Protect Me: Protectors at Heart (3 page)

BOOK: Protect Me: Protectors at Heart
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She would run again and hide before the situation got even more out of hand.

“Mac, I need to go. I can’t let you spend all this money on my problem. I’ll find a place to hide and wait for it to all blow over.”

S
he was still in denial
, thinking this was just a man stalking her. Mac had a bad taste in his mouth, things weren’t adding up. He knew things were about to go south.

He stood and opened the French doors, waiting on her decision. One way or another he’d get her into that office, either on her own two feet or over his shoulder. He’d let her keep her illusions, until the moment he took over. She wouldn’t be running again, he vowed. She was a pawn in someone else’s game, and they didn’t have a clue as to what the rules were.

“You gonna move or do I carry you?” Mac asked her politely.

“But Mac, it would be best if…”

“Okay, carry you it is.” He ignored her protest and had her in a fireman’s hold before she could blink.

Her growl made him want to laugh, but he held back. She was already in a fighting mood. Slapping her ass didn’t help matters, but he couldn’t resist.

“Be still Krista, I don’t want to drop you.” He wouldn’t, but she settled down, at least for a moment.

“This is ridiculous. Put me down!” She was yelling at the top of her lungs.

Ignoring her fury, he strode down a well-worn path, finally stopping at the metal building where he had his offices. Instead of opening the door, he slid his palm under the edge of her shorts. Palming her cheek, his spread his fingers far enough to slide between her crack and reach her pussy.

He heard her gulp but she stopped squirming, which was his goal. She tried clenching her butt cheeks to keep him out but he was relentless. Sliding his fingers over her clit, he slid back and forth before plunging two fingers in her cunt.

The stretchy material of her shorts made his work easier, and thongs were a gift to men everywhere. Pushing the fabric aside with his other hand, he pumped and slid, pumped and slid, making sure to give her clit a stroke with each slide.

He had her coming in under a minute, with her biting into his shoulder to suppress her moans.

She lay like a limp noodle over his shoulder, wiped out but panting heavily. His job was done. He pulled her shorts back into place and opened the door.

Heath and Cam were staring with blank faces as he came through the door. Heath was at his computer, with Cam sitting on the other side of the desk. He knew they were holding their tongues as to not embarrass Krista, so he gave a small nod to each of them before setting her on her feet.

Pulling out a chair, he guided her into it. “I’ll be back in a moment.”

Chapter 4

S
he watched
, dazed as he went into another room and she heard water running. Oh, he must be washing his hands. She felt a warm rush of blood heat her cheeks and looked up at the two men sitting at the desk, expecting to see identical smirks.

They were moving papers around from one stack to the other, but not making a dent in the huge mess. They probably had no idea she’d just been finger fucked right outside the door.

She jumped when the bathroom door opened and Mac spoke. “Conference room.”

Heath and Cam both stood up and passed Mac in the hallway. She wasn’t sure if she was supposed to join them or not. When Mac didn’t move but instead stood staring at her, she figured that order had included her. Wiping her sweaty palms on her shorts, she passed him to join the other two men at the long table and chose a seat on the opposite side.

Mac sat at the head of the table and leaned back in his office chair looking like a king surveying his domain.

Krista quietly waited, having no idea what was expected of her.

“Cam, what do you know?” Mac demanded.

Cam pushed some papers to Mac before he spoke. “That’s the report I was able to download before the rest disappeared. I found where they put out an APB on David Johnson, but then it vanished.”

Mac leaned forward, reading the report while drumming his fingers on the table. His eyes flicked to Heath. “How?”

Heath opened his laptop and flipped it around for Mac to see. “I’ve been looking at the financials for Walker Real Estate, and it’s not adding up.”

“What the hell am I looking at Heath? All I see are a bunch of numbers in a lot of rows.” Mac scowled at Heath.

Heath exhaled and pointed at his screen. “Someone is moving a lot of money around and doing a damn good job of hiding it. They created some dummy accounts with what I think are several fictitious names.”

Cam pulled out a folder and slid it to Mac. “I’ve been running the employee names listed on the payroll to the accounts Heath found. So far we’ve found three names that don’t match up. They’re not employed by Walker Real Estate, but they’re being paid a salary. We’re not finished looking, but I expect to find more.”

“How did you get that?” Krista asked. Resting her hand on her throat, she pointed at Heath’s laptop with her other hand. They should not be able to access those files from outside the company.

Cam and Heath stayed silent, looking to Mac to handle her.

“I told you my company handles all forms of security. Corporate espionage, embezzlement, fraud.” Mac sat back in his chair, inspecting her as if she were under a microscope.

Krista pushed her chair back and braced her hands on her hips. “Me? You think I have something to do with this?”

Mac waved her off. “Nah, sit down baby. You’re too innocent to pull something like this off.”

Krista sat, relieved to know she wasn’t a suspect, but thinking about it set her off again. “I’m not ‘too innocent’!” She exclaimed.

The men laughed, long and loud.

“Honey, you’re so clean you practically squeak,” Heath told her.

“You checked up on me?” She wasn’t sure if she was insulted or not.

“Yes.” Mac was firm. “I never take on a new client without doing a background check and more.”

Client. That pretty much said it all. She had a new fuck buddy, because they certainly weren’t friends or family. Depression settled over her. Call it what it was, she was screwing him and he wasn’t charging her for his work. The word prostitute crossed her mind and she sighed. Her feeling of worth dropped along with her shoulders.

“Give me the room,” Mac said.

She watched as the door closed quietly behind Cam and Heath. Mac rested his hip on the table next to her. She hadn’t even noticed him getting up.

“Are you upset because I checked up on you?”

She shook her head no.

“Is it because I gave you an orgasm before we came in?”

“No!” Damn, he had no boundaries. Sex was not a private thing with him, she was learning.

He leaned down and placed his forehead against hers. “Krista, I don’t read minds, no matter what you may hear about me.”

Abruptly pushing her chair back, she stood and moved across the room. If she stayed close, he’d have her on that table in a heartbeat.

She stood stiffly by the door. “I expect you to bill me for this job, like any other client.”

His stare made the butterflies in her stomach make a mad dash for freedom.

“Come here.” His voice was quiet, but thundered through her. She was moving in an automatic response to his order before her brain clicked in.

She stopped, halfway across the floor. “Wait.” She held up a hand.

“You have two choices. Either walk over here on your own and receive no punishment, or I come get you and your ass will be bright red when I’m done.”

She gasped. He would spank her? She’d never been spanked in her life, even as a child. She wasn’t sure how she felt about that. Hearing him start to move, she rushed over to stand in front of him.

“Thank you baby, for trusting me. From your reaction, I’d guess you’ve never had a spanking. There’s spanking for punishment, and there’s erotic spankings. But today, you’ll get neither because you’re not ready for that type of kink, and you obeyed me.”

He took her hand and led her to his chair, pulling her onto his lap when he sat. She’d never had a man that held her whenever the mood struck him, or controlled her with only a word or a look.

“Now, tell me what’s going on in that head, cause I don’t have a clue as to what has upset you.”

She stiffened in his arms, remembering his calling her a client. “You said I was your client, which means I should pay for your services. Otherwise, I’m simply a prostitute.”

Mac rubbed his hand over his face and she could have sworn she heard him mutter, “women,” under his breath.

“Okay Krista, this is how it is. I’m richer than God. Filthy rich. I charge outrageous fees for my services when I negotiate contracts with governments, private citizens or companies. That’s because I’m damn good at what I do and they know it. I have a team of ex-military men that are the brightest and most talented group of men you’ll ever meet. I pick these men from all branches of the military. I recruit mainly from Special Forces because they’re the best and some of them served with me. Besides my business, my family owns about twelve hundred acres in the Permian Basin that produce, on average, a thousand barrels a day.”

He let that sink in a moment before continuing.

“I don’t need your money, but I understand wanting to pay your way and working hard. So how about this...work for me, organize my office, answer the phone. Do all the usual shit I don’t have the time or inclination to do.”

She took a moment to think about his proposal. Yes, this appealed to her. Her obligation to him would be lessened with her being a part of the investigation instead of being a burden around his neck.

His hand went to the back of her head and he gripped her braid once again. “Our affair has nothing to do with this investigation. Got it? Whether we fuck like jack rabbits or this thing between us cools off, I will still protect you and eliminate the threat.”

Well, that was clear enough. “Okay, thank you. I like that I’ll be helping find David and not sitting on the sidelines,” she said.

He instantly shook his head. “Negative Krista. No active duty for you. Your job will be to answer the phones and keep this office running efficiently. You’ll be too busy to do any investigative work. My last assistant left three months ago to get married so this place really needs your help.”

After seeing the chaos in the front room, it certainly looked like he needed someone to organize his business.

“Get up baby and I’ll show you around.”

Taking her hand, he led her out of the room and opened the door next to the conference room.

She gasped in surprise. “You have got to be kidding me.” This room was worse than the front. Papers were strewn across a table where some had fallen into a heap on the floor.

“How do you find anything?” she asked in amazement.

He ran a hand through his short hair making it stand up in places. “We don’t. That’s where you come in.”

She could see a phone with several lights blinking under the paperwork and pointed at it. “It looks like you have a lot of messages.”

He reached out and slapped her bottom. “That’s why your showing up now is perfect, baby. I’ll be in the conference room if you need anything. Dial 7 to reach me.”

He sauntered off and she heard him go outside and yell for his men to get their asses back in the conference room.

She examined the room before quietly closing the door. She’d start in the front room; this room could wait.


W
hat do you think
?” Mac asked, after the three of them had taken their seats at the table.

“Drug cartel?” Cam was the first to speak.

“Maybe,” Heath said. “But whoever this David Johnson guy is, he’s slick.”

Mac started drumming his fingers on the table again, analyzing the small bit of intel they’d gathered.

“I think it’s one of the alphabet agencies.” Mac said quietly.

Cam and Heath stared at him, waiting.

“It’s too clean cut. We know someone is moving money around, but why? And this guy hanging around Krista, but not making a move? It doesn’t add up.” Mac’s frustration was obvious.

“Did he do anything else beside the punch to her face?” Heath asked.

“No. No other injuries. I think he wanted her unconscious, not dead. If it was CIA, they’d have injected her with some concoction and taken her out of the country to be ‘questioned’.” He made quotation quotes with his fingers. “Could be the DEA or FBI. Or hell, even the ATF. We don’t know shit. It’s that punch that doesn’t make sense. She opened her door to him, he could have easily knocked her back inside, closed the door and no one would have known anything,” Mac said.

“I still like the drug cartel angle,” Cam said.

“No, the cartel would have killed her, witnesses or not. This sounds like a long game to me,” Mac said.

Heath had his laptop open, and with a few strokes, found what he was looking for. “David Johnson worked at Walker’s a little over a year.”

“Find out who hired him,” Mac ordered.

“On it boss. I’ll be in the cold room if you need me.” Heath saluted as he left the room.

“I’m not sure his going on the deep web will do much good if the CIA is involved.” Cam slowly shook his head.

“What did you get on Krista?” Mac asked.

Cam opened a different folder. “Twenty-four years old, no warrants, no tickets. Been working for Walker Real Estate for two years. She’s as clean as a newly waxed floor, at least on paper. If you want more, I need to go to Dallas and talk to the people that know her.”

Mac waved him off. “Not yet, I want you here helping Heath dig deeper into this guy. My gut instinct says she’s exactly who she says she is.”

“Are you sure you’re not thinking with your dick?” Cam calmly asked.

“Hell no, but if it turns out she’s in this up to her pretty little neck, I’ll handle it.” Mac said grimly.

Mac left the conference room and went into his office, closing the door behind him. He had some calls to make. Sinking into the leather of his Eames executive chair, he sighed. Time to call in a few favors.

“Hey Grant, I need your help.” Mac’s greeting was short and to the point.

“And I need an assistant that wasn’t dropped on his head, but the deputy director doesn’t seem to agree with me,” Grant replied.

Mac’s mock sympathy came through loud and clear when he put the phone on speaker. “Aww, public servants just aren’t what they used to be. You should have taken my job offer, it even comes with an uptight FBI agent suit I designed myself, and a secret decoder ring.”

“Fuck you, man. I don’t wear that off the rack shit like you do.” You could hear the laughter in Grant’s voice.

Mac cleared his throat, signaling an end to their banter. “Did you get my email?”

“Yes, and I can tell you the FBI does not have a hand in this one. You’re going to have to keep looking. Sorry I wasn’t much help,” Grant said.

“I appreciate it, that’s one less agency on my list,” Mac said.

“If my looking into this sends up any red flags, I’ll let you know. Be careful, this looks like it could get nasty,” Grant said.

“Affirmative. Thanks again and keep your happy sock close.” Mac smiled when heard Grant’s laughter.

“Fuck you, man. Unlike you, I don’t have to yank my own dick,” Grant told him before hanging up.

Mac hit a button, disconnecting the call before leaning back in his chair. “One agency down and too many fucking more to check out.”

BOOK: Protect Me: Protectors at Heart
13.23Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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