Secret Guardian

by Jill Sanders

  The two of them sat in the hot van and worked for almost three hours. Finally, just before the sun set, when she was fully satisfied with the outcome, she grabbed the burned DVD of the footage and started back up to her room to call her boss.

  She was halfway down the hall when Nathan came rushing out of Joe’s room. He grabbed her arm and pulled her into what appeared to be a closet.

  “What—?” She couldn’t get another word out, as his big hand clamped over her mouth. His muscular arms held her tight and the look in his eyes told her she’d better stay quiet. Then she heard the loud noises. They seemed to go on forever. Nathan pulled her down past a few shelves until, finally, they were crouched on the floor behind a large row of toilet paper and towels. His full weight was on her, crushing her to the hard ground. His hand was still over her mouth, blocking out any protest she had.

  Then there was an explosion and she watched in horror as the door was ripped off the hinges. A large fire ball came rushing towards them. She tried to scream just before a large chuck of wood hit her head and everything went black.

  Chapter Two

  Ethan fought to stay conscious by breathing slowly and blinking his eyes a few times. He’d been hit by a large chunk of wood from the door during the explosion. He felt the slickness of blood oozing down the back of his head, and when he reached back, his hand came away red. He felt Ann’s unconscious body under his and when he moved to sit up, he felt a wave of dizziness hit him. He continued to breathe slowly.

  He knew they needed to get moving. Shaking his head lightly, he demanded that his body start functioning. He looked down at Ann and noticed a large knot on her forehead. Gently he pushed her bright blond hair aside to take stock of the wound. She might have a concussion. Running his hands over her, he felt for any broken bones or other lesions.

  “Get your hands off me,” she moaned as she tried to push his hands away. He smiled. Good, she was alive and awake.

  “We need to get out of here. The place is on fire.” He watched as her eyes slid open. She was glaring at him. God, he loved it when she glared. He knew she couldn’t stand him. He’d made a point to be as annoying around her as possible. After all, it was all part of his character. Nathan Cruz was a self-absorbed, macho, chauvinist kinda guy. Or so he’d thought when he’d created the persona. But for the last two weeks it had been killing him to be around her. She was bossy, egotistical, and very good at her job, not to mention sexy as hell.

  He looked down at her now and realized some of her hair had been charred off and it was standing up in spots. Her clothes, a white button-up and dark dress pants, were no longer recognizable and were black with holes all over them. He saw a couple of scratches on her and noticed they were bleeding. No doubt he had a few himself. He looked down and sure enough, his cargo pants and t-shirt were both riddled with holes.

  “Ann, we have to get out of here.” She moaned and sat up with her back against the wall.

  “What was that?” She reached up and touched her forehead where the bump was and cringed at the pain. The smoke started getting thicker and he knew they needed to leave now.

  “That was your drug lords telling us they don’t like you poking your nose in their business.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous.” He watched in amusement as she tried to dust off her pants. He saw that she was missing a shoe, and when she noticed, she started looking around for it. He grabbed her hand and tried to pull her to her feet.

  “Stop, I have to find it.” She pulled her hand free and continued looking through the rubble that was all that was left of the linen closet. The smoke was so bad, he was having a hard time seeing down the hallway. He looked back at her. She was still on her hands and knees, searching for her shoe. He wanted to laugh.

  “Ann, the hotel is on fire. We have to get out of here. Leave your damn shoe.” He tried to grab her arm again, but she just pulled it free again.

  “I’m not looking for my shoe, you idiot! I’m looking for the DVD.” She continued to rummage through the debris.

  Seeing the black case that held the disk by the doorway, he bent and picked it up and stuffed it in the side pocket of his khakis. Then he walked over and picked her up and threw her over his shoulder, fireman style. She screamed and kicked at him the entire hike down the flight of stairs to the main floor. Here there was a lot less smoke and when they got outside, he stopped and looked around. People were rushing from the building, coughing and screaming. Some had injuries, others just looked shaken.

  Across the road sat their van, riddled with bullet holes. Mark lay on the ground outside, blood covering every inch of his body. Trying to keep her eyes pointed in the other direction, he started walking with her still flung over his shoulders. They needed to get as far away from the hotel as possible. He headed in the direction of the carnival, hoping that if there was anyone watching for them to leave the hotel, he would lose them in the crowd.

  He knew she’d seen the van and Mark when she stopped kicking and fighting him. She’d gasped and gone very limp. He hoped she hadn’t passed out, but thought it might be easier on her if she had.

  “You can put me down, now,” she said softly.

  He looked around and noticed several men following them. The hotel was three blocks away and the men were only half a block away from them.

  “Sorry, Princess. We need to cover some ground quickly. I think it would be better if I drove for a while.” He picked up his pace and when he looked over his shoulder, he noticed the men had as well. Now he spotted five of them sprinting after them. Damn, they were still a dozen or so blocks from the celebrations, and there was no way he could outrun them like this.

  “How fast can you run?” Ethan wasn’t winded, but the blow to the back of his head was causing him to almost see double. What he needed was some sleep and some aspirin.

  “Why?” she said between grunts caused by bouncing up and down over his shoulder.

  “Look behind us and tell me how many men you see chasing us.”

  He felt her hands on his back as she arched up and looked. Then he heard a gasp and he could tell that she had finally realized they were screwed.

  “Nathan, let me down. We’ll be faster than what we’re doing now.”

  “Stay with me. I mean it, Ann. No matter what!” He didn’t even break his stride as he set her down on the ground. Then he had her hand in his hand as they sprinted down the hill towards the crowded streets. She was right, she was fast, and they plunged into the crowd a good block ahead of the five men.

  Looking around as they entered the crowd, he realized they still stood out. He’d been able to follow her in the crowd the other night easily by following her bright blond head. She hadn’t even known he was following her. He’d been able to blend into the crowd very easily. Looking at her now, he knew this was going to be a problem again.

  He stopped and taking her shoulders, turned her towards him. Then in one quick movement he ripped her tattered shirt off her as she squealed. The crowds around them cheered.

  “What?” She tried to cover herself.

  Long strings of beads were thrown in their direction by the masses, and he quickly gathered a handful up. He placed them over her head, to make her look more festive. Then he knelt in front of her and took her tattered pants in his hands, ripped each leg up high on her thigh, exposing her soft skin. He could see small cuts and bruises forming on her perfect legs, but in the dark, most would go unnoticed by the crowd. He removed her last shoe so she stood on the street barefooted.

  Then he quickly ripped his own tattered shirt off, to the cheers from all the women around him. More beads were thrown and even a few bras. He smiled and looked at Ann who was gaping at his chest.

  He assessed her and realized that her hair was the only problem left. She had long, bright blond hair, the kind that took bleaching every week. It was a beacon in a sea of darker heads. Looking around, he found a woman with a large headdress of bright flowers and feathers. He grabbed Ann’s hand and start
ed towards her.

  When they reached the woman, he smiled as he approached her. Two minutes later, they were making their way through the crowd, eating up as much distance as they could. It took a while for them to push their way through the party-goers. Most were dancing, but were drunk enough to try to grope them as they walked by. He could smell all the alcohol around him. It was on everyone’s breath as they passed by. That and the smells of cooked food surrounded them.

  He looked back to make sure Ann was right beside him so he didn’t lose her. Even though her hand was locked in his, he just needed to see for himself that she was there. Several times they were surrounded by people and had to push their way out through the crowds. Finally, they made it to a place where the crowd was thinning out.

  Ann quietly walked behind him, not putting up much of a fight. He looked back at her and smiled. The purple headdress covered her bright head, and with her bra and very short shorts, she looked like a real party goer. At least until you noticed the frown and the tears slipping silently from her eyes. He’d have to deal with those later. Right now he needed to get them to safety, and he knew just the place to go. All they needed was some luck.

  He kept his eyes peeled for anyone that looked out of sorts in the crowd. This was hard in a sea of heads and faces. He knew they still had a dozen or so more blocks to walk and hoped that the crowd would stay thick enough that they could hide in the ocean of people the entire way.

  He watched silently from the crowd as her blond head disappeared into the masses. How could he lose sight of her so quickly? She’d been an easy target to follow the first night he’d been here. The fact that he had a dozen men out looking for her assured him that she’d be easily found by the morning. There was no place she could hide for too long. She didn’t know anyone here and there wasn’t a place that would take her in that he didn’t have eyes or ears on.

  He wanted this all tied up nice and clean by the time he had to go back to the States tomorrow afternoon. He couldn’t afford to be out of sight for too long. He needed to be seen, to be in the public eye, where he belonged.

  He spotted one of his men across the crowd and watched as the man crossed the crowd to meet him.

  “Have you spotted her?”

  “No. Somehow I lost them after they entered the street. We’ll find her; she couldn’t have gotten that far.”

  They were supposed to have her in their hands before the explosion ripped through the hotel, but when they’d arrived at the van, she hadn’t been there. She must have gone into the building without the scouts seeing her.

  He’d watched from across the street as the cameraman, Nathan, had carried her out. At first he’d thought everything was over, that she was dead.

  He’d breathed a sigh of relief when he’d seen her move. There was no way his boss would have let him live if she’d been dead. Even if the old man was going to kill her later, he’d been told to deliver her alive.

  The crowd was nothing but a nuisance to him. The screaming, dancing fools bounced around him dressed in little to nothing, drinking like there was no tomorrow. They were making it hard for him to do his job. The job had been so simple, and yet his men had let her slip out of his grasp. He knew he needed to deliver Ann to his boss or he would have his head. But he wanted his hands on her first. His boss never told him she had to be untouched when he delivered her.

  This was his last night in Rio and he needed to find her quickly, or he’d have to wait and let his men do all the work.

  “Tell the men to look harder. They can bring in anyone they need. I’ll double the price to whoever brings her to me tonight.”

  The man’s eyes got large and he sprinted off, no doubt to relay the message to the other men he was paying.

  Now all he had to do was go back to his hotel room and wait for her to be brought to him. Then he could finally get his hands on the beautiful Ann, before he turned her over and got his reward.

  Ann was feeling light headed. Not only had she lost the disk that had caused all this mess, now Mark was dead and Joe—she realized she didn’t know what had happened to Joe. Nathan had been pulling her along for over an hour in the crowd and she was sure he must be lost. After all, the man was a flake.

  The loud music and the cheers from the crowd did little to clear the pounding in her head. The bottom of her feet hurt due to the lack of shoes. When she looked down, she realized her feet were completely black, and the nail polish on her toes had chipped off. The stupid headdress he’d plopped on her head for some reason weighed a ton and she wanted to yank it off. Her body was hurting, her muscles were sore, and she had dried blood all over her. She was complaining in her mind, but she made a point to keep her mouth shut and not do it out loud. After all, Mark was dead.

  Finally, what seemed like hours later, Nathan pulled her into a small building out of the crowd. The tears had stopped and she was starting to shake as the cooler air hit her. Since her clothes were all gone, she felt the night chill on her exposed skin. The cuts and bruises just added to her discomfort.

  They walked down a long, dark hallway and when they reached the end, he knocked on the door and stood back. His feet were braced wide apart and he looked like he was preparing himself for a fight.

  It took a minute before she heard someone on the other side of the door, possibly someone looking through the small hole at them. Then the door flew open and a large black fist reached out and hit Nathan square in the face. Nathan did nothing to block or dodge the giant fist. Ann couldn’t help it, she squealed and tried to pull Nathan away from the next blow, which landed on his jaw again, causing his head to snap back.

  “Javan, I gave you the first two, but after that, I may just have to hit you back,” Nathan growled out.

  Ann looked and saw the man attached to the fist. He was almost as impressive as Nathan. His shoulders and arms were as thick, but he was almost a foot shorter and looked about ten years older.

  “Damn boy, I told you if I ever saw your ugly face again, that would happen,” Javan said in a thick Jamaican accent. Then the men shocked Ann by grabbing each other in a man-hug as blood trickled down from Nathan’s nose.

  Half an hour later, Ann sat in an oversized chair with the god-awful head dress sitting next to her on the floor. She drank hot tea with a blanket wrapped tightly around her, as she listened to Nathan and Javan talking. She was totally confused as to why the man was calling him Ethan instead of Nathan. Her head hurt and her vision was starting to go gray. Before she realized it, she was being shaken awake, and Nathan was looking down at her. She was lying on the soft couch and she’d been covered by a blanket. Then she realized that Nathan was fully dressed in clean clothes and it looked like he’d just showered.

  She sat up and shook her head clear. “Where is Javan?”

  “He took off. He’s going to let us stay until tonight. We have some things we need to take care of before we leave. I hope it’s okay, but I left some stuff in the bathroom, through there,” he said, pointing to a door at the end of a small hallway. “I need you to take care of everything, shower, change into the clothes I left you. I’ll make us some breakfast. Then once everything is ready and Javan reports back, we can leave.”

  She looked towards the small window near the back of the room and realized the sun was already up. When she moved to stand, her head spun a little. Nathan’s hand rushed out to steady her as he pulled her closer. She smelled the soap on his skin and felt his body heat through the beads she was still wearing. Then she remembered that that was pretty much all she was wearing and pushed his arms away.

  “Why did that man call you Ethan?”

  He smiled at her and said, “Because it’s my name. Take a shower, Princess, then I’ll explain everything.” He turned and walked into the small kitchenette without another word.

  She watched his back and missed seeing the naked muscles that she’d followed for most of the night. She’d gotten used to seeing them and had even, at one point on their long trek last night,
wished she could reach up and feel them, wondering how they would feel under her hands.

  Walking down the hall, she stepped into the small bathroom and leaned against the door. How could she be thinking of him like that? He’d been a thorn in her side for weeks. She was going to get him fired when she made it back to Austin.

  Shaking her head, she noticed a small box on the countertop sitting next to a bag of clothing. Grabbing it up, she marched back into the other room.

  “Is this some kind of joke?” She shook the box in front of his face. He held a spatula in one hand and a pan of sizzling eggs in another.

  “No, Princess. It’s not. Now go on and get ready.”

  “I am NOT coloring my hair…” she looked at the box and then shook it again, “…black!”

  “Sorry, that’s the only color Javan had. He says he uses it to hide his gray.” Nathan laughed and turned his back on her again as he placed a few slices of ham in another pan. The smell was wonderful and Ann felt her stomach growling.