Free Fighting Fate: Book 2 of the Warrior Chronicles by Leigh Morgan

bracelet.
    “It’s a charm bracelet. Nice quality. But even to a collector, it can’t be worth more than fifteen hundred bucks. Why would anyone want to hurt you for a bracelet?”
    Taryn felt the weight of all the personalities in the room bearing down on her shoulders, silently asking the same question with more than a little incredulity. Mary looked at her but was done explaining, leaving Taryn to fend for herself.
    Reed’s hand landed almost weightlessly on Taryn’s thigh. She didn’t push it away.
    “It’s not just a bracelet.” Taryn swallowed hard, knowing what she was about to say sounded crazy. She hadn’t believed it at seventeen and for the life of her she didn’t know why she believed with her entire being now, but believe she did.
    “It’s a map. A treasure map to be precise.”
     
     
    CHAPTER FOURTEEN
     
     
    These people seemed to know a thing or two about treasure and how it motivates hunters. Taryn couldn’t tell if they believed her mother or if they simply thought Taryn was at risk because of her newfound association with the Bennett name. To some extent it didn’t seem to matter. No matter what they believed, they all assumed, or more to the point presumed, they were plotting to work it all out for her.
    Taryn stood up. They kept talking over each other, planning, plotting and preparing for how to ensure her safety. Taryn had no intention of allowing any of it. She silently made her way across the library to the door. Jesse caught her by the arm, never once looking directly at her, seemingly mesmerized by something the exceptionally tall head of Bennett security, Henry, was saying.
    “Where do you think you’re going?”
    “Away from here.”
    Something in Jesse’s jaw ticked. His navy gaze shot to hers before refocusing on Henry who seemed to be speaking more code than sense. Taryn couldn’t read Jesse’s expression, but she had no difficulty deciphering what the manacle-like grip on her arm meant. She tugged. He held tight.
    “Give me my bracelet.”
    Jesse held it out to her and Taryn took it in her free hand. She had no intention of staying here or at Jesse’s home, but she wasn’t going to leave without her birthday present from her father, one he’d waited over a decade after his death to give her. She tugged again, harder this time. Jesse held fast.
    “Let me go or I’m going to start screaming.”
    “If you run, I’ll catch you. You aren’t safe without me and I will not let you put yourself in danger. Not for any reason.” Jesse said, slowly letting go of her arm.
    Taryn rubbed her bicep to circulate some blood flow. “Grab me like that again and I’ll draw blood even if I have to bite you.”
    Something like admiration flashed across his face before it was gone. “You don’t have the skills.”
    Well that hurt.
    “But you will. You will be getting some training immediately.”
    “I have no idea what you’re talking about. I’m not staying here. I’m not staying with you. I am leaving for Edinburgh. From there I’ll go to stay with my aunt Olive for a few days before I start filming for Magical Britain in Wiltshire. I have to work. I want to work. I have a contract and I will fulfill it. Neither you nor anyone else, not even men in white vans with guns, are going to stop me.”
    Taryn didn’t realize she was shouting until the silence in the room weighed her down like a wet blanket, smothering and uncomfortable, something to shuck off as quickly as possible.
    “I’m leaving.”
    “I can’t protect you in Britain.”
    Taryn made it three steps closer to the exit before Mary Campbell’s words stopped her as effectively as running into a wall of concrete.
    “If you married her you could protect her overseas. As your wife you’d have the legal authority to get her medical care or liaise with the authorities if necessary. And Taryn would have the weight of the Bennett name to protect her.”
    “It’s that name that may be the cause of all this.”