time before I returned.” Her eyes narrowed. “Besides, Hauberk guaranteed this as a safe house and their employees as well-trained professionals. Are you telling me this place isn’t secure?”
“We can’t-oh, for Christ’s sakes, just come with me.” Chad stalked down the path toward the pond, wondering if she would indeed follow him. He made it almost to the gazebo before he chanced a glance back and realize she still stood there, her shoulders slumped. “Don’t play any more games with me, Lauren.”
“I wasn’t playing a-” Her voice fractured and she cleared her throat. If it were anyone else, he’d think she was fighting tears, but her eyes were dry.
“You were sleeping when I checked on you this morning,” she continued, her voice firm once again. “I know you were up late last night so I didn’t want to disturb you.” When he didn’t say anything, she explained, “I saw the light under your door, that’s how I know you were up until at least four this morning.”
Which meant she’d been awake too. Plotting a sob story? No, that wasn’t Lauren’s style. There were circles beneath her eyes he realized as he took a closer look, lending her an air of fragility that belied her defiance. He reminded himself all wasn’t what it appeared. “I’ve got some questions for you.”
She opened her mouth as if to snap something in return but instead she simply sighed. “Fine.”
Fine. Now there was a landmine of a word.
His hand firm on her elbow, he followed her up the wooden steps leading to the gazebo overlooking the pond and the rest of the valley. He steered her to the canopied sofa where she sank onto the cushions with a soul deep sigh.
She’d run hard, worked up a sweat so her T-shirt clung to her curves, making him acutely aware of the hard nipples jutting from the fabric. Except for the Sig Sauer in its holster, she was the ultimate picture of femininity and composure, her feet neatly crossed at the ankles, her hands clasped on her lap. Concentrate on the mission, damn it.
Instead of folding his arms the way he wanted to, he let them hang loose and leaned against the center post in an attempt to appear relaxed. “I want to talk about why you’re here.”
“Okay.”
“You work for a private investigation firm called Light Brigade Investigations, Inc.”
Her gaze met his for just a second before it flitted away to focus on something on the other side of the pond. “Yes.”
“They sent you to South Africa to determine if a mole in Edward Weir’s mining company was selling corporate secrets.”
“Yes.” If he hadn’t been watching her carefully, he may not have noticed her fingernails dig into the skin of her knuckles. Or the almost imperceptible tightening of her shoulders.
She’d just lied. Why?
“And you uncovered someone who led you to a man named Frank Harris.”
“Yes.”
Chad swore under his breath. “If you keep giving me one word answers, we’ll be here all frickin’ day. Don’t you want us to catch whoever it is who has forced you to hide?” Tell me why you’re really here.
He continued questioning until he’d verified her story corroborated with Weir’s. Which of course it did, damn it. The silence between them hung heavy, as if someone had hung a blanket between them. It wasn’t that he didn’t have questions for her. The big one, the Why are you lying? one got shoved aside by the others crowding his mind. Where have you been? Why didn’t you call me, tell me where you were going when you moved from London? Or Paris?
A damned email might have been nice. A text message. Something. Anything to let me know you were all right.
Did you know I still dream about you? About us? He heaved in a breath and found himself staring at a spot across the lake, absently wondering if they were staring at the same tree. Damn it, this was the reason why ex- husbands should never be assigned to guard their ex-wives.
Focus on your mission. Which was…what? Was she in danger? Or was this some sort of setup to discredit Hauberk?
He lost track of the time they’d been there when she suddenly spoke, startling him. “I suppose you guessed I haven’t been living in London for a while now.”
“Yes.” Any of his attempts to contact her had gone unanswered so he’d used his Hauberk resources to track her. “You ran the security for a fancy spa, Tranquil Pastures or something, for six months in Kent, then quit and moved to Brussels. Six months after that you moved to Paris where you were hired to guard the wife and children of a Saudi Arabian family.”
Her gaze darted back to him before returning to the pond. “You’ve got good sources.”
Not good enough. From there, she’d dropped from his radar. “And now you work out of your company’s offices in Rome.”
“Yes.”
He shoved his hands in his pockets and walked to the stop of the stairs, blocking the exit. “Did you know there’s no record of an Edward Weir owning any mine, diamond, gold or otherwise, in South Africa? Or anywhere in Africa, Australia, Canada or the States?”
“He’s not the only owner, so the mine isn’t in his name. It’s registered to a numbered off-shore corporation.” She finally looked at him, her mask of composure firmly in place.
“Did you also know that there’s no record of him coming into the country in the past six months? Oh, there were several Edward Weirs but none fitting your boss’s description.”
Once again that spot across the pond got her undivided attention. “Maybe you aren’t looking in the right places.”
Why was every nerve ending twitching? Oh, yeah, because she was lying.
“I’ve spoken with Sam, Lauren. Yesterday morning he got a call from someone at the Post telling him about a spread they’d be running about me, about…back then. Sort of a ‘where are they now and how did they change American history’ type story. Ten minutes later Weir phoned Sam. Told him he’d be coming into the office, laid out what he needed. Not once did he mention you by name. But he knew we’d been married, didn’t he?”
“Yes.” He could hardly hear her whisper above the wind in the trees.
“They went through the various operatives Sam thought could run the operation and Weir found fault with every single operative. Except me.”
“Because you are the best. Because you’re the only one I trust.”
He dismissed that as flattery. Or prevarication. She hadn’t trusted him all those years before. “You know it’s never SOP to assign an ex-spouse as a bodyguard. There’s too much baggage attached.” The truckloads they had between them could fill Chesapeake Bay. “So, what’s the story? Is there someone after you? Or is this some elaborate scheme to discredit Hauberk?”
“There really is a threat.” This time she looked at him, her hands were still together in her lap, but her fingernails no longer scored the skin. Her expression was composed if rather sad, not tense. Her shoulders slumped, and a hint of vulnerability pierced her armor. “LBI caters to very rich clients who need discreet investigations- blackmail, that type of thing. I’d investigated this scumbag who was blackmailing a certain high profile movie star. Part of the fallout of it was the scumbag’s wife divorced him. I had taken some incriminating pictures of him as part of my investigation and so I was called to testify against him at his wife’s petition for full custody. Which she got based mainly on my testimony. Next thing we knew he’d hired Harris.”
When he’d first met her, she’d been quick with a retort, her eyes sparkling, her mouth pulling up at the ends in the most provocative grin he’d ever seen. They’d laughed at lot in those early years. Before. Even in their more serious moments, they were in tune-finishing each other’s sentences, knowing when the other needed a touch, gentle or not, to ground them. For a while there, things had been so good between them he’d have taken a bet that their marriage could have survived anything.
What he’d give to see her smile. Just once. The way she had…before. The memory of finding her on her knees, sobbing, clutching Emily’s lifeless body. Of the tears streaming down her face at the funeral. Tears that dried up and never reappeared. She’d held herself in ruthless control after that. She’d closed herself off from him and everyone.
He shook his head and forced himself to focus on his objective. Damn it, why the hell was he still so attracted to her? Concentrate on the mission. Stop letting her distract you. This was the very reason he shouldn’t have been
