Under Daddy's Protection

by Serafine Laveaux

  Chapter Seven

  Sunlight streaming through the window woke Nikki up, and at first she didn’t know where she was. The bunny stuffie was tucked under her arm but it was the only familiar thing she saw. Gradually the events of the day before came back to her, like a movie played in slow motion. Watching Spongebob. The flower delivery that turned out to be something much uglier. Mr. Gage rescuing her and bringing her here. Throwing up all over herself and his beautiful kitchen. Her cheeks burned over that humiliating memory. Getting sick was bad enough but to do it in front of someone was the worst, and then she had to go and do it on his floor. If she’d been drunk sick at least she wouldn’t have remembered much of it, but no such luck. She remembered every embarrassing second.

  Mr. Gage had been incredibly sweet about it all though. He’d carried her to the tub and cleaned her up without a single complaint. That had been a little embarrassing too but it had felt so wonderful and comforting that she didn’t mind. Then he’d dried her off and dressed her for bed in one of his own shirts. He’d even rubbed her back until she fell asleep, just like her mother used to do when she was very little. Still, the whole thing was so confusing. Should she cling to Mr. Gage for protection, or be afraid of him? He had stopped the hired killer with ease, as if he were swatting a fly, but why was he there in the first place? Clearly he was a very dangerous man and she knew nothing about him, but she also knew if he’d wanted to hurt her he could have done it a dozen times over by now. Instead he’d been gentle and protective, even nurturing. It seemed like the best thing she could do at this point was trust him and see what happened next.

  She slipped out from under the sheets, still clutching her bunny and padded barefoot into the main living area. The open, airy layout of his place allowed her to see everything at once and she found Mr. Gage seated at the island, coffee cup in hand. Clad only in a pair of loose linen pants, his muscular arms and chest, washboard abs, and irresistible V of muscle formed the perfect path for Nikki’s eyes, drawing them straight down to the thinly veiled bulge hidden behind the lightweight material. In her fantasies she would eagerly reach in and pull his thick cock out, perhaps stroke it a bit before taking it in her mouth, but in reality she simply froze where she stood, eyes glued to his magnificent physique.

  “Good morning,” he said. Once again her face heated up as she realized she’d been standing there ogling him with her mouth half open. She wanted to run out of the room. So far she’d screamed at him, kicked him, puked on his kitchen floor, and now he’d caught her leering at him like a halfwit. Her only saving grace so far was that she didn’t vomit in his car. She was about to apologize when he set his cup down and stood up. “You don’t drink coffee, do you.” It was more of a statement than a question. “You didn’t have a coffeemaker in your kitchen,” he explained as he pulled the other chair out for her. “Had some stuff delivered this morning. Milk. Cereal. Bacon and eggs,” he told her as he went to open the refrigerator. “You need to eat something besides pizza and Oreos.”

  Nikki started to say she wasn’t hungry but her tummy growled loudly before she could lie. It had been a while since she’d eaten anything, and then it had just been a bowl of cereal. The ice cream certainly didn’t count. Mr. Gage glanced over his shoulder at her and raised an eyebrow expectantly. “What do you want to eat?”

  “Waffles with whip cream and blueberry syrup?” she asked hopefully. Right now a plate loaded with sugar-coated carbs sounded like heaven. So did an iced coffee loaded with cream, sugar, and caramel syrup but she doubted he would have that on hand.

  “Bacon and eggs it is,” he replied, pulling them from the fridge and setting a skillet on the cooktop. Nikki made a sulky face but she didn’t really mean it. It had been a long time since anyone fixed her breakfast and she wasn’t going to complain about the menu. Especially not after she’d made such a mess in his kitchen the night before. The sharp cleanliness of the kitchen as well as the rest of the penthouse had not escaped her attention, and she wondered if he spent much time at home. The kitchen didn’t look as if it had ever been used. Everything was shiny and tidy, from the knobs on the cabinets to the bottom of the sink. The fact that Mr. Gage didn’t seem to know where anything was only confirmed her suspicions.

  Nikki had a million questions and no idea how to ask any of them. For so long she’d watched him at his corner table and made up stories about who he might be. Now she was sitting in his home watching a barefoot, shirtless Shadow Man clumsily make her breakfast. The idea of learning the answers to her question frightened her. Perhaps it was safer to not know anything. Then again she’d never been very good at controlling her curiosity.

  He handed her a plate with two eggs and bacon arranged in a smiley face, then picked his coffee cup again and leaned back against the refrigerator. The sight of him casually standing there without a shirt on gave her butterflies, but her tummy demanded she pay more attention to the bacon in front of her. “How are you feeling this morning?” he asked as he sipped his coffee. “Do you even remember much of yesterday?”

  She shrugged. “I didn’t when I first woke up,” she said as she stuffed a piece of bacon in her mouth and sighed with contentment. It was a little burnt on the edges but delicious all the same. “It took a few minutes for it to all come back. I remember it all now.” She winced as she remembered being sick on the floor. “I kinda wish I didn’t. I’m, I’m so sorry, um, about, you know, the ice cream...”

  Gage dismissed her concern with a wave of his hand. “Don’t be,” he assured her. “You had a rough day.”

  Rough day didn’t even begin to sum up how her day had gone. Nikki twirled her fork around her scrambled eggs, her appetite suddenly gone as she realized she’d been worried about the wrong things. So what if she got sick on his floor? Someone had tried to kill her! It was crazy to even imagine. Frustrated, she threw her fork down and pushed her plate away. “Why?” she asked him. “Why did this happen to me? I’m nobody, why would anyone want to kill me?” Even as the words came out, she could see he’d been asking himself the same thing.

  He took another sip of his coffee and stared off into space. “No one ever gives me reasons,” he admitted.

  “But how did you even know?” she demanded. Breakfast was forgotten now. Nikki had woken up in a world she knew nothing about, and she needed answers no matter how scary they might be. “You knew. How? How do people even hire someone to kill someone else?”

  “Email.” He stared at his cup as if searching it for the right words to explain. “It goes out, lists a number of available jobs. You were one of probably fifteen on the list. I wouldn’t have even noticed it if the Velvet Jacket Cabaret hadn’t been in the subject line.” He ran his fingers through his hair and sighed. “It wasn’t the kind of job I’d normally take but I was curious. When I saw you were the target...” Gage’s voice trailed off as he watched her process what he’d said.

  “But then what?” she persisted. “I mean, who offered the job?”

  “I don’t know,” he admitted.

  Nikki lost her temper. “What do you mean you don’t know?” she shouted, shoving her plate away so hard it shot off the edge of the island and shattered on the floor. “You have to know something! You can’t tell me you just got some random email asking to kill me and you were like hey ok, sounds like a plan, Mr. Anonymous Sender! I’ll get right on it!”

  Gage sighed. “It doesn’t work like that. The emails come from the agency I work through. Whoever wants to put out a contract has to contact them to set it up. The agency creates an email for the job posting and mass mails it out to all the private contractors that it handles.” He squatted down to pick up the pieces of her broken plate and scattered breakfast. “I understand you’re under a lot of stress so I will overlook this, but the next time you throw something there will be consequences.”

  Blushing, Nikki squirmed uncomfortably in her chair. She was sorry she’d lashed out, but not enough to apologize. If anyone had the right to break a few plates
, she did, although she felt bad he was left to clean up yet another one of her messes. At least this one was just bits of food and ceramic. Without apologizing she pressed further. “You’re telling me you have an agent who offers you jobs to kill people.”

  He nodded but didn’t look up from what he was doing. “I called my handler to ask about the job. It was already taken.”

  “Couldn’t you ask him who wanted me dead?”

  “Her,” he said. “And no. She wouldn’t know nor would she be able to find out. The agency insures total privacy.”

  “Well, so that’s good then, right?” Nikki thought she could see a light at the end of the tunnel. “I mean, the person who was supposed to kill me is dead.”

  “It buys us time, that’s all,” he replied. “Whoever took the job is expected to report back upon completion so payment can be made. If the contractor doesn’t report success or at least a reason for a delay within a certain amount of time, then it’s assumed to be a failure and the agency will reopen the contract as first come first serve.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “It means anyone who wants the payday can try to collect. No reservations.”

  “So how much time do we have before that happens?”

  Gage glanced at the digital display on the microwave. It was nine-thirty in the morning, almost exactly twenty-four hours from when he first called Eleanor to ask about the Happy Hour job. “Time’s up.”

  * * *

  Gage hated to see the defeated look on her face as she processed everything he’d told her. She’d asked to see the email, and he’d reluctantly shown it to her, explaining what the seemingly innocent advertisement really meant. She’d tried to joke about the fifty thousand dollar payout, saying she had no idea she was worth so much, but neither one of them laughed. Gage wasn’t about to let her know she could be erased for as little as five hundred dollars.

  By his estimate more twenty-four hours had elapsed since the contract was reserved. Whoever the dead assassin’s handler was would be trying to touch base by now. If they couldn’t get a response soon they’d notify someone further up the chain of command about the failure to complete. If he was lucky the woman he’d left lying in Nikki’s condo had a history of unreliable behavior or else was a brand new recruit with no history at all. Otherwise someone might decide sniff around to see what became of their missing talent.

  The good news was that Nikki was off the grid, making the job considerably less attractive to any contractor looking to pick up an easy job. As long as she remained in his home she was safe from any other Switchboard contractor. The agency had a number of rules all contractors agreed to follow, and one stipulated that Switchboard-owned properties were off limits for collections. The last thing they wanted was a police investigation snooping into one of their businesses. Even if another contractor saw her in the building, he would be forced to wait until she came outside. Breaking the rules was grounds for erasure.

  However, he knew he couldn’t keep her cooped up forever. He had to get the contract canceled, and the only way to do that was to eliminate the client. Nikki was too rattled to remember anything of use, and she insisted she had no enemies. She’d pissed off a few drunks at the club by refusing to serve them more alcohol and had an ex-boyfriend she wasn’t on the best of terms with, but so far no one who would want to fork over tens of thousands of dollars to get rid of her. No gambling debts, no drug habits, none of the usual vices that led to someone waking up with a target on their back.

  The best thing he could do at this point was to simply keep her out of sight. The longer she was off the grid, the less likely it was anyone would find the contract worth the bother. It was also possible the client would consider her disappearance to mean their problem had been solved and retract it. His condo was the perfect hideout. He just hoped he could keep her entertained. There wasn’t much to do besides watch TV. Perhaps he could pick up a gaming system and some games to keep her busy. If he didn’t, she was liable to get bored and slip out to walk to Starbucks or grab a ride to the beach.

  After breakfast he’d allowed her to sign him up for Netflix and now she was sprawled on the sofa, engrossed in an animated show where one of the characters wore a sort of ninja cat costume. Of course she would want to watch that, he thought as he began to pick up the clutter already accumulating around her. She hadn’t been there a whole day but already there were dirty socks wadded up on the coffee table, two half-empty drink cups on the end table, and what looked like potato chip crumbs on the slate floor although he couldn’t imagine how they could be since he didn’t have any chips to begin with.

  “You need to pick up after yourself,” he grumbled as he tidied up around her. “Dirty clothes belong in the hamper in your room. Food needs to be eaten in the kitchen. And,” he added as he picked up the two glasses, “drinks go on coasters so they don’t sweat on the tables.”

  “I’m watching Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir,” she said as if she hadn’t heard him. “Best show ever.”

  “What happened to Bugs Bunny,” he asked dryly as he squatted down to scoop the crumbs off the floor. Crackers or chips he wasn’t sure, but he couldn’t remember ever buying either. “Nikki, where did you get crackers?”

  “No one watches Bugs Bunny anymore, it’s racist,” she replied, ignoring the more important question as she kept her focus on the TV.

  He stepped in front of her to block her view, raising his hand against her squeal of protest. She wasn’t going to redirect him that easily. “Nikki,” he repeated, “did you leave here to go get crackers?” The sulky look on her face was all the answer he needed. “Where did you go?”

  Perhaps realizing that stalling was only going to get her into trouble, she hung her head in defeat. “Downstairs. I just wanted to find a vending machine. And there’s none, not any in this whole building coz I looked!” She glanced up at him then quickly looked away. “And I was going to see if there was a convenience store outside and maybe get some there but then that creepy old guy downstairs saw me and asked what I wanted and I told him and he gave me a bag of Cheez-Its and told me I had to go back upstairs.”

  Gage made a mental note to thank Henry for catching her before she slipped out. He couldn’t believe she had thought that would be ok. “After everything that has happened you were going to go outside for snacks? Have you not been paying any attention to what’s going on?” When she continued to avoid his gaze he grabbed her shoulder and gave her a quick shake. “Nikki, look at me!” he growled, gritting his teeth in an effort to stay calm. “You do not leave this house, is that understood?”

  “It was just for a second!” she protested.

  “Are you serious?” Gage asked, shaking his head in disbelief. “You need to get one thing straight right now, little lady. When I tell you to do something, you do it. If I say stay in this house, you stay in this house. If I tell you to go to your room you better run the whole way there. And if you need something, you come to me!” He thumped his finger on his chest for emphasis. “You ask me before you do anything, is that understood?”

  “Yes.”

  “Yes, what?” Gage had cut her all the slack he intended to cut. It was time she started behaving.

  “Yes, sir,” she whined, her earlier look of defiance now replaced with one of contrition. “You don’t need to be mean about it!”

  Gage crossed his arms and fixed her with a hard stare. He had her attention now. “I’m not trying to be mean. I’m not the bad guy here. I’m trying to protect you from the bad guys, and the next time you disobey me I promise you will not like the consequences.”

  He was about to warn her of what would happen if she disobeyed him when his mobile rang. The name on the display made his heart skip a beat. It was Eleanor. In all the years they’d worked together, he could only think of two times she’d called him, and neither call brought good news. Telling Nikki they would continue their conversion later, he headed to his room and closed the door before answering.

/>   “Eleanor, this is a surprise.”

  “Gage dear, I wonder if you recall that silly club with the happy hour you wanted to attend?”

  Time has definitely run out, he mused. “Of course.”

  “It’s the oddest thing. My plans were unexpectedly canceled and now I’m free for that event. Are you still interested in attending?”

  Gage thought quickly. Accepting the job would buy Nikki at least another twenty-four hours but when he didn’t deliver there would be serious questions raised. He’d screwed up by asking about the job to begin with. Eleanor knew he didn’t get out of bed for under six figures. She might be his agent but she was Switchboard first and foremost and if she smelled something funny she would definitely investigate. Since he’d already shown interest in working, his best bet now was to ask about something else, perhaps a job that would get them out of town for a few days. “Oh, that,” he laughed. “Not really. I was bored, it was local, sounded like fun at the time. Now that I’ve got you on the line, how about something a bit more exotic instead? Something with beaches, maybe a little nightlife?”

  “Now you’re talking.” She sounded relieved but Gage still detected suspicion in her tone. He tried to tell himself it was just his own guilty conscience imagining things but it was a tough sell. “I have a gorgeous, all-inclusive package deal for one person in Tokyo. All first class travel expenses included. There are several nice beaches outside of the city and of course the nightlife is top notch. It’s only available for one week though.”