Protect Me (3 page)

“First,
I expect you to call me Rick. Everybody does. I can call you Hope, right?
Because I gotta be honest with you, I’m not so good with the whole, y’know, the
name thing. Or the face thing. Or the people thing, actually. But I think I’ll
remember you.”

“Try.
I’ll be the one with the gun,” Hope said drily. Rick immediately looked far too
interested.

“Ooh.
Can I see it?”

“No.
What other requests?”

Rick
looked tragically disappointed, but carried on in an unfalteringly respectful
way that made Hope like him more. That wasn’t good. She was already far too
interested. She couldn’t afford to actually like him. Emotion was bad for the
vision.

“Well,
this sort of goes with the other thing, but I’d like you to dress normal so
people don’t guess. Whatever you’re comfortable with. This is fine, just not,
like, pink camo or a samurai outfit.”

“Now
you tell me. I’ll have to throw out all my luggage,” Hope surprised herself by
saying, and was surprised even further when Rick threw his head back and gave a
rich, full-throated laugh that carried over the ocean air and made the group of
men at the other end of the boat glance in their direction.

She
couldn’t help the little swell of - not happiness, exactly. Satisfaction? - inside
her at the unfamiliar feeling of making somebody laugh. At the same time Hope
was horrified. She hadn’t just blurted something out like that in literally
years.

It was
official. Hope had a To-Get list, and “a grip” was at the very top of it.

When
she looked up, Rick was smiling at her, his brilliant green eyes twinkling and
his face creased with honest amusement. To her horror, Hope realized that it
made him even better looking.

Think
about the Google safety filter,
she reminded herself.
You’ve
never fallen for a client yet. This is very much not the one to lose your
reputation to. Although you’d be in good company. Well… you’d be in a lot of
company, anyway.

“I
think we’re going to get along just fine,” Rick said, sounding surprised, and
at that moment Hope couldn’t entirely disagree.

CHAPTER TWO

Hope
glanced over her shoulder for the third time in a row, checking the stability
of her perch. Sitting on the edge of the boat like this felt risky and
rebellious. It wasn’t the most stable spot she could pick, and if she fell off
the edge of the boat she wouldn’t be much use as a bodyguard. Hope leaned back
and glanced up at the endless, slowly darkening sky. She rationalized to
herself that this was the only way she could have her back to anything close to
a wall. Rick was off to her right, choosing to stick fairly close to Hope, and
the rest of his posse were swapping supposedly witty banter and laughing too
loudly at each other’s jokes.

The ginger
man on her left leaned in a little closer and just barely missed spilling his
beer on her leg. Hope restrained a glare.

“How’d
you say you knew Rick again?” he asked, with what he clearly assumed was a
winning smile. His assumption was incorrect.

“Oh, we
go way back.” All the way back to several days ago.

Unfortunately
Ginger persisted. He chortled and leaned in even closer.

“No,
but I meant, like, are you his girlfriend, or…”

Hope
had been keeping an eye on Rick in her peripheral vision, so she knew that he’d
been talking animatedly with an animator. But even though she was sure he
couldn’t have been listening, he had some good timing, because right then he
jumped up and shouted, “Alright boys, party’s over! It’s almost night, where I
turn into someone that wants something better to drink than just beer.”

Apparently
there was only a party until Rick Stone said there wasn’t. The half-dozen men
jumped up like there were strings attached to their loafers and gathered up
their effects, still chattering amongst themselves.

Hope
automatically fiddled with the laces of her boots, casually giving everyone
else time to leave. When they had all headed for the exit, she got up and
started walking. Rick drifted back and grinned at her.

“Enjoying
yourself?” he asked.

“Am I
supposed to be?” Hope muttered, and Rick laughed.

He
followed her all the way back to the car she’d hired, and watched as she beeped
it open with a perplexed expression.

“Oh,
this isn’t going to work,” Rick said.

Hope’s
head jerked up and she stared at him in surprise, peering to see his face
clearly through the shadows. Night had fallen over the beach and everyone was
leaving. She scrambled with her thoughts, trying to understand - the last few
hours had been boring, sure, but then she didn’t imagine that listening to a
group of rich men congratulating themselves (undeservedly) for being clever and
laughing too hard at each other’s jokes would be entertaining for most people.
Had her behavior been unacceptable in some way? She had personally thought
she’d behaved flawlessly. If she had been quiet, well, she’d still laughed at
the right moments, and she’d demurred, “Oh we’re just old friends,” at the
appropriate time.

“What
isn’t going to work?” Hope asked, her fingers still gripping the handle of the
car door.

Rick
pointed. To her car. “That!” he exclaimed. “You’re just going to go home?”

“Uh…
yes?” To a hotel, actually, but it had been a long time since Hope had given
anyone information that they didn’t strictly need. Knowledge was power, and not
always in the ways you’d think. “I’ll arrive at your place tomorrow at eight
o’clock in the morning.”

He
shook his head, and behind him Hope saw the last car pull out. A small part of
her mind wondered if these people were really content with this kind of
existence. Of course they could afford to do nothing all day but sit on a boat
headed to nowhere, but it seemed a little empty. She could attest to the fact
that it was definitely very boring. Except, maybe, for Rick. Hanging out with
him might be a perk.

“No,
no, you’re coming back to my place. You’re supposed to guard my body all the
time, not just whenever you feel like it, right?”

Hope
shook her head, though she let go of the door handle. “That’s not really how
this works,” she said.

Inexplicably
Rick grinned. “Sure it is,” he told her cheerfully. “Here, I’ll pay you double
if you want, how about that? Besides, people have tried to break into the house
a few times, so I think it might be smart to keep you around.”

Her
breath caught in her chest at the amount of money that was being tossed around
so casually - her services didn’t come cheap. Still, that wasn’t enough to
convince her – it wasn’t like she really needed the money for anything.

“Wait,
people have tried to break in? That’s not - you didn’t put that in your file.”

Rick
shrugged expansively. He turned and started to head off, presumably for his own
car. “Must’ve forgotten.”

“You
can’t just - ” Hope ended up walking after him to get him to listen, “not tell
me things, how am I supposed to do my job if I don’t know about this stuff…”

They
had gone several yards when Rick stopped in front of a big black car with a
driver already in the front seat. He opened the door and gestured for Hope to
get inside

“Then I
guess you’ll just have to come with and quiz me along the way. C’mon, get in.”

Hope
narrowed her eyes at Rick. He smiled back guilelessly.

“I’m
taking my own car,” she said, and then realized she’d just acquiesced.

Rick’s
smile widened.

When
Hope pulled up behind the big black car and put it in park, she just stared for
a moment before getting out.

She’d
seen mansions before, but this was a freaking
estate.

A
vibrantly green lawn rolled away from her car in every direction. The two of
their cars were parked on a huge paved semi-circle that shot off in different
directions - a length of paving made up the driveway, but smaller paths forked
off toward what were presumably gardens, and the shortest one ended right at the
foot of the stairs that led up to the door of Rick’s house.

Well,
to one of the doors, anyway.

It was
easily the biggest house she’d ever seen, and that was saying something,
considering that her services didn’t come cheap, and it was pretty rare for average
Joe’s with 9-5s to need an expert bodyguard. And yet Rick Stone’s house dwarfed
all of her expectations. With its towering height, length that stretched off
into wings, and stone (of course) construction, Hope half-thought it might be a
castle.

Someone
rapped on the window. Hope didn’t jump, because she’d been watching the shadow
approach out of the corner of her eye, but she was immediately resentful.

“No, my
family did not have that thing flown over from England brick by brick, if you
were wondering,” a muffled but cheerful voice said through the window. “C’mon,
enough with the architecture porn, get out so I can show you around.”

Hope
blew out a silent sigh, grabbed her bag, and got out.

“I like
architecture,” she told Rick, who stepped obligingly out of her way and looked
at her with interest.

“Really?”
he asked, watching her as  she nodded. “That’s good. I like it when people are
interested in things.”

Hope
raised her eyebrows and they moved off toward the huge house together. She
said, “I think most people are interested in things.”

“You’d
be surprised,” Rick said.

In the
mixed outdoor lights and shadow, Hope’s eyes struggled to take in Rick’s
profile accurately. One moment his strong jaw and sharp cheekbones made him look
like a brooding Byronic hero. Then next second he stepped into a patch of light
and angled a smile at Hope that belonged on some heartthrob actor or singer.

She
swung her gaze back to the stone face of the house and frowned at it. Rick
seemed like a fairly well-adjusted, if demanding, human being. There was no
real need for her to be examining him like an enigma. He was a spoiled rich boy
grown up into a spoiled rich man, with a little charm added for taste. Hope
knew the type.

While
she was automatically scanning the perimeter, checking for obvious methods of
entry or routes of escape, they got to the steps. Rick reached out and brushed
gentle fingers along her elbow. It was a surprisingly observant gesture, and
although Hope had been keeping track of her footing, she still appreciated the
gesture. She nodded her thanks before drawing away. There was no reason for
Hope to feel nervous at all. Sure, this estate was pretty open, but no doubt
the inside was defensible if necessary. And Rick seemed harmless enough. He was
sure to be vapid and self-centered, but she’d certainly dealt with worse, and
she couldn’t complain about his attitude.

So why
was her pulse threatening to speed up, even as she forced it back down with
controlled breathing?

Rick
yanked the door open and held it for her.

“Wow,”
was all Hope could think to say as she walked through the door. Off to the side
she saw Rick grin as he stepped in and shut the door behind them.

The
interior of the house surprised Hope, honestly surprised her, in a way that
made her walk around in a circle just to get a full 360 view.

She had
figured that the classical face of the house was just a front, and that inside
everything would be sleek and modern. But she couldn’t have been farther from
the truth. Just inside the door there was an uncovered stone floor that split
off into hallways with floors that were covered by old but beautiful carpets in
rich shades of red and blue. The awning overhead was a mix of stone and wood.
She almost expected to see lit tapers stuck onto the wall. But here, at least,
aesthetics had given way to comfort: there was a chandelier over the entryway
and recessed lighting built into the wooden ceilings of the halls.

“Like
it?” Rick asked. She nodded and he looked pleased. “C’mon, let me show you
where you can stay.”

Hope
was busy looking around the halls, putting together a careful map in her head.
Fortunately Rick seemed content enough to walk in a comfortable silence. She
appreciated it. Not everybody could accept the quiet. Some people had to fill
the void with noise every second, which she found distracting.

After
walking through four halls, up two sets of staircases, across a landing, and down
another staircase, Rick finally stopped in front of two doors set off to the
end of a hallway with a high ceiling set in what Hope guessed had to be the
west wing.

“Here
we go!” he said and fumbled through his pockets. “Ah! Excellent. A key for you.
No wait, two keys. No… three.”