Caballo Security Box Set

by Camilla Blake

  “Do you think they’ll let me in?”

  “I think they would let you in if you wore a burlap sack. Then again, you’d make even a burlap sack look like a designer gown.”

  I smiled, unable to resist his charm. “The things you say, Akker Mills.”

  He crossed to me, a new sadness suddenly dark in his eyes. “I’m sorry,” he said softly, brushing his actual fingers against my cheek. “I know this has been an ordeal for you, but it should only last a short time longer.”

  “You’ve figured something out, haven’t you?”

  He lowered his head, hiding his eyes for a second. “I think I know who’s doing this, but I need them to show their hand.”

  “You think they will tonight.”

  He hesitated a second. “I don’t know. But if they do, we have so many operatives going to this party that the organizers have been on the phone with Ox all day demanding a sizeable donation to compensate for the drain on their cocktails.”

  That was an amusing thought. “Any trick to get money.”

  “I suppose so.” He stepped back to my side and offered his arm. “Shall we go?”

  We reversed the journey we’d taken the night before in our arrival. I almost expected to see that old Ford parked at the curb when we emerged from the elevator. Instead, there was a stretch Hummer, one of those limos that was more of a fortress than it was a luxury car. The chauffeur offered his hand and I accepted it, allowing him to help me into the back of the massive vehicle. Akker followed, settling on the seat beside me.

  This was going to be a very interesting night!

  ***

  The music was loud and the crowd was overwhelming. Akker remained at my side as we mingled, stopping every few steps to talk to some person or other, a lot of the faces familiar because we’d just seen them five days ago at the museum party. I signed a few autographs, but mostly just answered the same questions over and over again.

  How did you get into modeling?

  What does your father think of your career?

  Do you plan on continuing in an acting career, or will you go back to modeling?

  It was tedious, almost like doing a publicity stint in some hotel somewhere, five minutes with a dozen small-time reporters who all asked the same thing over and over again. They might as well put us on a loop, replaying us over and over until everyone got the answers they wanted.

  But, for the first time in my career, I had someone I could lean on, someone who knew when it was getting to be too much and broke in. Someone whose hand was constantly in mine, squeezing my fingers from time to time to offer support.

  I found myself leaning on Akker more and more as the evening progressed. I had been aware of some of the other operatives from the moment we walked in, recognized faces I’d already come in contact with, and I would glance at them occasionally, waiting for some sign that things weren’t all good. But that nervousness stopped when exhaustion began to sink in.

  I was so relieved when Akker walked me out onto the dance floor that I almost began to cry with gratitude.

  “You looked as though you needed a break.”

  “You always seem to know.”

  The music shifted from a fast-paced pop thing to a slow beat, one of those rhythms that you can only sway to because everything else just feels wrong. Akker slipped his arms around my waist, resting his hands politely on my back. I moved into him, tired of pretending that I didn’t want to be as close to him as I could get. I rested one hand on his chest, the other curled on his shoulder, my fingers close enough to his jaw to brush it lightly once or twice.

  “You’re going to give everyone the wrong idea,” he said in a low whisper.

  “Am I? Is it really the wrong one?”

  Our eyes met and for a second I thought for sure he was going to kiss me. I wanted him to. His hand moved, sliding across the small of my back and up to the space left bare by the dress. The heat of his flesh on my flesh was almost overwhelming, making my knees a little weak.

  “Why do we have to play this game?” I brushed my fingers against his jaw, moving them up to his ear to caress the curved line of his lobe. “Why can’t we admit that there’s something happening between us?”

  “You’re Eva Rae.”

  “I’m aware.”

  “And I’m just a glorified bodyguard.”

  I shook my head. “You’re more than that.”

  “I have a fifteen-year-old daughter.”

  “I’m looking forward to meeting her.”

  He grunted, a new tension coming into his muscles, making his body impossibly hard in the places where we touched. “It’s not as simple as you want to make it.”

  “It’s not as complicated as you want to make it.”

  He pulled me closer for a moment, his hands solid as metal against my back. His lips brushed mine before moving up to the tip of my nose then brushing my temple.

  “Brock’s coming home. He’ll be at Caballo tomorrow.”

  It was like cold water rushing over my body, a shock that seemed to spread from the nerves in my scalp all the way to the tips of my big toes. I guarded my expression, afraid of showing Akker something he would misunderstand, but he’d already felt the electric spark that rushed through me, already felt the change in my body.

  “I’ll arrange a meeting.”

  That was all he said before snatching my hand and forcing me back to the tedious crowd.

  Chapter 16

  Akker

  I watched her give her speech, the way she held her hands tightly clasped together, the way her voice shook just a little, except when she was looking at me. I wondered briefly what it would be like to always be the face she sought out in a crowd, to always be the one she rushed toward when her ordeal was ended. But that wasn’t my role to play and I knew it now more than I’d known before. I knew it because of the way she’d reacted to the news that Brock was coming home. She still loved him, and that reaction had proved it.

  “We should wrap this up now,” Ox said, coming up behind me as Eva ended her speech.

  “Car’s already waiting at the back door.”

  “Have you told her yet? Have you warned her about your plan?”

  Before I could answer, Danny Fray rushed in our direction, dressed in a cheap suit that had seen too many dry-cleaners’ chemicals. He was a small man, with a head of curls that reminded me of that movie from the eighties that starred Carol Burnett, the one with the redheaded orphan. Brock had been a huge fan of Carol Burnett back then and made me watch it over and over again. This man, he looked like Annie, only his hair was more gray than red.

  “I need to talk to her!”

  Ox grabbed his arm and pulled him to one side, hissing in a low whisper, “You make a scene and you aren’t doing anyone any favors.”

  “I don’t know what you people think you’re doing, but I’m the reason she’s here! I’m the reason she had a career at all!”

  “I’m sure that’s true, but it’s our job to keep her safe so she can continue with her career, and we’ve deemed you a security risk. Understand?”

  The man looked so flabbergasted that I thought he might blow a blood vessel in his head. I didn’t stick around to hear any more of the conversation, electing instead to meet Eva backstage and walk her out a side door. I was nearly there, too, nearly at her side, when Mr. Fray apparently broke free from Ox and rushed past me.

  “Eva! You’ve got to tell these fools that I’d never do anything to hurt you!”

  I grabbed the back of his collar and yanked, taking him off his feet for a second before he toppled too far back and fell, landing at my feet. He stared up at me, unable to catch his breath.

  “We told you to keep your distance,” I said, stepping over him as I went to meet Eva.

  “What the hell, Akker!”

  She ran around me and dropped to her knees beside the old man, taking his hand in hers as she watched him fight to fill his lungs with air again.

  “He’s fine,” I sa
id as Ox came over, kneeling beside him as well.

  “I don’t get you people!” Eva pointed at the two of us with a shaking finger. “I’ve told you that Danny has no reason to want to hurt me. Why would he? If he lost me, he wouldn’t have a client, wouldn’t have a livelihood, wouldn’t have anything left! The idea that he would conspire to have me blown up or shot is just ridiculous!”

  “Not if his intention all along was just to frighten you.”

  She shook her head, her eyes moving from Danny to me and back again. “He wouldn’t do that.”

  Fray turned his head away from Eva, a blush of shame on his face. “I’m a stupid man, Eva,” he said softly.

  She shook her head. “You lost your nephews.”

  “That wasn’t supposed to happen. They were just supposed to chloroform them. That was the plan.”

  Eva lifted her hands from him like she’d stuck them into something nasty. She stood up, shaking her head. “You didn’t just say that.”

  “You were leaving me for another agency! What was I supposed to do?”

  There was betrayal in his words, but that betrayal was lost in tears of shame and guilt, tears that became sobs the moment he stopped speaking.

  “Get me out of here!”

  Eva marched off, forcing me to rush after her. I caught up and pressed a hand to the small of her back, guiding her to the side door where the Hummer was waiting. There was no one in the alley but the chauffeur. We got inside without issue, Eva sliding to the furthest side of the vehicle where she turned her face to the window, refusing to even acknowledge that I was there.

  “I’m sorry that happened.”

  She didn’t respond. She just stared at the city as it whizzed past the window.

  “Sometimes these situations resolve themselves in ways people don’t anticipate. No one wants to believe the people closest to them could be capable of such things, but it’s almost always those we love the most who can hurt us the most.”

  “Shut up, Akker,” she said softly.

  I did, settling back against the seat, watching nothing as my thoughts raced. I should know how these things worked. I was the one who’d shattered my best friend, my brother, at a time when we should have been the closest. I was the one who took his girlfriend into that bedroom during some stupid party, the one who fell for her charms, the one who should have turned and run in the other direction as fast as I could. I remembered being angry with him that night, but I couldn’t for the life of me remember why now. Not that it mattered. No hurt justified what I did to him.

  And no hurt justified what was happening here now.

  We pulled up to the front of the hotel and Eva jerked like she’d received some sort of shock. “What are we doing here?” she demanded. “Why aren’t we going to the safe house, or the panic room?”

  “Because this is where it’s going to end.”

  She stared at me, waiting for an explanation, but I refused to give her one.

  I took her inside through the lobby; we wanted as many people as possible to catch sight of her. She still had fans hanging around, waiting to catch a glimpse of her, and several of them popped out of the bushes, smartphones already at the ready. We’d counted on that, but just in case, we had our own camera going from a perfect vantage site. Max picked us up inside the lobby, as well as Prescott and James, two other operatives who worked for Caballo. We had the hotel covered, from the basement all the way to the roof.

  Just Eva and I stepped out of the elevator. I led the way to her room, using the key card I’d taken from her things back at the safe house. The suite was just as it had been when we last saw it, the expensive furniture and rustic touches, a home away from home.

  Eva shivered.

  “I don’t want to be here.”

  “After tonight, you won’t have to see this place ever again. We’ve already booked you a suite at another hotel across town.”

  “You’ve thought of everything.”

  “We tried.”

  “But you never felt the need to let me in on any of it.”

  “I don’t want to fill your head with information that might be wrong.”

  “Fill my head?” Anger snapped in her eyes. “Don’t patronize me, Mr. Mills.”

  The more formal use of my name cut right through my chest. I lowered my head, refusing to rise to her bait. It wouldn’t do us any good to get into an argument now. Instead, I crossed to the balcony and opened the doors, letting in a little of the fresh, warm evening air. When I turned, she was right back where she had been the last time we were there, digging in the minibar for one of those many bottles of champagne that had been delivered on her arrival.

  “What do we do now? Sit around and wait for someone to try to kill me?”

  “Essentially.”

  She poured a helping of the golden bubbly liquid, watching the glass overflow in her haste. “Then I think I’ll go upstairs and take a bath. If I’m going out, I might as well go out clean.” She snatched up the glass and crossed to the stairs, not even looking back at me as she ascended. My phone rang as I watched her, the sound giving me a little bit of déjà vu. The phone had rung three times before I left my apartment the night of the museum party. And then Ox, forcing me to deal with it because the call had come to him.

  Déjà vu.

  “Marnie,” I said as I stepped out onto the balcony, “it’s a little late for complaining, isn’t it? Does the school still need me to make a payment I made three weeks ago?”

  “I got that taken care of, thank you very much.” The snark was almost painful. “I was sitting here at my computer, checking out a few of my favorite websites, and imagine my surprise when I see your face. Again.”

  “My face?”

  “Escorting Ms. Rae to that wretched Methodist Hospital party. Didn’t I tell you what a scam that whole thing is? How could you show your face there?”

  “It’s the job.”

  “Yes, well, sometimes your immortal soul would benefit from refusing to follow the company line.”

  “My immortal soul? Since when do you care about that, darlin’?”

  “I’ve always cared. You are the father of my child, after all.”

  “There is that.”

  “Eva Rae is the devil. You do know that, right? She’s a liar and a cheat. Don’t believe a word that comes out of her pretty little mouth.”

  That was the second time someone had told me not to believe Eva. Femi had said the same thing. Funny coincidence? Or something more?

  “Didn’t realize you knew her.”

  “I don’t. But I’ve heard things.”

  “You shouldn’t assume things, especially based on rumors.”

  “You’ve always been so naïve, Akker. Too trusting.”

  Her words brought me back, reminding me of another time when she’d told me those very things. But the context had been different. She’d been angry because she’d thought some waitress at a restaurant we’d gone to was flirting with me. The waitress might or might not have been, not that it mattered. I was there in uniform, having just come home from basic training, with my new wife and three-year-old daughter. They were all I saw. But Marnie had exploded with jealousy, convinced that I’d not only flirted back, but that I’d been screwing everything in a skirt since the moment I left for Camp Pendleton. We’d fought for hours, and when we’d finally gotten to that place where there was nothing left to say, this was what she’d said to me—that I was too trusting and much too naïve.

  Maybe she was right. Maybe that’s how I got wrapped up with her in the first place.

  “Why are you calling me, Marnie?”

  “Are you with her right now? Are you at that hotel with her?”

  “That’s none of your business.”

  “Are you fucking her too, Akker?”

  “Why don’t you go find your husband and pick this fight with him? I’m not your problem anymore.”

  I disconnected the call, my thoughts dancing around the daughter I shared w
ith this woman. What had I done to her by making all these mistakes, by allowing this drama to take over my life? What was going to happen to her when she finally saw the truth about her mother? Would she be able to handle it?

  I turned to go back inside, maybe check on Eva, see if she needed her champagne topped up. Would she mind me coming up those stairs? If she knew what I’d seen the last time I’d wandered up those steps…

  A man dressed all in black, a thin mask over his face, stood in the middle of the largely white living room, sticking out like a blemish on a beautiful woman’s face. He had a gun and he raised it to set the laser guide right on the center of my chest. I glanced down, the red dot like something out of a movie.

  “I own this tux. I’d rather not have to replace it because of you.”

  “Move over to the table,” he said, his voice somewhat muffled by the mask.

  “I’d rather not.”

  The man waved his gun. “Don’t argue with me, smart guy. Move over to the table.”

  I made like I was going to obey, expecting the guy to follow me once I turned my back to him. He did, making the mistake of moving too close. I kicked back, at the same time reaching behind me to grab his wrist. My foot caught him right in the shin, making him stumble slightly. I twisted his wrist over my head, forcing him to spin around. I grabbed the gun, jerked it out of his hand and used it to hit him perfectly on the temple. He fell like a ton of bricks.

  Anyone with any combat experience knows not to follow that close behind an unrestrained captive.

  I dragged him out onto the balcony and used my tie to secure his hands through the iron bars of the railing. I carefully approached the doors, listening for a moment. I could hear footsteps upstairs, but there was music playing, so I couldn’t hear much more. I didn’t know if Eva was up there alone, or if my friend here had a friend of his own.

  It would be a mistake to turn my back on all the real estate down here. I quickly walked through the rooms, searching for any sign of more intruders. All I found was a blank key card, one of those with nothing written on it that served as a master key for maintenance workers and maids. Someone had dropped it on the coffee table.