Twisted Games

After two weeks of working with Bridget, Rhys is convinced that she will be his toughest client, not because of the danger she is in but because she will not listen to him. He accompanies her to a crowded bar; Bridget loves the establishment, but Rhys sees it as a major security threat. There, they meet Bridget’s friends—Jules, Stella, and Ava, along with Ava’s wealthy and dangerous boyfriend, Alex. When Bridget’s friends go to the bathroom, a man tries to dance with her. After she turns him down multiple times, Rhys has to intervene to get the man to leave. When her friends return, Rhys reflects that he is attracted to Bridget even though he knows that he cannot and will not act on his attraction.

Bridget finds it difficult to live with Rhys as it means they are constantly around each other in an oddly domestic way. However, now and then, Bridget gets a glimpse of his personality, and he of hers. One day, as they walk to Bridget’s home, they discuss an upcoming trip to Athenberg, the capital city of Eldorra. Suddenly, they are interrupted by something that sounds gunfire. Rhys pushes Bridget into a nearby alleyway and shields her from what turns out to be a car that has backfired. Afterward, Rhys insists that Bridget stop walking to and from the shelter. This demand brings an end to their partial truce.

When they arrive in Athenberg, the first place Bridget wants to visit is the cemetery where her parents are buried. This interaction leads Rhys to think of his lack of parental love and the friends he has lost during his time as a Navy SEAL. Rhys’s narration often offers glimpses of his tragic past and his interactions with his boss and friend, Christian Harper, who is a cybersecurity expert. While at the cemetery, Rhys spots a paparazzo taking pictures and smashes the man’s camera. Bridget says she recognizes the man from the country’s worst tabloid.

Bridget and Rhys’s relationship continues to go from hot to cold in Eldorra. When she mentions a concert that she wants to attend in Washington, DC, Rhys nearly forbids Bridget from going, but she is sure that the venue will be safe.

A month later, Bridget sneaks away to go to the concert, and she and her friend Ava are kidnapped by enemies of Ava’s boyfriend, who has ties to organized crime. Rhys is able to track Bridget’s phone and save both women, but he is furious that Bridget lied to him and attended an event without his knowledge. They fight about this when they get home, but the argument only brings out the attraction between them. Bridget offers a compromise, suggesting that if Rhys take out the tracking device in her phone, she will follow his orders. He tentatively agrees, and they decide that it is best not to inform the palace or the security agency of the incident.

Bridget keeps their truce and follows Rhys’s orders, including wearing a bulletproof vest and staying home from a music festival that she planned to attend. In the meantime, their relationship becomes more tense, and their lust for one another also grows. When her friends hear that she can’t go to the festival, they get Rhys to help set up a festival in her home, and the two of them bond as they watch a video of the concert. Bridget learns that Rhys likes to draw and has gone to therapy for his C-PTSD. When Bridget gets a call from Jules at the concert, she learns that Jules had nothing to do with Rhys’s plan to set up the indoor festival.

Bridget graduates from Thayer, after which she will move to New York City and become an ambassador for Eldorra. On the night of her graduation, Rhys takes Bridget to one of his favorite restaurants. She gets to know him better, and he confirms that he set up the festival surprise on his own. He says he did so because he knows what it feels like to be alone. Hearing this, Bridget recognizes that there is an important connection between them. As they walk home that night, Bridget wants to confess her feelings for him, but as they pass through a park, they hear a gunshot.

As the gunshots continue, Rhys makes Bridget run and hide behind a tree. Across the park, they can see the gunman, another man on the ground, and a young child who appears to be the prone man’s son. Rhys tells Bridget to stay hidden as he goes after the gunman. Although Rhys he is shot, he is able to disarm the man and stay on his feet. When the gunman is disarmed, Bridget runs to check on Rhys and to comfort the young boy. She is reminded of a childhood memory when she was told her father had died in a car accident. To this day, she feels that she is responsible for the deaths of her parents.

Despite the stress of the situation, Rhys’s primary concern is that Bridget didn’t stay hidden. He is confused when he realizes that she cares enough about his welfare to endanger herself. He finds himself telling her about the rough neighborhood of his childhood, and he describes seeing one of his friends mugged at gunpoint. At the time, he couldn’t do anything to stop his friend’s death. He reflects on the fact that his regrets over that moment of inaction led him to join the military and become a bodyguard. Bridget reassures him that he should not feel guilty over his friend’s death because he was just a child, too. During this conversation, the two are more vulnerable with one another than they ever have been.

After the night of her graduation, Bridget realizes that her feelings for Rhys are becoming more serious. However, she distracts herself for several months with her busy new life in New York. After nearly two years of knowing Rhys, Bridget starts to see her attraction to him as a serious problem. She begins to date a man named Louis to continue distracting herself from her desires, but Rhys scares Louis away, just as he has done with her other dates. They argue about this, and in the midst of the conversation, Bridget receives a call from her brother, Nikolai, the crown prince of Eldorra. He tells her that their grandfather, the king of Eldorra, has collapsed and is at the hospital.

Rhys arranges for them to travel to Athenberg. On the way, Bridget tells him that she was practically raised by her grandfather. Rhys tells Bridget that he doesn’t know who his father is; he found his mother dead of a drug overdose when he was 11 years old. When Bridget starts to pity him, Rhys pulls away from her.

When Bridget arrives at the hospital, her grandfather has just woken up and is in good shape. He only allows the hospital to keep him for observation for three days and gets back to work as soon as he is discharged. However, his grandchildren try to get him to offload some of his work onto others. A few weeks into her visit to Eldorra, Bridget talks with Nikolai and confesses that she feels she is always being watched in Eldorra, unlike in America. He confesses to her that he is getting married to his American girlfriend, Sabrina. Bridget is happy for him until she realizes that in order to do this, Nikolai must abdicate. (Eldorran nobles are not legally allowed to marry commoners.) Nikolai also mentions that their grandfather is planning to step down shortly after his recovery. This would leave Bridget to be queen of Eldorra, something that frightens her more than anything else.