Edge grinned. “My mother is French. I actually have dual citizenship and was born in America. My dad was military, so I followed in his footsteps for a while but found fighting was more of a challenge. I thrived on the adrenaline.”

As they strode rapidly to the scene, Swanny glanced over at his friend. “So why’d you give up MMA?”

Edge shrugged. “I was getting older. The competition was getting younger. I wanted to go out on top so when I won the belt in the heavyweight division I announced my retirement a few months later. But I was still restless and wanted the adrenaline. I wanted to make a difference. I guess it’s what bothered me most when I quit the army to pursue a career in MMA, because at least in the army I was making a difference. It wasn’t all about me and my ability to pound a guy in the ring. When I heard about KGI, it seemed the perfect compromise. I knew I was qualified. I was a ranger. My skills weren’t rusty because even after I left the army I still kept to my military regimen. Kept my shooting skills up. I guess even back then I missed it and realized I’d made a bad decision.”

As soon as Eden looked up through the crowd and saw Swanny coming toward her, she broke away from the police and reporters and shoved her way through the resisting crowds. She threw herself into his arms and held him tightly. She shook violently against him. There wasn’t a single part of her that wasn’t quivering. Her teeth chattered and her skin was icy cold.

Swanny swore as he gathered her in his arms, covering as much of her as he could. She was in shock and it was obvious no one had made any effort to get her medical attention.

He buried his face in her sweet-smelling hair, such a contrast to the smell of fire, smoke and melting rubber. Even the scent of blood hung obscenely in the air.

“I was so scared for you,” she whispered brokenly. “Oh God, Swanny, never do that to me again. I died a thousand times waiting for you to come back, so afraid you wouldn’t.”

Tears slipped openly down her cheeks as she swallowed back a raw sob. He tenderly kissed each drop of moisture away and then clung to her, anchoring her through the storm.

With Edge translating, Swanny got his point across in a blunt, take-it-or-leave-it fashion. Swanny wasn’t leaving Eden exposed a minute longer. He was taking her back to her hotel and if the police wanted to question her, it damn sure wouldn’t be at a precinct.

The officers on the scene put up a token protest until Skylar very sweetly informed them exactly who Eden Sinclair was and that she was considered one of the most beautiful women in the world and it wouldn’t look good for the police to hold a shaken, in-shock, scared-out-of-her-mind woman against her will.

The commanding officer on the scene couldn’t backpedal quickly enough. He immediately arranged a police caravan to ferry Eden and her entourage back to the hotel, though Swanny made a mental note to check out and find another hotel. As soon as the news got out—and it would—the journalists, both legitimate and paparazzi, would be circling like vultures, which would put Eden in an even more vulnerable position.

Swanny quickly led Eden to their suite, holding on to her because she was far from steady on her feet. As soon as they were inside, she collapsed on the couch, leaned forward so her elbows rested on her knees and buried her face in her hands.

Silent sobs shook her shoulders, hell, her entire body. She lifted her tear-drenched eyes to his, and it cut out his heart to see her in such distress.

“Why, Swanny? Why? I don’t understand,” she said, her voice cracking under the weight of emotion. “Why would someone want to blow up my car? Who could possibly hate me so much that they’d go to such horrible lengths to kill me? I don’t u-u-understand.”

Her voice broke off and she dropped her face into her hands once more, her shoulders heaving with the force of her sobs.

He went to her. He couldn’t do anything else. A man who didn’t comfort his woman when she needed it the most wasn’t much of a man. She turned blindly to him, clinging to him like a burr, burying her face in his neck, wetting the collar of his shirt with her tears,

“I don’t understand,” she whispered brokenly. “I just don’t understand.”

Swanny sighed because, goddamn it, her father should have been straight with her from the start, and now it was left to Swanny to piece together the entire puzzle so at least Eden could gain some understanding of what was going on around her. Something she should have been aware of from the start. And right now he didn’t give two shits if it pissed her father off and he fired KGI.

Because whether or not KGI was still assigned as her security detail, there was no way in hell he was leaving Eden’s side until the assassin was taken out. Permanently.

CHAPTER 27

SWANNY gathered Eden close in his arms, her face buried in his neck. He rubbed his hands up and down her back, offering her comfort and bracing himself for what he was about to tell her.

He’d do anything at all to spare her this pain, but if it saved her life, if it made her more wary and alert, then he’d lay it out to her as delicately as possible.

He stroked her hair and then gently pulled her away so he could look her in the eyes.

“Listen to me, honey. There’s something—a lot—I need to explain to you. Something that you should have been told from the very beginning, and I’m risking a lot by going against your father’s wishes, but you need to be told . . . the truth.”

Her eyes widened in shock, a glazed look falling over her delicate features.