Her Only Protector (7 page)

“I'm not out to hurt you.”

“You already did.”

A flash of alarm crossed his face. Then he looked at her quizzically.

“You interfered with my leaving Colombia when I needed to get home,” she reminded him.

“As soon as you tell me how I can find your brother, I'll put you on the plane myself.”

Sonny balled her fists and leaped from the sofa. She had to release some of the frustration that had been building inside her since long before she'd even set foot in Colombia. Since before Cash had gotten into the mess he was in.

The problem was she really didn't know how far to go back, but pacing the floor wasn't going to give her the answers she longed for. She wanted to know her brother was alive. She wanted to believe that she and Ellie would get back to the United States safely.

Even though Gil was trying to reassure her and get her to trust him, she knew he didn't have those answers, either.

“You just don't get it. You really don't understand how you've endangered all of us.”

“All of us? Why don't you tell me, Sonny. Then I'll understand. Because right now you're talking riddles. What are you hiding?”

T
he burden was as heavy as her fatigue, weighing her down so that her shoulders ached.
Lord, give me strength. Don't allow me to be blinded by this man.

“I'm tired,” she said, folding her arms across her chest.

Gil's face showed resignation and perhaps a little disappointment. His face was drawn and his eyelids were heavy. He was tired, as well, and probably fed up with her silence, too.

He held her steady with his stare. She could look at him all night, she decided. Gil had a way about him, that was for sure. Especially as he sat there with the baby in his arms.

“What's holding you back, Sonny?” he finally asked.

She answered honestly. “I can't risk it.” Her voice was low, even to her own ears.

He implored her with his eyes. When she said no more, he said, “Sonny, if we're all in danger now, you need to come clean. This isn't just about you and Ellie anymore.”

Sonny simply nodded.

“I think she'll sleep fine now,” he said, easing himself to the end of the chair.

“Thank you.” Whether or not he understood her thanks were for his not pressing her any further, she didn't know. All she did know was that if she didn't get some sleep, she'd burst into a million tears and truly be at Gil's mercy.

Sonny found herself longing to have him hold her as gently as he'd held the baby in his strong, capable arms. She felt as if she were a piece of fragile glass that could break at any moment.

She didn't try to take the baby from him. Instead, Gil followed her to the bedroom. She opened the door slowly, allowing the light from the living room to spill into the darkness, showing the way to the crib. In one smooth, gentle move, he settled Ellie into the crib, covering her with the blanket.

He turned to Sonny. The light from the living room shone bright in his dark eyes, making them glow. A shadow was cast over half his face, but she could see clearly his strong, square jaw and wavy dark hair. Her hands itched to touch the locks of hair falling across his forehead as he looked down at her.

As their eyes locked, the air in the room seemed to disappear.

“Good night, Sonny,” he whispered.

She closed her eyes as he moved past her. The scent of him filled her senses. He smelled clean like soap and fresh air. It was a heady scent that made her lightheaded.

When Gil closed the door behind him, Sonny dropped to her knees by the bed. The room was dark. The baby and Cooper were asleep. She was alone with her thoughts.

She'd never felt the need to kneel while praying. But tonight she felt her strength slipping away and she needed help.

In the darkness her eyes filled with tears. She didn't speak her prayer out loud, but rather let the words run through her mind as she asked the Lord how she could be so attracted to a man who wanted to cause harm to someone she loved so dearly.

 

I am losing it.
Gil walked across the cool tiled floor in his bare feet, picked up the remote and turned off the television. He was dead on his feet.

He'd hardly slept more than four hours a night in the past few weeks. But he knew if he climbed into his bed, he'd just be watching the red digital numbers on the clock until light crept in through the window.

The woman had him rattled. That was for sure. Maybe he'd been at this job way too long. If Sonny Montgomery could smooth his edge, steal his focus and distract him from the process of bringing in a criminal, he was losing it. How effective could he be as a bounty hunter if he spent his time looking at her upturned nose and the freckles on her cheeks?

“Real professional, Gil. Nice work,” he chided himself as he rearranged the pillows on the sofa, punching them down. Then he stretched himself out on the length of the couch.

He wasn't even going to think about why he was noticing freckles on a woman he was sure was in trouble up to her baby-blue eyes.
And they were truly magnificent eyes.

He sputtered at the thought. “So she has pretty eyes,” he said quietly, glancing at the bedroom door. “They're just eyes.”

But she had kissed him. He couldn't even put into words how much the kiss had surprised him…and affected him. Granted, there was nothing intimate about the kiss. He knew that. But the look on her face as she'd stood on tiptoe to reach him—the connection he'd made with her eyes and the feel of her lips on his—was still very much in his mind. It played over and over again.

That was why he couldn't sleep. How could a man sleep with a face like Sonny Montgomery's running through his mind?

Gil shook his head, muttering, “Women.” Sighing, he looked up at the ceiling. “Is this supposed to mean something?”

Startled by his action, he tensed. Gil hadn't had the Lord in his life for more years than he could count.

There'd never been a definite breaking away from his faith. Things had faded away when his mom lost her sister. She stopped going to church. Stopped doing the things she'd always loved doing.

Despite his concern, his father had never pushed the issue and eventually his mom began going back to church again. But that wasn't until after Gil had left for the army. By then Gil's relationship with God had taken a backseat to everything else in his life.

Funny how a few short hours with a Christian woman who wasn't afraid to show her faith had him falling into old habits. He couldn't exactly say that it bothered him. It was actually a breath of fresh air.

“Is this Your way of getting my attention?”

Gil didn't expect an answer. He knew better. But as his dad had always said, putting the words out there was how you made the connection. No telephone required to talk to the Lord, he remembered his dad telling him before he'd gotten on the plane for boot camp. Just close your eyes and He'll listen.

Gil needed to wipe the image of Sonny from his brain as best he could. Pulling the blanket from the back of the sofa, he covered himself, rolled to his side and closed his eyes.

She was still there in his mind. Somehow she'd gotten under his skin. Who was he kidding? He wasn't going to sleep at all tonight.

He tried to focus on work. Gil was sure Sonny had been trying to steer him the wrong way earlier when she'd been on the computer. Marco had to work his magic and find that e-mail.

“That's right,” he muttered. “Keep your mind on the job, not the woman.”

If Sonny had sent a message to warn her brother that Gil and his team were on to him, Marco would find it. And Gil would use it to find Cash. No matter how much the image of Cash's little sister kept Gil tossing tonight.

 

“Yo, Gil.” His body shook as if he was in the middle of an earthquake. “Dude, wake up!”

Reluctant to be pulled from the comfortable position he'd been sleeping in, Gil opened one eye. It refused to stay open. “What is it? What's happened?” he said in a raspy, sleep-filled voice. Hadn't he just fallen asleep?

He was vaguely aware that the earth had stopped moving and it dawned on him that Cooper had been shaking him awake. He took a moment to position himself upright and fully open his eyes.

“You were sleeping like you were dead. Marco's been calling you from the kitchen for at least five minutes and you didn't so much as twitch,” Cooper said, sitting back on the other end of the sofa. “He's got something.”

That kicked Gil into gear. He rubbed his hands over his face. When he found the strength to stand up, he was stopped by the look on Cooper's face.

“Is it good or bad?”

She shrugged. “Not sure yet. Go talk to Marco.”

Gil went to the kitchen, his bare feet cold on the tiled floor. He found Marco perched on a stool, typing furiously and poring through pages of printout.

“She's good. I'll give her that. She managed to send an e-mail and cover her tracks—mostly—in that short amount of time we were gone. She left an imprint.”

“Good. Did she e-mail Cash?” He felt a rush of disappointment. Even though Gil wanted to find information about Cash, part of him hoped that Sonny had been telling the truth about the computer.

“I hope not. If she did, we are in the wrong country.”

Gil frowned. “How do you know?”

“I was able to track her e-mail by following the IP address. Don't ask me how or I'll have to plead the Fifth Amendment. Or kill you. Take your pick,” Marco said with a laugh.

“Just tell me where it ended up.”

“A hotel in Miami. It went through a dedicated line, so my guess is it was picked up at the hotel's business center.”

“She was taking a plane to Miami,” Gil said, suddenly wondering who else besides her father might be meeting her there. His mind immediately shifted to whether or not Sonny was meeting a boyfriend. She was, after all, a beautiful woman. Just because Marco hadn't uncovered any information about Sonny's involvements didn't mean she didn't have any. It just meant that Marco hadn't looked deep enough.

Until this moment, it hadn't mattered to Gil. What did he care if she had a boyfriend? But now, that little bit of information was something he needed to know.

“The e-mail didn't say much. Kind of cryptic, if you ask me,” Marco said, pulling it up on the screen.

“What did it say?”

“It said, ‘Detained, Dad. Tell Serena we'll both be home for her birthday. I'll be in touch.'”

Gil stared at the words on the screen. “That's it?”

“That's it. Probably all she had time for. Who do you think the ‘we' is?”

“Guys!” Cooper called from the other room.

With a brief glance toward Cooper, Gil answered, “Ellie, I suppose.”

“Gillespie! You're going to want to see this!”

The urgent sound of Cooper's voice drew Gil and Marco to the living room. Cooper was on the sofa with the remote in her hand, staring intently at the television. Her face was ashen.

“What's going on?”

“Ah, maybe nothing. But there's some big brouhaha over a missing baby. Some businessman says his baby was taken from her crib in the early morning
yesterday.
Didn't you say you hadn't seen Sonny with a baby before yesterday?”

A dull ache began to grow in the pit of his stomach. “Yeah.”

Of the three of them, Cooper was most fluent in Spanish, so she translated as the news anchor talked.

“Eduardo Sanchez and his wife adopted a baby girl three months ago after trying unsuccessfully to have a child of their own. Early yesterday morning someone entered their estate and took the child.” Cooper looked at the guys. “They aren't showing a picture of the baby,” she said.

Gil turned away from the television and stared at the bedroom where Sonny and Ellie were still sleeping. “Do we really need one?”

“You think they're talking about Ellie?” Marco asked.

“No way,” Cooper said, her eyes wide with alarm. “You think she stole the kid?”

Was it just coincidence that Eduardo Sanchez's baby disappeared on the same morning that Ellie magically appeared with Sonny? Gil didn't like coincidences.

“You said Eduardo Sanchez was a businessman? What business?” Gil asked.

“You'll like this,” Cooper said. “Aztec Corporation.”

“Sonny knows something she's trying real hard to keep from us and I'm not waiting any longer to find out what that is. Sonny?” he called, banging on the bedroom door.

Cooper bolted from the sofa. “You're going to wake up the entire complex. Let me get her.”

But before Cooper could go into the bedroom, the door opened.

“What is your problem?” Sonny said. “Ellie's sleeping. And after the night I had with her, I'd just as soon keep it that way for a while.”

“Come here.”

Gil ignored the fact that her hair was wet and she smelled fresh like baby powder. Fighting all his senses, he took Sonny by the arm and dragged her into the living room.

“I have to dry my hair.”

“It can wait.”

“Obviously you don't have unruly hair or you wouldn't suggest such a thing,” Sonny said, joking with him.

Gil pointed to the television. “What's this all about?”

“You tell me.”

Sonny stared at the television while a fierce-looking Eduardo Sanchez pounded on a podium and spoke of the kidnapping.

She turned and faced Gil, her expression unreadable. “I have no idea.”

“Don't give me that. You spoke Spanish perfectly yesterday. You know what he's saying.”

She cocked her head to one side. “Yes, I know what this man is saying. He's saying his baby has been kidnapped. But why should that matter to me? I don't know where his baby is.”

“Why don't I believe you?”