Come Toy with Me

Bribed him, Cat thought. Though she’d experienced firsthand just how persuasive Uncle Bobby could be. He was almost as gifted as her father was at making people dance to his tune. She could feel herself weakening.

“Captain Angelis has a two-week leave which he intends to spend with you meeting your family. But who knows? Something might come up, and Bobby could call him back early. The important thing is that we get through the Christmas season and send Lucia Merceri happily back to Rome.”

Cat liked Gianna, and she could fully understand the desire to placate Lucia. The woman was scary. She reached for her wine, took another sip, and gave up. “Okay. I’ll do it.”

“Atta girl. I knew you’d come through for your old dad.” Her father dug into his stew. “Eat up. You’re wasting away.”

Cat ate a carrot, then said, “When do I get to meet Navy Captain Dino Angelis?”

“Tomorrow morning. He’s scheduled to arrive at The Cheshire Cat no later than eleven hundred hours.”

Cat shifted her attention from her stew to her father. “The store is going to be packed with customers. Shouldn’t we meet privately first?”

“When?”

Cat sighed. He was right of course.

“Besides,” he continued, “you’ll have plenty of time to talk. I’ve arranged for him to stay in the apartment next to yours.”

“He’s staying in my building? What about the Waldorf? Isn’t that where you said we had our little romantic trysts?”

Her father’s brows shot up. “That was when you were keeping your relationship a secret. There’s no need for that anymore. Now your job is to convince everyone that your relationship is real. He’ll be able to walk you home at night. To all outward appearances, he’ll be staying with you.” He cleared his throat. “Which is what I assume would be happening if he were your real fiancé.”

He reached over and patted her hand. “Besides, with your busy schedule, you wouldn’t have any time to go uptown anyway.You couldn’t even meetmefor drinks at theAlgonquin.”

Cat mulled it over in her mind.

“The two of you are going to have to spend time together. Lucia Merceri is a sharp woman. She’ll be grilling you separately on how you met, when you first fell in love.”

Cat stifled an inward sigh.

“Spending time together will give you time to get your stories straight. Make sure you’re on the same page. And think of the upside.”

Cat’s tone was dry. “If there’s an upside to this, don’t keep me in the dark.”

Her father grinned at her. “You’ll have an extra person to help out in your store just when you need it the most.”

For the second time in as many minutes, Cat badly wanted to bang her head on the table. But she didn’t. Her father was right, of course. She could use some help in the store. But he wasn’t going to have it all his way. “This navy captain can move in for eleven days. That will get us to New Year’s Day. Then Uncle Bobby is calling him back to the Pentagon.”

“Deal.”

James McGuire held out his hand, and Cat shook it.

4

FROM HIS POSITION in the short alleyway that ran along the side of the Cheshire Cat, Dino had a clear view of the window in Patty’s Pub that framed Cat McGuire and her father. When he saw father and daughter shake hands, he knew that his fate had been sealed. He dug his hands deeper into the pockets of his bomber jacket. The sky was clear and the temperature was hovering at the freezing mark. But watching Colonel McGuire persuade his daughter into accepting a fake fiancé had proved highly entertaining.

Dino had arrived while Cat still had customers in her shop—so he could familiarize himself with the area, he’d told himself. Along with his detailed cover story, McGuire had provided a hand-drawn map, so Dino knew that the alleyway emptied into a courtyard that backed into Cat’s apartment building and that Cat used it to get to and from work. Not the safest route, he mused.

McGuire’s conversation with Cat had not gone smoothly. His daughter had a temper. He’d read it in her body language and in her gestures. There was a lot of raw, pent-up passion in Ms. Cat McGuire, and he knew that was part of the reason he was drawn to her.

Keeping Cat safe was a trickier assignment than any he’d ever taken on under Maxwell’s command. It would have been a far easier task if he were just going to be her bodyguard. But the other role McGuire had required—acting the part of Cat’s head-over-heels-in-love fiancé and lover—was going to challenge his ability to remain coolly objective.

Even through a plate glass windowand at a distance of some fifty yards, he felt the steady beat of desire in his blood. For the first time in his life he wondered if he would be able to control it. He wanted her with an intensity that he couldn’t fathom. Nothing, no one had ever pushed him to the edge like this.

Oh, he might tell himself that he had a job to do, and mixing business with pleasure would distract him and possibly jeopardize Cat’s life. But no amount of lecturing could erase the vision that he’d had earlier of the two of them making love. Was it a premonition of the future or simply a fantasy? He’d always believed that the Fates offered choices, but he was beginning to wonder if he was going to be able to make the right one where Cat McGuire was concerned.

The other problem—as if his intense attraction to Catwasn’t enough—was he had a strong feeling that James McGuire hadn’t told him everything. And going into an operation without all the intelligence that was available was dangerous.

Thatwaswhy he’d contacted his navy buddy Jase Campbell right after he’d spoken with his mother. Dino not only needed some backup, he also needed Jase’s high-tech expertise.

The question was what was McGuire hiding? The most obvious answer was that Cat McGuire was up to her neck in a highly profitable smuggling operation. James McGuire might not believe she was involved—but his opinion was biased.

Dino had to make sure that his wasn’t. Cat McGuire might not be aware of the fact that the profits were being funneled to terrorists, but she was the obvious prime suspect to be on the receiving end of the smuggled drugs.

Otherwise, how could it all be happening under her nose? Unless she was stupid, and Dino didn’t think she was. Neither did the feds.

At least McGuire hadn’t lied about that. There was at least one other person watching Cat and her father tonight. Dino had spotted the man huddled in the doorway of the shop next to the Cheshire Cat when he’d strolled down the street and into the alley. The guy had been too well dressed to be homeless, and he hadn’t even bothered with some kind of disguise. Of course, the feds had never been known for their creativity. He himself had brought along a camera, a guide book, plus a shopping bag stuffed with gifts.

When a tall figure moved in the shadows at the mouth of the alley, Dino closed a hand around the gun in his pocket and slipped behind one of the Dumpsters that flanked the alleyway door to Cat’s toy store. It wasn’t the fed he’d spotted earlier. That guy had been shorter, stockier. He listened, not breathing, for any sound at all. An engine grumbled as a truck rolled past on the street.

The voice when it came was low-pitched and uncomfortably close. “I come in peace. Don’t shoot me.”

Dino drew his hand out of his pocket. Jase Campbell could move more quietly than anyone he knew. “That was a risky move. I might have shot you.”

“Nah.” There was a wealth of humor in Jase’s hushed voice. “I would have taken you down before you ever drew your weapon. Remember that time in Afghanistan?”

“Yeah.” Dino never forgot the times he’d almost bought it. “You saved my life.”

“It was a mutual saving that time. Your hunches and my moves. They’re a pretty unbeatable combination.”

“I hope so.” Dino moved out from behind the Dumpster to where he could once more see Cat and her father. They were eating, and the tension he’d seen earlier had eased. “I need more than your pretty moves this time around. I need your high-tech expertise. Any possibilities on who’s leaking information on an ongoing CIA investigation to Colonel James McGuire?”

Jake’s chuckle was low-pitched as he materialized out of the darkness. “No proof. But I have a prime suspect. You know, there’s a nice little pub across the street. We could have a beer while I report.”

“My job and her father are sitting in the window right beneath the Guinness sign.”

Jase turned to look and gave a soft whistle. “She’s certainly a looker. I wouldn’t mind playacting the part of her fiancé.”

“You want to bodyguard someone who can’t know you’re bodyguarding her?” And touch her and kiss her in public and still retain a clear head?

Jase sighed. “There’s always a catch to these dream jobs.”

“That’s where you come in. I need a second set of eyes.” He’d filled Jase in earlier on everything he knew about the case—which was limited to what McGuire had told him. Jase was going to provide backup twenty-four-seven. “There’s a fed in the doorway next to her shop.”

“Not anymore. He took off when I asked him for a match.”

Dino grinned. “He’ll be back.”