Undercover Lover (2 page)

While seeing the world on tour with him was tempting, the thought of leaving her reliable job—of not providing for herself—unsettled her more than missing David for a few months. After all, she’d lived without him for nineteen years—hadn’t even known he was alive. If anything went wrong, she’d always had only herself to rely on.

“Thanks, but I think it’d be fun to spend time at your place, snooping through your things.” She kept her tone teasing and light. He mock-glared at her and she laughed.

“It doesn’t leave you much time to move your things, I realize,” he said, as they pulled up to Joe’s Shanghai in Chinatown.

She saw him eye the entrance, then take in the surrounding blocks before exiting the vehicle, and realized his hyper vigilance wasn’t entirely due to fame. After his remark in the car, she’d be dense not to see the events of their mutual past had left a permanent mark on him too. Perhaps the self-defense mechanisms he’d built were as perfect for the man as they’d been necessary for the boy.

Relief at the absence of the press made her breathe deep as David opened the door to the restaurant for her. It might seem an unlikely place to find an international mega star, but it had the best dumplings in Manhattan. They waited in line for a table just like any other guest, and nobody seemed to pay much attention to them. Jenny relished the normalcy on his behalf and her own. She’d never been born to ride someone’s coattails. She wanted to live her own life. Not a cardboard cutout of someone else’s. Even her brother’s.

“So, as I was saying,” he said, habitually glancing over his shoulder to assess their privacy, “I’ll have someone move your things.”

“Wait. I missed something.” Jenny tilted her head to the side. “Move what things?”

“Yours. So you can settle in before we leave next week.”

“I’m not giving up my apartment.” She shook her head, emphatic. “I’ll split my time between the two places.”

He remained silent as a couple squeezed past them to exit, but she could tell from the set of his jaw there was more to his need to tuck her under his wing than he’d let on.

“David?” She uttered his name in a tone that startled her with a clear remembrance of their long-dead mother.

He groaned and ran his fingers through his hair. “I’ve had another letter. This one mentions you.”

Blood left Jenny’s face. “What did your people say?”

A table at the back opened up and he gestured toward it. “Let’s sit.”

Jenny caught her reflection in a mirror and grimaced. The fluorescent lights cast a greenish glow over her complexion. Naturally, David looked tanned and gorgeous as he slid into the seat opposite her. Neither her image nor his delay was enough to slow her racing heart or distract her from the topic at hand, however.

She leaned forward to whisper, “Can you answer my question before I freak out?”

He unfolded his menu and used it to shield his reply. “They don’t know the source, but they’re working on it.”

“So, the threat’s for real?” She wanted to shake him. Make him tell her everything.

“I don’t know.” He leaned in. “Regardless, I don’t want to risk your safety.”

She opened her mouth to protest, but he held up his hand. “I won’t be able to focus if you’re in your flat with those roommates coming and going all hours of the night. I need you safe.”

“I didn’t take years of martial arts so I could tuck tail and run from these people if they ever showed again.” The steel in her tone made him blink at her. She never argued with him. Playing the victim in these circumstances was unthinkable to her. It was just too much like their mother for her to stomach and she couldn’t pretend otherwise.

David’s surprise lasted only a moment. “You’re hardly a black belt. Nor can you stop a bullet with your bare hands.”

She opened her mouth to stomp on him for his sarcasm, but he interrupted her with, “Let’s stick together on this, Jen. Please?”

He looked so human in that moment—so thoroughly lost—she had to capitulate. “How long is this arrangement for?” she asked, kicking herself as she gave in.

He leaned back and pretended to be fascinated with the menu she knew they’d both memorized. Refusing to meet her eyes, he replied, “For as long as it takes.”

* * * * *

Jenny chewed her bottom lip and looked out David’s penthouse window. The trees dotting Central Park were skeletal fingers in the waning afternoon sunlight. At her back lay a room done completely in white to showcase its centerpiece—a glossy black Steinway grand.

“You’re certain you have everything you need?” Several thousand miles lay between them, but she heard the worry in David’s voice.

She forced a smile. “I’m certain.”

All week, as movers had come and gone, packing then ferrying her belongings from her comfortable if shabby Queens apartment, she’d fought a disorienting sense of displacement. Now as she stood with her back to a room of such opulence it should have taken her breath away, she battled the feeling she’d fallen down the rabbit hole.

“You should go to sleep.” Agitation made her twirl one reddish-brown curl around her finger over and over as she watched the peaks and valleys of the Dakota building roof fall into shadow below. “It’s close to midnight in Paris, isn’t it?”

“Listen,” David said, lowering his voice. “Just be careful. Don’t go anywhere without your security escort.”

Jenny grimaced. As if someone would want anything to do with her. All this bother and expense just because of a stupid letter. “I’ll be careful. Now go.”

“Are you sure you’re—”

“I’m fine.” She spun on her heel toward the kitchen. “Go.”

“Good night then…” His voice trailed, uncertainty in every syllable.

“Good night, David.” She thumbed the
off
button, knowing one of them had to be resolute.

Looking around the large, empty flat, she wondered if she should order in a pizza. The idea seemed like a sacrilege when she had a gourmet kitchen at her disposal—its lavastone counters so highly polished she could have done her makeup while staring into the cold black surface.

From one room to the next she flitted, unable to land anywhere for more than a moment. Somehow, the luxurious space only seemed to underscore her agitation. Thinking to ensconce herself in her bedroom—a space she’d chosen for its more human scale—she only paced out again a minute later. This wasn’t her home and never would be.

Only one activity could subdue the energy vibrating her system. She’d go to dance class. She hadn’t been in ages. Resolute, she pulled the mass of her hair into a flirty ponytail as she re-entered her bedroom. Taking out her makeup case, she selected the most daring shades. Dark liner emphasized the upward tilt of her eyes, giving them a depth and mystery she didn’t dare display at work. Blue-black mascara lengthened already thick lashes—what she considered her best feature, and the only physical similarity she had to David. Smoky shadow and a hint of glitter in her blush complemented the shimmer on her lips. By the time the racy pink leotard hugged her skin, she felt freer, lighter.

If her office mates could see her now…

Coloring at remembrance of their cruelty—their ability to so thoroughly eviscerate her sense of self with their barbed words—she firmly pushed them out of her mind. Tonight was for her. About her. Nobody else.

Pulling on her trench coat, she covered her racy ensemble before grabbing her dance shoes and stuffing them in her purse. Security wouldn’t be a problem. The front desk didn’t know she was supposed to have a personal guard 24/7, but David’s firm would give her hell if they found out. For just one night, she wanted to be alone. Be normal again.

She set the alarm as she left the apartment and stepped into the dark hallway. Someone had shut off the light, leaving only the red glow of the exit sign to guide her to the elevator. Glass crunched underfoot and she hesitated. How odd. Double punching the elevator button, she frowned as the scent of cheap cologne assaulted her nostrils.

“Snitch,” a voice whispered in her ear, and she screamed.

“You’ve got a lot of balls, Tallis.” Günter Faust glared at the cell phone in his hand. Its soft glow simultaneously illuminated the dark bedroom and showed him the time—ten p.m.—but it wasn’t the lateness of the hour or overtime-induced sleep deprivation that had him cursing his über-famous ex-boss.

“I didn’t know who else to call.” The note of desperation in David’s voice gave Günter pause. Well, this was a first. The man never bent his knee for anyone, except possibly his girlfriend.

Günter rasped his palm over the stubble on his cheek. “What do you want?”

“It’s Jenny. Someone vandalized the entry outside my flat.”

Jenny Ainsley…

At the mention of Tallis’ little sister, the ice shield around Günter’s heart fractured. Somehow, he managed to keep his voice steady, his demeanor sharp as he asked, “And this has something to do with me how?”

He heard the tip-tap of David’s shoes pacing marble floors, no doubt in some rock star suite at the Ritz. Or Savoy. Wherever it was, it’d be top-notch. With all the security and seclusion money could buy. If Günter were a better person, he knew he wouldn’t have enjoyed the sharp inhale that told him David was about to beg some more.

“Gun, you’re right there, one floor away from her. I’m halfway around the world. You have to help her.”

“Wait. What? She’s staying in your flat?” he asked, finally comprehending the situation.

A memory of chestnut curls and laughing brown eyes teased him, unleashing a trickle of desire. He swung his bare legs over the edge of the bed and came halfway to standing before stomping on his self-indulgent emotions. The last thing he needed was another babysitting job. Especially from Tallis.

“I insisted.” David exhaled. “There have been threats.”

“Since when?” Günter snapped on the light. The blackout drape-shrouded room, high above the New York City traffic, gave no indication of the likely NYPD-fomented mayhem one floor above or twenty-two stories below.

“Since the
Voice and Vibe
interview,” Tallis mumbled.

“You bloody idiot.” The insult flew from Günter’s mouth and he could feel his former employer’s wince. This was exactly the situation he’d feared when the man had decided to let his journalist girlfriend publish the story of his family’s past. “I told you I couldn’t guarantee all your father’s associates were dead.”

Günter had warned him. Repeatedly. Even if every last crime-ring crony of Tallis’ long-dead father had gone toes-up, there were crackpots aplenty who’d want to teach Tallis a lesson. Just on principle.

“I know. I should have listened. Kyra’s completely broken up over it and—”

“Save the song and dance for your fans.” Curling his toes into the carpet, Günter stared at the floor and frowned. He had no use for clients who undermined him—clients who lied to him. His job was hard enough without them putting their own lives in jeopardy.

“Gun, Jenny needs you. I need you.”

“You’re a big boy. You’ll think of something.”

Even if the prospective job wasn’t a woman, Günter would have refused this request—any request—from David Tallis. That it was this woman? Well, to accept working within ten feet of her again was liable to get them both in over their heads before he could say
gossip rag
.

“If they came after my sister because you missed something, you owe it to me to make it right.”

It was Tallis’ last-ditch effort to appeal to Günter’s pride—one they both knew wouldn’t work. What he required from everyone in his life was simple—
honesty
—and he refused to work without the trust it afforded. He straightened and raked his hair back from his face.

“The only thing I owe you is a punch in the mouth,” he answered, more weary than angry.

There was a time he wouldn’t have dreamed of saying anything so rude to David—a time when he’d have protected him with his life. That time had passed when the man had colluded with his manager to let loose a press maelstrom that had nearly brought an innocent woman down. That the woman had ultimately forgiven him was inconsequential.

“If I’d known your specialty was loose ends, I wouldn’t have hired you in the first place,” Tallis said at last.

Bile rose in Günter’s throat on a wave of fury. The only loose ends in his work for Tallis were the ones the bastard had untied himself.

“With all respect, sir? Fuck you.”

Günter hung up the phone, wishing it had been an old-fashioned handset. He really could have used something to slam. The cell started to buzz again almost immediately. He powered it off and tossed it to the foot of the bed. Curling his lip, he switched off the lamp and sank under the covers. He was drifting off, memories of Jenny Ainsley safely tucked away, when his doorbell chimed. It could only mean one thing.

“Bugger.” He flung back the covers.

Not bothering to put on clothes, he strode across the apartment to the front door and yanked it open without looking through the peephole. As he suspected, one of the security staff from the building lobby stood with a cell phone in his outstretched hand. Günter snatched it from him and slammed the door in his face.