Unmasked (Godmother Security Book 1)

by Stevens, June

  The room was divided into two sitting areas, an eating area with a rectangular dining table, and an open kitchen that was separated from the rest of the room by a long L-shaped island with shelves built into the side facing the sitting areas.

  “You have a beautiful home,” she told Sebastian, who was standing in the kitchen.

  “Thank you, I designed most of it myself,” he said, pride in his voice. “I hope you three are hungry. Mrs. White left enough lunch to feed a small army.”

  To Cindy’s delight, he wasn’t kidding. There were sandwiches of homemade bread and thick slices of roast beef that had clearly not come from a deli, potato salad, baked beans, and sliced cucumbers and tomato. They all sat and ate. The men chatted about sports while Cindy ignored them, too intent on the delicious food to talk. Once the meal was done Gus went down to the boathouse to get some rest before he went on the all night shift later, and Jack went out to walk the perimeter of the house.

  Cindy helped Sebastian clear the table, and put the dishes in the dishwasher. It was strange how well they moved around each other in the kitchen. Yet as they worked, neither of them spoke.

  When the dishwasher was running and the counters had been wiped down, Sebastian said, “Come on, I’ll show you up to your room so you can settle in. You’ll probably want to change.”

  Cindy looked down at the straight skirt suit she still wore. Yes, now that she could, she wanted to get into something more comfortable that she’d be able to run in if the need arose. “That would be nice.”

  She followed him upstairs to a narrow hall with two doors. He opened the one on the right and stepped in. She followed him into a huge bedroom decorated in chocolate brown and sky blue. To one side was a king size four poster bed, and across from it were French doors that led out onto the upper balcony. An open door opposite the one she’d just came in revealed a massive marble tiled bathroom with a tub the size of a small pool. This was more like the mansion she’d been expecting. “This looks like the master suite. Isn’t it your room?”

  He laughed. “No, I’m across the hall. But you are right about it being a master suite. I designed it so that both of the bedrooms were masters. My parents visit upon occasion and I like for them to be comfortable.”

  “That’s very sweet,” she said, but she wasn’t sure if he heard her.

  “Gus brought up your bags,” he said, pointing to where they sat on the cedar chest at the end of the bed. “There should be fresh towels and soap in the bathroom. Let me know if you need anything, I’ll be across the hall.”

  “Thank you,” she said, but he was already shutting the door behind him.

  Glad to have a moment herself, she took her time changing, while still keeping an ear out for suspicious sounds. She was just tucking her plain, black t-shirt into a pair of black cargo pants when she heard the door across the hall open and shut, then footsteps on the stairs.

  She grabbed her gun and holster and buckled it on as she went down the stairs. She found Sebastian sitting on a leather sofa putting on a pair of sneakers.

  “Hi,” he said, looking up. “I thought I’d go for a walk. I need to work off that lunch.”

  “I’ll have to go with you,” she said.

  He shrugged. “Suit yourself. What’s with the fanny pack? You look like a gangster tourist.” He pointed to her waist.

  She flashed a grin at him and slid the zipper around and pulled the flap down to reveal her gun. “It’s open on this side,” she said as she zipped it back up and slid her hand into the opening. “So I can draw quickly.”

  He laughed. “Yep, gangster tourist. Okay, let’s go then.”

  Instead of going out the way they came in, he led her through one of the four doors she’d seen earlier. It opened into a large room, but this room was different than the rest of the house. It was darker, cozier, somehow. She noticed a fireplace on one wall, and didn’t see any electric lights. Instead glass oil lamps sat on small tables around the room. The room was furnished in rustic and antique furniture.

  Sebastian must have noticed the curiosity on her face because he said, “This is the original cabin. The rest of the house was built around it, but I left this room as natural as I could. It doesn’t even have electricity.”

  Cindy didn’t say anything, just looked around as they walked through, and went out the front door. They walked along the dirt drive in silence for a few minutes.

  “Does Faye have a rule against talking to clients?”

  Cindy, who had been looking around at the countryside, was caught off guard by Sebastian’s question. “I beg your pardon?”

  “I was wondering if there was a rule that you couldn’t be friendly with clients. If so Gus and Jack are some serious rule breakers. They’ve had dinner with me, talked with me, even watched movies with me while guarding me this week. You, however, have barely exchanged five words with me that didn’t directly pertain to safety protocols. Why is that?”

  Cindy gaped at him, her mind flitting around to justify her behavior. She couldn’t very well say I didn’t want to be too friendly in case you remembered we made out on your balcony. Finally she told an abbreviated version of the truth. “I’m sorry. Sometimes in my effort to be alert and professional I can come off as rude.”

  He seemed to mull it over for a moment, then said, “I guess I can understand that. I can tell you though, this is a weird enough situation for someone to be in—needing twenty-four hour guards—without having that guard be rigid and taciturn.”

  She nearly shouted at him that she wasn’t rigid, but she caught the quirk of his mouth and realized that was just the reaction he was looking for. Instead, she decided to give him what he asked for. Conversation.

  “You know, this is not the sort of place I would have expected you to live. I’d love to hear all about it.”

  He shot her a sideways glance. “Now you’re just making fun of me.”

  “No, I’m not. I’d really love to hear more about the cabin, and this whole place,” she said, truthfully.

  “Okay, then. The original cabin was built in 1797 by my several times great grandfather. He and his and his six sons farmed the land and built a sawmill about a mile in that direction, down the river,” he said, pointing off past the lake.

  “Six sons. You must have a huge family.”

  “Maybe, but I don’t know any of them. By the time my great-grandmother was born in 1896 the family had dwindled down to just her father, who was an only child. The valley around here may be littered with my distant relatives, but connections have long since been lost.”

  “That doesn’t bother you?” Cindy asked. Faye was the only family she had, and it was a bit lonely sometimes. As a child she’d always wondered what it would be like to have siblings or even cousins.

  “Not really, my Dad has four sisters, and I have a half a dozen or so cousins and they all have kids. I’m not lacking for family. Besides, apparently family ties aren’t all they are cracked up to be,” his voice lost some of its zest.

  Cindy cringed. Perhaps that hadn’t been the best question to ask, considering his only cousin on his mother’s side was trying to have him killed. She quickly got them back on topic. “You were telling me about your great grandmother.”

  “Ahh, yes. She was an amazing woman, according to my Dad. She grew up in the farmhouse that the Whites now live in, but we aren’t sure exactly which generation of the family built it. When she was young it was rare in this area for a girl to do anything but marry young and have a brood of kids. But, when she was 19 she went to Norfolk to one of the first nursing schools in the state, then when she was 21 she joined the army as a nurse and went off to war. She never came back here. She married after the war and settled in New York. Her brother and father both died in an accident at the mill. The mill and farm were shut down, and her mother went to New York to live with her. Neither of them could bear to sell it, so when she passed it went to my grandmother.”

  “And then eventually to you,” Cindy put in
, fascinated with his story.

  “Yes. When I was born she put this property in a trust for me. Though my father never owned it, he deserves credit for the fact that any of the buildings are still standing.”

  “He renovated the farm?”

  They were walking past the large white farmhouse now, with its wrap around porch. Their pace had slowed, as if they both were enjoying this talk and wanted to stretch it out.

  “He had always been fascinated by the stories his grandmother told of growing up on top of a mountain in Virginia, and when he was in his early twenties he came out here for the first time. He fell in love with it, even though the farm was overrun with weeds and the cabin and farmhouse both were dilapidated and falling down,” Sebastian said, kicking a large rock that could damage a tire off the dirt road.

  Cindy looked out at the breathtaking view of the mountains as she waited for him to resume walking. She felt a little in love with the place herself. “It’s the view, and the history, I think.”

  They resumed their slow, leisurely pace. “I agree. He brought my mother camping out here just before he proposed. She has always teased him that if she hadn’t loved it he wouldn’t have married her. He doesn’t deny it. They fixed the cabin up enough to camp in and we came out every summer until I was fourteen. But then Andy’s parents died, and he came to live with us. After that Mom felt it was important to keep up some of their traditions for him. So, it was good-bye camping and hiking in the Virginia Mountains and hello beach house in The Hamptons.”

  “Oh, you poor baby.” Cindy scoffed.

  He grinned, “I know, right? It was really a tough childhood.”

  Cindy rolled her eyes. “So, what about this place? You definitely aren’t roughing it here anymore. And neither are the Whites.” She turned to motion back to the house with all of the flowers but realized they were long past it, and now the tiny road was surrounded by trees. “Wow, I didn’t realize we’d walked so far.”

  “We can turn back, or we can take a path just ahead that cuts through to a blackberry patch, then back up around the pasture and behind the Whites’ house. It’s a bit longer, are you game?”

  Cindy didn’t think she’d ever taken a leisurely walk through the countryside like this. She’d always lived in a city, and though her job often took her to the country, there wasn’t usually time for easy strolls through the jungle or across the desert. Of course she was working now, too. As much as she wanted to take him up on it, taking a stroll through the woods and pasture with Gus and Jack back up at the house just wasn’t a smart thing to do. “As much as I’d love to see a blackberry patch, we really shouldn’t stray off the path. It’s just too dangerous right now. We should just go back the way we came.”

  He looked for a moment like he would argue, but just turned and started back up the road, his gait a bit faster than earlier. He was clearly annoyed.

  Instead of being annoyed herself, Cindy was a bit sad. He’d been talking so freely, and from the way he talked about the history of the farm, she could tell he really loved it. She hated that his good mood was gone. “We don’t have to hurry though. I’d like to hear more about how the farm was renovated,” she called after him.

  He stopped and turned back to her. He flashed that amazing, melt your heart grin. “Well, come on then.” When she caught up with him, he continued. “When we vacationed here, we always used the cabin because the farm house was just too dilapidated. Dad had a few improvements done. The only major one was having the boathouse built. We needed somewhere to store our boats and he had the room put in for me. The cabin was only one big room, and as I got older he and mom wanted more privacy, of course. And I, as the precocious eight-year-old that I was, thought it was cool to sleep in the boathouse all by myself.”

  Cindy slid a sideways glance at him. “You weren’t scared?”

  “Of course not. Boys don’t get scared.”

  She stopped and gave him a pointed look.

  “Okay, maybe I was scared a little the first night, or two. But you try sleeping in a room where there are boats rocking and creaking and knocking against the dock in the next room. You would have been scared too. It sounded like ghosts coming to get me.”

  She laughed at his indignant look. She tried to stop, but the giggles just kept rolling out.

  He threw his hands up in mock exasperation. “I can’t go on with the story if you insist on giggling like a hyena.”

  That just made her laugh harder. After a minute she took a deep breath. “Okay, I’m sorry. I’m good. Please, go on,” she said, suppressing more chuckles.

  “Where was I?” he said, pretending to be offended. “Oh, yes. Mom hated seeing the farm house just sit. She had been trying to get Dad to renovate it for years. She talked him into doing it when I was twelve, and adding on to the cabin at the same time. But he needed someone here to oversee the construction, and then keep the place up throughout the year.”

  “And that’s when they hired the Whites?” Cindy asked, her laughter faded and her interest in his tale renewed.

  Sebastian shot her a glance. “You ask a lot of questions. I like that.” He shot her a devastating smile. “Mrs. White had worked for Mom’s family, and came with her when she married Dad. Mrs. White was the housekeeper until I was born, and then she was full time Nanny to me. Mr. White is a brilliant landscaper and Dad wanted his expertise for the flowers out here. They came up with us for a weekend to consult and fell in love with the area. Dad offered Mr. White the job of overseeing the construction, planning the landscaping, and then care-taking when it was all complete. Their daughter had just started college and I didn’t need a Nanny anymore, so they took it. They’ve been here ever since. About twenty years now.”

  “You live here most of the time, don’t you?”

  “When I’m not in the city. And that is more than most people know. Even now that I’m taking over, most of what I do can be done remotely. As long as I have a computer and Internet, I’m set.”

  “I understand having an apartment in the city, but why do you have a fake country house?” She knew she was being nosy, but that question had burned in her mind all day.

  “It’s not fake. Well, I guess it kind of is. This place has always been the place I feel most at peace. It has always been very private to me. Other than the contractors that did the work on the houses and the occasional stray hiker, very few people have set foot on this property since the fifties. I had the additions to the cabin finished after my grandmother’s trust reverted to me when I turned 18. Since then I’ve spent most of my free time here. It is mine, and I don’t like sharing it. I have the apartment and the house in New York for entertaining, both business and personal, but this is my private lair.”

  “You make yourself sound like a loner and a hermit, but you seem like a very social and friendly guy. I know Eric had to cancel or turn down dinner and party invitations for every night this last week.”

  Sebastian laughed. “It’s true, I’m a social butterfly. I have a lot of friends and I do like parties. But to be honest, that is getting a bit old. These days going to parties or events are a part of business. I enjoy my privacy more and more as I get older. I like having this place as just mine. I’ve never liked the idea of sharing it. That’s why I keep the legalities of the place set up through the trust. It’s not easily traceable back to me. It would irk me to no end to have the press find out about this place. Which is why, I suppose, I’ve never brought women here. Besides, you’ve met some of my business associates this week, and I’m sure you’ve read the tabloids. Can you see any of the people I socialize with hanging out in rural Virginia? My place upstate is a mansion befitting my station, as most people see it at least.”

  Cindy laughed. “Point made. It must really bother you having Gus, Jack, and I here this weekend.”

  He shrugged. “I thought it would, but it doesn’t really. Jack and Gus are good guys. They don’t pretend to be something they aren’t, and I think we could become good friends. Bes
ides, I know none of you will sell information to the tabloids. If you did Faye would have you quickly and quietly killed.”

  “You aren’t wrong!” Cindy laughed, though she couldn’t help but notice he didn’t include her when he talked about being friends. Did having her here bother him? She wanted to ask him, yet knew that wasn’t a good idea. Why should it matter if it bothered him? It should bother him. And she shouldn’t care.

  “Thanks for walking with me. I really miss this place when I’m in the city for a couple of weeks like I was this time. I like getting back to nature.”

  Cindy was surprised to realize they were on the cabin’s porch. How could she have been so distracted? She was letting her fascination with Sebastian get in the way of doing her job, and that could be dangerous. She had to keep her distance from him, and taking walks alone with him was not the way to do that.

  “No problem,” she said, keeping her voice cool. “If you want to go out again make sure you have one of us accompany you.”

  He looked confused for a moment at the shift in her demeanor, but then said, his voice just as cold as hers, “Fine. I’ll be working the rest of the evening in my office. There’s food in the kitchen so feel free to help yourself.”

  Without waiting for a reply, he stomped inside and slammed the door behind him.

  “Brr, that was frosty. Is there anything I should know, boss?” Jack’s voice was tinged with humor.

  Cindy swung around to see him sitting in a rocking chair at the corner of the front porch. He’d seen everything.

  “Of course not. Keep watch, I’m going upstairs,” Cindy snapped. She stalked around the house to go in the back door to avoid Sebastian, Jack’s laughter following her.