saw that she was staring out the window, watching the world as it blurred past.

      “No,” she replied, sighing and turning in her seat to face him. “If I’m completely honest I didn’t even want to let myself hope that I’d get out of there that easily.”

      “So I don’t need to ask you if you’re still keen for a few drinks and something to eat?”

      Candace laughed and it made him smile. “I’ll stay out until someone starts flashing camera bulbs in my face.”

      “You’re on. The places I’m taking you no one will ever find us.”

      She was looking out the window again, and he took his foot off the gas a little so they weren’t going so fast. For someone who hadn’t found it easy being back or dealing with people, he was finding it weirdly easy to talk to Candace. She should be the one person he had nothing in common with, but for some reason he was drawn to the fact that she was an outcast just like he was, albeit a different one. It settled him somehow.

      “That kind of makes you sound like a serial killer,” she finally responded, like she was just thinking out aloud. “Which makes me wonder how I ended up letting you whisk me away from everyone who’s supposed to be looking after me and keeping me safe.”

      “I’m the one who kept you safe today, so you don’t have a lot to worry about,” Logan told her, taking his eyes off the road for a second to make sure she was listening to him, looking at him. “If I’m perfectly honest, you have a manager who makes sure you get mobbed when he knows you hate it, and the rest of your entourage probably have way less interest in making sure you’re kept out of harm’s way than I do.”

      She shut her eyes and put her head against the rest. “I know you’re right about my manager. Deep down, I think I’ve known it for a while. I just didn’t want to acknowledge it.”

      He didn’t answer. He knew he was right, but he didn’t need to make her feel