Secret Bodyguard

“No,” he said studying her. “Odd isn’t it? Unless Susannah has been kidnapped for some other reason.”

“What other reasons are there besides money and power?” she asked.

He smiled at that. “None, that I can think of. But don’t you worry, my dear, I will get my granddaughter back. One way or the other.”

Trembling at the certainty she heard in his voice, she kissed her father’s cheek and left him to finish his drink alone, acutely aware that he was suspicious of her comings and goings. Hopefully he just thought she was meeting Gage Ferraro behind his back. That was much safer than the truth.

She hurried up to her room, not turning on the light as she went to the window. The darkness smelled of hyacinths, the air sweet and sweltering. She closed the curtains and went into the bathroom where she’d long ago disabled the surveillance camera.

Still shaking, she pulled out the equipment she would need, then pushed it back into its hiding place. Not tonight. No matter what Gage said. It was too dangerous. Tomorrow night. Her last chance. She’d do it then.

Her heart beat faster. If she failed tomorrow night—

She refused to consider that possibility. Too much was at stake. Tomorrow night. Come hell or high water. Or even Jesse Brock.

Across the courtyard, the light glowed in his apartment and she could see him moving behind the curtains, a shadow as dark as the man himself.

With a lot of luck and every ounce of deceitful Crowe blood that ran through her veins, she would see that no one ever found out what had really happened to her baby, especially her father. Jesse Brock didn’t know it yet, but he was going to help her. It would be his last good deed.

THE PHONE RANG, making Jesse jump. He stopped pacing and reached for it, expecting the worst.

“Bring my car around,” J.B. ordered and hung up.

Jesse looked at the clock, instantly uneasy. J.B. seldom went out this late. And yet, Jesse had been expecting trouble. Amanda had obviously told her father that he’d followed her tonight and now the old man wanted to go for a ride. Great.

Jesse figured he had two options: Run. Or stay and tough it out. In which case, he wanted to take a weapon. But he knew that would be the wrong thing to do. If one of J.B.’s goons frisked him…No, it would be better to play it straight. Even when the old man got around to asking Jesse about earlier tonight.

He took a breath and let it out slowly, then he went to get the car.

As he pulled up in front of the house, J.B. came out with his two bodyguards, two big bruisers with pug faces and bad attitudes whom Jesse had nicknamed Death and Destruction. It was no secret that neither man liked him. Probably because Jesse had been able to gain J.B.’s trust so quickly.

It had been a simple setup. Wait until Amanda and her father got out of their car at J.B.’s favorite restaurant. Add one speeding, out-of-control car and a chauffeur waiting by his boss’s car who just happened to be able to jump in at the right moment and save the damsel in distress.

Shocked and grateful, Crowe had played right into his hands. He’d hired Jesse away from his “former” boss with a substantial raise and the rest was history. The almost hit-and-run had happened so fast Death and Destruction hadn’t even had a chance to move, something Crowe had never let them forget. They’d hated Jesse ever since.

Jesse got out of the large, freshly waxed and polished Lincoln to open the back door for his boss. Death, the slimmer of the two, slid in, followed by J.B., then Destruction. Not one of them even gave Jesse a second glance.

As he closed the door and went around to the driver’s seat, he wondered if that was a bad sign. With men who would kill him without a moment’s hesitation behind him, he began to sweat as he waited for instructions.

“Johnson Park,” J.B. ordered.

Jesse shifted into gear and got the car moving, not liking the sound of this. Johnson Park was an old industrial area outside of Dallas that had been closed for a good twenty years, maybe more. Not a good place to go this time of the night. It was the kind of place you could dispose of a body too easily.

Prolonging the trip was out of the question. Traffic was light and Johnson Park wasn’t far. He drove, acutely aware of the men in the back seat and the position he’d put himself in.

When he slowed for the park, he glanced in his rearview mirror and wished he hadn’t. The old man met his gaze and what Jesse saw there turned his blood to block ice.

He pulled into the park. The night was black, no stars, no moon, only an occasional unbroken street-light along the long rows of abandoned warehouses. He drove to the end of the row J.B. indicated and stopped, turned off the lights and killed the engine, unconsciously holding his breath, waiting for the distinct sound of the slide on a weapon being readied.

“Stay here,” the mobster ordered him as the two goons opened their doors and J.B. slid out of the car.

Inside the dark stillness of the car, Jesse released the breath he’d been holding, his relief so intense he felt sick to his stomach. He took a few long breaths and tried to quiet his banging heart. That had felt too close. And he still wasn’t out of the woods.

It took a moment for his eyes to adjust. A single bulb burned in a building off to his right, in the same direction J.B. and the two bodyguards had gone. A dark-colored Cadillac was parked at the edge of the building.

What the hell were they doing out here at this time of the night? And, although he didn’t recognize the Cadillac, he had a bad feeling it had something to do with him.

After a few moments, he cautiously popped open his door and slipped out, closing it quietly behind him. As he moved through the darkness toward the light, he heard J.B.’s voice raised in anger. He crept along the side of the building, following the sound. Above him he could see a broken, dirty window. Cautiously, he climbed up onto a pile of old crates and peered in through the opening in the glass. He could see nothing but shadows and dark shapes off to the left but he could hear J.B. still talking.

“You’re telling me that you didn’t know this guy you saw her with?” J.B. demanded, his tone hard enough to crack concrete.

“I told you, I didn’t get a good look at him. It was dark. It was an alley for hell’s sake and I had to get out of there or Amanda would have seen me watching her.” The voice had a distinct whine to it. A very familiar whine.

“What I don’t understand is what you were doing there in the first place,” J.B. said evenly.

“Look, I leveled with you. I’m going to find your granddaughter for you. Nothing’s changed. The only reason I called you was to let you know what I’d seen. As a favor. So what is this all about, getting me down here tonight, interrogating me like this?” Gage Ferraro demanded.

Gage had seen Jesse and Amanda in the alley earlier. That much was clear. But if Amanda had told her father about her encounter with Jesse, this should have been old news. Unless she hadn’t told him. Yet.

“I just want to make sure your plans don’t change,” the mobster warned. “I don’t want you having anything to do with my daughter. Or my granddaughter.”

“Hey, we’re talking about my daughter, here,” Gage said. The soft scuff of soles on the concrete drowned out whatever J.B. said back to him.

Suddenly all four men came into view beneath the stark light of the single bulb hanging from the rafters.

Destruction had Gage in a headlock and J.B. was close enough to Gage to steal his breath.

“You have no rights to that child,” J.B. said in a tone that curdled Jesse’s blood. “I thought we agreed to that?”

Gage was trying to nod.

“As far as I’m concerned,” J.B. was saying, his voice low and as dangerous as Jesse had ever heard it, “you have no daughter and you don’t know mine, either. Is that understood?”

“Yeah, yeah, J.B.,” Gage croaked.

Destruction released him.

Gage rubbed his throat. “I told you,” he said, sounding hoarse. “I’m going to do this for you. As a favor. That’s all.”

J.B. nodded. “Let’s hope for your sake you’re telling me the truth.”

Gage looked worried.

J.B. patted Gage on the face. “Find my granddaughter.” The mobster turned and walked toward the door, but stopped at the sound of his cell phone ringing. He motioned for Death and Destruction to go on ahead of him with Gage, then reached in his pocket and pulled out the phone.

“Yes?” he barked, then listened. “You got Diana? Does Kincaid know yet? Good.” He smiled as he snapped the phone shut and put it back in his pocket. “So now Governor, I have your daughter and soon to be born grandchild. How does it feel?”

Jesse winced as if he’d been kicked in the stomach. Crowe had kidnapped the governor’s daughter, Diana. The governor’s pregnant daughter.