Bare Witness (9 page)

“It’ll be safer for us if we stop. We’ll be more than halfway to Cusco, and I think that’s where they are heading.”

Justine wasn’t going to argue anymore. Nigel wasn’t in charge of this operation. “We don’t want to be too exhausted when we get to Piper.”

He reached over and gripped her right hand hard. “I can’t stop while my daughter is still moving. I can’t.”

“Okay,” she said. “We’ll keep moving.”

There was something in his voice that told her he was serious, and that kind of passion and determination couldn’t be stopped. She knew it. She would do her best to keep them both safe as they drove through the night.

“I’m sorry, Justine. I know logically it makes sense to stop, but I just can’t do it.”

“I wish all parents were like you,” she said.

“I think a lot of them are.”

“Yes, but not all,” Justine said.

“Was your dad like me?”

“Yeah, he was. Man, if anyone had hurt my sister or I while he was alive, he would have gone after them with both barrels blazing.”

Nigel let go of her hand, caressing her with his finger before he drew away. “I can understand that. And women are supposed to be fiercer. Was your mom?”

She tried to recall her mother, but to be honest, she had long ago banished the thought of her face from her memory. She and her mom had never been close, and after everything that had happened with Franklin, Justine realized they never would be.

“No. She wasn’t into defending anyone.”

“What do you mean by that?”

Justine shrugged. This entire situation made it impossible for them not to talk about stuff like parents and parenting, but she didn’t want to discuss her own. “Just that my mom thought everyone should defend themselves, and that experience was the best way to learn that lesson.”

“Experience is a good teacher,” Nigel said.

“Would you really let Piper burn her hand on a hot stove to learn that it’s hot?”

“Of course not. Did your mom?”

“Yes.”

Justine fumbled in her bag and found her iPod. She jammed the cord that adapted it to play from the radio and turned on her workout mix. It was loud and raucous and exactly what she needed to discourage Nigel from talking anymore.

But the first song to come on was Marvin Gaye’s “Sexual Healing.” And though the slow melodic song was a favorite of hers for winding down, sitting so close to Nigel and listening to Marvin’s smooth voice singing about needing sexual healing made her realize that she needed it, too.

That for a long time there had been an emptiness inside of her that her job just couldn’t fill.

And until she’d met Nigel, she’d had no idea what was missing, but having him here with her made everything that had been missing seem very apparent.

She hit the scan button and a new song started to play: “Let’s Go,” by Trick Daddy. The raucous rap song filled the car and Justine kept her eyes on the road, pretending that Nigel was nothing more than a client.

J
ustine had tuned him out with the loud music, and Nigel really didn’t know what to do but to work. Only there was no work to do tonight. So he started thinking of anyone who would have a grudge against him. He was still drawing a blank when his cell phone beeped.

He glanced down to see that he had a text message from Constance.

He opened the message.

He turned down the music. “Piper’s fine. Constance sent a text.”

“Good. Check the signal. Are they stopped?”

“No.”

“So she must have sent the message when she felt she could do it without being observed.”

“I guess,” he said.

“What’s the matter?”

“I was just thinking about what you’d said earlier…I don’t think I can trust Constance again. Did Anna figure out where the gunshot came from?”

“I haven’t had a message from her, but we could call and check in.”

“Do you mind?”

“Not at all.” Justine took one hand off the wheel and hit two buttons on her BlackBerry.

“Sterling.”

“Nigel wants to know if you have identified who shot Jesse.”

“Well…I’m not a hundred percent certain, but I’d say the shot came from the backseat. That doesn’t mean it was Constance.”

“How do you figure?” Nigel asked.

“They could have forced Constance and Piper out of the car,” Justine said.

“Exactly. Why?” Anna asked.

“Constance just sent a text saying that Piper was fine.”

“She’s still moving,” Anna said.

Nigel heard the sound of keys being clicked on a keyboard. “I have a lock on her position. Let me see if Sam has any contacts around there. If we can even get someone to drive by or near them to confirm what’s going on.”

“Sounds great, Anna. I think Sam was already trying that.”

“I’ll just buzz him and see if we can find anything else. Are you two stopping for the night?”

“No,” Nigel said.

“Be careful. The altitude can be dangerous, and your bodies will need time to adjust.”

“We’re drinking a lot of water,” Justine said.

Nigel realized she wasn’t going to go back on her word to keep moving. That meant more to him than he would have thought. He liked a lot of things about Justine, but then he’d known that for a while. But now, he was realizing that there was more to her than just the tough-ass bodyguard and that glimpse of a scared woman. There was a deep well of caring, and whether she intended it or not, he felt it directed at him.

“Call us if you find out anything else,” Justine said and disconnected the call.

“Thanks.”

“For?”

“Being you.”

She gave him a long look. “No one likes me…I mean just me. People like things I can do and the fact that I can be counted on…but I don’t think anyone likes me—

He put a finger over her lips and she turned toward him again.

“I do. I like you a lot.”

“Even when I kneed you.”

He laughed because he couldn’t help himself. “Well, I wasn’t thrilled with your actions, but I think you must have had a good reason.”

She scratched the back of her neck and watched him with those wide eyes of hers. “I don’t know how good the reason is, but I do know that I couldn’t help myself.”

“Well, then I won’t trap you between my body and a wall again.”

“Is that all you won’t do?” she asked.

She turned her attention back to the road and he could tell she was getting tired. To be honest, he was waning a bit as well, but he was reluctant to stop. Yet at the same time, he didn’t want to put Justine in danger.

“I’m still planning to kiss you and hold you. I guess when we make love, you’ll have to be on top.”

Justine swerved a bit. “Make love? I’m your bodyguard, and that doesn’t mean doing anything to your body except keeping it alive.”

“You talk a lot when you’re nervous.”

“You are annoying when you talk.”

He laughed again and she liked the sound of it. She realized he must be feeling confident they were going to catch up to Piper. Justine knew she’d do anything to make sure they got to her. Protecting the innocent was one of the reasons why she’d originally been drawn to working for Sam.

“So it’s annoying that I want to make love to you?”

What was annoying was that he was trying to talk to her about sex. She’d never made love. She’d had sex a few times as an adult…well, okay, twice, and it had been nearly unbearable both times. Normally, she didn’t like men touching her.

“Stop talking about it.”

“Why?”

“Because I said to. I’m not the kind of woman you think I am.”

“I think you are supersexy and the most intriguing woman I’ve ever met.”

“Did you think that when I hurt you earlier?”

“Stop using that one reaction as a reason why we can’t be together. I made a mistake and pushed one of your buttons. I won’t do it again.”

“What’s to say you won’t do it again?” she asked. That was her secret fear. She’d never reacted to any other man the way she reacted to Nigel. He brought out such strong feelings in her that she couldn’t always control her reactions. She didn’t know what would happen if she tried to actually have sex with Nigel.

Except with him, she didn’t think it would be cold and calculated, the way it had been with those two other guys she’d experimented with. With Nigel, she kept telling herself she wasn’t going to kiss him again, and yet she was still drawn to him.

“Love, I’m not going to make you any promises other than to say that with me, you don’t have to worry about how you react. If you have to knee me again to feel comfortable making love with me, then that’s a price I’m willing to pay.

She shook her head. “Why? Are you some kind of masochist?”

“Not at all.”

“Then why?”

He shrugged. “You are different to me than other women. I can’t explain it better than that. Maybe it’s because you connected with Piper, and that I know you’ll do whatever it takes to save her. Maybe it’s…ah, hell, I know what it is. It’s you and those hard-as-steel eyes and your curvy body.”

“That’s lust…I can do lust.”

“Can you?”

“Hell, I don’t know. I hope so. I’ve never felt this way about any man before. A part of me thinks it’s because of how we met. But I’m not sure.”

“I’m not sure, either, that I can explain this. It makes no sense…the timing is all wrong, but I know that I’m not going to be satisfied until I have you.”

“Will you be satisfied once you do? What does that mean?”

“I have no idea…I can’t promise you forever.”

“I don’t believe in forever.” She could say that honestly. Maybe because of her father dying when she was young, and seeing her mother alone, but Justine had never really thought she’d find a man and spend her entire life with him.

She’d always known she’d move through the world by herself. And looking at Nigel now in the dim light provided by the dashboard, she saw the shadows and planes of his face, and knew she wanted to experience whatever she could with this man.

And since he had an idea that some intimacies made her uncomfortable, she thought she might be able to direct things between them. To keep him in that safety zone where she’d kept the other men she’d had sex with.

“I guess in your line of business, forever isn’t something you see a lot of.”

“Maybe. But even before working here, I never thought too much of the one-man-one-woman-till-death-do-us-part thing.”

“Really? Don’t you have any married friends?’

Now probably wasn’t a good time to tell him that her friends consisted of Charity and Anna, and that was it. Well, maybe Sam, but she’d never met him face-to-face.

“Charity is in a relationship now.”

“Now?”

“She’s engaged to Daniel, but in our line of work, it’s hard to pull the white-picket-fence routine. It’s exciting living on the edge the way we do. Who could give it up to be a stay-at-home wife?”

“Who says you have to?”

Justine didn’t answer at first, wanting to make sure she took her time and gave her answer the gravitas it deserved. “Everyone wants that. You know, there’s that picture-perfect family in all our heads, and it includes a man, a woman, and a couple of kids. And in most cases, that image is of the man working and the woman taking care of the kids.”

Nigel reached over and squeezed her thigh. He kept his big hand there on her leg. His fingers reaching down toward her inner thigh.

“Thats not my image of a perfect family. I’d feel constrained by having to be home every night and by making Piper try to fit in with some PTA-Pleasant-Valley-Sunday kind of place.”

“Why are we talking about this? You said sex, not marriage.”

“I’m not sure. But I can see we both have ideas about life that don’t necessarily mesh.”

Justine agreed because she knew Nigel still believed he’d find a woman and fall in love, and she knew absolutely that love of any kind wasn’t in the cards for her.

No one could ever love the kind of woman she was. She wasn’t cuddly and she wasn’t sexy, despite what Nigel had said. And she’d always feel more at home with her Glock in one hand than in a kitchen making cookies. And no matter what Nigel said, a wife had to know how to make cookies.

Nigel like rattling Justine. She seemed so competent and really unaffected by most things that would bother other women. She was cool in a firefight, hadn’t reacted to a dead body, and had been calm when discussing the fact that a nanny might have turned into a kidnapper. But talk to her about making love and she changed. Kiss her and she reacted with passion.

His mobile beeped again and he glanced down to see another text message on his phone from Constance.

Nigel almost dropped the phone. “There’s a message from Piper on the phone.”

“What? What does it say?”

“Just that she needs me.”

“Can she give you any other info? Tell her we are coming after her.”

Nigel held onto the phone like it was the only link he had to his daughter. He was so glad she was okay. It bothered him that Constance was bleeding and quiet.

“What did Piper say?”

He relayed the text conversation to Justine.

“Do you think Constance is dead?” he asked after a minute.

“I don’t know. I doubt he’d bring her all that way to kill her. He probably needs her to watch your daughter. Kidnappers usually either hire someone to watch the kid or drug them.”

“Drug them unconscious?” he asked.

“Yes. It’s sometimes better because they aren’t aware of what’s going on. But being drugged like that isn’t very good.”

“Is this discussion supposed to be helpful?”

“Would you rather I lied?”

“No. Sorry. I just want my little girl.”

“I know that, Nigel. I’m doing everything I can to get you to her. This isn’t what any of us anticipated.”

“I know. I should call my office.”

“You might want to wait another couple of hours until they are open.”

“I know.” The miles continued to go by, and Nigel realized this was the first night he’d spent with a woman in a long time. He’d been too focused on work lately, and maybe that’s why he was so attracted to Justine. He had a feeling that if they were in a relationship, she’d demand time with him.

She wouldn’t be satisfied with him working all the time…he wasn’t seriously thinking about a relationship with her, was he? He couldn’t be. There was no way he and Justine were going to do anything other than have sex.

“What are you thinking?” she asked.

“About having sex with you.”

“Nigel, you need to stop thinking about that.”

“Why?”

“Because we can’t have sex right now.”

“While you’re driving?”

“Exactly.”

“What if I just reached over there and pleasured you?”

Her hands jerked on the wheel, but she didn’t swerve this time. He liked how quick she was. He suspected it was because she was getting used to him and the way he acted around her.

“I’d say you were…oh, man, I don’t know what I’d do. Why would you want to do that?”

“Because I want to see you come.”

He hardened just thinking about it. He did want to see her come. And he wanted to hear the sounds she made as she was turned on. He needed those sounds.

“You do realize you only talk about sex when you are really worried about Piper.”

Nigel shook his head. “That’s not completely true.”

Justine didn’t say anything else, and he wondered if she was thinking about him pleasuring her. He was thinking about it. And a part of him wanted to order her to pull over so he could make love to her, but he knew time was of the essence. He’d heard the statistics…no, he wasn’t going to think about statistics. He was going to concentrate on the fact that Piper was as safe as she could be for the moment, and Justine was here.

Her BlackBerry beeped and she glanced at the screen. Driving while reading text was normally not something he approved of, but Justine did it in a way that was pretty safe. She kept her eyes on the road and read quickly.

“Anna’s got someone in the area who is going to the address where Piper is being held.”

“Can they take her out of there?”

“I don’t know. They wouldn’t do it tonight because they need time to check the layout.”

“What are you saying? How is this going to help us?”

“We’ll have a guy on the inside. That way we can find out who is threatening you and keep Piper safe.”

“I want to talk to Anna.”

“Why?”

“I think we need to know more about this person she’s sending in.”

“She doesn’t know anything else. Here, read the text.”

Justine handed him the phone and he read it again. She’d hired a mercenary to infiltrate the compound. Her guy was to protect Piper and gather information. A part of Nigel applauded the effort, but mainly he just wanted his daughter out of there.