Guarding the Broken: (Nothing Left to Lose, Part 1) (Guarded Hearts)

by Kirsty Moseley

  “I won’t, I promise. I didn’t mean to upset you,” he whispered, holding me tightly, stroking my hair. He moved under me and took hold of my wrist, straightening my arm and looking down at the damaged skin on the inside of my elbow. A bruise had already formed, blood was just under the surface, and there were little scratches there oozing with blood from my nails digging into my flesh. “Jesus, Anna,” he groaned, shaking his head. “Why do you-”

  “Don’t,” I interjected. I reached up and tugged on the sleeve of my shirt, covering it as best I could. I didn’t want to talk about it. I couldn’t explain to him that sometimes pain was the only thing I could control in my life, or that pain was the constant that never left me, and was the one thing that made me think about something else when all else around me crumbled.

  His eyes closed and his jaw tightened as his arms looped around me again, crushing me against him. Silence lapsed over us as I just let myself relax into his embrace. My body sagged against his with relief as I rested my head against his shoulder. I was emotionally drained.

  “What happened in the café?” I asked a couple of minutes later.

  He lay down and rolled onto his side, holding me tightly to his chest. “I arrested them,” he said simply.

  I couldn’t help but laugh. There were five guys in there, all looking to smash his face in. “You’re a badass,” I chuckled. He just smiled and kissed my nose and we just lay there for a few minutes, looking at each other in silence. It was nice just being close to him, we only really did this at night time and then we were usually trying to go to sleep. After a couple of minutes, his cell phone rang.

  He laughed and shook his head. “Wow, good timing, Dean,” he grumbled, looking at the screen. He answered his phone, still holding me tightly. “Hey, what’s up?” he asked, rolling his eyes. I didn’t hear Dean’s answer, but I felt Ashton’s body jerk in response. “Really? Yep, okay, that’s fine. Yeah, in a bit. Absolutely.” He disconnected the call. His face was tight with worry, but he was trying to disguise it.

  I smiled and reached out, brushing a lock of his hair back into place. “If I wasn’t allowed to hear the conversation, maybe you should have gone outside,” I said sarcastically, rolling my eyes at him.

  He chuckled and rolled so that he was on top of me. “Hmm, you know you’re not interested in the secret agent’s stuff,” he teased, smirking at me.

  “Yep, totally boring stuff,” I confirmed, gripping his hips with my knees, stopping him from going anywhere.

  He laughed and brushed my hair back from my face tenderly, smiling at me. “So, about that date… shall we say seven?”

  I sighed dramatically. “Can’t you just tell me what it is now? You know I hate surprises.”

  “Nope,” he answered, kissing my nose and pushing up off me.

  I tightened my grip on his hips, smirking at him. “If you don’t tell me, then I’m not letting go.”

  He shrugged as his emerald green eyes sparkled with mischief. “Hmm, well maybe I don’t want you to let go. This is a kind of nice position to be in,” he retorted, waggling his eyebrows.

  “Pervert,” I scolded, slapping his chest as I released my grip on him.

  He stood, bending to grab my hands as he tugged me to my feet. “I’m only a pervert around you,” he replied, laughing sheepishly.

  “Yeah right, player.” I scoffed sarcastically as he pulled me from the room.

  “I’m not a player!” he protested.

  “Mmm hmm, yeah, whatever.”

  As I turned to walk off, a small slap to my behind made me squeak in surprise. “I’m not a player! I’m a one woman man,” he stated, shaking his head.

  “Oh really? So that just means that you’ve never had a threesome?” I joked.

  He rolled his eyes at my comment. “Miss Spencer, you are the only girl for me,” he answered, bowing theatrically.

  I giggled. “Whatever you say, boyfriend.” I blew him a kiss and headed to the lounge to work on my project for school. I didn’t bother to try to listen when he slipped out of the front door to talk to Dean about the secret agent’s stuff that I wasn’t allowed to know about.

  ~ Ashton ~

  I smiled to myself. The word ‘boyfriend’ was bouncing around in my brain as I made my way to the door to go and speak to Dean. When I stepped into the hallway, I saw him standing there waiting for me, his face pale and worried.

  I slapped his shoulder and took the letter from his hand, trying to appear unconcerned. “This it?” I asked, swallowing my anger. He nodded in confirmation. I looked at the address on the envelope. It was addressed to Anna but had been sent to the College’s office address, so at least he didn’t know the address of our apartment.

  “The school just sent it over by messenger,” Dean replied, shaking his head nervously. I scowled when I flipped it over, seeing the prison address on the back. I didn’t want to read it, but I had to. “Maybe we should send it on to Senator Spencer and not open it.”

  “No, I’ll send it on to him after,” I disagreed. I needed to know what he said. If this was a threat against her, I would be wasting time sending it over to the Lake House and back again. I tore it open and held my breath while I read it, thankfully it was fairly short.

  Dear Princess,

  I see you’ve started a new school. You’ve already been there for a couple of months from what I hear, so hopefully you’ll stay at this one longer than the last.

  I miss you and can’t wait to see you. The trial is less than three months away now, and I can’t wait for us to be together again. I dream about you every night, how I want to run my tongue over every inch of your body and hear you call my name. God, I’ve missed your beautiful face so much and I hope that you’ve missed me.

  Maybe once all of this is over, we can move away somewhere nice. I know you didn’t much care for Miami, so we can talk about it. I hope you’re behaving yourself while I’m not there. If I find out that you’ve been with anyone else whilst I’ve been locked in this shithole, I will be very angry, Princess. You’re mine, and mine alone. I can’t even bear to think about you with other men, but I know you wouldn’t do that to me, so I try not to dwell on it too much. I guess that’s just me being my usual jealous self. I’ve just been apart from you for so long now that it’s starting to drive me crazy, I can barely think about anything other than holding you in my arms and taking you into our bed again.

  Life here is much the same as usual, nothing ever changes in this place, I guess that’s why I hate it so much – well, that and being away from you. I wish you would visit me, even just for a few minutes so I could hear your voice and see your face again. Sometimes I think I’m losing grip of you, at times I cannot picture the exact shade of your hair, or the exact fragrance of the perfume you favoured. All of that will change soon my Princess, just a few more months and then we’ll be reunited, and nothing will keep us apart this time.

  Well, I’ll write you again next week. Good luck in your new school; see you in a couple of months.

  As always, I love you.

  Carter

  xxx

  I could barely breathe through my anger. Dean was watching me curiously, so I shook my head. “It’s not a threat. It’s a love note from Carter,” I stated, almost spitting his name. Dean’s face turned angry too. “I’d better call her father. You tell Peter about this when he gets up. Don’t say anything to Anna, I’ll ask her father again if she can be told, I really think she should know about this.” I shoved the note back into its envelope and slid it into my pocket. I didn’t offer to let Dean read it, there was nothing of interest in there, and if these notes ever did get back to Anna, I knew she wouldn’t want people to know about them anyway. She valued what little privacy she had.

  Dean was watching me, waiting for more directions; I closed my eyes and thought everything through. He wouldn’t get to her; if anyone came anywhere near her, then I would kill them. He was talking about seeing her at the trial and about the future, so he wouldn
’t order anyone to hurt her in any way. He loved her.

  I opened my eyes. “Okay, she already has pretty tight security; I think we need to pull in a little further. We’ll cut far guard distance from a hundred yards, to fifty instead. Make sure you have your gun with you at all times. We’ll still go tonight otherwise she might get suspicious, but I think that both you and Peter should come, if you don’t mind. I’ll authorise overtime payments for you both for any extra hours that we need when we go out and stuff,” I instructed. Forcing a smile, I tried not to show the panic that was building inside me because she was in the apartment on her own, even though I was standing outside the only door.

  Dean nodded, so I pulled my cell phone from my pocket and dialled Maddy’s number. “Senator Spencer’s office,” she answered cheerfully.

  “Ma’am, it’s Agent Taylor. I need to speak to the Senator, please.”

  “That’s not possible, Agent Taylor. He’s in a meeting at the moment,” she replied apologetically.

  “Ma’am, please put me through immediately and tell him I need to speak to him,” I ordered sternly.

  “Um, okay, hold on,” she answered nervously. I was put on hold for a minute then he came on the phone, sounding slightly panicked.

  “Agent Taylor, what’s happened?”

  I took a deep breath. “Sir, we’ve received a letter from Carter here at the college. It was addressed to the college offices, thankfully, and not the apartment, so there’s a good chance he doesn’t know our exact location. It’s another love note, not a threat,” I stated.

  He drew in a sharp breath. “Oh God. Do you think she needs to leave school and come home?”

  “No, sir, I don’t. I don’t think he wants to hurt her at all. He refers in his note to seeing her at the trial; I honestly don’t believe that he would actually strike against her.”

  He sounded like he breathed a sigh of relief. “Okay, so what do we do?”

  “Well, I’ve already tightened her security. I’d like your permission to authorise overtime payments for times when I want to take extra agents out with me. Like tonight, for example, it would be helpful to keep Agent Michaels on for an extra couple of hours because we’re going out in public. That kind of thing,” I explained.

  “Yes, yes of course, you authorise whatever you need. Do you want me to send you another agent as well?”

  “Not at the moment, sir. If a threat comes in then I may request one, but at the moment I don’t believe the danger is any greater than it was,” I admitted. Sure, he knew which college she was in, he obviously had someone keeping tabs on her because he knew that she’d been here for a couple of months – but that didn’t mean that he was going to do anything about it.

  “Okay. Let me know if there’s anything that you need,” Senator Spencer sighed heavily.

  I cleared my throat. “Sir, I really feel that now is the time to tell Anna about these letters. It would make her safer if she understood why we’re always being so cautious with her security,” I explained, closing my eyes and hoping he would say yes. I knew she’d worry, but at least she would be more responsive to us guarding her.

  He was quiet for a minute, obviously thinking about it. “No, I really do think it’s best if she’s kept unaware. She doesn’t need to be worrying that he’s coming after her.”

  I sighed and ran my hand through my hair. Part of me wanted to argue the case that it was morally wrong to keep this information from her, but the part that loved her and wanted to shield her from everything bad, was actually a little relieved that she would still be in the dark. Her reaction to me drawing my gun on Nate was in the forefront of my mind. She’d been terrified that Carter had come back for her. I didn’t want her to start to worry about that now. I decided not to push him to change his mind.

  “Okay sir, it’s your decision. I’ll have this letter forwarded to you and keep you apprised of the situation.” I couldn’t help but feel slightly annoyed with him because he was making the wrong decision. As just her guard though, it wasn’t my place to make that kind of decision and I had to go with what he said.

  “Okay, thank you, Agent Taylor.”

  He disconnected the call and I sighed, looking over to Dean. “We still can’t tell her. Let Peter know that we’re going out at seven. If you could both be ready, that’ll be great. If this gets too much for you two then let me know, I’ve been authorised to bring in another agent,” I stated, grimacing, because I had no idea how I would explain another agent to Anna.

  “Right, I’ll see you at seven then,” he nodded, and headed over to take his position in front of the elevator again.

  I took a few deep breaths to calm myself and went back into the apartment, praying that nothing would ever hurt my girl. In the kitchen, I sought out an envelope, shoving Carter’s note into it and addressing it to the lake house. Peter could arrange for it to be sent special delivery tomorrow.

  I hung around in the kitchen for a while, trying to calm my nerves. Anna was like a mind reader at times, she could tell just by looking at me if something was wrong. When my body relaxed, I made two coffees and went into the lounge, watching her work on her project for college. My heart was throbbing painfully with the need to wrap her in my arms and keep her safe and never let her go, but I refused to make this any harder for her than it was every day. She needed to have fun, and tonight I would give her exactly that.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  ~ Anna ~

  At six o’clock, I went for a quick shower. I dried myself quickly and straightened my hair, putting on a bit of make-up. Then the long process of choosing something to wear to our date started. Casual and warm, he’d said. I chewed on my lip as I settled on a pair of jeans and a fitted black shirt, pairing it with some black converse.

  Once satisfied with my choice, I made my way out to the lounge where he was already waiting for me. “Wow, you look incredible,” he purred, looking me over slowly. I smiled and blushed under his intense inspection. “You’ll need a sweater though, it might be cold.”

  I frowned; confused as to where we would be going that would require warm clothing. “Where are we going, Ashton?” I called as I strutted back into the bedroom and found a hooded sweatshirt.

  “It’s a surprise, stop asking.”

  I rolled my eyes and slipped the sweater on, going back out to the lounge again. “Do I pass the examination this time?” I asked sarcastically, twirling on the spot.

  He grinned and nodded. “Trust me, you pass every time, but I want you to be comfortable so…” he trailed off, taking my hand again and leading me to the kitchen. Sitting there on the counter was a dozen white roses; he hadn’t given me any for two weeks because last date night we were in LA. He handed them to me, grinning.

  I smiled gratefully as I smelled them, breathing in their sweet aroma. “You’re so romantic, Ashton. Thank you,” I gushed, running my finger over the soft petals. He opened one of the drawers and held out a rectangular silver tin. “What’s this?” I asked curiously.

  “Open it and see,” he instructed, leaning on the counter next to me.

  I opened it to see a brand new set of inks, the professional expensive kind that would be perfect for my project at school. I gasped from the surprise. “My God, these are perfect!” I cried excitedly. “Thank you!” I threw my arms around his neck, hugging him tightly.

  “You’re welcome, Baby Girl,” he answered. He pulled out of my arms and picked up the bouquet of flowers, putting them into a vase and filling it with water. “I’ll let you arrange them later. Come on then, let’s go before the suspense kills you,” he teased.

  The drive to the secret location for our date took about forty minutes, and he even overstepped the mark by making me sit with my hands over my eyes for the last couple of minutes. “Oh come on, you’re taking this a little far,” I complained.

  “Will you stop whining? Jeez,” he scolded, laughing. I huffed and sat in silence. It was killing me, but I actually didn’t peek like I normally w
ould have done, he was so excited about it that I didn’t want to ruin anything for him. The car rolled to a stop, and his door opened then closed. A couple of seconds later, my door opened too. “Keep your eyes closed,” he instructed as he took hold of my elbow and helped me climb from the car.

  Sounds of screaming and laughing filled my ears, and in the background there was soft music playing. The air smelled sweet, like popcorn. I grinned, not having a clue where we were. The suspense was killing me. “Ashton, come on, please?” I whined, bouncing on the spot.

  He chuckled wickedly. “Okay fine.” His hands closed over my shoulders, turning me the other way. “Open your eyes.”

  Pulling my hands from my face, I blinked a couple of times as bright lights and colours overwhelmed me. I gasped as it all started to make sense. A fairground. I could see the Ferris wheel going around with twinkling fairy lights looped around every post. There were guys dressed up as clowns walking around on stilts, roller coasters, stalls where you win prizes, food stalls. I laughed excitedly and turned to Ashton, grinning, finally understanding the reason for the warm, casual clothes.

  “Ashton, this is awesome,” I chirped, grabbing his hand and stepping closer to him.

  “Do you like fairground rides?” he asked as he guided me over to the ticket booth, paying for two wristbands.

  “I love them,” I admitted. “Provided you hold my hand,” I added quickly.

  He smiled as he wound the blue plastic band around my wrist before holding my hand tightly. “Now that would definitely be my pleasure,” he flirted, dragging me into the park. We both ignored Dean and Peter, who paid for entry only behind us and followed us in.

  Deciding to do the scarier rides first, Ashton and I went on a couple of rollercoasters which, of course, made me scream like a little girl. My near guard had found my high pitched girlie scream extremely amusing. After, he led me to a hot dog vendor.