She knocked the man out with a swift blow to his head before putting herself at measurable ease. “Call it in,” she said. “I’m sure the cops will get here before he wakes up.”
“You can’t just kill,” he said more firmly.
“Fine. I’ll call it in.” And that’s exactly what she did. She called in the police, she handled the reports when they got there and all the while she felt her heart breaking once again knowing what she thought she could have had was gone. It wasn’t so much the way he looked at her, although that didn’t help. It was what he said. When the officer in charge said that his “girlfriend” had broke the guys arm and the bone was sticking out, Harrison had said, with no level of uncertainty in his voice. “She’s my bodyguard.” A man who was so afraid to show weakness by having a bodyguard had just officially went on the record as having one and she knew what that meant. She didn’t have any doubt about where they stood.
It was the first time he had admitted to anybody that she was his bodyguard. All those prior times she was the girlfriend, but this time, this time she wasn’t. That one delegation of position was enough to tell her that the brief time she had spent as his real girlfriend was over. He hadn’t said as much in words. He hadn’t said, “we’re done. We’re no longer dating for real or for play.” He had simply reminded her of her place in his life. He had reminded her that she was nothing more than the bodyguard. Well, she mused; at least they had resolved to that before she slept with him.
“The guy says the woman hired him over the Internet. He never met her, doesn’t know her name or anything useful. We’ll investigate of course. But there’s something else he said that troubles me. He said she thought taking out the girlfriend…um…bodyguard would remind you of your promise to her.” He flipped his notes open and read it word for word.
“Did you say that to this woman?”
“Hell no! That’s a line from my opera. It’s the line that Balentine sings to Modiva in my opera. That’s a line, a song from a fictional show.” He shook his head. Valencia watched him, but she kept her distance instead of comforting him. She would never forget her place in his world again. She shouldn’t have for even the few seconds that she had and she vowed it would never, ever happen again. She was the bodyguard; he was the client—that was all there was to it.
“What sick person would…” his voice trailed off as he looked at her.
“Well now that the word is out that I’m the bodyguard I won’t have to worry about another attack aimed at me. Makes my job easier not playing the girlfriend any longer,” she said with assurance. There could be no mistake in her words.
“Valencia—”
“Although I suppose it doesn’t make your job easier, Detective. The opera has made the rounds across the U.S., Italy and then a second round through the States so you have a lot of potential crackpot obsessed women to weed through. Please let me know about whatever progress you make.”
“Will do,” he said. “I’m sure it will help you do your job easier at least.”
“The sooner this is over, the better.” The sooner this mess was done and over with she could get home, away from Harrison and the heartbreak she had allowed him to deliver. This was her fault because she should have never, in a million years, let her guard down. Darryl had been her last—that was her promise to herself and if she hadn’t broken her promise for this man then she wouldn’t be suffering right now. The thing is, she had hoped that maybe things could be different now. Things weren’t different. He had gave her promises that she would be his woman and he her man, but in the course of the night he had disowned her. He had relinquished her to being just the “bodyguard,” never anything more. She shook her head at herself. This was her fault and she would never, ever, let her guard down again. The walls of her fortress were back up and she wouldn’t allow anybody to ever break them down again.
“Bodyguard,” Dianna beamed. “The woman Harrison Sinclair has been parading around as his girlfriend is actually his bodyguard, Lorelei. Isn’t this great?”
“Um…why?”
“Because that means the guy who died in his hotel room might not have just accidently died. There’s a story here. I can smell it,” she grinned.
“Great. You’re off on another one of your treasure hunting expeditions aren’t you?”
“Why would the man hire a bodyguard if he didn’t need one?”
“I don’t know. But do you really think the room service guy was murdered? Seriously? Get a grip will ya?”
“Okay, maybe it wasn’t murder. Maybe it was just an accident. But who cares. Accidents don’t sale papers or get my name higher up on the list of in-demand reporters. I’m going to tell it like it is…or how I think it is.”
“That would be sensationalizing.”
“And? It’s not as if papers don’t do that all the time. Imagine this,” she put her hand up in the air as if placing words on a billboard. “World Famous Harrison Sinclair Stalked by a Mad Woman.” She giggled. “What do you think?”
“Seems a bit rude to call the woman mad. Maybe she’s just…” she shrugged. “In love.”
“Crazy,” Dianna said. “She’s crazy.
“And while we’re on the topic. Who says he’s being stalked by a woman?”
“I do. Or more like my unnamed sources do.” She slapped her hands together and rubbed them feverishly. “I’m going to write a story that’s made for television,” she jumped up and did a happy dance, shaking her butt and waving her arms in the air.
“And then you’ll get fired for reporting lies.”
“Not if nobody finds out it’s a lie. Come on. Help me out, sis.”
“Oh, no way. You’re on your own. I’m not going to prison for you.”
“Who said anything about prison? I just want you to follow him around for a while. You can make it look like somebody is stalking him. I’ll get a few, not so informative, photos of the rental car you’ll be driving and I can build a story from there.”
“No,” she snapped. “You’re insane and I’m not going to the funny farm with you.” Lorelei grabbed her papers off the desk and abruptly stood up. “You need drugs, Dianna. This job is totally warping your brain.” She marched out the dining room, dropping pieces of her term paper along the way.
“Whether you know it or not, little sis,” Dianna mumbled as she picked up a few pieces of the term paper. “You’re going to help me.” And she knew exactly how her unwilling sister was going to become an accomplice to her scheme. By tomorrow’s morning edition she was going to have a scoop winning story on the front page of her paper. Her bosses would certainly take her more seriously with what she was going to deliver. She didn’t get the scoop for today’s paper, but tomorrow, now that was going to be all hers. And she had the entire day to piece it together.
Harrison knew he had screwed up, but the look in Valencia’s eyes when that man attacked told him she had no issues killing. He had heard her words before. She was an assassin for the government at one point; of course she had no issues with killing. But this was different somehow. This was seeing her nearly do it. If he hadn’t yelled for her to stop she would have killed that man. Hearing about it and seeing it were different things, and in a split second he saw Valencia in a way he hadn’t seen her previously. Shock didn’t begin to describe what he felt.
Then the detective told him about what Grant Fisher, the man who attacked them, had said. Then the note came early that morning telling him he had to understand what this mad woman had done and he once again was forced to realize that attack was meant for Valencia not him. That attack was because of him. She could have been killed because of him and yet somehow he was angry at her for being who she had been all along.
He resolved himself to make a statement early the next morning, declaring Valencia his bodyguard, not his girlfriend, and at least giving her some measure of safety. He didn’t want some lunatic killing Valencia because of him, because of some promise she thought he made in an opera he wrote for
nobody in particular. It was fiction, fantasy, not reality and unfortunately there was some woman out there who couldn’t deal with it.
When he made his statement he had the feeling he was driving the knife deeper into Valencia’s heart. She kept her expression neutral as she had before, but he had learned recently the changes happened in her eyes. The light was gone, the sparkle; it was gone, and he had done that to her. He told himself he had to fix things. He wasn’t sure they could be together. He wasn’t sure exactly what he thought of her at this point, but he was sure that he didn’t want to be just another man who caused her pain.
He cancelled his schedule, deciding not to go to rehearsals today because he needed some time, he needed a lot of time, to figure things out. He tried talking to Valencia, but every time he tried to talk about what happened she pulled him back to business only. Maybe he deserved that, but he didn’t want it. He wanted to grab her and shake some sense into her but he realized the action alone would just get him the beat down of his life.
To make matters worse, Latricia showed up when he was about to force Valencia to talk to him about what he had said. He needed, no, they needed, this conversation, but they wouldn’t soon be having it. For the first time since she became his bodyguard, Valencia left him alone. “You don’t seem to be in any real danger,” she had said as she took one of the chairs from the table toward the door.
“Valencia,” he had called her name to stop her when Latricia smiled and purred out, “we could use a couple hours of alone time, baby.” The tone in her voice and the look on Valencia’s face told him the appearance of the current situation was not good. Valencia was sure to hate him and Latricia thought she was about to spend a couple hours in his bed. He had no intentions of bedding Latricia, but right now Valencia thought the worst of him. She thought he would do it. He could see it in her eyes. And when she went out the door, leaving him alone with Latricia he knew Valencia had already deemed what they had to be over. He didn’t exactly want over. He just wanted some time. Maybe after he had some time to think about things he might want over, but maybe…maybe he wouldn’t. She had to give him time. He needed her to give him time.
Valencia sat quietly waiting for Harrison to exit the detective’s office. There were more questions to be answered and after her turn with the overly friendly man, it was Harrison’s turn to go in the closed door room for a recount of recent events. She couldn’t stop thinking about Latricia and Harrison. That hussy had come out of the hotel room with a “we had sex,” grin on her face, and when she went back inside herself Harrison was still shirtless. Two hours and he was still walking around with his bare chest out for all to see. She was furious, although she didn’t know why she allowed herself to care so much. Whether he had sex with Latricia or not wasn’t her concern. She was just his bodyguard. No two second relationship was worth doing a weak job. She needed to keep her head in the game and out of her heart.
He had wanted to talk with her. He had told her as much right before she abruptly changed the subject. “We’ve been summoned to the police station,” she told him. She got the call while she sat waiting in the hallway for Latricia and Harrison to finish doing whatever it was they were doing. She quickly told him to get ready because they were needed there as soon as possible. In reality, she could have waited an hour. There wasn’t a rush. There were just a few details that needed to be attended to. She knew she could have waited until after Harrison said whatever it was he needed to say, but she didn’t wait because she didn’t want to talk about it. She wanted to get the working relationship back on track; back to where it was before she let her guard down; back to where it should be—business and nothing more.
She could avoid the conversation in the hotel. She could avoid the conversation in the police station. But she couldn’t avoid the conversation sitting inside the SUV in the parking garage. Harrison refused to start the engine and move until he said what he needed to say. In other words, whether she wanted to listen to him or not he didn’t care; he was going to make sure she listened to him.
“Time,” he said. He needed time to think about what had happened that night. He needed time to process how he felt. Her heart just couldn’t give him that because she knew that at the end of his trial period he would realize he couldn’t handle who she was, what she was.
“No,” she said. “I am who I am, Harrison. I’ll always be the woman you don’t know if you can handle.”
“Valencia,” he tried to take her hand in his and she retracted it so fast he didn’t have access.
“Your show is over here in two weeks. I’m paid up through that time, but after that I really think you should take on another bodyguard. This is serious and you need to take it seriously.”
“What if I want you to stay on?”
“I need to get back to my home. I can recommend somebody for you—male or female is up to you. I do know a few good bodyguards on the mainland here.”
“But I want you.”
“You have to let me go, Harrison. On every level you have to let me go.”
“I don’t know if I can.”
She looked at him, seriously contemplating his position. He might think he wanted to be with her now. He might think he couldn’t let go, but she knew he could. “Time and space is all you need. Some fabulously wonderful woman who has never seen the world I’ve seen will come along and she’ll be perfect for you. But I’m not that woman. I can’t change who I am, or what I’ve been and even if I could, I wouldn’t. This is my life, Harrison, and clearly you don’t belong in my world. I wish you did, but you don’t.” She took a deep breath to steady her voice. She really wished he could fit in her world, and that she could fit in his. She really wished they could make it work, but it was clear to her now that they couldn’t. It hurt—a lot, but she had to end it now. She had to walk away now because walking away later would only destroy her.
“Please give me some time?”
“Time won’t make a difference, Harrison. I’ll always be the me that is me; not the me that you want me to be. It’s okay. We tried, but our worlds are just too different to mesh.” She forced a smile. “Business—two weeks that’s all I want this to be is business. After that, please, if not for yourself, then for your family, take on another bodyguard.”
“I don’t want another bodyguard,” he said before starting the vehicle and pulling out of the park.
“Please take one. If we don’t get this woman before my two weeks are up please take on another bodyguard?”
He looked over at her before putting his attention back on the road. “Maybe you’ll change your mind and stay. I’ll pay you.”
“It’s not about the money. It’s about my heart and I just can’t. I should have never let it go as far as it did. That was unprofessionally stupid of me and I’m sorry for that. I know really good people. One is an ex Navy Seal. And then there’s Rose Cummings, she worked with some major celebrities and other high risk personnel. If she’s available I’ll give you the reference for her. She’s in high demand so things are on an “as recommended” basis for her. I know you’ll be safe with either one of them.”
“And if neither one is available, then what? Will you stay and guard my body or do I have to go back out there alone.”
She took a deep breath and looked at him. She knew she should walk away clean, but she couldn’t leave him on his own. He wouldn’t take on anybody else, and with the threat from his stalker becoming stronger he could end up dead. She didn’t want that to happen. “Let’s give it the two weeks and see.”
“We’ll renegotiate,” he said. “Good, something to look forward to.”
“I’m not making you any promises.”
“I’m making me a promise, and you,” he said seriously. “By the end of two weeks I will show you why I’m a man worth your time, your love, your heart. I will fix this.” She wasn’t sure he could. She would always remember the look on his face; the words he uttered in that room and beyond. She would always remember
that he looked ashamed of her, disgusted by her…she couldn’t forget that.
The moment they stepped inside the hotel room she felt the need for a long, hot shower. She needed something to ease her tired mind and body. She would have loved one of Harrison’s famous massages, but she knew where that might lead. She needed to distance her heart from him because in two weeks she was going home. She would find the best bodyguard for him before she left, but there was no doubt in her mind that she needed to be apart from this man.
He thought he wanted her now; but how long would that last? Maybe until he saw her in action again, or until he remembered who, or what, she had been all those years ago—not really so long ago actually. No. It couldn’t work between them. She just needed to walk away, to let him go and to let her heart mend again. “Next time,” she whispered while letting the cascading water embrace her naked body. “Next time you’ll be smarter, Valencia. Next time you won’t fall in love.” Next time she would be sure not to even entertain the idea of happily ever after when she knew it didn’t exist, not for people like her anyway. Unless she married somebody within her world she would never be able to have love. There was always JJ. She knew her father would welcome the union. JJ himself seemed to take interest in her as more than the friendly-family bond they had. He never broached the subject, maybe because he knew she wasn’t ready…and on some level neither of them seriously thought of being more—at least she didn’t think so. But JJ was Japanese and there was honor in his blood. His father was dead now so there wasn’t anybody holding him back from taking a non pure bloodline Japanese wife. To solidify their two families he would marry her if her father presented the idea to him.
Seducing the Bodyguard Page 13