Free Risky Temptation by Gemma Hart Page A

head through the forest. A small smile played at his lips. “You’re very good at surprising me,” he said. Then shook his head. “But I disagree. No one is arguing your adulthood or agency. What I’m saying is that if you really love someone, you’ll do all that you can to protect that person. You’re not diminishing them by keeping them safe. You, for all that you accomplished, are still very new to the worlds Marco and I walk in. You don’t know the kind of risks and dangers that are in front of you. He does. To keep you with him is to risk certain death.”
     
                  I lowered my own fork and knife. I leaned back in my seat, my head cocked a little as a realization slowly began dawning on me. A small seed of understanding and even pity began to blossom within my heart.
     
                  “Who was it?” I asked softly.
     
                  Tobias raised a brow. “I’m sorry?”
     
                  “Who did you lose to danger?” I asked again quietly. “Who did you risk?”
     
                  An immediate change came over Tobias’s body. His broad shoulders stiffened and his eyes narrowed till all I saw was a pointed green stare. There was a small crackling noise in the background from the fireplace.
     
                  “Once again,” he replied coldly, “you surprise me, Miss Margot. Now if you’ll excuse me.” He swiftly rose to his feet, throwing his napkin down on his chair. Within moments, he was gone, leaving me alone in the room with the half finished dinner.
     
                  I stared at the door leading to Tobias’s room, a mixture of confusion and understanding swirling through me.
                 

Chapter Eight
Marco
Germany
                  “This is a bad idea, yeah?” Zeke said, looking intently at his computer screen. “Sure you want to do it?”
     
                  I crossed my arms. “Not much choice in the matter,” I said. Not unless I could magically find out where Halle was. Then I’d literally punch through the walls to get her.              
     
                  Zeke pulled up another window on his computer, tapping a finger against his chin while also tapping his foot on the floor. The skinny little hacker was never able to just be still for one minute. Some part of him was always moving or shifting.
     
                  Same applied to his loft. Or, what could be considered a loft. It was really three apartments whose walls had been knocked or rotted off, creating one giant loft. And you’d think Zeke would want to clear the brick and debris from each division but nope, he just left the mess there, using it as crooked and haphazard bookstands or computer tables.
     
                  To carry out this insane mission, I needed help. And if the mission called for anything tech related, I knew Zeke was a necessity. So I had immediately flown back to Germany to find the hacker.
     
                  Though he looked like a nervous man because of all his shifting and moving around, he was surprisingly easy to talk to. Nothing ever seemed to ruffle him.
                 
                  “So you need to kill Marshall Copper, yeah?” Zeke had said in summation after I had explained the situation to him. “And we need this key. And then you get your woman.”
     
                  “That’s the long and short of it,” I said tensely, more from anger at Lestrade than anything else.
     
                  Zeke had nodded, his large coke bottle glasses giving him a mosquito like appearance. “Yeah, this is very dangerous. It’s not a good idea,” he finally said.
     
                  “Well no shit, Sherlock,” I had replied back. “But let’s forget that for the moment and just figure out a