COLE (Dragon Security Book 1) (18 page)

I’d never expected the worst. Never thought I’d stand at the edge of his grave and watch as the funeral director pushed the button that would lower his coffin slowly into that hole they’d dug just for that purpose.

We were eighteen. It wasn’t supposed to happen like that. We were supposed to have our whole lives ahead of us. But we didn’t.

And I often thought it was the wrong boy whose life was spared that night.

Kate

My head was throbbing. I lay there, staring out the window at another clear, winter day, wondering who was taking over my loan applications and if they were throwing out the borderline credit risks instead of reading that person’s story the way I always did. It was all in the stories. But the other loan officers didn’t always agree.

I’ve missed an entire day. The doctors say that I hit my head—which explains the headache—but that my memory of Monday will eventually return. They also tell me that I was involved in an attack on the bank, and that Joe, the security guard, was killed. That upset me. I liked Joe. He often offered to walk me to my car even though it was just on the other side of the building in the employee parking lot. And he always had a smile for me that often cheered me up when I was having a bad day.

The police think I saw something. I told them that if I saw something, I would surely remember. But, just to be safe, my dad hired some security firm to watch over me—even after the police said it was likely unnecessary. The police were convinced it was simply a robbery attempt and that the perpetrators were long gone. But my dad tends to be a little overprotective.

When the door opened, I just assumed it was my dad or one of the nurses who kept taking my temperature, as if I wouldn’t notice if I suddenly started running a fever. I didn’t look to see which it was. The traffic rushing by on the street outside the windows was a hell of a lot more fascinating. But then there was the sound of a very masculine creature clearing his throat.

I turned, wincing a little as pain shot through my head, and beheld absolute perfection.

He was tall, his shoulders as wide as his hips were narrow. He was wearing a pair of slacks that hugged thighs that were at least as wide as a tree trunk, and an oxford shirt that was untucked and open at the collar, exposing tan skin that was not terribly uncommon in this part of the country, but still a lovely contrast to the starched whiteness of that shirt. His hair was dark and cut short—not quite a crew cut but cut fairly close. And he had the most intense green eyes I thought I’d ever seen.

“Please tell me you’re my bodyguard.”

He smiled and a subtle dimple appeared in one cheek.

Hell, if I could swoon…

“I’m Ashford Grayson. I own Gray Wolf Security.”

“Nice to meet you,” I said, waving for him to come a little closer. “If bodyguards all look like you, then it might be worth it to get in trouble.”

Again that smile. But he didn’t come closer. He stood by the door, his eyes moving around the room in a slow, almost subtle, way that I almost missed. It took me a second to realize he was looking for any danger and identifying all the entrances and exits. I’d dated a Marine once who’d spent time over in Afghanistan. He did the same thing every time we entered a new building. However, I supposed the habit was actually useful to this guy, considering his line of work.

“I just wanted to speak to you for a few minutes about the service my company provides.”

“Okay,” I said, adjusting my body on the bed so that I could watch him a little more comfortably. I loved his voice, this deep, chocolatey tone that vibrated through my body. Only one other guy’s voice had ever done that to me, and he was long gone. One of those good riddance sort of things. But this guy…I wouldn’t mind spending a little time alone with him.

“My operative will have to spend twenty-four seven with you until this case is resolved and we have confirmation that the threat has been neutralized. Therefore, when they release you from the hospital today, he will drive you home and remain at your home.”

“Like move into my spare bedroom?”

“Yes.”

He watched me as he said that single word, waiting for me to object, I think. But I couldn’t think of a good reason to object if his operative looked anything like him.

“We currently have a team at your house installing surveillance equipment so that we can keep tabs on the house and the area around it.”

“Like cameras?”

“Yes. But rest assured that none will be placed in sensitive areas.”

“Such as my bedroom and bathroom?”

“Such as your bathroom.”

I sat up a little straighter, ignoring the pain in my skull. “You’re putting cameras in my bedroom? Where am I supposed to dress? Where am I supposed to go for some alone time?”

“You’ll have to dress in the bathroom. And your ‘alone time’ will have to wait until this is resolved, which will, hopefully, be in a few days.”

I shook my head. “It’s
my
house.”

“Yes, ma’am. But it’s very likely you witnessed a man being murdered last night. And the perpetrator will more than likely
not
be aware that you’ve lost all memory of the event.” He looked me full in the eye, an intense stare that frightened me despite my determination not to let any of this scare me. “It is very probable that he will not want you to identify him to police.”

“So that means you get to invade my house and watch my every move?”

“We’ll be watching for intruders, Miss Thompson. The rest of the footage will be disregarded and destroyed when the case is over.”

I didn’t like that idea. Didn’t like any of it. It was an invasion of my privacy. And privacy was what I liked most about owning my own house.

He waited, watching the emotion rush over my face. There was something about his gaze that left me feeling invaded already. As though he could see right through me to what I was thinking. It was a little unnerving.

I waved at him, encouraging him to continue.

“Our operative, and occasionally other members of our team, will accompany you to work each day, to any meetings you must attend, and any social gatherings you cannot get out of. However, while we are protecting you, it would make the process simpler if you could restrict your comings and goings to home and work.”

“I have to give up my social life for this?”

“It would be easier to protect you that way, yes.”

“No.”

“Excuse me?”

He seemed shocked, like no one had ever said no to him before. Well, he was about to get a shock, wasn’t he?

“I won’t cancel my plans just because my dad hired a bunch of ex-military goons to follow me around.”

“Miss Thompson—”

“My name is Kate. If you’re going to be watching my every movement over the next few days, we should be on a first name basis.” Again something danced in his eyes that suggested he was a man who was used to getting his way. “Your name is Ashford?”

He hesitated, but then he inclined his head. “Ash.”

“Ash?” I let my eyes move down the length of him. I think he actually blushed as my eyes lingered here and there—those guns were definitely impressive!—especially when I went back for a second look. “Well, Ash,” I said, dragging out the single syllable of his name, “there is a party on Friday night to celebrate my bank manager’s retirement. I helped set everything up, so I’m not missing it, even for this.”

“I’m sure the bank will cancel the event.”

“I doubt it.”

I almost laughed when his eyebrows rose so high that he looked a little like Phyllis Diller.

“Bankers are ruthless people, Ash. I doubt they’d care enough about a security guard that they’d cancel one of the biggest parties they’ve thrown in six months. These events are a great way to woo new customers, especially those types of customers who have six figure balances all year long, if you know what I mean. They’ll still have the event.”

He studied me for a minute, as if he was struggling to decide what to do. Then he inclined his head again.

“Then we’ll need to know where the event will take place, see a guest list—”

“I can do that.”

“And you’ll have to take my operative as your date.”

I wanted to protest, but the truth was, I didn’t have a date to the party. And it would be a real coup to walk in with a strange man that all the other women in the bank haven’t already gotten their claws into. I could just imagine their faces when I walked through the doors with a good-looking man none of them could touch. And if Ash’s operative looked anything like him…

“Okay,” I said, making a gesture like I was giving him a huge advantage, “I’ll concede that much.”

“Thank you, Miss—”

“No. Kate.”

A slow grin split his serious expression. “Kate.”

He moved away from the door then, approaching me with the file folder he’d had in his hand all this time.

“I have a few papers for you to sign.”

A few papers? I’d signed fewer papers when giving a couple a mortgage! But I signed them patiently, not really minding having such a big, powerful man standing so close to me. And he smelled pretty good. Something spicy, which seemed to fit his personality quite well. Quiet, but potentially deadly.

When the papers were all signed—contracts giving them permission to break into my house and set up surveillance, permission for them to watch me day and night, permission for their operative to live in my house, and of course, the all-important form that freed them of liability if I ended up dead on their watch—he stepped back and studied my face for a moment, as if he wanted to tell me something but didn’t quite know how.

“Is there more, Ash? I can’t imagine how much more of my privacy and freedom I could possibly sign away.”

“No. That’s all the paperwork.”

“Then what?” I asked with what I hoped was a flirty smile.

That smile didn’t come back as I’d hoped. Instead, he studied my face a second longer, then—clearly a decision made—he stepped back and gestured toward the door.

“I should let them in now.”

“Them, who?”

I needn’t have asked. He opened the door and my father stepped inside, curiosity and concern dancing in his eyes. He came to my side, taking my hand between both of his.

“Katie, if any pleasure can come out of such a terrible thing, this is it.”

I had no idea what he was talking about. I found myself wondering if he’d been drinking while he was out in the hall. And then I heard his voice as he spoke to Ash—something about whether the papers had been signed—and my headache became an almost unbearable, piercing pain.

“Oh, hell no!”

Donovan

“Hello to you, too, Kate.”

She jumped off the bed, nearly sending her father flying on the slick floor as he tried to control her—a mistake I could have warned him not to make—and charged me. Ash moved to head her off, but I stepped around him and grabbed her wrists before she could hurt herself, or anyone else.

“You bastard!” she cried.

“Kate…”

“You killed him. You killed my brother!”

“Katie, you know that’s not true,” Daniel said, confusion radiating from his tone.

She didn’t seem to hear him. She was looking directly at me.

“You should have been there. You knew those boys were looking for you. You knew they had a beef with you. You! Not Joshua.”

I pushed her backward, trying to get her back on the bed before she pulled her IV loose.

“You should have been there to protect him.”

“No one could have predicted what was going to happen that night, Katie,” Daniel said. “You went to the district attorney and the police with me. You heard what he said.”

“I know what the police thought. But I also know what they didn’t.”

Her eyes were so full of anger, the same eyes I’d seen in nightmares much longer than I cared to admit. Beautiful hazel eyes when she wasn’t trying to rip my balls off. But now I just wanted to close my eyes and make them disappear.

I gave her one more good shove and she fell onto the bed, nearly toppling over—except for my grip on her wrists.

“You should have been there.”

“You know why I wasn’t.”

That cooled the anger a little. She turned her face away, and the power went out of her arms.

I squeezed her wrists. “Are you going to settle down now?”

She didn’t say anything, but she didn’t scratch my eyes out when I let her go either.

But she wasn’t done.

“Is this really what you call an operative, Ash?” she asked, her voice low and dangerous as she looked past me—or through me—at Ash. “Do you know what he did? Do you know how he left my brother at the mercy of a group of thugs he knew were looking for trouble? Do you know how those thugs left my brother bloody, his skull smashed in with a rock, on the beach? How they left him—?”

“Enough!”

The room fell deadly silent. And I felt like the weight of it was square on my shoulders.

I’ve seen a lot in my life, in my service. Bodies torn apart by IEDs. Friends lying on the ground, bleeding from so many wounds I couldn’t figure out which one was the worst, which one I should be applying pressure to. Enemies torn apart through the eye of my scope. Whole families destroyed by explosives I set. I’ve seen a lot. But that night, the night we found Joshua there on the beach…that was the worst.

She had no idea how heavy the guilt of that night rested on me.

Ash was silent as Daniel, his face reddened with emotion, approached his daughter.

“Enough, Katie,” he said a little softer.

“Daddy, I can’t do this. I can’t have him be the one.”

“You can and you will,” Daniel said, steel in his voice, reminding me of the man I knew as a teenager. “You were found feet from a man who was murdered. Your life could be in danger. You need protection.”

“But not from him!”

“I want someone I know, someone I trust. And since I’m paying for this, it will be Donovan, like it or not.”

Kate’s eyes jumped from her father to me to Ash and back to her father. She opened her mouth to protest again, but she must have seen something in her father’s eyes that warned her not to. Then, at that moment, the door burst open and a woman I could only describe as eccentric sailed in the room.

She was maybe five feet tall with dark hair that had streaks of purple in it. She was as round as she was tall with prominent breasts that were clearly her favorite attribute because they were overly accentuated in the skintight, purple t-shirt she was wearing. And her hips were barely contained in a pair of black slacks that looked to be made out of leather, or suede maybe. Her feet were shoved into a dainty pair of purple pumps that appeared to give her no added height despite their three-inch heels. Her heavily painted face was animated as she began to talk, totally ignoring the tension that could be cut with a knife in the small room.

“I brought you some magazines and candy,” she was saying, “though I couldn’t find
Vogue
. Can you believe they wouldn’t have
Vogue
? Do they think the women in this hospital don’t have a fashion sense, or something? I mean, really, with the prices they charge…”

“Veronica,” Daniel said, a new strain in his voice.

Kate rolled her eyes and threw herself back against the thin pillow on her hospital bed as though this was the last straw and she couldn’t handle anything else.

It was almost comical.

The woman stopped, apparently noticing Ash and myself for the first time. There was an immediate transformation that came over her as she studied Ash. I’d seen it before, but usually in younger women who might actually have a chance of getting into his bed. This was almost pathetic.

“This is my wife,” Daniel said, almost stuttering over the word wife. “Veronica, this is Ashford Grayson and Donovan Pritchard from Gray Wolf Security.”

I have to admit, I was a little shocked that Daniel had remarried. I suppose it was always within the realm of possibility, but it was difficult to wrap my mind around it. Daniel and his wife had been like surrogate parents to me. I felt like a child whose divorced father remarried some complete stranger, someone as opposite from Mom as a person could possibly get.

I’d ask what Daniel had been thinking, but one look at Veronica and I could guess. Poor man must have been terribly lonely. I could almost relate.

Almost.

“Ashford,” she said, approaching Ash as she adjusted the handful of magazines she was carrying so that she could offer him her hand, “an unusual name.”

“It’s a family name,” he said, taking her fingers and sort of squeezing them before letting go.

Her smile faltered for a second, but then she turned to me, her eyes moving slowly over my t-shirt and jeans, making me wish I’d worn something a little more…layered? It was unnerving the way she seemed to be trying to see through my clothes. Was this the way a woman felt when a man imagined her undressed?

“And Donovan. Daniel’s talked about you, but he never mentioned how good looking you were.”

Kate snorted.

Veronica moved close, placing her hand on the center of my chest. “It’s always a joy to meet people my Daniel thinks highly of. He talks about you as though you were a surrogate son.”

I inclined my head, not quite sure how to take that. Thank God Kate’s doctor chose that moment to come into the room.

“Having a party, are we?” He smiled as he made his way to Kate’s side, people shifting to give him room. “How’s the headache?”

“The same.”

He nodded. “You’ll probably have a heck of a headache for several days. If it gets unbearable or you have vision changes, come back. Otherwise, follow up with your regular physician in three days.”

He handed her the handful of papers he was holding. “Discharge papers. You’re free to go.”

“Whoopee,” she said, her tone making it clear that she was less than thrilled.

The doctor looked around the room, his eyes lingering on Ash, Veronica, and me. Then he touched Kate’s hand and said, “Take care.” Then he was gone.

And now it was time for the fun to begin.