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  Secret Guardian

  Ann can’t tolerate the new guy assigned to her camera crew. She’s been in journalism long enough to know when someone is full of himself. And this guy is so full of himself, he can’t seem to point the camera in the right direction. Her latest assignment in Brazil, seemed harmless enough, but now she’s in over her head and the only way out is to trust the man that helped put her in the line of fire to begin with.

  Ethan is ex-special forces with a stellar record and long resume of top secret missions. Leaving the military was a tough decision, but working for himself provides the freedom he loves. Taking the occasional high-profile security job helps pay the bills and keep his need for excitement at bay. When he takes an undercover job for an old client, his years of training and experience are put to the test. However, babysitting the senator’s daughter proves to be a challenge he can hardly resist.

  Other titles by Jill Sanders

  Finding Pride – Pride Series #1

  Discovering Pride – Pride Series #2

  Returning Pride – Pride Series #350

  Lasting Pride – Pride Series #4

  Serving Pride – Prequel to Pride Series #5

  Red Hot Christmas – A Pride Christmas #6

  Secret Seduction – Secret Series #1

  Secret Pleasure – Secret Series #2

  Secret Guardian – Secret Series #3

  Secret Passions – Secret Series #4

  Secret Identity – Secret Series #5

  Secret Obsession – Secret Series #6

  Secret Demands – Secret Series #7

  Secret Sauce – Secret Series #8

  Cowgirls Ride Harder – Book one Cowgirls Series

  Cowgirls Ride Faster – Book two Cowgirls Series

  Cowgirls Ride Longer – Book three Cowgirls Series

  Secret GUARDIAN

  by

  Jill Sanders

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  ISBN:

  Copyright © 2013 Jill Sanders

  Edited by Erica Ellis – http://ericaellisfreelance.com

  No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

  Dedication

  To all the guardians and

  protectors among us.

  We are grateful for your service.

  Prologue

  Ethan had never cut it this close on a job before. His face and arms were covered in black paint. The black shirt and pants he wore were one of his standard uniforms, one he’d been wearing for as long as he could remember.

  As he crouched down behind the small air conditioning unit next to the recently renovated house, he swore he’d never cut it this close again.

  He watched as the four men argued over the small body. Was the kid still alive? Even though it wasn’t part of his guarantee for the job, he hoped so.

  He had less than five minutes before the final call that would decide the fate of the boy. It was now or never. Rushing from his position, he scaled the side wall in a blink of an eye, then quickly made it around the small house until he was standing at the back door. It took less than thirty seconds to open the locked door and even less time to make it to the end of the hallway. Since he was in all black, he doubted the four kidnappers could see him in the darkened room. He was standing just two feet away from them, in plain sight, as the men continued to argue.

  The leader, a short, balding man by the name of Miles Collins, slammed his gun down on the table and told everyone to shut up. When the room was silent, Miles picked up a small cellphone from the table and dialed a number as he walked towards the back of the house. As he spoke, Ethan silently picked off each of the three remaining men.

  He rushed behind the first and snapped his neck before the other two could respond. The second quietly went down with a quick punch to the throat. If Miles heard anything, it was only a quick intake of breath from the third man as Ethan’s knife slid silently into his throat. Miles continued to talk on the phone as Ethan picked up his gun from the table and pointed it at the back of the man’s head.

  “Move and you’re dead, just like your buddies.”

  Miles tensed as he held the phone up to his ear.

  “Commander here, the room is secure,” Ethan said to the room as Miles slowly dropped the phone to the floor in shock.

  Just then, Ethan heard a small noise behind him. As he turned to check what it was, Miles spun around with his fist and clocked him on the side of his ear. Ethan didn’t even blink, but just looked at the shorter man and slowly wiped the blood from his ear.

  “You shouldn’t have done that.” Ethan used the butt of the gun to make a dent in the man’s forehead. As the man hit the floor in a heap of unconscious bad guy, Ethan turned to see the eight-year-old boy lying on the table, staring at him like he was Superman.

  “Are you a GI Joe?” the boy asked. Ethan chuckled and thought about it.

  “Sure, kid. Let’s get you home to your dad.” He walked forward and lifted the small boy from the table and carried him out into the night.

  Chapter One

  Five years later…

  Ann couldn’t stand the man! How much more was she supposed to take? He was constantly late. Half the time he forgot his equipment. The rest of the time he was too busy checking himself in the mirror or flirting with her female staff to do his job properly.

  But today was the absolute worst. He’d actually shown up to work with a scantily dressed Brazilian woman on each arm. Not to mention that he was over half an hour late.

  They were in Brazil to cover the Carnival and most of her crew had enjoyed the festival. Even she’d even gone out last night and walked around, enjoying the sights, sounds, and food. Who wouldn’t want to?

  But seeing the two women plastering their naked bodies all over him this morning did something to her. Nathan Cruz had only been working on her crew for three weeks. He’d been hired by her boss, Anthony, and when she’d complained about him, Anthony had just smirked and told her it was out of his hands. What did that even mean?

  She’d had a problem with Nathan the minute she’d met him. He’d seemed so self-absorbed and huge. The man had arms the size of elephant trunks, and his neck was as thick as her thighs. Ann had known many men like him; self-absorbed, every one of them.

  He probably spent more time at a gym than he did watching the news or learning about what was going on in the world. You needed to be up on current events if you wanted to stay working for one of the top media outlets. Of course, the man was just behind the camera. She supposed the extra muscles came in handy when it came time to lug all that heavy equipment around.

  Her last cameramen, Albert, had been a short, frail-looking older man. She and the two other guys in her four-man crew, Joe and Mark, had always had to help him unload the equipment.

  But as she, Joe, and Mark stood around waiting for Nathan, she decided what needed to be done. When they made it back to Austin, she was going to make it her mission to see that Nathan got his pink slip.

  It wasn’t as if she was a tyrant. She’d even bought the whole crew drinks their first night in Brazil. She tried to enjoy herself around the three men. Joe and Mark had been on her crew for a few years and she felt somewhat comfortable around them. But with Nathan there, she just couldn’t seem to loosen up.

  She thought he was very attractive, so maybe that had a lot to do with
it. Sexual tension was always a good reason to be nervous around someone. But with him it was more. She couldn’t explain it, but it was almost as if he went out of his way to piss her off.

  That first night, he’d only drunk one beer and the rest of the evening had just sat around flirting with any woman that walked by, which happened to be a lot of women. He flirted with everyone except her.

  Maybe that was it. She was used to getting hit on by coworkers, especially attractive ones. But Nathan went out of his way not to hit on her, which made her believe that he had something against her. Or that he was flirting with other women to see her reaction. Whatever it was, she wasn’t buying his act. At least she thought it was an act.

  Now as he approached the van, he had a wicked smile plastered on his face. She crossed her arms and grinned back, thinking about getting him fired.

  “Sorry I’m late, boss. I found these two and we got to talking.” She watched as the women blushed.

  Yeah, I bet they were just talking, Ann thought.

  “We had to carry all your gear out here ourselves. You owe Joe and Mark an apology.”

  He walked over and gave Mark a high five. One of the women walked over and gave Joe a kiss on his cheek, making the older man blush.

  She realized that they were pretty much ignoring her, and she felt like she was just being a nagging woman.

  They’d been in Brazil for over a week covering the festivals, and she’d had enough of all three of them. Somehow Nathan had gotten closer to Mark and Joe in the last week than she had in the last three years, which made her feel extremely annoyed and hurt.

  As everyone piled in the van, she watched as the two young woman tried to get in. She held her arm over the door and blocked them, looking over to Nathan.

  “They can’t come along.” She had yet to understand his expressions; his hazel eyes hid his emotions too well. But right now she assumed he was annoyed.

  “She’s right, girls,” he said. She heard the standard pouting objections from both women who turned and kissed him one after another, then walked away.

  Finally, they got in the van and headed out. Now they were late for the meeting with her source, whom she hadn’t told her crew about. Everyone was still under the impression that they were meeting Isabella Torres, this year’s Carnival Queen.

  “Where did you say this meeting was?” Joe asked as he drove the narrow side streets. Ann gave him directions and once the van started climbing the hills towards the slums, everyone got very quiet.

  Finally Mark leaned forward and asked, “Ann, are you going to tell us why we are meeting the queen of the carnival up here in the favelas?”

  “We aren’t.” She sat forward in her seat as she felt the thrill and excitement of disobeying her boss set in.

  “What exactly are we doing up here, then?” Joe asked, while keeping his eyes on the ever-narrowing streets.

  “We are meeting a man about a job.” She knew she was being vague, but she didn’t want anyone to chicken out. Especially since she knew the story could earn her world recognition, and possibly even the Pulitzer.

  “Tell me this isn’t another scheme to get a Pulitzer.” Joe looked over at her.

  She waited to answer them until they pulled in front of a small, brightly colored yellow building. Laundry hung from wires and ropes across the entrance of the alleyway. There were brightly colored designs on the houses that she knew marked each house and its occupant’s loyalties to a particular drug lord.

  Heitor, her source, was standing in the doorway, looking a little nervous. She’d met him late last night while she’d been enjoying the carnival. She’d just stepped out after dealing with Nathan when a large Brazilian man had approached her. He was an older man and at first he’d scared her, since he’d approached her from behind. He’d tried to pull her into the alleyway by her arm, and when she’d resisted, he’d told her that he knew she was a journalist, that he’d been watching her at her hotel as she covered the carnival. At first she’d shivered, thinking that someone had followed her, watched her. Then he’d gone into quick detail about what he did and who he worked for. Nathan had stepped out of the hotel and had started walking towards them, so she’d arranged to meet him today. He’d pushed a piece of paper into her hand with the address and directions to the meeting after he’d told her the time.

  She’d asked if he would be willing to go on camera with his story, but he’d shaken his head and left quickly as Nathan had approached her. He’d acted like she’d been in trouble, but she just laughed at him and tried to have a good time getting lost in the crowd.

  She didn’t know why Heitor wanted the interview. She was sure he must have been marked for death already for him to take such a bold step.

  “Heitor, I’m sorry we’re late.” She glared in Nathan’s direction. “We can be set up in under five minutes.”

  “I’m sorry, miss, I thought you were coming alone. I’ve changed my mind about talking to you.” The man’s eyes were darting in every direction, taking in her crew. She noticed his hands shaking and realized she had to do something quickly or she was going to lose the interview.

  “Heitor, why don’t you and I go inside and talk.”

  It took her the whole five minutes that her crew was setting up to calm him down and convince him that he’d be perfectly safe. There was no way anyone would know it was him on the camera.

  As the interview got started, she pulled out the list of questions she’d worked up earlier that morning. She knew how to work an interview. She started with some easy questions to make him feel relaxed, then she built up to some harder questions, and finally she asked the doozy of all questions.

  Heitor was true to his word. He answered every question about his boss and his ties to the police, giving her details on how much money was involved. But most importantly, he had information on the connections between his boss, the police, and a local politician. This was the scoop she was digging for.

  A chamber deputy, a judiciary, and a Supreme Court justice were all in the pockets of one or more drug lords, or worse, they were the ones in control. Heitor didn’t have that last piece of information that would have tied it all up nicely.

  When he talked about the connections, he stuttered and became very agitated. Ann could tell he knew more, but before she could get names and more details, Joe pulled her aside.

  “Ann, we need to leave. I think you have enough,” he said. “Can I talk to you?” He motioned towards the doorway.

  She looked at him for a few seconds, then followed him out front. “I’ll be right back, Heitor.”

  The man nodded and looked even more afraid.

  The second she stepped out the small opening, Joe turned on her.

  “How dare you!” His face was red and she noticed sweat running down his neck. She’d never seen him look so upset.

  “How dare you put your crew at risk like this. I mean, we come down here, flashing our press badges all over the place. Then you get wind of this.” He motioned towards the small box of a home. “You didn’t even bring your crew in on the secret. Just plow right through, as if you’re the queen of TV. Did you think of our safety? Or that of the man in there, beyond this interview? I mean, look around!” He motioned to the courtyard. Their large white van sat in front of the row of huts that were falling down, a white beacon in a sea of trash. “You may have covered his face, but can you cover the fact that now everyone within a one-mile radius knows that the man sitting inside talked to the press?”

  She smiled, “Relax, Joe. This isn’t his place. You see that symbol there?” She pointed to the small patch of bright colors.

  When Joe nodded, she continued, “That’s the sign of the Red Command. Earlier this year the police seized control of this whole area. They are in control here, not the drug lords.”

  She crossed her arms as she watched Joe look around and notice the small children playing in the streets. There were women and old men sitting outside, like they were enjoying a day at the
beach. You wouldn’t see that if the drug lords still controlled this section. Smiling, she walked back into the room only to find Nathan and Mark sitting in the darkened room alone.

  “Where is Heitor?”

  Nathan shrug his shoulders and continued to play with his camera. Mark pointed to a doorway. “He said he needed a bathroom break.”

  Ann rushed towards the opening and realized it was a back door. “Great! Can’t you two keep your eyes on someone for five minutes?” She turned and glared at the men. “Well, I guess the interview is over now, anyway,” she said to Joe who had just walked in. “Pack it up, boys.” She chewed her bottom lip, hoping she had gotten enough in the interview.

  It seemed to take longer to get back down the hill to their hotel. The carnival was in full swing since it was the next to last evening. She wanted to work with Mark and get everything edited and sent to Austin before sundown.