Warrior Without Rules

“Make threats?”

“Perhaps.”

“How many workers will lose their jobs?”

“Among the five plants, about seven thousand. But they’ll be given severance packages. It’s not as if they’re being thrown out onto the streets without warning.”

“That’s generous of you.”

Castillo’s expression tightened at the drawled sarcasm. “It’s business. It’s more than I’m required to do for them. I can’t expect someone like you to understand the economic difficulties of staying competitive in the United States. The only feasible way to continue at a profit is to move production below the border.”

“I’m sure the thought of a few million more a year for their summer homes motivated the board of directors to make that decision.”

“It is my decision, at least until tomorrow night.”

“And then?”

“And then,” intruded a low female voice, “it becomes Antonia’s.”

Zach rose to greet the stunning woman who entered. Dressed in a severely tailored suit, she was tall, voluptuous and cold as ice, from her chilly tone to her glacial stare. He recognized but couldn’t place her.

“Mr. Russell, do you remember Veta Chavez, Antonia’s companion?”

The term companion threw him for a moment, then he recalled. “Your father was in charge of security.”

“Yes. He’s retired. I’m in charge of Antonia now.”

He lifted a brow. “Not an enviable task.”

She rebuked him with a haughty sniff. “Toni and I have been best friends since we were children. She’s only difficult if she’s provoked. Since your name was mentioned she’s become increasingly difficult, so I must assume she finds you most provoking.”

Zach merely smiled as he pulled out a chair for her. She settled gracefully, like a female panther. “So what happens tomorrow?”

“Toni turns twenty-eight and inherits controlling interest in Aletta.”

“It was my wife’s company,” Castillo explained. “Her father established it, and she made it successful beyond his wildest expectations. She was an incredible businesswoman. I had hoped Antonia…” He let that sentiment drift off on a sigh. “The company is hers tomorrow whether she is ready to assume control or not. I still retain a substantial holding, so she won’t have full rein.”

“And you fear someone might try to intimidate your daughter into keeping her company here in the States.”

“That’s a bit simplistic, Mr. Russell. No one can bully my daughter. She is absolutely fearless except for the one small vulnerability I had hoped would never be discovered beyond those in this room.”

“But someone found out.”

“Exactly, and they’ve been terrorizing her,” Veta told him crisply. “She’ll deny it, of course, and it may be nothing. I’ve given every assurance that I can handle things.”

“But I won’t take that risk,” Castillo concluded. “I will not have my business jeopardized.”

Zach’s dislike for the man hardened into a disgust he could keep from his carefully schooled expression, but not from his wry comment. “And here I thought your concern was purely fatherly.”

“Aletta is family, Mr. Russell.”

Zach stood to offer Antonia Castillo his chair as she returned to the room. She’d changed from a liquid spill of leather to the soft, no less revealing drape of a sleeveless tunic over wide-leg pants of some fluid butter-colored material. Her braid was now secured to the back of her head in an elegant coronet and thin gold chains swung from her ears. The effect was as sensually feminine as the earlier had been in-your-face sexual. And he was not unaffected.

“What concerns Aletta impacts all of us,” she continued, dropping carelessly into his seat.

Zach remained standing, leaning back against a bank of wooden file cabinets with arms crossed casually across his chest.

“Contrary to my father’s opinion, I plan to do whatever necessary to assure its continued prosperity. I will not be swayed from that plan by someone playing cruel tricks in hopes that I’ll fall to pieces.”

“What kind of tricks?”

Though her features never lost their smooth hint of disdain, something flickered in her eyes.

“I can give you the details later if you decide to take the job. Or can I assume you already have since you’re here?” Her tone was resigned and annoyed, but something in those eyes beseeched him on an unspoken and perhaps an unconscious level.

“I’m here because Jack Chaney asked me to come. As a favor to him, I’ll listen to what you have to say, then I’ll decide. I don’t do civilian contract work as a rule.”

He could see that unsettled her. She thought he’d come because she and her father had demanded it. His priorities took her arrogance down a notch. And then he again caught a glimmer of that raw vulnerability, of the frightened girl she’d been ten years ago when he’d first thrown back that door. He refused to let himself soften to that memory. She was not that girl anymore. He’d done his job then, and they’d almost cut the legs out from under his career by way of gratitude. This time, he’d be more cautious in his approach.

“Tomorrow night, I celebrate my business coming of age. The next, I fly to Mexico to go over the contracts transferring Aletta’s production hub outside our borders. There’ll be meetings and publicity and media. And protesters. I need someone to protect me,” Antonia stated at last. How difficult that must have been for her.

“What you need is a team of about five men so that you’re covered 24/7. You need a coordinated effort that one man can’t provide. Surely, Chaney told you that. He has men available for that kind of thing.”

“We don’t want high-profile protection. We need discreet.” She paused, looking uncomfortable with her next admission. “We asked for you because you know my past, and there’ll be fewer explanations to be made. Mr. Chaney assured us that you were the very best available.”

“I haven’t said yet whether I was available. You haven’t specified exactly what you want me to do.”

“Become my shadow, and if needs be, a wall that will stand between me and any harm someone might think to do.”

He said it before her father could. “You’re very trusting, considering I failed you once before.”

He hadn’t expected her to take any responsibility for that and she didn’t.

“I see you as a man who takes failure very personally. I believe you’ll be motivated to make certain it never happens again.” She threw it down as a challenge, daring him to pick it up. Knowing he would. But on his terms.

“How very right you are there, Ms. Castillo, which is why, if I take this job, it will be with your explicit agreement to follow my rules.”

Her stunning blue eyes narrowed suspiciously. “Rules? My employees usually don’t get to make the rules.”

“This one does and if you fail to follow them to the letter, I will walk away without a second’s hesitation regardless of the situation. Understood?”

Oh, yes. He could see she understood, his insistence and his reasoning. And she wanted to fling his demands back in his face with a shove it up your arse. Because she didn’t, he began to see just how scared she really was.

“What are your rules?”

“Just three and they’re very simple. Even a child can follow them.” She bristled at that but said nothing. “Rule number one, I’m in charge. Everything concerning you goes through me and must be cleared by me.”

Veta spoke up. “Victor, I can’t allow that.”