She looks back and forth between us a couple times, clearly trying to determine whether she’ll be in more trouble for letting us through or for turning away a star like me. Apparently, the second option scares her more. She gives us a polite smile and stands up. “Of course. I’ll take you back to his office. Follow me, please.”
As we fall in step behind her, Wes and I exchange bemused expressions. This is definitely one perk of having a famous name and a famous face: I can open doors that are closed to most people. The secretary takes us back through a long corridor and then presses a buzzer outside a door with a frosted glass pane.
“Mr. Goldschmidt, there seems to have been a miscommunication about the cancellation. Your three o’clock is here… a little early,” she adds, biting her lip.
There’s a pause, and then he replies through the speaker: “Send them in.”
The secretary opens the door for us and then heads back toward the front desk. Wes and I step inside, close the door quickly, and then walk over to sit in the big leather chairs in front of Goldschmidt’s desk. His eyes widen at the sight of me and he starts to reach for the phone, probably to call security. I have a strong feeling Wes and I look nothing like his three o’clock.
“Don’t,” Wes says, pointing to the phone in the agent’s hand. He freezes, looking at me with worried eyes.
“Molly Parker?” he asks, obviously confused. I see him reaching slowly under his desk.
I nod. “Yes. And if you don’t press that security button under your desk I will owe you a big-ass favor.”
Wincing as he realizes he’s been caught, Goldschmidt folds his hands together on top of his desk, leaning forward. “Fair enough. So, how can I help you?”
“Oh, like you don’t know exactly why I’m here,” I snap.
“Actually, I’m very surprised to see you around here… considering,” he replies.
Wes steps forward. “What do you mean? Considering what?”
“Are you going to make me spell it out? I’m talking about that nasty business with Eddie Arnold. Seems strange that you would come here, of all places, in your situation.”
Something cools off inside me. These aren’t the words of a guilty man.
“You know about that,” I murmur. He nods.
“Of course, I do. That’s why you’re here, isn’t it?” Goldschmidt asks.
“No. I’m here about my sister, Andie. You were the last person to talk to her before she went radio-silent on me. I know you’ve been working with her secretly,” I accuse.
He raises both eyebrows and leans back in the chair. “I respect the confidentiality of any client I may or may not be working with.”
“Listen, drop the wishy-washy lawyer bullshit,” Wes says forcefully.
“I’m gonna have to ask you to leave.”
I stand up and put both my hands down on the desk. “Look, sir. Things are getting very tense with Eddie, and you and I both know it won’t look good for you if you get involved. I could tell anyone I was here, drop your name… I know you want to keep your hands clean.”
The agent glares at me for a long moment, then hangs his head and sighs. “Fine. Fine. Andie Parker reached out to me about auditioning for a part, wanted me to get her set up. I felt guilty about it, honestly, because it’s the kind of part you would be great for, Molly. But with everything happening between you and Eddie right now… well, obviously you’re out of bounds. And besides, Andie was so insistent. Determined. I’ve been working in this industry for a long time now, and I’m a pretty good judge of character. And I can tell you one thing for certain: Andie Parker feels like she has something to prove. She lives in her sister’s shadow.”
I feel my heart breaking. Is this… my fault?
Wes picks up the slack. “Thanks for the lecture, but we’re here to ask about something else. Where did she go after your meeting with her on Christmas Eve?”
Goldschmidt looks shocked and confused. “Christmas Eve… she didn’t show up for that meeting. She was never here that day.”
Wes and I look at each other, totally lost.
“What do you mean? Where was she?” I demand.
Goldschmidt holds his hands up. “Hell if I know. I don’t have a lowjack on her or anything. She’s my client, not my dog.”
“Is there anyone else who might have known about that meeting here?” Wes asks.
The agent thinks for a moment. “No. Just me and my secretary. And… well…”
“Well, what?” I prompt him impatiently.
Goldschmidt looks flighty, like he’s considering just turning around and climbing out the window, he’s so uncomfortable. “The only other person who has access to all our files and schedules is… well, Eddie Arnold.”
“What?!” Wes and I exclaim at the same time.
The agent shrugs slowly. “I thought you knew. This company is owned by Mr. Arnold. He has copies of everything, all our paperwork.”
I stare at Wes, my heart pounding away in my chest. If Eddie knew about the meeting, which just happened to be taking place the same day his men tried to kidnap me, and Andie never showed up…
Goldschmidt appears to pick up on the tension in the room and adds nervously, “I have a strong feeling that Mr. Arnold is about to found guilty of something I don’t want to be associated with, isn’t he?”
An idea occurs to me. “Yes. He is. But if you do me one big favor, I will swear under oath that you had nothing to do with this.”
Clearly on the same wavelength, Wes jumps in. “Your secretary answers to you alone, right? Then have her send you Eddie Arnold’s personal schedule.”
14
Wes
“Hell no,” I shout to Molly as she strides across the parking lot, already halfway to the car and a good twenty paces ahead of me, “there is no way I’m taking you in there!”
“Yes you are,” she snaps back over her shoulder, and I catch a glimpse of the white-hot fire in her eyes. “You’re my bodyguard!”
“Exactly,” I say as I jog to catch up to her, walking alongside her and lowering my voice. “I’m your bodyguard, not a director telling you to jump out of a burning building. No way in hell am I about to drag Molly Parker into a firefight. You are my client.”
She stops and whirls around to face me, and I have to admit, her expression is so furious that it stops me dead in my tracks. “Oh, is that all I am to you now?”
I’m dumbstruck. In the moment that passes between us, Molly moves to the car and tosses me the keys before she opens the passenger-side door. “You said it yourself, Wes, Eddie wants me alive. He won’t lay a finger on me until I’m falling into his hands. Besides, this is the only chance we’ve got at this. If you know another time we’ll have all our eggs in one basket, I’m all ears.”
Goddamn it. I shake my head and stride to the car, climbing in and turning the key. “Fine, but you’re staying in the car once we’re there.”
She snorts, and I can tell that’s not going to happen either.
All this was because the schedule we got from the secretary had some very interesting information on it. Eddie Arnold has been meeting with someone named Atlas fairly regularly for the past three weeks, and as luck would have it, he’s meeting him again tonight, down by the docks. The short note in the schedule just said “Dock 16,” which tells me all I need to know--he’ll be somewhere in the vicinity. We will be too.
The only kink in the simple plan is that I know who Atlas is.
It’s not the guy’s real name. Atlas is the “business name” the leader of North Sonoran Security goes by, and he’s exactly the kind of guy you’d expect to be using a codename like Atlas.
So naturally, Molly wants to go drop in on the meeting immediately.
We pull out onto the road, and as we do, I grumble under my breath, “If you were just a client, I’d be charging triple by now to put up with you.”
Molly casts a glare at me, but I can see the faintest ghost of a smile on those lips as she looks back.
“So what does that make me?”
I raise my eyebrows. “Something else, that’s for damn sure.”
It’s a long drive to the docks from where we are in good traffic, and LA traffic is never good, so I thank god that this meeting isn’t taking place until midnight. That also gives us enough time to park far away from where we need to be so we can move in quietly.
“What happened to ‘stay in the car’?” I ask as we both get out, and she gives me a flat look. I roll my eyes. “Right.”
The docks are gloomy, vast, and industrial. Everything you’d expect and more. It’s like a sea of large, metal shipping crates and the cranes used to move them around. Dockworkers are off for the day by now, so it’s mostly security left moving around the place. Of course, I have a feeling security will “forget” to patrol Dock 16 much tonight.
It’s the way these things go. Workers don’t get paid enough, so it’s easy for shady characters to pay them off to look the other way.
“Are you sure you’ll be able to move quietly?” I ask Molly as we start making our way into the maze of metal ahead of us.
“Better than you can in a leather jacket and boots,” she quips, and I look down at my getup. As much as I hate to admit it, the clothes she borrowed from Andie’s apartment are a little better suited for sneaking around than mine. Still, I shrug.
“Served me well enough so far.”
“I’m amazed you can sneak up on anyone, lumbering around like you do,” she says, a teasing edge to her voice that I smirk back at.
“I was about to say the same thing. You can smell that perfume from a mile away.”
“Just because we’re snooping doesn’t mean we can’t be a little put together,” she says with a toss of her hair, and we have to fight the urge to laugh at each other.
It’ll be a very short recon mission if we can’t keep a hold of ourselves.
We get into position by the time night falls. Molly and I climb up a utility ladder and get on top of a shipping crate that overlooks a wide area that looks like it’s used for foot traffic fairly regularly, and I can tell that not much sound travels outside it. It’s the perfect place for a meeting like this.
Vegas doesn’t have docks, but I know a good out-of-the-way, industrial meeting place when I see one.
We settle down out of sight, and we wait.
After a few minutes, I see Molly starting to look uncomfortable, and I raise an eyebrow at her. “You can have my jacket to sit on, if the metal’s too uncomfortable,” I whisper.
“I’m just thinking...what if they don’t show?” she says. “This is the only lead we’ve got. If we’re just sitting on our hands all night then that’s another day Andie goes without help and-”
I hold up a finger at the sound of wheels in the distance, and that quiets her. We listen as the sound gets closer, and we can tell that there’s more than one car heading our way. We exchange glances and get into a position we can watch from while staying out of sight.
I watch the first car pull up--a large, black SUV with tinted windows. As expected, once it comes to a stop, out steps a man that’s easily my height and every bit as heavily built as me, wearing a tight black tank top and camouflage pants. Atlas was black ops, from what I’ve heard, and he never really lost the flair for military style.
A Porsche pulls up next, and I can see Molly bristle at the sight of it, telling me exactly who it is. A second later, the man who could only be Eddie Arnold steps out of the car.
My eyes go wide at the sight of him.
He’s an older man with leathery skin who looks like he’s been a sleazeball since the day he was born. Not much of a fighter, my instincts tell me, but men like that can surprise you if you underestimate them for a second. He looks agitated as he struts across the meeting space toward Atlas and the other mercenaries piling out of the car.
None of that is what makes my eyes go wide, though.
It’s Eddie’s face.
I recognize that face.
I turn to whisper to Molly, and my heart drops when I realize that while I was focusing on Eddie, she vanished. I look around to catch the top of her head descending the ladder silently.
What the fuck are you doing?! I want to scream. With the sounds of doors closing as my cover, I move to follow her.
I watch Molly get down to the ground silently before she heads to a hiding spot a little closer to the meeting, behind some stacked barrels. My heart is pounding. At that range, all it would take would be about ten seconds, and those mercenaries could spot her, throw her into a car, and be off with her.
I reach the ground and move up next to her. Neither of us have been noticed. I move to grab her by the arm by way of asking her what the hell was on her mind, but then I see my explanation.
She has a phone out, the camera lens facing the meeting through a gap in the barrels, and she is filming the meeting.
Evidence.
I have to give it to her...she’d do well in my line of work.
Eddie speaks first, throwing his hands out to his sides in exasperation.
“So why the fuck do I only have one Parker, Atlas? I pay you fucks three times your going rate, and I feel like I’m getting half effort. You taking Christmas off, or what?”
Atlas’s hard face goes harder. “The woman you’re asking us to deal with is a high-profile celebrity, Mr. Arnold. And I don’t have to tell you how much your legal battle with her is complicating things.”
“Jesus fuck, you sound like my lawyer now, and I ain’t paying you for that,” Eddie fires back, waving a hand dismissively. “So what the fuck happened at the hotel? She was backed into a goddamn corner, I should be balls deep in her by now.”
Molly is tense.
“You didn’t inform us she would have skilled personal security,” Atlas says, looking defensive. I recognize the look of a man who doesn’t want to be working this job anymore. I might be able to use that to our advantage.
“Skilled per- what the fuck do you mean?” Eddie splutters.
“Your ‘little prize’ hired a freelancer,” Atlas growls. “I don’t appreciate sending my men in without sufficient intel, especially when we’re already going above and beyond what we’d ordinarily-”
“Oh cut the moralizing crap,” Eddie groans. “Okay, okay, I get it, she gave you the slip. Shit happens. Whatever. Nobody’s dead, so I don’t care. As long as you kept it quiet, let’s just forget about it.”
Some of Atlas’s men exchange glances. Molly’s recording is still rolling.
“Let’s focus on the immediate future, and I mean immediate,” Eddie says, putting his hands together. “Because right now, Bitch Number Two is still at the lakehouse, and as soon as someone catches on to that, any plans for ransom go out the window, the media will be all over it like goddamn vultures.”
There it is.
Molly casts me an urgent look, but she keeps quiet, stiff as a tree, and looks back to the meeting, biting her lip so hard I think she’ll draw blood.
“If that happens, Mr. Arnold, I want to be very clear that our contract will end,” Atlas says firmly. “Transporting one high-profile person like her is dangerous enough. You’ll see us all tossed behind bars if you don’t keep a clear head.”
“Who the fuck do you think you are to talk to me like that?” Eddie snaps, stepping forward to Atlas, who doesn’t budge. “Did you forget I’m the one paying you? Besides, there’s no two kidnappings happening. Andie’s secure, so as soon as you fucks get off your asses and locate Molly, she’ll hand herself over so we can dump Andie and make it look like Molly just came to her senses and ran off with me.”
“The more you try to juggle, the riskier it will get,” Atlas says.
Eddie throws his hands up. “Well fuck me then, the sisters look alike enough that maybe I’ll just satisfy myself rawing Andie ‘till she decides to cooperate.”
In the blink of an eye, I see Molly’s hand dart to my side where my gun is holstered. My hand flashes out to cat
ch her by the wrist before she can pull it out. My skin against hers makes a soft slap, and Atlas’s guards turn their attention our way.
Shit.
“Boss!” one of them shouts. I know we have a matter of seconds before we have a lot of guns trained on us.
Molly reacts.
She keeps her phone in her left hand, grips my gun with her right, and pulls it out of its holster in the split-second that my attention is on the guards, and to my amazement, she stands up and trains the gun on Eddie.
“Don’t shoot!” Atlas roars, holding his hand out to his guards in the same moment that I stand up with my other gun in hand, training it on Atlas.
Eddie looks stunned, staring dumbfounded at Molly.
Molly’s hands are shaking, though, furious over what she heard, and in the tense seconds that follow, I worry that she might just pull the trigger on Eddie.
“You fucking monster,” Molly hisses, glaring daggers at Eddie. “I used to think you were someone I could trust!”
“Well merry fucking Christmas to you too, Molly,” Eddie says, a disgusting smile creeping over his face even as he puts his hands up. “That’s a pretty ungrateful way to talk to someone who took care of you for so long.”
“You tried to have me kidnapped!” she snaps. “You took Andie!”
“She’s safe,” Eddie says hurriedly, “and she’s gonna stay that way, okay?”
“Fuck you,” Molly says, tears in her eyes. “Give me one good reason not to kill you right now.”
He raises his eyebrows. “Uhhh, you’re welcome to do that, honey, but that’s not gonna look great in court. Besides,” he says, looking at the distance between us and them, “I know they taught you to shoot a little, but if you miss, things are gonna get ugly real fast.”
“She has a camera, Eddie,” Atlas speaks up, his eyes focused on the phone in Molly’s hand. “That footage needs to come with us.” He turns his attention to Molly. “Miss Parker, hand the phone over, and we’ll negotiate about the rest.”
“The hell we will!” Eddie snaps at Atlas, turning his attention to the bigger man. “You’re still on my contract!”
Rock Hard Bodyguard Page 13