Protecting Lulu (Global Protection Agency) (3 page)

Her
low sultry voice mesmerized Noah. Maybe running for the hills wasn’t a bad
idea. “Noah Callahan,” he said, proud that he didn’t stutter. He held out a
hand and she grasped it in a strong grip.

She
just stared at him for a second her brown eyes widening. What no witty remark?

“My,
you are a whole lot man.” She tilted her head at him in a flirtatious manner
that made his throat so dry he thought he’d choke.

What
did a guy say to that? “Yes ma’am.” How lame! He needed a new line.

She
seemed to recover. “Well, first things first, no ma’am, no Ms. Bennington, call
me Lulu. Everybody does.”

Noah
just stared at her. His body may be tired, but his libido wasn’t. He opened his
mouth to object, letting her know rule number one was never get personal with a
client. But she’d already moved on and he was left with the words unsaid.

“What
happens now?” Lulu asked a query in her eyes as she looked at Noah.

“We
need to work out some logistics,” Noah said.

“I
think we should all go into the conference room,” she said, “where we can
spread out and discuss this.”

Bennington
stepped forward. “I’ll meet--”

“Wilder,
you stay here.” She planted her hand on his chest. “We’ll be fine by
ourselves.”

“Lulu.”
he said in a warning tone, his eyes sparkling with annoyance.

Lulu
brushed some lint off his shoulder. “Wilder, you’re the one who insists I need
a bodyguard to protect me over my objections. You’ve done your part. Besides,
you hover and make people nervous. I’ll behave, I promise.” She batted her
eyelashes at him.

Noah
forced himself not to smile. She had her brother’s number, too.

Bennington
took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “Pinky promise,” he said and held out
his hand, pinky extended.

Lulu
laughed. “Pinky promise.” She twined her pinky around her brother’s and they
shook.

The
dull headache that had been plaguing Noah since he’d gotten off the plane was
turning into a raging migraine. His head said he should gather his people and
get the hell out of here because this woman was not going to make their job
easy. His gut demanded he stay. She was in danger and he wanted to make sure
she was going to be all right. Whether she wanted them there or not.

Bennington’s
mouth hardened as Lulu trailed Harrison out of the office, but he didn’t
follow.

She
smiled at Noah and crooked her finger. “Follow me.”

And
that was how it was going to be. Her voice was so sultry, Noah’s insides almost
melted. Before he reached the door, he grabbed Ian’s arm. “You know her?”

Ian
held up a hand. “We met once.”

“Telling
me wasn’t important?”

Ian’s
gaze followed the woman. “I didn’t know she was a potential client until
Harrison told me this morning. You were still up 55,000 feet. Calling you was
not an option.”

Noah
had met Ian on a job in, of all places, Monaco. Ian had been pretending to
gamble while Noah and E. J. were trying to keep tabs on an alleged Romanian
countess who’d stolen a necklace from a New York client. Noah had hired Ian on
the spot thinking he could bring a new level of clientele to the business.

Noah
knew Ian had a point. “What she’s like?”

Ian
shrugged. “She was a model at the time. Too skinny for me. Although I have to
say, I’m intrigued now.” Ian gave him a little smile that didn’t bode well for
the way this assignment was going to go.

Noah
looked ahead and saw that Lulu had looped her hand through Harrison’s arm and a
slight man with a pencil thin mustache, Noah didn’t remember being introduced
to. “You know she’s going to be trouble.”

Ian
only smiled. “The most interesting women are, but so worth the effort.”

Noah
swallowed his irritation, not liking the fact that Ian was intrigued with Lulu.
This was a job. They all had to act professional and make sure she kept
breathing.

Lulu
had been around gorgeous men all her life and had refused to let them mess with
her head. But Noah Callahan startled her. There was something so masculine and hard
about him; she felt that she would swoon if he looked at her in just the right
way.

He
wasn’t pretty, and his craggy features spoke of strength and character. His
tall, rugged body suggested a physical strength strong enough to protect her. Not
that she needed protecting. She was just letting Wilder have his way to keep
him happy.

She
caught a wisp of his scent—a subtle hint of musk and wooded forest. If she
could bottle that scent, she’d make a fortune.

At
least she was able to control herself. The one thing she learned about doing a
talk show was how to think on her stilettos.

She
opened the door to the conference room, a large space with a solid walnut table
that could seat twenty people. The room was painted a neutral gray. The only
spot of color were silk plants in the corners, the dark red fabric on the
chairs and some abstract art on the walls.

“Why
don’t we all have a seat?” She walked down the length of the table. “Aiden
would you please have some refreshments brought in.” Aiden gave her a panicked
look as if he were afraid to leave her alone with all this male testosterone. “Sweetie,
I’ll be fine.” Lulu patted his hand and watched him go.

Harrison
politely held out a chair for her and she sat down.

“So
where do we start?

Harrison
pushed her chair in. “Ms. Bennington--”

“Lulu.
Please.”

Harrison
pulled out the chair next to her and sat down and rested his forearms on the
table. “Ah, Lulu—”

“See
that wasn’t so hard now, was it?” She grinned. “Please everyone, take a seat
and stop hovering, you are going to give me a crick in my neck.”

She
watched everyone sit. Interestingly enough, Noah Callahan took the chair
furthest from her and she wondered why. Did she intimidate him in some way? She
couldn’t imagine how and why he felt the need to put distance between them.

She
had dealt with personal security before, but not on this level. All these
people exuded danger and a professional detachment that told her they were good
at what they did. “Now, where were we?”

Harrison
put his brief case on the table and snapped open the locks. He pulled out a sheaf
of papers encased in paper sleeves. ‘We start with the letters.”

He
started passing the letters around the table. Lulu refused to touch them.

“What
do you know about the letters?” Noah asked as he held one up.

“Standard
typing paper, the letters are cut from a magazine. No fingerprints, nothing to
indicate if the person is male or female.”

Everyone
studied a letter and passed it on. Lulu watched them. She repressed a grin when
she realized Noah’s lips moved as he read each letter.

“What
about the car that tried to run her down?” Noah asked when he’d passed the
notes on.

“Nothing,”
Ian said. “We pulled a video from a bank across the street, but someone was at
the ATM and obscured the view. No other cameras around.”

Noah
looked pointedly at Lulu.

“It
happened so fast,” she said, “I didn’t really see anything besides that it was
black with dark windows and looked like a sedan. I didn’t notice the make or
model.” She took a deep breath. “So how do you proceed?”

Harrison
smiled at Lulu. “We need to assess the threat level, find the person who is
stalking you, and then we stop them.”

His
dark brown eyes made her feel at ease and safe. She could tell they were going
to be friends. “How is this going to impact my life? And how fast can you find
this man, or person.” She bit her bottom lip. “I’m assuming my stalker is a man
and I shouldn’t assume anything, correct?”

“You’re
a public figure,” Harrison said, “which means we have a big suspect pool. The
impact on your life is going to be profound,”

Glancing
around the table, she felt an inkling of fear. They all looked at her gravely. They
were taking the threat far more seriously than she was. She hated feeling
powerless. She’d spent a lot of years afraid that the people who had killed her
parents would come back for her and Wilder. The sense of vulnerability froze
her to the core and she was fighting hard not to let it engulf her again. “How
do we narrow down this suspect pool?”

“We
dig into your personal life try to determine who your enemies are,” Noah
Callahan said quietly, as though aware of her fear.

She
wanted to say she didn’t have any enemies, but did she really know. Digging
into her personal life didn’t sound like a fun idea. She looked over at Ian for
some kind of support. “How deeply do you dig?”

Aiden
returned to the room holding a tray with a carafe of coffee, a teapot along
with mugs, a plate of cookies, creamer and sugar packets and several cans of
soda along with glasses of ice. Lulu eyed the cookies, snicker doodles—her
favorite. Aiden set the tray in the center of the table. He fussed over the
placement for a moment while everyone watched him. He glanced around the table,
suddenly aware that everyone was watching him. He stopped fiddling with the
tray and came to stand behind her.

Ian
smiled at her. “We understand that people have secrets. We don’t judge.”

Her
secrets weren’t what she was worried about. Her gaze slide over to Noah
Callahan who scowled. He was judging right now. From the expression on his
rugged, face rather harshly. His ice blue eyes seemed to peer into her soul and
she didn’t know if she was more turned on or frightened. Aiden put his hand on
her shoulder, the gesture reassuring.

“Thank
you.” She took a deep breath. “What do you need?”

“Who
knows your schedule?” Noah Callahan demanded.

Harrison
had collected all the letters and replaced them in his briefcase. He snapped
the case closed.

She
held up a hand and ticked off on her fingers, “Besides Aiden, Maris my
secretary, Sid my driver, Calvin my butler and, to some extent Wilder.” Only because
Wilder insisted he know how to find her in case of an emergency.

“Until
we know for absolutely sure,” Noah said quietly, “everyone is part of the
suspect pool.”

Aiden’s
hand tightened on her shoulder. “Not me. I would never hurt Lulu. Neither would
anyone on her personal staff.”

Noah
eyed him curiously and then shook his head. “Maybe not, but loyalty isn’t a
guarantee of anything.”

She
considered her personal staff family. “Nonsense, my house staff has been with
me for years. They would never hurt me.”

Noah
leaned forward and placed his hands flat on the table. “Family means nothing. From
this moment on you trust us and only us. If your staff loves you the way you
say, they will want you to be safe and will understand what needs to be done to
keep you that way.”

Lulu
realized she had no choice. As much as she wanted to believe no one wanted to
hurt her, she knew she could be wrong. She’d been a public figure for years. Some
people hated her because she was wealthy, some because she modeled, or now because
she wasn’t a model. She was honest and told women to live, love, and enjoy
life, and that they had a right to be happy no matter their dress size. “I want
this situation over as quickly as possible. How can you make that happen?”

Noah
stood up. His wide shoulders and muscled six foot plus body filled her vision
and she fought not to gasp. He was all man and she felt heat just thinking
about him.

“We
get total access to your life twenty four/seven,” Noah said. “You are going to
have to trust us and do exactly what we say when we say. No questions, no arguments,
no nothing. We have two options. We can put you out there and see what shakes
loose, or we hide you until this over.”

She
thought about what he said for a moment. “You mean use me as bait?” She rolled
the idea around in her head.

“If
you want to catch a predator,” Ian said, a sympathetic look on his face, “you
have to give him what he wants and wait for him to go after it.” .

She
tried not to squirm in her chair. “How do you give someone what he wants when
he wants me dead?”

“We
put people in place,” Noah replied, “and you go about your life and when your
stalker makes a move, we catch him, or her.”

At
least she wouldn’t be stuck in a cage being kept safe. She couldn’t simply put
her life on hold. She had several charity events coming up that she helped
organize. February sweeps were only a few weeks away and she filmed two talk
shows a day, three days a week. She hadn’t missed fashion week in ten years. People’s
livings depended on her. She had to get this done as quickly as possible. “Then
that’s the option I choose.”

For
a second she thought she saw a glint of respect in Noah Callahan’s eyes. She
didn’t know whether to be thrilled or angry. He must have thought she was a
real wimp. “Which of my dirty little secrets do you need to know?”