Daniel POV
Daniel sits in his office after hours using resources that probably aren't meant for personal investigations.
The James Morrison file comes up mostly empty.
Military background. Classified. No details accessible to a senator. Security work. Unmarked. No official record. A history that looks manufactured like someone spent years building a person out of paper and lies.
Everything official says this man exists.
Everything real says something is deeply wrong.
Daniel leans back in his chair and pulls up secure communication. He types a message to Grace.
Need you to dig into classified files. Name is James Morrison. Military background and private security work. Everything is redacted or buried. Use every connection you have.
Grace responds within seconds. That's the bodyguard?
Yes.
Why are we investigating your bodyguard?
Because I think he's dangerous. I think he might be hunting me.
Or protecting you.
That too.
Daniel waits through the night while Grace works.
She sends files in pieces. Partial reports of classified assignments. Names that are redacted so heavily you can't see anything underneath. Operations that are buried so deep finding them required connections most people don't have.
There's a reference to an assassination in Moscow. Files with Morrison's name partially visible. Then redacted.
References to surveillance operations. To protection details. To things that sound like they exist outside normal government channels.
By morning Daniel has enough information to understand that James Morrison isn't a security consultant.
He's a weapon.
Daniel stares at the files while Grace sits across from him drinking coffee like they're not looking at proof that Daniel's bodyguard is connected to something that's hidden in the darkest corners of the government.
"There's more," Grace says carefully. "But it gets worse."
"How much worse?"
"The kind of worse where people die and nobody asks questions."
Daniel closes the files.
"He's an assassin," Daniel says quietly.
Grace doesn't answer because they both already know it's true.
That night Daniel can't focus on anything except the man in his guest room. The way he moves. The way he watches everything. The way he looks at Daniel like someone starving looks at food.
An assassin who's supposed to be protecting him.
An assassin who Daniel is falling back into loving.
The contradiction is so large that Daniel can barely fit it inside his head.
He sits in his office and stares at the classified files and realizes something that makes his blood run cold.
If James Morrison is an assassin, and if he's been trained by classified government organizations, then maybe he's not here to protect Daniel.
Maybe he's here because Daniel is the target.
That possibility is so terrifying that Daniel stands up abruptly and walks to find Rowan.
Rowan is in the security room monitoring all the cameras. His gray eyes flick toward Daniel and Daniel sees something like recognition cross his face.
Like Rowan knows exactly what Daniel has been researching.
"We need to talk," Daniel says.
Rowan turns away from the monitors. His entire body tenses.
"About what?" Rowan asks carefully.
"About who you actually are. About why your entire background is classified. About why you move like someone trained to kill people."
Rowan stands up slowly.
"Don't ask questions you don't want answers to," he says.
"I already know the answers. What I want is the truth."
Rowan's jaw clenches.
"The truth is complicated," he says.
"Then uncomplicate it. Because I'm attracted to a man I'm investigating. I'm falling for someone who might be here to hurt me. I'm losing my mind over someone I don't actually know at all."
Rowan moves closer. Daniel doesn't step back even though his body is screaming at him to protect himself.
"What if I told you that I'm here to protect you," Rowan says quietly. "What if the danger you're sensing isn't coming from me?"
"Then I'd ask why everything about you is a lie."
"Because lies are the only thing keeping you alive."
They're standing close enough now that Daniel can feel the heat radiating from Rowan's body. Close enough to see the conflict moving across Rowan's face. Close enough to recognize that this man is caught between two impossible choices.
"Who are you really?" Daniel whispers.
Rowan's hand comes up like he's going to touch Daniel's face. Daniel holds perfectly still, waiting. Hoping. His entire body remembering what it felt like to be held by someone trained for violence.
Then Rowan's phone buzzes.
His expression shifts into something dangerous.
"We're out of time," Rowan says. "Your father just contacted federal investigators. He's about to tell them everything about the shadow organization. Within hours this entire building will be swarming with federal agents."
"What shadow organization?" Daniel asks.
But he already knows.
The answer is standing right in front of him. The answer has a scar above his jaw and hands that know how to kill. The answer is the man he loved three years ago who disappeared without explanation.
"I need to show you something," Rowan says. "I need to show you why you're in danger and why I can never let you leave this penthouse alive."
The last words hang in the air between them.
Daniel's breath catches.
Rowan immediately corrects himself. "I mean I can't let you leave unless you understand what we're dealing with."
But Daniel heard what he actually said.
I can never let you leave this penthouse alive.
And Daniel realizes that the investigation he started is about to lead somewhere he can't come back from.