Golden Girl (COBRA Security Book 16)

by Velvet Vaughn

  As if reading her mind, he said, “I’m trying to talk Owen into joining the firm.”

  “Really?” Her belly fluttered in hope. “Do you think he’ll do it?”

  “If I had to guess, I’d say he’s leaning towards it when his hitch is up.”

  She’d do everything she could to encourage him. It would be a huge weight off her shoulders to have her brother home for good. The fact that he’d be working with Noah again, well, that was just icing on the cake.

  “What did Owen say when he called you?”

  “That you’d been receiving medals in the mail with strange notes taped to the back.”

  Her mouth dropped open. She’d specifically kept the information from her brother. She didn’t want him worrying when he was thousands of miles away. Any distraction might mean the difference between life or death in a combat zone. She’d never forgive herself if he got hurt because of her.

  “Kurt,” she muttered as she started walking again. She should’ve known her overprotective coach would tell her overprotective brother what was happening.

  “Owen overreacts.” The notes and phone calls were nothing. She’d had obsessive fans before. It came with the territory when you were in the public eye. People thought it was glamorous to be famous, but fame came with a price. Some days, she could go about her business without being recognized, but most of the time, she was mobbed. She’d amassed quite a collection of hats and sunglasses. They didn’t always work, but they helped. She’d had to take out two restraining orders. She never knew who wanted to be her friend because of her or her medals. An Olympic year was the worst, both leading up to the event and especially after when she’d collected more hardware.

  “He doesn’t think so.”

  A shiver of unease crept down her spine. Her brother was overprotective, but he wasn’t an alarmist. If he thought there was something to the threats, maybe there was.

  “He said you had a stalker—”

  “Ms. Peyton!”

  They turned to see two small children running towards them with wide smiles, arms waving happily in the air. They both wore their Streamline t-shirt over their swimsuits and carried their gym bags.

  “We graduate today!”

  “Yes, you do, Jackson.” She smiled as both kids hugged her with unbridled enthusiasm. “Jackson, Jada, this is,” she almost said the love of her life. Good grief, how embarrassing would that be? How did she introduce Noah? They certainly weren’t friends. Unfortunately, not lovers either. She settled on just giving his name. Kids didn’t need to know anything else. “Noah. Noah, meet twins Jackson and Jada.”

  Noah crouched down and shook their hands. Jada giggled, the beads on her braids swinging as she ducked her face behind her brother. Peyton sighed dreamily. He had that effect on women. Jackson studied him with serious eyes. “Are you Ms. Peyton’s boyfriend?” he asked baldly.

  Peyton made a choking sound. Noah glanced up at her with an amused grin. She could feel her face flaming again. “I’m an old friend of Ms. Peyton,” he dodged smoothly. “So, you two are expert swimmers now?”

  “Sure are,” Jackson boasted, puffing out his chest. “I’m gonna be in the limpets like Ms. Peyton.”

  Peyton smiled. “Olympics,” she corrected. “And you keep practicing like you are and you will be one day.”

  Jada jumped up and down. “Me too, me too.”

  “Yes, you, too, Jada. You guys go ahead inside and get ready for your final class.”

  “Yay!” With happy squeals, they took off running.

  #

  Noah couldn’t take his gaze from Peyton. It’d been a couple of years since he’d seen her up close and personal. Her face had been all over the place the last few years. He’d never admit to keeping the Wheaties box with her picture, or that poster that launched a thousand fantasies. She was even more beautiful in person than he remembered.

  Her thick blond hair was pulled back into a ponytail and she didn’t have on a stitch of makeup. Her lashes and brows were so light, they were almost invisible. Her eyes, so light blue, it was as if you were looking into the glittering depths of the pools she called home. Her skin was smooth and flawless and there wasn’t an ounce of fat on her body. He’d expect nothing less from a world-class athlete.

  Watching her interact so easily with the children did strange things to his chest. It felt tight, yet light at the same time. Weird.

  The twins took off for the building and she stood to face him.

  “Thanks for stopping by, but Owen’s overreacting.”

  Owen might be overly protective of his sister, but Noah didn’t think he was overreacting. There were too many weirdos in the world. He’d had the misfortune of meeting a few, including a woman who called herself The Viper. “Maybe, but I’d still like to talk to you about it.”

  She glanced at her watch. “My class starts in fifteen minutes.”

  “Lunch after?”

  “It might be a while. The kids have one last swim test and then they’ll graduate. I’ve planned a ceremony with medals and everything.”

  That tight/light feeling gripped his chest again. She went to so much trouble for the kids who might never learn to swim without her assistance. He’d noticed Jackson and Jada sporting Streamline gear, the name of the company she started a few years ago. Not only did she donate her time to teach the children, she outfitted them, too. And she was doling out medals. He had no doubt it all came from her pocket.

  “Not a problem. I’ve got all day.”

  She studied him and finally nodded. “Okay then, if you don’t mind waiting a couple of hours.”

  He followed behind her, stopping short when the door opened from the inside just as they reached the building.

  “Peyton, sweetheart. There you are.”

  Noah’s eyes narrowed ominously at the way the man gazed at Peyton. The guy was a couple of inches shorter than Noah, fit with brown hair and eyes. It took every ounce of restraint he possessed to refrain from physically removing his hand from her arm.

  Were they dating? Owen hadn’t said anything but then, maybe he didn’t know. Owen was thousands of miles away in a war zone. Peyton probably didn’t run her dating life by her older brother. Maggie sure didn’t with him or Ethan, but that was because she knew one or both would have a talk with the man and possibly—okay, probably—scare him off. She’d learned to keep her romantic interests to herself. Thankfully both he and Ethan trusted and respected the man she’d married, and they loved him like a brother.

  Peyton was friendly with the man but, not overly so. She turned to him. “Noah, this is my friend Mark,” she introduced.

  Mark’s eye twitched at the word friend and he didn’t offer a hand to shake. Of course, Noah’s arms were full, but still, how rude. Being the bigger person, Noah did offer a “S-up” head tilt.

  “Mark coaches the basketball program at the center,” she told him and then turned to the other man. “Noah’s a hero. He was a Navy SEAL.” Her tone was filled with unmistakable pride. Even knowing it was mostly for her brother who served, it still warmed him.

  Judging by the look on Mark’s face, he wasn’t the least bit impressed. He grabbed Peyton’s arm and steered her away, completely dismissing him.

  Noah had never been the type to get jealous. Even when a Marine, of all people, hit on a former girlfriend, it hadn’t stirred the rage he felt right at this moment. This Mark guy was walking a dangerously thin line. Noah knew about two hundred and fifty ways to kill him without leaving a trace. He moved closer to eavesdrop, not feeling the least bit guilty.

  “When are you going to go out with me again, Peyton? I had a great time.”

  So, they had gone out on a date. Disappointment punched him in the gut.

  “I’m really busy the next few weeks, Mark. Aurora has the state finals and I need to be completely focused.” She did not, he was happy to note, say she had a good time.

  Mark rubbed a hand on her back and Noah growled. Two more seconds and he was rip
ping the limb right off and beating him with it.

  “You have to take time for yourself, too, honey.”

  She stepped away and his arm fell to his side. Noah mentally slapped her a high-five.

  “That’s not a luxury I can afford right now. I’m sorry.”

  “Ms. Peyton, Ms. Peyton!”

  Noah barely managed to lurch out of the way before a group of munchkins in colorful swimsuits mobbed her like a rock star. She smiled and ruffled hair and greeted each one by name. The pint-sized paddlers had completely pushed Mark aside. He mentally high-fived each one of them, too.

  Mark’s lips tightened in annoyance and he stalked away. The flash of anger that crossed his face was troubling. Could he be the one sending threatening notes to Peyton? He’d run the guy’s background, just in case.

  A hand touched his forearm. “I’m sorry, Noah. You shouldn’t still be holding the box. You can sit it right over there.” She pointed to a spot against a wall. “If you don’t mind, I could use some help getting this set up.”

  “I don’t mind at all.”

  She directed him to a storage room where he found a large collapsible table. A man wearing a uniform was inside gathering folding chairs. He introduced himself as Malcolm, in charge of maintenance. Noah waited until Malcolm carried an armful of chairs out before he maneuvered the table through the door and set it up in the area Peyton indicated. He went back for the small stand she’d constructed. She wanted to photograph each of the children on the top tier while they received their medals and certificates, hoping to encourage them to keep swimming so that they could experience a real medal platform in the future.

  She was unloading the cardboard box and placing the items on the table when he returned with the stand. Once everything was in place, she called for the children to gather around. Several parents were seated off to the side in the chairs Malcolm had placed in three rows, most with their phones out to record their child.

  Noah leaned against a wall with his arms crossed, watching Peyton totally captivate the children. They hung on her every word. Someday, these children would be telling their kids that they learned to swim from the most decorated female athlete in Olympic history.

  He swept his gaze around the community center pool. Located in a low-income part of town, there were no frills, but the pool was clean and meticulously maintained. A door off to the side led to a large gymnasium. It was a safe place for kids to gather away from the mean streets. He’d noticed spots on the walls outside that had been repainted from where they’d been tagged with graffiti. If kids were inside playing sports or doing crafts or what else they offered at the center, they weren’t out courting trouble.

  His gaze passed over a man propped against the back wall before snapping back. The man was dressed in a hoodie and jeans with sunglasses and a red baseball cap pulled low over his forehead. He was holding up his phone. The back of Noah’s neck prickled with unease. The man could be there to record his kid graduating swim class, but the fact that he was so far away was one warning bell. Another was that he was dressed in so many layers when it felt like it was one hundred eighty degrees in the heated building. The other was the creepy grin on his face. He seemed to be looking right at Peyton. Noah pushed upright. The man glanced up and did a double take when he spotted Noah staring at him. His head snapped left then right. Noah was moving before he realized it. The man had shoved his phone in his pocket and darted to a back door marked emergency exit where he made his escape, but no alarm sounded.

  Noah had to maneuver around people milling along the edge of the pool and slouched in folding chairs. He leapt over a floatation device that someone had left on the deck and shoved through the door that opened onto a sidewalk adjacent to a busy street. Cars zipped by as he looked left and then right, but there was no sign of the man.

  He peered into the cars that drove by, looking for a red cap, but didn’t see one. He turned and surveyed the building. There was a security camera, but judging by the position, it might’ve captured the man, but wouldn’t be able to see which direction he went or what he’d been driving. Plus, with the hat he’d been wearing and the sunglasses, it’d be hard to get a good look at his face. Hell, Noah wouldn’t be able to pick him out of a line-up.

  He reached for the door handle and realized there wasn’t one. It only opened from the inside. He jogged around the building and entered through the door he and Peyton used earlier. He scanned the crowd searching for Malcolm, but he didn’t see the custodian. He skirted the edge of the pool and steered clear of the activity, not wanting to disrupt the ceremony. The kids were now in the water taking turns swimming the length of the pool while Peyton and their parents cheered them on.

  He pushed through the same door Mark had disappeared through earlier. It led to a hallway where offices were located and opened into a large gymnasium. A group of children were sitting in a circle around an adult who was not Mark at one end while a few older kids were shooting hoops at the other end. He found Malcolm on a ladder tightening up a loose rim on a basketball backboard.

  “Malcolm, can I talk to you a second?”

  “Sure.”

  Malcolm gingerly descended the ladder and stuck the screwdriver in a slot on his tool belt. “What can I do for you?”

  “The security cameras outside the doors, do they work?”

  “Yes.”

  “I need to look at the footage. There was a strange man here a few minutes ago and I want to see if I can get a clear shot of his face.”

  Malcolm’s dark eyes widened with concern. “I don’t like the sound of that. We try to keep the gang activity out of our center. Should I call the police?”

  Noah had thought about calling the cops, but the man hadn’t done anything except set off his internal warning bells. The fact that he took off running wasn’t a great sign though. “Not yet. Let’s see if we can identify him first.”

  He’d send the footage to Tyler Redmond, COBRA Securities resident computer genius, to see if he could come up with a name. Tyler had created his own facial recognition program and it was better than the one used by the FBI. No one asked him where he gathered the headshots from and frankly, it was probably better if they didn’t know.

  Malcolm led him to a small room crammed with ancient electronics. Noah felt like he stepped into the 1980’s. Was that a VCR? He half-expected to see an eight-track player on a shelf. Malcom eased into a torn faux leather chair and adjusted a keyboard in front of him. “You said the rear exit? The one that leads to the street?”

  “That’s the one. It’s marked as an Emergency Exit. Shouldn’t an alarm have sounded?”

  Malcolm shook his head. “It’s marked emergency, but no alarm. It’s an exit only. You can’t enter from the street.”

  That was a lesson Noah learned the hard way.

  Malcolm found the camera and rewound the footage. Then he hit play and they watched as the man exited the door and turned left. A few seconds later, Noah came bounding out behind him.

  “Are there any other cameras that might’ve caught him leaving?”

  Malcolm shook his head. “We only have eyes on the entrances, and as you can tell, they aren’t high definition. We struggle for funding. I’m the only person taking care of the entire facility. We rely on volunteers like Ms. Durant. You could check other buildings on the block, but it’s a poor neighborhood. Most businesses can’t afford cameras.”

  “What about checking the one by the main entrance. If the guy entered through it, we might get a look at his face.”

  Malcom shook a finger at him. “Good thinking.” He rewound the footage then hit play. They were able to locate when the man entered the building by his hoodie and red hat. He’d slipped in with a group of adults, keeping his head down the entire time and not making eye contact with anyone. Even if Noah sent a shot of his face to Tyler, he wouldn’t be able to get a clear image.

  After thanking Malcolm, he returned to the pool, scanning the crowd as he made his way closer to Peyton
. There was no sign of the man in the red cap, not that he was expecting him to return. No sign of Mark, either. His gaze settled on Peyton. She was hanging a medal around the neck of a smiling girl who clutched it with glee and waved to her parents.

  His phone buzzed in his pocket. He fished it out and read the display. Overseas number. Peyton’s brother. He moved away from the cheering crowd to answer. “Hey, Owen.”

  “Did she give you the boot?”

  “Not yet, but to be fair, we haven’t had a chance to talk. She’s teaching a class.”

  “She’ll try to tell you that she doesn’t need protection, but Noah, I have a bad feeling about this. She’s my baby sister.”

  Noah had a younger sister, too, so he completely understood Owen’s feelings. Except Maggie was also an agent and could take down a man twice her size without breaking a nail. She was little but she was fierce. “I’ve got this.”

  Owen sighed. “Thanks, man. I can’t tell you how much this means to me. I owe you one.”

  “Just come home safe and we’ll call it even.” It was always a risk when military personnel were deployed, but SEALs’ jobs were exponentially riskier and extremely dangerous.

  He slid the phone back in his pocket and scanned the area one more time. Still no sign of the red cap. The children had all crowded on the medal stand and were mugging for the cameras, their faces glowing with happiness. Smack in the middle was Peyton with her mega-watt smile. Something in his chest squeezed and he rubbed a hand over the spot.

  He waited patiently while kids stood in line to hug her. She had a word for each one, shook hands with parents and smiled while several took her picture with their kid. He enjoyed watching her…maybe a little too much. She completely captivated him.

  When the kids and their parents started to leave, he headed over, picking up his pace when he noticed Mark coming through the door from the gym. Peyton was gathering her supplies, a look of worry on her beautiful face as she glanced around the area. Had she noticed the man watching her?