She forced her attention back to the matter at hand, those two were still devouring each other with their eyes. It was time to get this matter settled.
“So, Ace, you’re saying you can’t take this case?”
Ace hesitated.
He glanced at Emily and didn’t reply immediately. He knew what she was doing. It was against their code of honor to turn away someone who needed their help, but this was conflicting with personal interests and most especially with his code of honor.
He wanted Sierra badly, with a desperation that took him by surprise, and he could see the answering lust in her eyes. However, as a personal rule, he did not get romantically involved with his charges. If he took the job, it meant he would have to bury any hopes of having her in his bed, or any damn place for that matter. And he was determined to have her.
So he pushed down the feeling of guilt and answered, “Affirmative.”
Emily looked at him without expression. “Fine, I’ll assign the case to Drew then.”
That pulled him up short. What the hell was she up to? She knew Drew had to be away for a while, besides the man had no qualms about sleeping with his charges. At the thought of Drew and Sierra, Ace felt his blood heat up. An image Drew and Sierra wrapped in each other’s arms flashed across his mind. Over his dead body.
“I’ll take it,” he said shortly, earning a raised eyebrow from Emily and a muffled protest from Sierra. He focused on the latter. “Drew has to go on leave and I’m the only other one available. Won’t be fair to him,” he said by way of explanation.
Sierra turned to Emily. “Is there no one else?”
Ouch, that hurt. Even though he could see why she did not want to be stuck with him the entire day.
“If there’s anyone who can keep you safe and ensure that no harm comes to you, it’s Ace. I would trust him with my life, and that’s saying a lot.”
It was saying a lot, especially coming from Emily. She wasn’t one who trusted easily, with good reason. Ace met her gaze and saw the complete trust she had in him and vowed to never give her any reason to revoke that trust. She must have received the message because the edges of her mouth tipped up in a small smile.
Sierra appeared to consider Emily’s words, though she remained silent.
“Are you uncomfortable with Ace?” Emily asked.
“He bothers me, but not in a bad way.” She ran a hand through her hair in frustration and Ace watched in fascination as every strand fell back into place. “Fine. I really need to get this over with and you guys are the best in town.”
“I’ll take that as a yes then?”
Sierra shrugged then smiled. Her smile was so cute that the other two found themselves smiling back. “Oh, alright. I need to get to the police station so where do I sign?”
“If you give us permission, our team will go into your house and install cameras and a security system.” She stood and Ace got on his feet as well. “You need to let Ace know what he’s up against. I’ll go get the paperwork.”
After she was gone, Sierra turned to Ace. He was just so virile that he left her hot and bothered. “Is this going to be a problem?” She waved a hand back and forth between them.
His eyes slowly traveled down to her mouth and lingered there. She could still taste the kiss from the day before and the thought made her mouth dry. She wanted to moisten her lips, but she really wanted to keep this professional.
His eyes continued their inspection, going down to the denim shirt dress she wore, all the way down to her sneakers. Then his eyes journeyed back up, remaining on her lips again, relieving the kiss, before meeting her eyes. The heat that met hers made her pulse jump. Her lips parted so she could draw in more air and his eyes went there immediately. Then he took in some air and expelled it in one quick breath and right before her, his eyes cooled as the passion seemed to drain out of him.
“You have nothing to fear from me,” he said eventually. “I never sleep with my charges. That’s a rule I don’t break.”
Sierra dropped her lashes to hide the sharp pain of disappointment she knew must be illuminated in her eyes. She was attracted to this man in a way she hadn’t been attracted to anyone before and she would have loved to pursue it. She knew it would lead nowhere. Ace did not look like the type to play happy families, but that was fine. She needed a heated and passionate affair to expunge all memories of Ray, her ex-fiancé, and who knew, maybe that would free her to find true love with a man who wanted the same things as she. Still, if he could ignore the sizzle between them, then she could also do the same.
Chapter Seven
Ace glanced at the woman seated beside him and turned back to the road. He was speechless. He did not know whether she was incredibly brave or incredibly stupid. Probably a bit of both. The two hours they’d spent with Inspector Fairchild were beginning to take their toll on her. She looked like she’d been drained of energy.
“Had anything to eat today?” he asked.
She shrugged. “I didn’t really feel hungry.”
“We should grab something.”
“Please, let’s order from my apartment,” she said in a quiet voice. “I really don’t feel like being among people right now.”
He could understand that, so he pointed the car towards the direction of her house. The drive took them over DuSabble Bridge through the Millenium Park. Glancing at the sparkling water of Lake Shore made Ace relax a bit. Even though he’d only moved to the city the year before, he felt like he could make the place home, at least for a while. There was something about Chicago that tempted him to believe in possibilities. The city was like him in a way. Scarred, broken, yet still going strong. It had a rough and violent past and beneath the put-together façade was a deep, dark mess that found a way to creep out regardless of how hard it was repressed. And that deep, dark mess was trying to crawl all over Sierra’s life.
“Why are they after you?” he asked after several moments of silence.
She didn’t reply at first and he thought she wasn’t going to, but then she did, “Senator Coleman is dirty.”
“Yeah, he’s a politician.” He didn’t see what the huge deal was. As far as he knew, most of them were dirty.
But she shook her head and through his side view, he saw her turn to face him. “No, not like most politicians. I’m talking drugs, fraud, mafia-related dirty. They sponsored his election.”
Ace digested that in silence. The implications were grave. “But if you are able to prove this, it could also expose the activities of this mafia guys?”
She sat back with a sigh. “Yes.”
Damn.
“They’re not going to stop, you know?” he felt the need to point out.
“I know.”
They were both silent.
“I think what drives me crazy the most is that I don’t feel safe anymore. I’m always looking over my shoulder, wondering if today is the day that they’re finally going to get me,” she said.
“What if you stopped digging?”
She stiffened and set her lips in a straight line. “Won’t happen.”
“I get why you’re doing this, don’t get me wrong. But they won’t stop till you’re six feet under, you know that, right?”
She shrugged. “That’s why I hired you guys. I am not going to let anyone intimidate me. Besides, even if I stopped digging now, I already know too much.”
Ace noted her clenched hands and the determination etched on her face. He felt admiration for this woman shoot through him. Keeping her safe was going to be a nightmare, he could see that already. However, she stood up for what she believed in, which was more than he could say for most people.
They arrived at her house and he noted that it was in a gated community. They passed through the security checks and then drove through till they turned onto her street and drove into her gate. The security seemed alright, but he knew that Silver Shield people had gone in and reinforced the security. There would be high tech cameras, sensor triggered alarms
and all the gadgets that were necessary to ensure that Sierra was safe. If there was any hint of a threat, they would know about it even before it could actually constitute a threat.
Sierra pressed a button and they drove into the garage.
“I’ll go ahead and open the door,” she said, opening the door before he could even get out of his side of the car.
“Stay right where you are,” he said. He felt her frown even before he saw it. “Look, I need to check around to be sure that no one has tampered with anything.”
She huffed impatiently before nodding. He could tell she didn’t like it one bit, but she was willing to cooperate. At least for now. He had no idea how long that would last. Seeing the stubborn set of her chin, he knew he couldn’t place any bets. Oh well, he was prepared for anything she could throw at him. Until this was over, he would be sticking to her side like a burr.
He felt a twinge of excitement at the thought and deliberately squashed it. So what if the woman got his juices flowing? This was a job and he would do his damndest to make sure that he did it well, and sleeping with his charge would only complicate issues and dull his senses. He needed to be one hundred percent on this. Both their lives depended on it.
**
Over the next few days, his patience was severely tested. There was no other way to put it, Sierra was a difficult client. Hell, he was ready to throw his hands up and walk out.
Everything seemed okay. They got along through the weekend, carefully stepping around the elephant in the room. He settled into the room next to hers, but she stuck mostly to her room. By Sunday evening, he’d had enough.
He knocked on her door. There was no response. He knocked louder without stopping and the door was pulled open.
“What?”
He leaned against the doorjamb and looked at her furious face without saying a word.
“Are you just going to stand there, or was there actually a reason why you’re trying to break down my door.”
“Do you intend to keep hiding in your room?”
“I’m not hiding,” she snapped at him.
He saw through her fury to the intense awareness she was trying so hard to run away from, not that he blamed her. He’d told her that he did not mix business with pleasure, literally. So she was giving him his space. He should feel relieved, but he didn’t.
“I never would have taken you for a coward,” he teased in amusement.
She narrowed her eyes at him. “If you’re done insulting me, what do you want?”
Ace paused, he knew exactly what he wanted, but if he said it out loud, she would slam the door in his face and remain holed in there till next year. So he straightened up and smiled.
“I made dinner. See you in five.”
He felt her eyes on him as he walked away and it was hot as hell.
He had no idea if she was going to show up and was pleasantly surprised when she did. She looked like a nervous doe as she walked into the kitchen.
“I want to apologize,” she said, much to his surprise.
“What for?”
“I’ve been a poor hostess.” She pointed to the breakfast nook where he had set out the meal. “I should have done that. I’m sorry.”
Ace was stumped. He was used to women who couldn’t cook and were unapologetic about it. He was not one of those men who expected to be waited on hand and foot and it the last thing he’d expected when he’d taken on the job as her bodyguard.
He walked to where she was standing by the door. “Look, Sierra, this is obviously a first for you, but there’s really no rule that says you need to feed your bodyguard. Most people don’t.”
She tipped her chin upward and said coolly, “I’m not most people.”
Ace was beginning to realize that.
They talked as they ate their meal and he got to realize that they had a lot in common. She also had no family left, and he began to get the feeling that she was fiercely independent.
That feeling was confirmed the next day when she got ready for work.
She was ready to leave when she noticed that he was also heading for the door.
“Where are you off to?” she asked.
That was when he informed her that he was going to work with her. She looked at him askance.
“You can’t follow me to work!”
“That’s what bodyguards do,” he explained patiently.
“Oh, hell no! It’s bad enough that you moved into my space, now you want to be following me about all day? Not gonna happen, sailor!”
Ace was quickly losing patience. “I’m assigned to protect your ass, and that means being with you twenty-four-seven.”
“Look, I did not sign up for this—” she began, but he cut her short.
“Actually, you did.”
She saw that he was not going to budge. “Fine!” She pulled open the door and stepped out. “But you wait outside.”
He didn’t, of course. He followed her right into the building and found a place to wait close to her desk, where she was within his sight.
When she left work, she tried to ditch him, but he had preempted her move, which only made her angrier.
She kept her promise and made sure that he always had dinner. He protested at first, but it became apparent that cooking was therapeutic for her and he let her be. She even baked a nice apple pie for Mrs. S and made him drive her to HQ so she could drop it off before going to work.
Ace watched Sierra trying to make the best of a difficult situation and his admiration for her grew. Along with his frustration. She still pretty much kept to herself. It did not do anything to lessen the attraction between them. If anything, the need grew.
Then that Thursday, she got an email from one of her contacts asking for a rendezvous. The location left his blood cold.
But Sierra made it clear—she was meeting with her contact whether Ace approved or not. And when he looked into her eyes, he knew that his hands were tied.
Chapter Eight
Ace was restless. It was barely an hour before the rendezvous and he couldn’t shake the feeling that going was a mistake. He decided to try to reason with Sierra once more and went to find her. She’d been in her room since their argument earlier that day so he headed there. He raised his hand to tap on her door when it was pulled open. Sierra stood there looking at him in surprise.
“If you are coming here to get me to change my mind I’d prefer if you don’t say anything.” She looked away, her chin set at a stubborn angle.
Ace tamped down the rising frustration. What she wanted to do was a security nightmare. “Please, Sierra, won’t you be reasonable?”
She turned furious eyes to him. “Stop it, Ace! I don’t want to go alone because I’m scared, but so help me if you try to talk me out of it one more time I’ll damn well go by myself.”
He stared at her as he tried to get hold of his anger. “Okay, I won’t try to talk you out of it,” he said, “but would you at least listen to me? If after I’m done you still want to go then I’ll take you.”
He waited for her nod before going on.
He took a moment to think about what she wanted to do. She was going to meet an informer in The Den of all places. It was in the seediest part of Chicago and known for drugs and all sorts of vices. If her suspicions were right, and it was the Abrantes Dukes who were after her, then going to that place was like walking right into their territory.
He had called in some of Silver Shield’s operatives for this and everything was in place, but if anything went wrong, and there were so many things that could go wrong, it would be a suicide mission. He tried to convey all this to her as clearly as he could. She listened to him and he saw the fear grow in her eyes as he described what could happen if things went wrong. Then she frowned and her lips went firm in a way he was beginning to recognize. Seeing the determination in her eyes, Ace’s heart sank.
“You still want to do this?”
Her eyes clouded and he saw a wealth of emotion in them before he
r lashes swept down to mask them. She took bit her lips and remained silent. Ace held his breath, hoping somehow that she would change her mind, yet knowing how unlikely that was. When she looked up again, her eyes were clear.
“I have to do this, Ace.”
He bit back a curse and gave a curt nod. He had never come across a woman who was more stubborn or pig-headed than Sierra. As the thought crossed his mind, Ace paused. Tamika was every bit as stubborn. He looked at Sierra with new respect. She would have made a damn fine operative.
“Okay. Get ready, we leave in a few minutes.”
He left her standing at her door. There were so many things he could have told her, but he needed to be sure everything was ready for that night. Rusty was at the HQ monitoring the cameras. His phone rang just as he got to his room. He tapped the hands-free device that was attached to his ear.
“Talk to me.”
“She change her mind?” It was Emily.
“She won’t see reason, damn it!”
“Didn’t think she would,” Emily said with a short laugh. “Okay, here’s how it’s going to play out. I’ve called in Sandro, Marty and Shane for this one. Rusty and I will be there just to even things out a little.” She went on to describe the plans that had been made for the operation. “If we’re lucky whoever it is will contact Sierra, she gets what she’s after and we leave immediately with no incident.”
It was highly unlikely, Ace knew. Even though they had swept the entire house for bugs of any kind and they’d also made sure that there was no chance of anyone tapping her phone wires, they knew that it didn’t mean she wasn’t being watched.
“I’ll keep her safe,” Ace said
“I know you will. See you at The Den.”
Ace took a deep breath and let it out. He knew that no matter what went wrong, and they had prepared for every possible scenario, his job was to make sure Sierra came out without a scratch. And he would make damn sure that was exactly what happened.
Silver Shield Security Box Set Page 4