Executive Protection

by Jennifer Morey

He took her hands. “Lucy, meeting you has taught me a few things.”

  Hope flew high as a kite and she had to hang on before it got away from her. What was this all about? She dared not speculate.

  “The first and most important is that I should never say never. I never thought I’d fall in love with anyone. I didn’t believe in love. But, Lucy, I do love you.”

  “Thad...”

  “Shh.” He lifted her hands and kissed the top of one. “I was afraid if I admit I could or did love you, that I’d be forced to marry you.”

  “Thad, wait.” She had to tell him what she did today.

  “Lucy, I was wrong. It’s okay if I love you. In fact, it’s a good thing.”

  Oh, dear God...

  “Love isn’t the problem. Love is what makes a relationship great. It—”

  “Thad, I’m going to adopt Sophie,” she said before he could go on.

  That stopped him short. He stared at her, his hands squeezing hers briefly.

  “What?” he finally said.

  “Oh, this is getting good,” Kate said, an avid audience. She picked up her tea and sipped with a delighted gleam to her eyes.

  “I’m going to adopt her,” Lucy said. “I know you don’t want kids, but I can’t abandon her. I just can’t. She loves it here...with me...a-and you, but if all she has is me, she’ll be all right. She’ll be happy. She’s already happy. And then when I find a man who can accept her, she’ll be part of a family. My family.”

  Thad’s jaw had dropped as he struggled to recover from her news.

  “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before I started the process going,” Lucy continued, fretting over his reaction. Was he taking this worse than she thought? “I didn’t think it mattered. I’d made up my mind and what you wanted...well...so far hasn’t been what I want, and—”

  “Lucy.” He finally found his voice. “It’s okay.”

  That stunned her for a second. “It is?”

  He chuckled, as amazed as her over his easy acceptance of adopting Sophie. “You surprised me with how soon you decided to adopt her, but it’s something I was going to suggest anyway.”

  “You were?” both she and Kate said in unison.

  Kate’s cup clanked against the saucer as she put it down.

  Thad let go of Lucy’s hands and reached into his pocket. He brought out a small jewelry box.

  All the blood drained from Lucy’s face she was so taken aback. She searched Thad’s face.

  Kate drew in a startled breath. “Thad. Are you...?”

  He looked at her. “This is why I wanted you to be here, Mother.” Then he returned all his wonderful attention to Lucy.

  He opened the box to reveal a simple but stunning round brilliant cut diamond. “This is my promise to you, Lucy. I’m not ready for marriage yet, but if there’s going to be any woman who will give me the courage to stand on an altar, it’s you.”

  Taking the ring out of the box, he let Kate take the box and then held Lucy’s left hand and slipped on the ring.

  She admired it for several seconds, still shocked by his gesture. Did he mean it?

  She looked at him. “A promise ring?”

  “A promise to marry you...someday.”

  She’d give him all the time he needed. “Oh, Thad.” She flung herself at him, wrapping her arms around him and kissing his mouth.

  He held her and kissed her back.

  Then doubt raised its head. She leaned back. “Are you sure?”

  “I’ve been sure ever since Mike put his gun to your head. Imagining life without you forced me to take a closer look at my attitude. I’ve been wasting a lot of time, Lucy. I’m glad I did, because maybe I’d have married the wrong woman. But I’m sure now.”

  “Sophie...”

  “Will be part of this family.”

  “Our family?”

  A family. Everything she’d always wanted. She wasn’t getting it the conventional way. She wouldn’t be married first and she was adopting her first child, but she couldn’t be happier.

  “Where do you want to live?” Thad asked her.

  That hardly mattered. “Your house. Your mother told me about your house. It’s bigger than mine but similar architecture. We’ll need the space.”

  “My house it is. And when it comes time to have children of our own, you don’t have to work.”

  Had he actually said “kids of their own”? “I want to work.” She needed to feel accomplished over something, and she genuinely liked nursing. And after working with Kate, she felt well on her way to making her own reputation, rather than on her father’s white coattails.

  “Whatever makes you happy,” Thad said.

  Lucy’s smile beamed along with Thad’s lopsided grin, each of them giddy with thoughts of a future together.

  “A celebration is in order,” Kate said, her eyes a bit misty. She put her hand on Thad’s shoulder. “I’m so proud of you.”

  Lucy held her hand up to admire the ring over Thad’s shoulder. “I can’t wait to tell my parents!”

  Thad stepped back and took her right hand. “Excuse us, Mother. We need some privacy now.”

  Kate laughed lightly. “You can have all the privacy you need. I’ll make sure no one bothers you.”

  Lucy felt a little embarrassed as Thad winked back at his mother before leading her toward the stairs and the bed they’d occupy for however long it took to satisfy this new acceptance of their love.

  They had a future now. Together. She, Thad and Sophie. A family. And a dream come true.

  * * * * *

  Keep reading for an excerpt from TRAITOROUS ATTRACTION by C.J. Miller.

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  Chapter 1

  Connor West had an eight-second warning before the knockout blonde with a too-serious expression showed up in front of his house. His perimeter security alarm beeped and her newer-model luxury sedan displayed on his smartphone screen. A camera situated along the driveway scanned her car’s tags and ran a DMV lookup. Another camera snapped a picture of her face and ran it through facial-recognition software.

  Nothing popped up immediately on his computer, which checked his watch list first: federal and local law enforcement, known special operatives, and convicted and released felons. The woman in his driveway must be lost. Connor lived in the woods, far away from civilization, and it was how he liked it. He didn’t often get surprise visitors, and when he did, their arrival was either a mistake or delivered a problem.

  Connor hoped she’d take one look at his cabin, spin her car around and hightail it off his property. He gave it an 80 percent likelihood she wouldn’t stop to ask for directions. Didn’t most people have GPS on their cars and their mobile phones? Why would she turn onto his private road? Had to be a mistake.

  To his surprise, she climbed out of her car, one long, shapely leg followed by the other. She was wearing a pair of bright green shorts and a white tank top. In her hand, she grasped a small piece of paper. She looked between it and his cabin and back to the paper.

  Yes, she was definitely lost.

  He mentally urged her to get back in her car and not look back. He wasn’t in the mood to deal with her. Connor
hadn’t seen another human being in a week and he was happy to have it that way.

  To his annoyance, she walked up the stairs to his front door. Guess she wasn’t a woman who was easily put off. Connor hadn’t gone so far as to put no-trespassing signs everywhere. He didn’t think he needed them. The location spoke for itself.

  The curvy blonde knocked on his door. He could either slip out of the back or pretend not to be home. She would get back in her car and he’d never see her again. He could return his attention to the book he was reading and forget this interruption to his day.

  At her second knock, his curiosity overtook his annoyance. What if she needed help? If she didn’t turn and run at the sight of him, telling her she was at the wrong location and sending her down the road would take five seconds. Not difficult. She was a beautiful woman and Connor rarely had the opportunity to speak to a woman who looked like her. It would be his one social interaction for the month.

  If her looks didn’t cinch it, her worried expression and terse mannerisms drew him to his feet. Leaving a woman lost and concerned didn’t sit right with him.

  Connor opened the front door, expecting a startled reaction. A few months of forgoing shaves and haircuts in combination with his worn jeans and battered, holey T-shirt made for a distressingly poor appearance. She got courage points for not immediately fleeing at the sight of him.

  The woman smiled. “Connor? Connor West?”

  He instinctually reached for the gun tucked in the holster at his side and unsnapped the strap, letting his hand linger on the handle. Pretty face, short shorts and a tight shirt wouldn’t distract him. He was too smart to be taken out by a female assassin. He was a survivor and this woman wouldn’t get the best of him. Perhaps this visit would be more exciting than he’d first believed. “Hands where I can see them. I want your name and why you’re here. You get ten seconds and then I start shooting.”

  Her hands went into the air, and unless she was a great actress, the shaking of her arms and trembling of her lips gave away her fright. She was missing the hard edge and the precise and skilled movements of a Sphere assassin. Perhaps not an assassin, then. “My name is Kate Squire. I have information about Aiden. He was a...friend of mine.”

  Another surprise...and Connor hated surprises. His brother had been a friend of hers? She’d paused before that word. A friend? Or his brother’s former lover? Given Aiden’s track record, it was believable that he had been sleeping with this woman. She was his type. Tall, fit and blonde, with a smooth, sexy voice.

  A stream of jealousy shot through him and Connor batted it away. What was the point of being envious of a situation he couldn’t change and that had been true all their lives? Aiden had been the handsome, fun brother. Nothing had gotten him down. Connor had wanted Aiden to be happy, had worked to make it the case, and Connor liked to believe that Aiden had been.

  Aiden hadn’t mentioned this woman by name during any of their late-night conversations. Not unexpected, since Aiden had grown increasingly secretive and distant in the months before he’d died. Their last conversation had been in anger, a reality Connor deeply regretted. It made it harder to cope with losing Aiden.

  “How did you find me?” Connor asked. He kept his home address off the radar. It wouldn’t be found using a typical internet search.

  The blonde’s arms dropped a few inches. “Aiden gave me your address for emergencies.”

  If Aiden had told her where to find his brother, they had to have been good friends. Why hadn’t Aiden mentioned he’d shared Connor’s information with someone? Why hadn’t Aiden mentioned this woman? His distrust was heightened.

  “What’s your emergency?” Connor asked. This woman was at his home, claiming to have information and an emergency. How dramatic. Maybe it would feel good for her to get something off her chest, but in all likelihood, whatever she told him, Connor would already know or would find insignificant, as most everything was compared to his brother being dead.

  Connor also wasn’t sure he believed her story. If they didn’t plan to outright kill him, it would be like Sphere to send an attractive woman and launch upsetting information at him to get him off guard. Sphere hadn’t given up on bringing him back in, and psychological games were their specialty. Connor wouldn’t fall for tricks. Aiden had been gone for seven months and Connor had made his peace with his brother’s death. He wasn’t getting taken in by a beautiful woman. Whatever this Kate Squire needed to say, he wouldn’t let it affect him.

  “Could you please take your hand off your gun? You’re making me nervous,” Kate said.

  He hadn’t realized he was clasping the handle. He removed his hand from his gun and put it at his side. If she gave him any reason to think she was reaching for a weapon, he could get to his gun before she could get to hers. “Answer my question. What is your emergency?” Connor didn’t take his eyes off her hands. A difficult task given that she had a lot of features worth a second and third long look.

  She lowered her hands and he allowed it. “I heard you were tough but, wow, I didn’t expect this.”

  What had she expected? If Aiden had told her about him, he would have told her Connor was a hermit who lived alone, who didn’t like visitors and who preferred the company of his books to people.

  “I have something to tell you that might be upsetting for you. Do you want to sit down? Or do you want to get a drink first?” she asked.

  No and no. “I don’t need to sit. I don’t need to drink. There’s nothing you can tell me about Aiden that will upset me.” Both he and his brother had worked for Sphere. They had completed missions and tasks that were difficult and dangerous. They had walked the line just shy of immoral at times, they had lived fast and loose, and they had loved the adrenaline high of working rogue missions all over the world in the name of liberty and justice. Whatever this woman had to say about his brother, whatever story she would tell, it didn’t change that Aiden was a good man with a good heart. Nothing would sully Connor’s memory or change his deep respect for his younger brother.

  The woman folded her arms over her chest. “I’m the one who needs a drink.” She laughed, a nervous jitter. The sound was light and tingled in his ears. Kate took a deep breath. “I don’t want to get your hopes up and I don’t want to make trouble for you, but I believe Aiden is alive.”

  Unrealistic hope flared at the word alive but realism tamped it down. “My brother is dead.” It was a fact. If his brother was alive, Connor would have heard from him. If Aiden’s lover had convinced herself Aiden was alive, perhaps it was a coping technique or the denial phase of her grief. Connor worked firmly in reality and the reality was that Aiden was dead.

  The woman looked at the ground, and when she lifted her head, tears shone in her eyes. “I think he is very much alive and he might need your help. I think he was captured in Tumara and is being held by the Armed Revolutionaries in one of their prisons.”

  Connor’s denial skidded to a stop. How had this woman known his brother was working in Tumara for el presidente and against the revolutionaries? El presidente was fighting to stay in power despite a burgeoning lower class who was demanding higher wages and better living conditions. Bruno Feliz was their outspoken leader. Armando Lopes, or el presidente, as the dictator was known, had assistance from Sphere to keep the revolutionaries down. Keeping Lopes in power would prevent upheaval, but Sphere only cared about the money.

  Aiden’s involvement in the region was classified. He hadn’t spoken about his mission or the work he’d completed for Sphere. Connor knew what he had done from keeping his finger on the pulse of Aiden’s work, a task he’d found more difficult the deeper Aiden had gone with Sphere. “Where are you getting your information?”

  Kate stepped closer to him. As she neared, the light scent of vanilla wafted over him. “I could get in trouble for this. For telling you anything about Aiden and his work. But I feel like
I have to tell someone. I work for the same company you and Aiden did. I analyzed some intelligence we received from our overseas allies and I have reason to believe your brother is alive. My cover—that is, my work with the State Department—puts me in touch with important people.” She shoved a hand through her hair as if frustrated with her explanation. “I know this sounds crazy, but I need you to believe me.”

  Connor’s thoughts shifted into overdrive. She worked for Sphere, the organization responsible for his brother’s death. Sphere’s agenda was buried beneath a flurry of excuses and stories and rationalizations. It was one of the reasons Connor didn’t work for them anymore. “You work for Sphere?”

  Kate looked around as if someone could overhear them. At least she had the paranoid-operative part down pat. Not that he had room to judge.

  “Yes. I work there,” she whispered.

  “Let me tell you something, Kate.” If that was her name. “I know how Sphere operates. They told me he was dead. Now you are telling me he is alive. If someone gave you that false hope, I’m sorry.” They could be manipulating Kate into seeking him out. This could be another attempt to coerce Connor to work a mission for them. “If my brother was alive, he would have contacted me. You’re being played.”

  Kate shook her head. “This isn’t a game. Aiden needs you. I have a picture in my smartphone that might change your mind. Can I get it out and show it to you?”

  Connor nodded his assent, and Kate reached into her back pocket and withdrew a slim phone. She typed on it and then turned it to face him. Connor closed the distance between them, poised to react to any sudden movements. Sphere would take out a target by any means necessary: deception, surprise, full-on attack. If Kate pulled out a weapon, he’d disarm or kill her.

  The picture on the screen startled him. Aiden was sitting on a dirt floor, a bamboo fence behind him. It was too small for Connor to notice any photo editing. She could have gotten a picture of Aiden and inserted it into the setting. A phony picture to tear at his resistance was a simple lie for Sphere to manufacture.