Protector (26 page)

Careful not to wake him, she eased off him and padded across the wood floor to the kitchen, needing distance to gather her tangled thoughts and ease the building headache. She grabbed her purse off the counter and fished through it, searching for the aspirin he’d given her after she’d bruised her ribs.

Reality invaded her like an insidious disease. The clock had run out. Her time with Chuck was over. The longer he stayed with her, the greater the danger because of her family, her blood connection that couldn’t be ignored or erased. She’d been greedy here at the cottage.

The cruise ship, Dallas, everything about her past life felt so distant. Could it have been only a few days ago that she’d discussed Lucy and Adolpho’s wedding plans? And the fund-raiser, too, scheduled the day after the ship docked in Genoa again. How could time have become so distorted?

Would Chuck just walk away when they returned?

Her heart squeezed at the possibility. But more than that, she knew she came with a lot of baggage. Would her family history be a problem for him? For his job that she didn’t know all that much about to start with?

She sifted through her purse, pausing to flip the thumb drive over and over in her hand. Viewing her life from Chuck’s perspective, she saw herself for what she was. The daughter of a mobster. Corruption under glitz. She massaged the minidrive in her hand like worry beads, flipping it over and over.

A minidrive from accounting. Her ears roared with the sounds of her heart pounding.

Had Lucy noticed the thumb drive was missing, and how much information did it hold? Once they figured out she’d taken it, no way in hell would they let her fade into the background. An all-out search was probably already under way for her and Chuck.

Undoubtedly, the next flare wouldn’t be set off by a goat. Chuck was in more danger than even she’d realized.

Jolynn thought about that young boy dumped by his mother in an orphanage. He’d braved the world with nothing more than a saint’s medallion from a nun for protection. Maybe someone should protect him for a change.

With potential evidence in her hand, she could do the honorable thing and prove to herself she wasn’t one damn bit like her father. She needed to figure out a way to confront her father— while making sure Chuck was out of the picture.

The telephone rang by Livia’s bed, jarring her from the best sleep of her life after the best
sex
of her life.

She slapped at the end table, desperate to silence the damn thing before it disturbed Rex— and their time together. She swept the phone from the table. Yet the ringing continued and continued,
mio Dio
.

Again the blaring noise kept on until she realized it was not a normal ring, but a buzz from Rex’s bedside table. His personal cell? Or a BlackBerry? Her naked leg between his, she toed his calf until he stirred. The intimacy of the moment wrapped around her, being together, their bodies spooned into a perfect fit.

Rex mumbled in his sleep as he rolled toward the side of the bed. Then his muscles tensed, rippling down his back as he jolted awake.

“Shit.” He sat up sharply, snatching his BlackBerry up and glancing at the faceplate quickly. “Colonel Scanlon here. Speak to me, Berg.”

As he sat on the edge of the mattress naked, elbows on his knees, his face went devoid of expression. He mostly listened, interspersing the occasional “affirmative” and “roger.”

Livia burrowed deeper into the sheets, her body languorous from loving. Good thing she had not known how powerful it could be with Rex or she never would have made it through the past two years with her sanity intact.

But now she did know. In full detail. Twice in the last three hours. Moonlight streaked through the portal across Rex’s nakedness. Everything from the defined muscles roping his lean body to the hint of silver at his temples declared him a one hundred percent honed, seasoned
male
. There was something infinitely attractive about a man who knew his way around a woman’s body well with confidence, but none of the arrogance that too often came with youth. He was everything she’d dreamed of, everything she’d hoped for.

And everything she’d feared because now, more than ever, she knew she could not let him go. Her heart and body would belong only to him for the rest of her life. Melodramatic? Perhaps. But she’d long ago given up denying her flamboyant Italian nature. Tonight, she wanted to embrace every bit of the volatile, all-encompassing love she felt for Rex.

After what they’d shared, she wouldn’t be so foolish as to walk away again. She would give him his space now to complete his mission, but afterward? Her body tingled with excitement and a hint of apprehension. Stakes were high with her heart on the line.

“Roger that, Berg. I’ll be down in fifteen minutes.” Rex ended the call.

He turned to her apologetically. “As much as I would like to stay with you ’til morning, I have to go.”

“I understand.”
She tucked the sheet under her arms. “Work phones… or would that be work calls?” She deliberately tangled the American idiom to tease a smile from him. Unsuccessfully.

He gathered his clothes tossed haphazardly around the cabin. “Local authorities have just made an arrest based on suspicious cell phone chatter my guys picked up.”

Livia crawled to the edge of the bed. “Can you tell me who?”

“It won’t be a secret given the guy’s pretty high profile around here. Head of security for the
Fortuna
, Adolpho Grassi. He was just taken into custody. He’s being loaded onto a police vessel now to be transported back to Italy.” He pulled on his trousers and reached for his button-down shirt.

“That’s it? The investigation is over?” Maybe her future with Rex loomed sooner than she’d expected.

“If he talks. It appears he has been allowing passengers of questionable backgrounds on the ship, allowing new passengers to board by swapping identities with someone who left the ship. All very shady stuff, especially in light of the pattern you noticed of those three people returning again and again, cruise after cruise.”

“Adolpho? Lucy Taylor must be devastated.” She tugged the comforter closer to ease the chill seeping into her bones. She’d known this was dangerous. But to learn the person in charge of protecting the passengers had been endangering them all? It was too much to take in.

Dropping to the edge of the bed, his shoes in hand, he scowled. “I’m worried about you. What if I asked you to step away, leave, say you’re sick? I’ll have a helicopter here to transport you before you can say ‘ante up.’”

She could see from his intensity that he could and would make it happen. Nothing was impossible for him. But he
needed to direct that drive elsewhere, and he needed to let go of the fear that every woman in his life could die as his Heather had. “Thank you, but no. My leaving might arouse suspicion and endanger the rest of your case. Just because you have Grassi does not mean you are ending your undercover plan. Am I right?”

His jaw flexed with clenched teeth before he finally nodded tightly. “Just because I agree doesn’t mean I’m happy.”

“Then after your work, come back here and I will make you happy.” She stretched provocatively while gliding a hand down his chest, then stopped shy of his belt, patting his taut abs lightly.

“Do you think you could put a sweater on?”

She sidled against him, savoring the bristle of his cotton shirt against her breasts. “That sounds too stuffy. How about when you’re through with business, you come over here and make love to me again, and then again for the next fifty years.”

His head snapped back. She bit her lip. This wasn’t the right time at all, but blast her impulsiveness, the words had just fallen out.

Rex exhaled. Hard. “Lady, you are giving me whiplash.” He studied her with puzzled eyes. “Last time I checked, you dumped me because you said what I have to offer isn’t good enough.”

The hurt in his voice surprised her. She’d only thought of her own breaking heart at losing him, never once realizing he might be aching every bit as much for her. “I said I thought you were still in love with your dead wife.” And she was beginning to realize how very honorable it was for a man to give his heart that deeply. “But now that time has passed, I think perhaps you have room to care for someone just as much.”

“
What makes you say that now?”

She considered his question carefully, suspecting a lot could ride on her answer. Perhaps their whole future. Her confession had been so impetuous, she hadn’t thought out the why of it all. So what had nudged the notion to life?

The answer flowered in her mind, bright, beautiful, and taking root more firmly by the moment. “Because I can see in your eyes now that you love me, too.”

“Oh, you can, can you?” He combed her hair from her face with his long, oh-so-capable fingers.

“Are you denying it?” She leaned into his chest with more confidence on the outside than the inside. A nervous flutter started in her tummy.

He stayed silent, his throat moving with a long swallow as he continued to brush back her hair again and again as if memorizing the feel of her.

The more she looked into his eyes, his soul, the more she understood. Now her stomach fluttered from sympathy for him. “It’s okay if you’re still a little scared. Loving me is a risk. Loving anyone is a risk. But I intend to show you how very worth it I am.”

“I believe you.” He cradled the back of her head, her hair gathered in his hands. “And I do love you, Livia. God, do I ever love you. So damn much it scares me with how important you are to me.”

She saw his sincerity, but also saw his fear. This wasn’t easy for him, loving her. Not today. And probably not for a long while.

When she’d first met him, she would have been frustrated by his reservation. Perhaps she’d even misread him before, allowing jealousy to taint her perceptions. And if so, she had not deserved his love back then.

Now, however, she saw a man with a love in his eyes so powerful it humbled her. “You are something special, Rex Scanlon.” She angled forward to kiss him, unable to miss how his hand trembled as he cupped her waist. She stroked his bristly, strong chin, his face, teasing his bottom lip and hoping to tease a smile from her somber man as well. “I think I will make quite a splash as a colonel’s wife.”

Chuckling softly, he smiled against her mouth. “I do believe you will.”

And that simply, her future fused with his. After all the drama of their courtship, she appreciated the ease with which they’d both finally accepted their life together. A huge part of that existence, of the man, included his call to military service. “Now go to work. Make this Grassi talk so we can get on with our lives.”

“I will,” he vowed. “And maybe we’ll have some luck locating Chuck, too. My guys are following up on a lead.”

She straightened quickly. “What? Can you tell me where has he been hiding since we lost him in Sicily?”

“Actually, we got a blip. I’m thinking he may have left the island.”

Left Sicily for the mainland? Her surprise quickly turned to possibility. And why not? She had been so focused on thinking of him stranded and hiding that she hadn’t considered how resourceful Chuck could be. The man was a survivor.

If he had gone to the mainland…

An image of her cottage retreat filled her mind, the very place she’d loaned to Chuck for a week a year ago.

Livia ran to catch Rex at the door, her feet tangling in the sheet. She grabbed his arm urgently. “Oh
mio Dio
! I think I know where he is. Oh God, Rex, I’m almost certain I know where Chuck’s been hiding.”

*  *  *

The Fiat purred like a healthy kitten. Chuck would have preferred a sleek tiger with more kick in the engine, but at least he had the vehicle running again. Jolynn settled in safely beside him. The sunrise cast a crimson haze over her face like some kind of mood lighting from a vintage movie. Without question, he wished they were riding off into the sunset together.

But he couldn’t delay checking in with the ship any longer.

Hopefully he would receive the all clear to bring Jolynn in, tuck her somewhere safer. If not? Then he would have to come up with another plan. And he would, damn it.

Both hands on the wheel, he steered around potholes on the narrow road. A split rail fence bordered the rolling green dips and swells leading to the nearest seaside village. “How are you doing over there, Red? Need to stop for something to eat?”

She cocked her head to the side. “Why do you call me that?”

“Huh?”

“Red.” Her fingernail scratched along a split in the dashboard. “And why do you call me Lynnie?”

“All right,” he said, confused, but then who knew what went on in a woman’s mind? Certainly not him. “If you don’t care for nicknames, then I’m cool with that.”

“I’m not even sure you notice you’re doing it. You call me Red when we’re laughing. You call me Lynnie when we’re making love.” She clutched her oversized purse to her chest. “You only call me Jolynn when you’re angry or frustrated. The other times, you leave off Jo. It’s as if you want to slice away that part of me which reminds you of my father.”