Personal Protector

Somehow she had to convince Dave that this new cameraman would not do. No way was she going to allow years of hard work to go down the drain because she lost her head and got involved with a guy like Martinez. She knew nothing about him and he probably liked it that way. Dave hadn’t even told her where he’d come from, only that he was somehow related to the station manager. She had learned only this morning that he wasn’t from Atlanta.

Her chest tightened at her next thought. Maybe Martinez thought the best way to ensure his place at the station was to have something on Piper. She had a squeaky-clean reputation. The last thing she needed was some hunky guy like Martinez going around saying he’d slept with her.

She would not let that happen. She would never, ever trust her future or her heart to any man. That lesson had been hard learned. She’d watched her mother’s life fall apart around her. Piper’s father had been gone for months before her uncle Lucas had come bearing the news that he’d died on a secret mission in some place that Piper had never heard of. Her father’s career had always been top priority. He’d loved and died for his government, leaving his wife and daughter to find their own way without him. Lucas had always been there for them. Piper was grateful for her uncle, but still resentful of her father’s selfishness.

All that was in the past. She had accepted it and moved on long ago. Still, the scars kept both her and her mother from fully trusting again.

Piper’s gaze moved back up to the man offering his arm to escort her to the ordered limo. She wouldn’t change now. Especially not now. Why should she trust her heart to any man? And she wasn’t about to trust her career to anyone except her bought-and-paid-for agent.

“Just so you know, Martinez,” she said as he opened the door, “Mr. Rizzoli’s orchids are more than mere plants, they’re like his children. You’d better take good care of them,” she warned.

“Don’t worry, querida,” he replied wryly and with a quick grin. “I inherited my aunt’s green thumb.”

AS HE AND PIPER ENTERED the hall outside her apartment door, the waiting agent descended the stairs in front of them. Ric’s bodyguard mode moved to a higher level of alert. Going out at night definitely entailed more risk. Though Piper didn’t know it, Raine was their driver tonight. There would be no chances taken with a regular driver and the Bureau boys would be in the chase car right behind them.

Ric paused, keeping Piper close to his side, and allowed the agent to play pushman. He exited the building and scanned the perimeter. Once the okay was given, Ric escorted Piper outside and across the sidewalk toward the open limo door. He didn’t miss the shaky breath she inhaled just before settling into the vehicle. This had to be extremely difficult for her. From what he’d gathered, from research and personal observation, Miss Piper Ryan was a very independent young woman. Since leaving home and starting her own life, she had never once gone to her mother for help. She intended to make her own way as an adult. Having to admit she needed protection and couldn’t protect herself had to be a huge blow to her confidence.

As she scooted across the seat, her black dress slid to the tops of her thighs and Ric almost stopped thinking at all. He quickly diverted his gaze and settled into the luxurious seat beside her. This was not the time to dwell on those shapely legs or those firm breasts outlined by the well-fitting dress. He wouldn’t even go into the way she had her dark hair twisted up on top of her head in a sexy hairdo that left wisps hugging her delicate neck.

When the door closed, Ric met Raine’s gaze in the rearview mirror briefly before the limo left the curb. Ric silently cursed himself. He would not make a foolish mistake during this assignment. Piper’s life depended upon his doing the job right. No matter what this chemistry brewing between them turned out to be, Ric could not and would not cross the line that would surely endanger her well-being. He might flirt a little to throw her off balance when he felt the situation warranted his having the upper hand, but he wouldn’t go beyond that. His errant gaze swept over the beautiful woman sitting silently beside him. No matter how damned hard it proved.

“We’ll be taking an alternate route,” the “driver” announced.

Ric jerked his attention forward. “Problems?” He knew the answer. Raine would have driven directly to the Exhibit Hall otherwise. Ric rested his arm across the back of the seat and glanced at the dark gray sedan carrying the two federal agents that followed close behind them.

“Unexpected traffic delays, sir. Nothing major.”

They had a tail. Ric glanced behind them once more, but resisted the impulse to stare. The unidentified tail was right on the bumper of the sedan.

Piper looked concerned.

“I’m sure it’s nothing we should worry about. Probably an accident or some sort of construction,” he offered in hopes of defusing the mounting anxiety clear in her pretty blue eyes. She was too smart not to understand that something was going on. “How about some champagne?” He reached for the complimentary bottle chilling in an ice bucket.

“That would be nice,” she murmured as she looked away to stare out the tinted window.

Ric met Raine’s gaze in the rearview mirror once more as he filled a fluted glass. The look that passed between them left Ric with a bad feeling in his gut. He and Piper couldn’t risk emerging from the car with an unidentified vehicle nearby. An evade maneuver would be necessary. Ric glanced at Piper and hoped like hell she wouldn’t go ballistic on them and demand to know exactly what was going on. He sure didn’t want to have to deal with an irate female, especially one as perceptive and headstrong as Piper Ryan. And blowing his cover at this point would be a major mistake. She could and likely would dismiss him. She intended to maintain dominion over her own life—risky business or not.

Raine made a sudden right, almost sloshing champagne on them both. The sound of squealing tires told Ric that the agents behind them had made a tactical move against the tail. Piper drained her glass, set it aside, then twisted around to see what was happening, but Raine moved too quickly. Before she could piece it all together and ask what was going on, the limo stopped in front of the Exhibit Hall. Raine was out of the vehicle and had opened their door curbside in less than five seconds. Ric scanned the area, though he knew Raine already had, then reached down to assist Piper out of the vehicle.

“I’ll be standing by, sir.”

Ric nodded to Raine and ushered Piper up the steps and into the building as quickly as he could without alarming her further.

The moment they entered the grand entry hall Ric felt immense relief. Those SSU jokers were getting braver and braver. They did not intend to back down. They just kept pushing, hoping for an opening to get close enough to assassinate one more news reporter. Ric gazed down at the woman at his side. Anger unfurled inside him. One thing was certain—they’d have to go through him first.

And Ric had no intention of making it easy for them.

Chapter Three

Ric scanned the room once more, ever alert for any abrupt move or new face. He would feel a lot better when he had Piper safely back home in her apartment. It was evident that she was under twenty-four-hour surveillance by both the good guys and the bad guys.

Agent Townsend had managed to get a partial license plate number before the unidentified car disappeared down a side street. Now, an hour later, the only thing Ric knew was that the license plate could have come from one of two vehicles from the Atlanta area. One was owned by an elderly woman who was out of town, car included, and the other had been reported stolen earlier that evening, then found abandoned only minutes ago. Whoever had stolen it and used it to tail Piper was long gone.

Another dead end unless forensics found a usable set of prints, which was highly unlikely. SSU had proven too smart in the past for a mistake that simple, and he doubted they would suddenly grow so stupid.

His gaze instantly sought out Piper. She had relaxed immediately, or at least pretended to, when they entered the crowded Exhibit Hall. She mingled among the elegant and elite society attendees with an unparalleled grace and confidence. She introduced Ric by name only, not mentioning that he was her cameraman, and going quickly to another subject when the required formality was out of the way. Though the women seemed inclined to take special notice of him.

Ric had been given more private telephone numbers in the last hour than he could remember getting on his best night when he had been actually looking to pick up a woman.

He studied a watercolor by a local artist that was currently up to a twenty-eight-hundred-dollar bid. This was Ric’s first experience with a silent auction. A register stood on an ornate stand where guests could peruse the latest bid and up the ante, if they so desired, by simply signing their name and an amount they wished to bid.

Personally, Ric couldn’t see the attraction in this particular piece, but then, he wasn’t the artsy type. The closest thing to art he’d known growing up was the graffiti that marked the area as low-rent, possibly dangerous to anyone from the better side of town who happened to get lost there.

A tall, slender blonde approached him and Ric shifted to attention and smiled a greeting. He was pretty sure she had arrived with the new, hotshot sheriff of Fulton County.

Ric definitely did not want to be seen accepting anything that might even appear remotely like her number. He doubted the sheriff would be too happy about a move like that.

“A lovely piece,” she said, flicking her gaze from the watercolor to him in a furtive move. “Have you placed your bid?” She sipped her wine and licked her lips slowly, suggestively, then leaned closer. “The artist who painted it died recently. I’m sure the bids will go much higher.” She moved closer still. “And higher.”

“Actually,” Ric explained, angling his head so that he looked directly into her assessing eyes, “I’m not here for the art.”

Her smile was feline, and blatantly sexual. “I was relatively certain you weren’t.” She offered her hand. “I’m Sally Carter. I do Atlanta Live on Channel 9. And they tell me that you’re Ric Martinez. I’ve been dying to get the inside scoop on Piper Ryan for ages.” Miss Carter tilted her chin upward and whispered in his ear, “I would love to interview you for my ‘Kiss and Tell’ segment. The audience would eat you up.”

And so would you, Ric guessed. He eased back a step, putting some distance between them. So, this female barracuda wanted to get some trash on Piper.

She plucked a card from her dainty purse. “Give me a call when you have some free time, Mr. Martinez.” She gave him a thorough once-over and then a smile of approval. “I’d love some one-on-one.”

Before Ric could recite his polite, practiced response, she turned and drifted toward the other side of the room, ensuring that she gave him the full treatment as she walked away. He shook his head and tucked the card into his inside jacket pocket along with the rest.

“What did she say to you?”

The sharp demand jerked Ric’s attention to his left. Piper stood, seething, only a few feet away. Could that be jealousy blazing in those gorgeous blue eyes?

It sure looked like it to him.

Taking slow, calculated steps, Ric moved in on her. Her eyes widened slightly, but she recovered quickly and schooled her expression. “She said she wanted to have sex with me,” he offered candidly.

Wide-eyed, Piper demanded, “She didn’t?”

He shrugged noncommittally, a smile itching to spread across his lips. “But first she wanted to know if I’d had sex with you and what it was like.”

Piper’s mouth dropped open. She snapped it shut, then exhaled the outrage, which had just synapsed into word form, “That bi—”

He held up a hand to halt her outburst of indignation. “Don’t worry, I set her straight.” He leaned down so that he could whisper his next words. “I told her we hadn’t had sex…yet.”

The grin overtook his lips at the startled expression on Piper’s lovely face. Realization quickly dawned in her eyes, and her gaze narrowed accordingly. “You did no such thing.”

“No.” He tasted the wine he’d been nursing all evening. His fingers curled around the stem, his thumb smoothed over the warm glass. How would it feel, he suddenly wondered, to caress that silky smooth cheek of hers? His gaze drifted down to Piper’s mouth then quickly darted back to her eyes. “I didn’t tell her that,” he admitted, trying his level best not to allow what he was thinking to filter into his tone, “but she did give me her card and suggest we share some ‘one-on-one’ time in the near future.”