Secret Guardian Read online

  Ethan sat across from her and looked bored. “Are you listening to me?” She picked up the nearest item, which happened to be a stress ball, and tossed it at his head. He caught it and proceeded to squeeze it playfully as she smiled.

  “I’m always listening. I knew they were going to run it. It’s a good piece. Plus, you had an excellent cameraman.” He smiled and tossed the ball back at her.

  She caught it and set it back on her desk, then walked around and sat in her chair. There was so much to do in the next few days, she didn’t think she’d have time. Preparing a piece this big took a team and her team… she closed her eyes on the flash of memory that popped into her head. Well, her team was dead.

  “I’m going to spend the next few days going over our footage from Rio. There has to be something else there I can use.”

  “Do you want any help?” He sat up a little.

  “You? Really?”

  “Well, I was working here up until my cover was blown. I know my way around the editing room and equipment.”

  She thought about it and realized he was right. When he’d been undercover, she’d never once questioned his abilities as a photographer or editor. Just as a human being.

  Just then her phone rang, and seeing the number on the screen, she smiled.

  “Hi, Daddy,”

  “Hi, sweetie. Don’t forget the dinner tonight at the Kramer’s. It’s at eight sharp. Oh, and sweetie, bring Ethan.”

  Her smile got bigger. She had forgotten the dinner. Her father was campaigning again, and she knew that meant lots of wine and dine situations. She couldn’t always make them, but the Kramers were very old family friends. Plus, it was a white tie sort of dinner, and she was just dying to see what Ethan looked like in a tux.

  “We’ll be there.” When she hung up the phone, she watched Ethan’s eyebrows shoot up in question. She tilted her head and imagined what it would be like seeing him dressed in a tux.

  “Tell me, Mr. Bond, do you own a tux?”

  He smiled quickly. “All of us double O agents have them. Why?”

  He stood around her condo waiting for her to come out of the restroom. He didn’t mind getting dressed up for occasions and always saw it as a challenge to hobnob with the upper crust. He looked at it all as if it was part of his training, seeing if he could fit in anywhere.

  He knew he could fit in in the jungles of Brazil, the deserts of the Middle East, the slums of any large city, and the beaches at the best resorts. How different was wearing a monkey suit with the high rollers in politics from pretending to be a male stripper in Vegas?

  He smiled thinking about it. Then his smile fell away as Ann walked out of the restroom.

  The dress was the color of her blue eyes. He swore he could see right through it and when he looked at her, he saw her nipples peek through the light material towards him.

  He felt his tuxedo pants getting too tight. Damn, they’d been specially made for him and now he felt like he couldn’t breathe.

  Her hair was piled up in some sort of fancy bun. There were long dark twists falling around her face, making him itch to feel the silky softness of it in his fingers.

  His eyes roamed from her head down her long form to her feet, which were exposed in sexy little heels with sparkly stones that showed her newly painted toenails. He wanted to tear everything off her and lick her from head to toe.

  “Well?” she said and did a little turn. The back of the dress was worse than the front. It dipped down to the middle of her back, exposing her entire back, showing off her silky skin.

  “Well?” He repeated. He didn’t know what to say. It was like every cell in his brain had just left him to go on vacation. “You … You look beautiful.”

  She smiled quickly and walked over to grab her small silver purse from the table.

  “Are you sure we have to go to this thing tonight? I’m not feeling too hot. Maybe we should just stay in?” He walked over to her, pulling her close. When he got closer, he smelled her perfume and closed his eyes on a moan. Not only did she look good, she smelled good. Which got him wondering if she tasted just as good. He started to dip his head to have a taste when she stopped him with her hands.

  “Oh, no, you don’t. You are not going to mess this all up. It took me two hours to look like this.” She held his head at bay.

  “Just one lick. Just to see if you taste as good as you look.”

  She laughed. “You can taste me later. Right now, we’re going to be late if we don’t leave now.”

  He pulled back and took her hand and made a point to bow from his waist. “As you wish, my lady.” He brought her hand to his lips and kissed her lightly. Then he turned her wrist around and kissed the inside of her wrist, pressing his tongue to the inside of her sensitive skin.

  He stood back up and smiled. “I knew it. You do taste good.”

  She laughed at him. “Idiot.”

  He took her arm and they walked out of her condo together.

  At two minutes past eight precisely, they walked in the Kramer’s front door. The luxurious house was situated in the upper-crust neighborhood of Austin. The mansions were the size of whole city blocks here. Ann could remember playing in the pool in their back yard as a child during some hot summers days. Their sons, Brian and Brett, were some of her closest friends growing up. The twin boys now were practicing law in Houston.

  She enjoyed dressing up for special occasions and tonight she was dressed in her deep blue spaghetti strap number, which hugged her in all the right places. Ethan was in a tux that looked like it was made just for him, and probably was. It fit him perfectly and he looked very handsome, like he was born wearing it.

  She’d yet to do anything with her hair color and in truth, she kind of liked the darker look. She’d curled it slightly and pushed most of it on top of her head so it could fall in ringlets around her face. The darkness of it accented her skin and eyes. Or so her stepmother had said when she’d first seen it.

  She’d had a huge problem with her father marrying again after her mother’s death, but after Blake was born, she stopped giving her dad so much grief over it. After all, she’d always wanted a brother.

  Coleen, on the other hand, Ann still couldn’t stand. She tried to avoid spending too much time with the woman, who happened to be only a few years older than she was. The fact that Coleen called her sweetie, her father’s favorite nickname, just plain annoyed her.

  The woman always treated her like she was a child, which was stupid in Ann’s mind. Coleen would give Ann advice on her clothing, her hair, and even tried once to give her advice on her career. At one point, the woman actually tried to treat her like a sister. Thankfully, Ann set her straight before that went any further.

  But over the last few years since Blake’s kidnapping, Coleen was starting to act a lot more like a mother figure to Blake than just an older sister. So Ann had cut her a little slack.

  The Kramer’s dinner was always an important one for her father’s campaign. She knew most of the people attending and liked only a third of them. The rest were powerful people and to be honest just plain rude. She tried avoiding most of them, but somehow ended up chatting with the worst offenders most of the time.

  Tonight, being on Ethan’s arm, she felt more powerful. When they walked up and started talking to her father and Coleen, Ethan had shaken hands with her dad and started talking like they were old buddies. It was nice seeing the two men she loved in her life getting along and enjoying each other’s company.

  Her father’s new assistant, Paul, was always hovering around him. The skinny man gave Ann the creeps. Not that this was the first assistant of her father’s that had given her the creeps, just the worst. His dark hair was always slicked back. He had a crooked nose that was too big for his face. He could have been good looking if it wasn’t for his eyes.

  She’d always been one to spot the fakes, the men who said one thing and did another. Maybe that’s why she was so good at being a journalist. Paul was hiding somet
hing and always walked around like he was laughing at some private joke that only he knew.

  She didn’t quite know what had happened to her father’s last assistant, a striking young redhead. No doubt Coleen had something to do with letting her go, since that’s how she got the role of wife to begin with. Going from being her father’s assistant to being knocked up by him had secured her next role as wife.

  Ann was standing near the patio doors waiting for Ethan to bring her a drink when Paul walked up to her.

  “I hear you had an exciting time in South America?” He was standing too close for her liking. When she tried to back up, she realized her back was already against the wall. Wishing Ethan would hurry up with her drink, she tried to pacify the man with a slight nod.

  He must have taken the gesture as an invitation, because his hand reached up and toyed with one of the loose strands of her hair. He was running it through his fingers, and she felt a shiver run down her spine.

  “I see you changed your hair color. Too bad, I really enjoyed the blond.” It gave her a little pleasure knowing that he didn’t like the darker color. “Will you be attending your father’s news conference on Friday? I know it’s supposed to be a very special occasion.”

  She did not normally attended her father’s conferences. Since it was a conflict of interest, she had never covered the conferences herself.

  “No, Paul.” He cracked a bigger smile, as if he had a secret joke. “If you’ll excuse me, I see my boyfriend.” She started to walk past him and he grabbed her arm.

  “Boyfriend? Don’t you mean your bodyguard? He wasn’t even competent enough to save you from the explosion. Or do anything to save your two colleagues. I heard they were gunned down like dogs.” A smile crept onto his face and she felt her skin turn to ice. Blinking a few times, she tried to compose herself. Then she yanked her arm from his grasp and walked around him without saying anything. She met Ethan halfway across the room.

  Upon seeing her face, he set the drinks down on a table and took her hand and steered her towards the back door. He didn’t stop until they’d walked out onto a small patio area reserved for the help. There was a young woman smoking a cigarette there and when Ethan nodded his head, she left quietly through the door.

  “What is it?” Ethan pulled her close. She hadn’t realized she was shaking and by this time, her breathing was coming in small gasps. The images of her colleagues flashed through her mind over and over.

  “It’s nothing. I’m just being emotional. I can’t believe I let him work me up like this.” She closed her eyes and laid her head against his chest. Listening to his steady breathing helped to level her own out.

  She didn’t realize that he was swaying her until she looked back up at him. “What are you doing?”

  “Dancing.” He smiled down at her. “I figured the best way to take your mind off something bad, was to put it on something good. Besides, I’ve wanted to dance with you for a while.” He smiled at her and then kissed her forehead. “I’m a really good dancer; all of us Bond types have to be. You know, to woo all the women.” She laughed and forgot about Paul and her dead coworkers. “Have I told you how beautiful you look tonight?”

  She looked up at him and then he was kissing her softly under the moonlight and she forgot everything else, except him.

  The little bitch. She hadn’t even acknowledge him. Besides, after seeing her across the room with her dark hair, the attraction he felt towards her had dissipated.

  Picking up his cell phone, he punched in the number. “Is everything set for Friday?”

  “Yes, what about security?”

  “Don’t worry, I have a plan to take care of them.” He smiled and knew his day was coming.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Ann and Ethan spent the next few days locked in the editing room. They had gone over every inch of footage that had been uploaded from Rio before the incident. There really wasn’t anything other than crowd shots they could use.

  She’d been enjoying their time together. There was hardly a moment when they weren’t together. Javan had even been moved over to watching Blake instead.

  Ethan had been spending all his time with her. He slept in her bed, they ate dinner together, they ate breakfast together. He sat across from her when she worked in her office. They had been spending a lot of their evenings in the editing room together. She couldn’t explain it, she just enjoyed spending her time with him. He was easy to get along with, and she didn’t want to be apart from him.

  She’d woken the other night to an empty bed and had instantly felt empty herself. Then she’d heard him talking on the phone in the other room. She’d quietly rushed in and smiled when she’d seen him pacing her living room. He’d been talking on the phone butt naked. She’d leaned against the wall and just admired him.

  He’d been agitated at whoever he’d been talking to, but when he’d spotted her standing there, he’d smiled and hung up without another word. Then he’d carried her back into the bedroom.

  But now, as they were on their third evening working on the footage, they’d finally hit a wall trying to fill a minute-long section. She was ready to pull her hair out. It was just a minute’s worth of footage, but it had taken them almost eleven hours to get the segment this far.

  Then she looked down and saw the original DVD that Ethan had carried out of Brazil sticking out of her bag. She’d edited the footage with Mark in the van back in Rio, but maybe there was something else on the DVD they could use to fill some of the time they needed.

  Ethan had gone to get them some food from the vending machines. She knew it was probably going to be their dinner, since she doubted they’d get out of that room for another two hours. She dropped the DVD in the player and started running through everything on it.

  She wouldn’t have spotted him if she hadn’t been thinking about the other night. Feeling trapped in this room reminded her of being trapped against the wall by Paul. She was rewinding a segment of footage of their first night in Rio when she spotted his face. She hit the pause button and froze, staring at his skinny, smiling face.

  What had he been doing in Rio? More importantly, why was he talking to Heitor? No, why was he yelling at Heitor? She played the tape forward until the camera panned left. Then she rewound it and played it again.

  Her mind flashed to the day in the grocery store. Maybe it had been Heitor? If he wasn’t an informant, what was he? Maybe he was the one behind all this? Maybe he was actually still working for which ever drug lord was pulling the strings?

  “What’s this?” Ethan asked from behind her. She was caught off guard and almost jumped out of her seat.

  “It’s the extra footage from Rio. Look here.” She pointed to Paul. “What’s he doing there talking to Heitor?”

  Ethan sat the bag of potato chips in front of her, along with an unsweetened bottle of tea.

  “Here, let me see.” He leaned in and took control of the dials.

  “We’re taking care of things in Austin. The night of his big speech it will all end. Just do your part and lure his daughter away with the story…” Ethan said, reading Paul’s lips. “Damn, then the camera pans out. Ethan sat back and stared at the image of Paul and Heitor together.

  “Ethan, I thought I saw Heitor in my grocery store the other day. I thought I’d been followed, but when I got outside Javan was there and well…. I forgot all about it until just now.”

  “Ann, where is your dad right now?”

  Her mind flashed to an image of her father. Then to her brother’s face.

  “Ann?” Ethan turned and took her shoulders in his hands. “Come on, Princess. Where is your father?”

  She looked down at her watch. Seven forty-five. Friday night. “He’s making a speech about his new drug laws that he’s going to pass when he is reelected.”

  “Where?”

  “The stadium at the University of Texas. His speech is supposed to start at eight.”

  “Call him.” He put her cell phone in he
r hand and she dialed her father’s number with shaking hands. When it went to his voice mail, she shut her phone and tried again. On the third try, she stopped and thought. Then she tried Coleen’s cell number. It went to her voice mail, too.

  “Ethan, no one is answering.”

  “Come on.” He started pulling her towards the doors. It was a ten minute drive from the studio to the stadium, but with all the people, she knew you could easily tag an extra fifteen on to that time. There was no way they would make it to her father in time.

  Ethan used her phone as they ran towards his car.

  “Javan, they’re going after the senator. Who’s watching him tonight? Damn, okay, call him. Tell him Paul Green is in on it. Yeah, I know. Okay.”