by Cynthia Eden
“You know what?” Ben announced. “Maybe I shouldn’t let the fact that you’re in a hospital bed stop me from kicking your ass. Why put off for tomorrow what you can do today—”
Cole seethed, “Listen! I liked her as a person. She’s sweet. She’s kind. She helps people carry up their deliveries, and she always makes time to ask the kids in the building how school is going.” He huffed out a breath. “She was a nice lady, and I didn’t want anything bad to happen to her, so I stayed around, especially when—” He clamped his lips together.
“No.” Courtney’s voice was very definite. “You don’t get to do that. You don’t get to stop talking and to hold back. This is my life, so if you have something to say, you tell me, right now. Ben could have been hurt or killed today. Someone broke into my home and wrote, ‘Stay away from him,’ on my wall. When I didn’t stay away, this happened. It’s not happening again. I want to know everything, and I want to know it now.” Her breath was coming too fast. “I can press charges against you. You put listening devices in my house. I can have you thrown in jail. I don’t care that you think you were my bodyguard or that you were protecting me. I think you were stalking me. I think you should be—”
“He wanted something with your DNA on it.”
She blinked. “What?”
“I got freaking creeped out.” Cole ran his right hand over the stubble on his jaw. Considering all the casts and bandages on him, he was probably lucky to be moving that hand so well. “He wanted your DNA. A toothbrush. Hair samples. Started asking a month ago. Got more demanding. That shit was weird, so it put me on high alert.”
Her DNA? Now she faltered. “I…I did one of those home DNA kits…” Her gaze darted to Ben. “I did that about six months ago.” The timeline slammed in place for her. “God, I just—I wanted to know where I’d come from.” Was that so crazy? She’d grown up with no family, so when an ad for one of those ancestry services had come up on a social media site, she’d clicked it. She’d done the sample, sent it in, and hoped against crazy hope that it would come back and she’d get a hit. That she’d find her long-lost father. Her real father. Instead, she’d found fourth and fifth cousins, all on her mother’s side. And she’d found out that her distant family members had been Italian, French, Asian, and Spanish.
“Six months ago?” Ben spared a hard glance toward Simon. “And then you just coincidentally get this asshole,” a nod in Cole’s direction, “as your shadow shortly after that?”
Yes, she was connecting the dots, too. Especially because Cole’s employer wanted her DNA.
“Your employer has money to burn.” Ben rolled back his shoulders. “And you say he wanted you to protect her?”
“Yes.”
Ben rubbed the back of his neck. “Then maybe we are looking at this wrong. Maybe…maybe the employer is the one with the enemies.” His gaze sharpened on her. “And his enemies are after you, Courtney.”
“No.” Her immediate denial. “That doesn’t explain why your side of the car was hit today—”
“Maybe I was just in the way.” She could see the wheels spinning in his mind even as his words sent chill bumps rushing over her skin.
Maybe I was just in the way. And he’d been hurt because he’d been with her.
“My boss…” Cole cleared his throat. “He wanted to know who she was dating. How long she was with her partners. If anything became serious. He was almost fanatical about that stuff.”
“And none of this shit made you realize you needed to pull out of this job?” Simon burst out. “Seriously? You’re former Delta Force! You’re supposed to help people, to protect them, to—”
“My best friend fucking died in my arms. I didn’t protect him, so I know what a failure I am.” Cole’s right hand balled up the sheet near his hip. “I spiraled, all right? I got back to civilian life, and I took the most dangerous jobs I could find. When I nearly got my ass blown to hell on my last assignment, I knew things needed to change. Guarding a beautiful lady seemed like a no-brainer, and, yes, when the red flags started flying, I was worried. That’s why I stayed. I didn’t trust my boss. I was trying to track down his real identity. I was trying to keep Courtney safe. And then I found my ass run down by a driver who didn’t stop.” He shook his head. Glared at Ben. “What kind of car hit you? Because I remember a black SUV hurtling toward me.”
Courtney pushed back on her heels. “A black SUV. It was abandoned at the scene.”
“Eric already connected the dots on that,” Ben said with a grim nod. “He’s making sure the crime scene teams check the vehicle thoroughly. If it’s the same car that hit you, and odds are pretty friggin’ high in my mind that it is the same one—”
“We don’t believe in coincidence,” Simon added darkly.
Another nod from Ben. “Then your blood is probably on it.”
Cole’s blood. And Ben’s blood. Because they’d both been hurt.
“I don’t think my boss did this,” Cole spoke carefully. “He wanted her safe. He knows the threat is out there, so it’s possible that he knows who is targeting her.”
“Then we have to find out who your boss is.” The determination in Ben’s voice was clear. “And we make him tell us where the threat is coming from.”
***
“We’re going to use him as bait.”
Courtney’s fingers tightened around the glass in her hand when Ben made that announcement. They’d returned to his place, and they both should have crashed after the truly hellish day they’d had. Her body was exhausted, but Courtney’s mind couldn’t seem to turn off.
He’d given her a splash of whiskey. She hadn’t tasted a drop. Ben wasn’t drinking—because he has a concussion. He prowled near the windows while she watched from the couch, her feet curled beneath her.
“We’ll get Cole to email his so-called boss. Tell him there’s an emergency with you. That you were targeted today.”
All true…
“Cole might not have been able to trace the guy, but Wilde will. We’ll find him, we’ll draw him out.”
Using Cole—the guy had sworn to cooperate with them. Was that because he feared being tossed into a jail cell? Or because he truly wanted to help her, as he’d claimed in his hospital room?
Ben gazed out at the city. Tension rolled off his body.
She put down the glass. “You think it’s someone related to my real father.”
He didn’t look back. “Isn’t that what you think?”
It was what she feared. “The man who raised me until I was five…” She couldn’t call him her father. Wouldn’t. They hadn’t been connected by blood, and he’d run as fast as he could when he’d learned that truth. “I looked him up when I was eighteen.”
Ben glanced back at her. One look at his face and she knew—
Courtney sucked in a breath. “Wilde looked him up, too.”
“As part of your security investigation,” he told her softly. “Family has to be checked out.”
“He wasn’t family.”
“No, Francis Green—”
“Frank,” she cut in with more heat than she’d intended. But he’d never been a Francis. Hey, Frankie! She could remember the voices of his friends when they’d show up at the apartment. How’s Frank’s little girl doin’? Only she hadn’t been his. And he hadn’t cared a damn about how she was doing.
Ben’s features were shadowed. “He died the year after he left you. Police report said he was drunk—that he walked right into oncoming traffic and never slowed down.”
Her lips pressed together. “I don’t want to talk about him tonight.”
“You took that DNA test because you wanted to know where you came from. I think the test was a trigger for all of this.”
“I only got results on my mother’s side! There was nothing—”
“Maybe that’s what the person was looking for. Someone with enough money and power can access those systems. Maybe this guy—maybe he was looking for someone who had a connection to y
our mother. Maybe he did the math and figured out your age. Maybe he thought you were the one, and that’s why he wanted the toothbrush and the hair so that he could be sure.”
Because Ben believed this all went back to her biological father. And, truth be told, wasn’t she starting to think the same thing? “I always wondered what my real dad would be like. You kind of…” Slow down. Your words are coming out too fast. “When life is really sucking, you make an image in your head. A fantasy. That this wasn’t the life you were supposed to have. That there’d been some kind of mistake.” Her gaze dropped to her hands. “In my head, when I had nothing, I imagined my real dad. He had everything. Giant house. Fancy cars. And he was looking for me. He’d always been looking for me, and he wanted me to stay with him. He was never going to let me go. He wasn’t going to walk away because I wasn’t what he wanted. I was going to have the prefect life. I just had to wait on him to find me.”
Ben slowly advanced toward her.
She swallowed. Lifted her gaze to his. “Then one day I woke up. Realized that he wasn’t coming.” You could only wait so many years before the hope faded away. “And I knew that if I wanted that perfect life, then I’d have to get it myself.” She’d worked her ass off. “But just when I was close, when I was about to have all the things I wanted…this happens.”
He stopped near the couch and stared down at her. “You are going to have everything that you want.”
She could only shake her head, sending her hair sliding over her shoulder. “Maybe I’m not even sure what I truly want any longer.”
The big house. A fancy car. Enough money so that she’d never be scared of where her next meal was coming from…
She had a nice apartment. She loved her car. And she hadn’t been hungry—thank God—in a very long time. What else was there? More money?
Or…
Ben smiled at her. “Doesn’t matter what you want. You’ll get it. I think you can probably have anything you want.”
I want you. Her breath caught as she looked at him. The thought that had just whispered through her mind was the absolute truth. She did want him. Sexy Ben. Strong Ben. She wanted him, and she didn’t simply want him for a few nights.
But he’d almost been killed because he’d been in the same car with her. And the warning on her bedroom wall had been extremely clear.
Stay away from him.
While she wanted to stand up…wanted to put her arms around him and press her lips to his again, she didn’t. Because as she gazed up at him, Courtney realized that the thing she actually wanted most in the world? It was for Ben to be safe.
He leaned toward her. The back of his hand slid over her cheek, being very careful not to brush against the bandage on her skin. His touch made her shiver. She was far too sensitive to him. Everything about him made her feel—
Someone pounded on his door. A hard, fierce rapping.
Ben jerked back.
Her heart surged in her chest as adrenaline pumped through her veins. The pounding had made her jump. She’d been so focused on Ben that the noise had scared the hell out of her.
The pounding came again.
“Are you expecting someone?” Courtney wasn’t even sure what time it was. Late…had to be late.
“No.” His jaw hardened even more as he whirled for the door.
She surged up from the couch and grabbed his hand. “Ben…” Alarm flared through her.
The pounding came again.
He gave her fingers a squeeze. “Don’t worry. It’s going to be okay.” He advanced and glanced through the peephole.
Some of the tension left his body. Not all…but definitely some. His head turned as he glanced back at her. “It’s Kadi Laslow.”
It took a moment for the name to click. Then she blinked. In the midst of all the craziness going on… “Your client?” Her gaze darted to the clock on the wall. She’d been right. It was very late. And the woman was at his door. His home—not his office. “Why is she here?”
He yanked a hand through his hair as a fierce knock came again. “I have no idea. Give me just a minute with her, okay?”
Um, not okay.
Shit. Am I jealous again? She’d never been jealous before. But now, here she was, feeling green-eyed way too much where Ben was concerned.
He unlocked the door. Opened it, but then blocked that opening with his body. “Kadi.” His voice was perfectly normal. Mild. “I don’t think I had you listed for an appointment tonight.”
What? What kind of response was that to the woman pounding on the door of his home? He needed to tell Kadi to just get her Botox-filled self back on home—
“I need you.” While Ben had been calm, Kadi’s voice was shaking. Desperate. “I need you, and you’re the only one who can help me.” Then she threw herself against Ben.
Courtney cocked her head. Cleared her throat. “Ahem.”
Kadi jumped.
Ben sighed.
And he finally opened the door a little bit more. When he did, Courtney got a good look at Kadi’s face—and the long trails of black mascara that covered her cheeks.
“What’s she doing here?” Kadi demanded. She pointed a finger at Courtney. “She’s with him! With the bastard who attacked me tonight!”
Courtney sucked in a breath. She hadn’t talked to Hayden Laslow since the meeting the other day. Had other things on my mind. She’d rescheduled all her appointments—
“You’re defending him!” Kadi surged forward, her hands suddenly flying out like claws at Courtney. But before those claws could connect, Ben grabbed her around the stomach and hauled her back. “You’re on his side!” Kadi accused. “Are you sleeping with him? Are you screwing Hayden?”
The day had already been extra. She didn’t need this crap, too. “I’m your husband’s attorney. Not his sex partner. You don’t need to worry about that.” Her chin lifted. “If he has physically attacked you, then we need to report the attack to the—”
“He fucking attacked my character! Don’t you see? Don’t you get it? He said I was cheating on him! That I’d been cheating since day one, and he’d found someone better!” She struggled in Ben’s hold. “There is no one better than me. Sure as hell not your scrawny ass! So I am telling you—stay the hell away from him!”
The shouted words made Courtney stiffen.
Stay the hell away from him.
“She’s not involved with Hayden, I promise you that,” Ben’s words were flat and hard. “Now calm the hell down, Kadi.”
Kadi’s mouth opened, closed. Then she squirmed in Ben’s arms until she was facing him. “Why is she here so late?”
Why are you here so late? Courtney glared at the woman’s back.
Ben just lifted a brow.
A sound of disgust tore from Kadi. “You’re screwing her? The two of you are together?” She backed away from Ben. Tossed a wild glare from him to Courtney. “Isn’t that like…some unethical shit?”
“We’re not discussing your case, you don’t have to worry about that,” Courtney assured her crisply. “And I am removing myself from this situation right now. Ben, talk to your client. I’ll be in the guest room.”
She turned on her heel and marched away.
***
Courtney didn’t slam the bedroom door. She didn’t scream or rage. She quietly shut the door and didn’t glance back.
“You can’t screw her.” Kadi glared up at him. “You’re my lawyer.”
Had she just told him what he could do? Ben was done. “Find a new lawyer then because my relationship with Courtney is non-negotiable.”
“But, but—”
He curled an arm around her shoulder and steered her to the door. “You don’t get to come to my place in the middle of the night, making demands. That’s not how this works. You want to be a client, you make an appointment at my office just like everyone else.” He thought about the nightmare going on in Courtney’s life and anger burned in his gut. “And you don’t get to cry wolf about an attack. If
someone hurts you—then that shit is real. The world is full of victims who suffer every single day, and you coming to me, telling me you’ve been attacked—”
“I don’t want to be left with nothing!” Tears pooled in Kadi’s eyes. “I had that before! I spent two years of my life with that man, and he’s not going to kick me out now. You were supposed to be the best! You were supposed to help me!”
“I always help my clients.” He worked his ass off for them.
Her shoulders sagged. “Hayden has someone else.” Her voice was small. Lost. “I went to him. I begged him to take me back, and he said…said I’d never be as good as her.” Her gaze darted over his shoulder. “I…thought it was his lawyer?” Uncertainty there. Pain and worry.
Ben shook his head. “Courtney is his attorney, nothing more.”
Her eyes squeezed closed. “I…was drinking.”
Not a newsflash. He could smell the booze on her.
“I have messed up…so much, haven’t I?”
“It’s not your best night.”
More tears.
“I’ll walk you downstairs and get you a cab,” he told her. “Then you go home. You sleep this off, and you do not go see your husband again, do you understand me? If you want a new lawyer, fine, get one. But he’ll tell you the same thing…stay away from Hayden. The interactions you two are having now—the fights—it’s only making the situation worse.”
She swallowed. “How much worse can it be?”
He grabbed his phone and keys. Locked the door. As they stood in the hallway, Ben took in her mascara-covered cheeks and too pale lips.
“If I said her or me…you’d pick her, wouldn’t you?” Kadi scrubbed at her cheek, smearing the mascara.
“There isn’t a choice.” He kept his voice soft. He never liked seeing any woman cry. “You’re a client, Kadi. And Courtney—”
“What is she?”
Everything. “Non-negotiable,” he said again. “That’s what she is.”
And he led Kadi to the elevator.
***
Kadi Laslow swiped over her cheeks as she climbed out of the cab. She’d made such a colossal ass of herself that night. Going to Hayden had been a desperate move, and when he’d thrown her out, when he’d said there was someone else, someone better…