Protecting the Heiress

by Nana Malone

  "That's okay. I’ll just have to watch myself around you."

  "Don’t I remember you saying something about just coming back from somewhere?"

  He sighed and shoved his hands in his pockets. "Yeah, the UK."

  "Well, obviously the accent gives it away, so I can't claim to have guessed that."

  He chuckled. "Yeah. I grew up splitting my time between the islands and London. My mother was a playwright. She's actually Welsh, come to think of it, but I was a London kid and a child of the islands."

  "Oh, were your parents divorced?"

  He shook his head. "Nope. I have one of those giant, super-tight-knit families. We just happen to be dispersed across the planet now. But no, it was just that every six months or so, I’d get popped into a different school so mum could have her West End run or whatever."

  "Oh wow, that must have been a tough time but what an experience."

  "Yeah, you could say that."

  "So, you’re here to what, be closer to your family?"

  The furrow on his brow was imperceptible at first. It was fleeting. If I hadn't been watching him closely, I would have missed it. "Something like that."

  "You’re cagey. There’s something I can’t put my finger on with you."

  His smile was sly. "I promise, what you see is what you get."

  "Somehow I doubt that. Tell me something personal about you. So far all I know is you’re great with Mayzie. Don’t you find it weird practically living with someone and not knowing anything about them?"

  He shrugged. "In my line of work, not really.” He shoved his hands deeper into the pockets of his jeans, causing them to tug down and reveal a very brief strip of skin over his boxers I’d probably fantasize about all damn night. “Fair enough. I left for a girl. I had a plan that didn't quite work out the way I wanted. But I'm here now, so sometimes a blip in the plan leads you to exactly where you're supposed to be."

  I smiled and nodded. "Sometimes you're supposed to look at something in a completely different way and then you feel—" I stopped talking and looked down at the journal.

  Was I looking at this the wrong way? I closed it and steadied the spine in front of me as I'd been given it. Or at least I had assumed it was the front. I flipped it over to look at it the other way and realized I'd been looking at the damn thing backward and upside down. Damn it.

  The layout of all the symbols still didn't read like a journal. It read more like a ledger. Like they were time stamps or date stamps, and possibly names. Locations, maybe? "Holy shit."

  He stood straight. "What? Did I just solve it for you?"

  I shook my head even as I grinned. "No, but you helped me see it better. Thank you."

  "I don't even know what that means, but if it helped then I'm happy."

  "Yeah, it's not a journal or a diary at all. It's a ledger. I think it was used to track, I don’t know, I mean, it could be anything really. But you see how these are shortened symbols over here on the left, and the middle ones are slightly shorter, and then the ones at the right are two lines. I don't know what the lines are. They could either be an address or an equation of some sort, but do you see what I mean?"

  He leaned over. "Yeah, I see what you mean. But why would your friend leave you a ledger?"

  "And that is the part of the puzzle I'm trying to get to. Why me?"

  He grinned. "Well, when Ariel found out that you were a cryptanalyst, she got all geeked out and super excited. All I basically understood from anything she said was that you're a code cracker. Maybe Willa wanted you to be the one to crack the code."

  Jax…

  Any second now, Neela was going to come down the stairs and my cover would be blown.

  "Can we speed this along, please?" I tried to juggle the iPad as I put Mayzie in her highchair. I had my earphones in for this little team meeting, but I didn’t want to have to answer any questions.

  Ariel sighed. "Relax, Jax. Besides, she's getting ready for a meeting anyway. She’s going to be a few minutes. It's fine."

  "Yeah, it's fine for you. You're not the one on the undercover gig. You’re living it up in bloody Hawaii."

  “Now that you mention it, my tan is exemplary.” She studied me closely. "Maybe it’s time to rotate you out?"

  But then I wouldn’t see her every day. "I can bloody handle it."

  "That's not what I'm saying. It's time to give you a break. You’ve been on all week. Let’s rotate Trace in and give you a night off."

  I was going to argue that I didn't need a night off, but that was a lie. I absolutely needed to get the hell away from here, or I was going to do something stupid. Extremely stupid. Something Ariel had strictly forbidden. Something I hadn't been able to stop thinking about since I saw her. So, maybe a night off wasn't the worst thing in the world. "Fine."

  "Good. Now that that's settled, where are we on the journal?"

  "She was working at it yesterday. She figured out that it's not really a journal but more of a ledger. She still doesn’t have the language basis yet, but my money is that she’ll get it soon. I know we’ve been spending some time looking at the ex, but I’m starting to think the kidnap attempt is related to Willa MacKenzie."

  Trace pulled something up on the computer. "I found this the other day. It seems that the gallery sold several pieces to Ian Vanhorn. He's the head of Vanhorn Diamond Brokerage. They have their headquarters on Grand Cayman. He's also known in black market circles as Mr. Bad News. You don't go into a deal with him unless you are damn sure of yourself or just as dirty as he is. It's possible that people he worked with think that Neela has something of value.”

  Ariel frowned. "Okay, Vanhorn… what’s his connection to Willa?"

  Trace shook his head. “Other than the art he bought from her, I can’t find one.”

  “Keep looking.”

  I frowned. Ian Vanhorn? "I feel like I've seen that name around the house somewhere."

  Ariel turned her gaze on me. "In the house? A file? What?"

  "Maybe in the office. I can't be sure until I go back in there."

  Her gaze flickered up the stairs behind me. "Do you think you can get in her office and find out for sure?"

  "Yeah. I'll figure it out."

  Trace grinned at me. "Yeah, you will."

  I ignored him. Arsehole.

  He shrugged and leaned back in his chair then shot me a text.

  Trace: Don't worry. I won't tell. And I have to say you are being a very good boy because Neela Wellbrook is nice. She's absolutely smarter than you. Hell, she's smarter than everyone in here, except for Ariel. And God, that body. She's beautiful. So I don't blame you.

  Me: Blame me for what?

  Trace: Sporting that constant prepubescent boner.

  Me: Are you always an asshole?

  Trace grinned as he tapped out his reply.

  Trace: I prefer to think of it as bullshit challenged.

  Me: Whatever. It's not like that. My job is the kid.

  He chuckled low and sat back.

  Trace: Oh yeah, you tell yourself that your entire job is that kid and that you're not at all focusing any of your attention on hot mommy there. I believe you.

  I scowled at him and turned my attention back to Ariel. The problem was he was right. I was hot for her. From the moment she walked into a room, it was like my internal compass only turned toward her as true north. It was annoying. Not to mention, reckless.

  Neela chose that moment to come down the stairs. “Morning.” I tried for a neutral smile. “Sorry still on the call.”

  “It’s no problem.” She leaned down to the table to give Mayzie a kiss before grabbing a cup of coffee.

  I didn't dare watch her openly. Instead, I watched her in my peripheral vision. She was freshly showered. Her hair was still damp and curling slightly on the ends. She wore a white and navy-blue shirt with black pinstriped pants. And she had the slightest hint of belly whenever she moved, looking so sexy I could lick her.

  No. No licking.

&nb
sp; I shook myself out of it. “Would you like some breakfast?”

  A chime sounded on my phone, and I ignored it. I didn’t need Trace’s bullshit.

  Double duty was bad enough. But the sooner we could find out who was after her, the better. Because I wasn’t sure how much longer I was going to last.

  Twelve

  Jax...

  "Let's make this quick."

  Trace grinned at me. "Easy, does it. Remember, I'm a hot manny too."

  I rolled my eyes. "She's next door working, so if we can move this along before my cover is blown, that would be awesome."

  He rolled his eyes. "Okay, okay. Where is the library?"

  "This way."

  Once we were in the library, I quickly checked my phone for the monitor on Mayzie's room She was down for a nap. Getting the kid on schedule hadn't been too bad. And thank fuck I knew how to do that. All those years with my nieces and nephews had taught me a thing or two. And Mayzie was a sweet kid. She gave Neela a run for her money, though.

  That baby was willful, but she could be so, so sweet.

  "Checking on the kid?"

  I gave him a brief nod. "Neela is persnickety, so don't move anything you can't put back the way you found it."

  He gave me a brief nod. "Not my first rodeo, but thanks for your input." His sarcasm dripped off of every word.

  "Do you have to be a dick?"

  "Yeah, well, when you have a big one."

  "My experience is when someone talks about having a big dick, it's quite the opposite."

  He gave me a chuckle. "Okay. So, Ian Vanhorn. Are you sure you saw something about him in here?"

  I nodded. "This is where she was the last time. We could check the living room too, but it's going to be risky. She's just across the courtyard."

  "Did you set the perimeter alarms in case Neela comes near the main house?"

  "Of course. It’s not my first rodeo either."

  He chuckled. "Touché."

  We searched the office, but there wasn't much to find. Neela had her own system, but most of the things in here were Willa's and sort of haphazard. The office was neat. There weren't any papers lying around, but there were books and knick-knacks and useless things everywhere. Where the hell had I seen that name?

  It took us about fifteen minutes to search the office, but we came up with nothing. Trace shook his head. "Anything?"

  I shook mine. "Maybe the living room? The kitchen is useless. There is not much storage there, but we can look."

  "Yup. Why don't you take the living room? I'll head upstairs. I'll look in her room, and the baby's. I'll see if anything pops. Don't worry, I won't go through Neela's underthings."

  "You're disgusting."

  "I'm not a perv. I just want to get a rise out of you."

  "Why?"

  "I want to see what you're made of. I'm wondering why Ariel came to you first. What makes you so special?"

  "Maybe Ariel has a thing for Brits?"

  "Yeah, you can be a teacher's pet all you want. Our boss is hot. She's feisty though. Something tells me, you have a thing for your client instead."

  "Nope. I know better."

  Trace grinned at me. "Sure you do."

  He was jogging up the stairs in a second.

  If Neela did find him upstairs, at least we could make it seem like he was relieving me of my shift.

  Another twenty minutes later and he was back down the stairs. "Nothing."

  I was still on the books when I noticed the box. "Bingo!"

  He came over. "What is that?"

  It was an ornate decorative box. But Vanhorn was inscribed on the bottom, under the lock. When I opened it, we both gasped.

  "Is that—" Trace asked.

  I nodded. "Fuck, I think so."

  "He gave her a diamond music box?"

  "Well, the music box isn't diamond. It looks like brass. But yeah, that figurine sure looks like diamonds. It could be crystal, but, I mean, it's Vanhorn."

  He whistled low. "Do you think they were boning?"

  "Who knows? But with a gift like this, something tells me the answer is yes."

  He slid me a gaze. "Do you think that Vanhorn is Mayzie's dad?"

  I shrugged. "There's no way of knowing. Ariel already checked the birth records. Willa didn't name one. Mayzie's father is unknown."

  Trace shook his head. "So apparently she didn't want the father in the picture at all."

  "Exactly, which, I don't know if that’s a good or bad thing."

  I lifted the box gently and looked underneath.

  I frowned. "Do you see that there?"

  Trace squinted. "Looks like a number of some sort."

  "Grab your phone. Take a picture."

  He snapped it and we placed the box back the way we found it and then gently shut it again.

  "I'll send it to Ariel and see if she can make anything of it."

  "Yeah. Thanks."

  "Good day. Not many people would have noticed a fucking knick-knack."

  I shrugged. "Well, let's hope it's something."

  "Maybe it is, maybe it's not. But at least we know there is a connection between the deceased mommy and Ian Vanhorn. Like a real connection. Not just that he bought art from her before."

  I rubbed the back of my neck. "I’ve got a bad feeling about this."

  "Yeah, that makes two of us. Good thing the two of them have us watching their backs."

  "Yeah, but we need to figure out who the hell is after them, and fast."

  Neela…

  The man cooked, and he cleaned. What was there not to like? And he apparently had a magic skill and a way of making things that maybe you like to eat. And so far, I did not have that skill.

  The thing was he was always around.

  Every time I turned around, there he was, being next to damn-near perfect. It was exhausting being so tense all the time. A few days with him, and I was ready to lose it.

  My reprieve was work though. It had been the smartest decision I ever made to move me, Adam, and Bex to the guest house.

  "Look, just go over there. You know you want to."

  Bex came up behind me. I nearly jumped.

  "Don't you have somewhere to be?"

  She grinned at me. "Yes. I wanted to tell you that we got a payment from the city. So, yay for checks. I'm gonna go down and deposit it at the bank. And then we have a possible new contract from them as well. Basic security stuff. They want to upgrade the governor's security system with something completely unhackable. After the last time, you know."

  Oh yeah, the last time. The former governor’s whole database had been hacked. Including personal photos. "Where's Adam?"

  "Client site. Former employee apparently locked the laptop so good, they can't open it. None of their encryption keys are working, so he went on down there to see if he could fix it."

  I nodded. "Okay. I guess maybe I'll go have lunch with Mayzie.”

  Bex grinned. "I think that's an excellent idea."

  She practically skipped out. What was wrong with her? She had certainly not been this happy when I'd been dating Richard. Matter of fact she spent most of her time scowling at him.

  Stop it. He's not a potential date. He's not someone you can be with. So just chill.

  I shook my head to clear it. I needed serenity or something. I stepped out of the guest house, careful to lock up after myself. Though we were on private grounds behind gated security, old habits die hard. We had sensitive information there. The extra layer of security didn't hurt.

  The sun shone on the courtyard. The birds of paradise were in full bloom, with their orange, green, yellow, and pink accents on display, flooding the place with an explosion of color. I did love this house, the courtyard, everything. But the courtyard was my favorite part. Being out there smelled like hibiscus and warmth and home.

  We'd placed benches all around the courtyard garden. There was a large grassy space for Mayzie to play on, and the benches had soft, cushioned padding on them. So we could
sit or lie down and read out there. I hoped that someday I would be able to take the time to actually do that.

  I opened the back door into the kitchen and was shocked by a sight I never thought I'd see.

  Jax was gyrating backwards and forward, and he was singing quite well and doing an excellent Mick Jagger impression. "I can't get no no-no-no..." Then he jumped and turned to Mayzie, wiggling his ass back and forth at me as he crooned out, “Satisfaction…”

  Mayzie clapped her hands together and said something along the lines of, "Sa sa," in response.

  I leaned against the door jamb watching them for a moment. She was happy. Truly happy. She had no idea her mother was gone. I would make sure to talk to her about Willa. Tell her what it was like to grow up with her beautiful mother and how full of life Willa had been.

  But at the moment, she was a baby, and she didn't need to know any of that. She just needed to know that she was loved and taken care of, and Jax was doing a damn good job of showing her that.

  He jumped around as if to give Mayzie the bootie shake view and stopped abruptly. He cleared his throat. "Oh. I didn't hear you come in. I need to get a chime for that door."

  I grinned in response. "Oh no, don't stop on my account. I was quite enjoying the show." Oh crap. What was wrong with my mouth around this guy? I never said stuff like that. That was Bex's arena.

  "No, I think we're quite done here."

  "Oh, come on. That's the best show I've seen in weeks."

  “Only in weeks? This is the best arse gyration on two continents.”

  I shook my head. "You haven’t lived until you’ve seen Bex twerk. It's a sight."

  He chuckled. "I'll bet. Now that you've seen my secret shame, I need to see yours. That's how this works."

  I laughed and shook my head. "Nope. Never going to happen."

  He narrowed his electric-blue gaze on me and I felt trapped, held in time and space by his words, "Never say never."

  Mayzie laughed as she banged her hands on the table in front of her. "Sa sa. Sa sa."

  Jax squirmed. "She’s making me sing the song over and over and over."