Czytaj książkę: «In The Bodyguard's Arms»

Chapter 1

Fear gripped Jordan “Manny” Mannes—fear like he’d never felt before, not even when he’d been on those top secret missions with his former Marines unit.

He shook his head. “No, I won’t take that assignment. No way.”

“You don’t want to guard a lingerie model?” his boss, Cooper Payne, asked from the end of the long table in the conference room of the Payne Protection Agency franchise he owned. This room and the entire office had been repaired after a recent shoot-out. Redone in dark brick and thick wood, it was a little more bulletproof than all the glass had been.

“Really?” Cooper asked, his blue eyes gleaming with amusement.

Manny didn’t think there was anything funny about the assignment. Guarding a model sounded like a nightmare to him and should have sounded like a bad idea to his boss. His guarding a model was like putting the fox in charge of the henhouse. He would be the one getting eaten alive, though.

Sweat broke out on Manny’s back, beads trickling down between his shoulder blades, but instead of feeling hot, he felt chilled. “No...”

That would be his worst nightmare: letting himself get distracted because of a pretty face and, since she was a lingerie model, probably a killer body. He knew how shallow he was, that he’d let himself mistake infatuation for something more. Then he’d wind up like the fools from his unit or, worse yet, his hapless family members.

He glanced around the table at the guys with whom he’d served. Lars Ecklund and Dane Sutton were the tallest, most muscular guys he’d ever met. Maybe that was why they had fallen the hardest—so hard that they looked brain damaged. Their eyes glazed like they were drunk. They wore sappy grins nearly as big as they were. They were the “before” pictures.

He glanced farther down the table to the “after”—to Cole Bentler, who’d fallen in love and been betrayed. He didn’t look happy; he looked bitter and miserable.

Given Manny’s luck, that was how he would wind up—like the “after.” Or worse yet, he’d wind up serving like the men in his family: time behind bars.

The Mannes men were legendary for their poor judgment. In women and life decisions. His dad had left his mom for a younger woman he’d later caught cheating on him. That was how Manny had learned, at eight years old, what a crime of passion was.

Then there were crimes of stupidity, like his brother letting his pretty girlfriend talk him into robbing a liquor store. Jeremy had gone to prison while Manny had gone off to the Marines. He’d enlisted in the hopes of escaping the family curse.

He had felt safer carrying out dangerous missions overseas than he did here. He had had fewer distractions over there.

“No, absolutely not,” he said. “Send Cole.” Cole wasn’t going to fall in love with anyone ever again—not after how his heart had been crushed. “Or Nikki...”

Lars’s pale blue eyes dimmed slightly with disappointment. He’d just moved in with his fiancée a few weeks ago; of course he wouldn’t want to be separated from her.

“Or borrow a bodyguard from one of your brothers,” Manny suggested. Each of the Payne brothers had their own franchise of Payne Protection now, and when the need arose, they all worked together.

“Why would I do that when you’re available?” Cooper asked.

“I—I’m not available,” Manny said. “I’m taking that other case.”

“What other case?” Cooper asked, his brow furrowing with confusion.

“Protecting Ted...” He couldn’t think of the guy’s last name right away. He’d only heard it mentioned when he’d overheard their receptionist transferring the call to Cooper a few days ago. But as Cooper opened his mouth to speak again, he remembered the name and interrupted. “Plummer. I want that job,” he said. “I’ll protect Ted Plummer.”

Cooper shook his head. “You don’t know—”

“I don’t care,” Manny said. “I don’t need to know all the details. I know how this bodyguard business works. The guy’s in danger. I’ll protect him.”

“But the job’s in the Upper Peninsula,” Cooper said. “It’s at a very secluded cabin.”

And Manny preferred cities like Atlanta, where he’d grown up. Hot, bustling cities. He shuddered slightly. But then, maybe being secluded was a good thing. It would make it easier to protect old Ted from whatever the threat was to his safety, and it would make it harder for Manny to find some woman to fall for—like his idiot friends and family had.

“That’s the job I want,” Manny said. “I want to protect Ted Plummer.”

Cooper leaned back for a moment and studied Manny while everyone else studied Cooper. There was a strange energy in the room, but Manny figured it was because none of the guys were used to him acting like this. He was usually the easygoing one of the bunch. He did what was asked of him; he didn’t fight for an assignment.

Until today. He wanted this job. He needed to get away from River City for a while. And most of all, he needed to get away from his friends who’d fallen in love. Just a few days ago he’d helped Dane pick out a ring for the woman he hoped to marry.

He shuddered at the memory and with the concern that if he stayed too close to all this happiness, it might get to him. It might make him think that he could have what they had. And that just wasn’t possible. Nobody in his family had ever had a successful relationship.

Finally Cooper nodded. “Ted Plummer is all yours.”

Manny should have been happy, but for some reason a sick feeling rushed over him. He felt light-headed and dizzy for a moment. But then the feeling passed.

“Go pack,” Cooper advised. “You have a plane to catch.”

“I can fly myself there,” Manny said.

“Payne Protection doesn’t have planes,” Cooper said. “But it might not be a bad investment since you and Cole both have your pilot’s licenses.”

“You can take mine,” Cole Bentler almost sheepishly offered. “I have one at the River City airstrip.” Bentler had money but didn’t like to admit it.

Maybe he thought his friends would act differently if they knew. Like maybe Manny wouldn’t pay his half of the rent for the apartment they shared or something. But Manny didn’t care about money. It obviously hadn’t made Cole happy.

Love hadn’t made him happy, either.

So Manny wasn’t going to take any chances. Somebody else could protect the lingerie model. He was going to be perfectly happy with old Ted.

* * *

The door closed behind Manny with a sharp snap as he rushed from the conference room. But Cooper was the only one watching the door. Everyone else was still staring at him.

“You’re not going to tell him?” Cole Bentler asked.

Cooper snorted and then called him on his hypocrisy. “You volunteered your plane but no other information.”

“But you’re the boss,” Cole said.

Pride swelled in Cooper’s chest. Yes, he was the boss—of his own security agency. But just because he was the boss didn’t mean he couldn’t have some fun. The laughter he’d been suppressing escaped.

Lars and Dane erupted, too—deep chuckles filling the room.

Cole just shook his head, but he was grinning as he warned, “He’s going to be so pissed.”

“It’s his own damn fault for not knowing her name,” Dane remarked. “When we started boot camp, he had a pinup picture of her that he was going to put in his locker.”

But boot camp wasn’t like high school; there were no lockers. Just stiff cots and scratchy blankets and muscle-aching, soul-breaking hard work.

“I don’t think he was interested in her name,” Lars remarked with another guffaw.

“It’s not like he ever expected to meet her,” Cole said. He shook his head again.

“But how can he not know that Ted Plummer is really Teddie Plummer, the supermodel?” Cooper asked. “Even though her career has slowed down recently, her name is still in every tabloid.”

The guys stared at him again like they had during the meeting—silently—until Lars asked, “How the hell do you know that?”

Heat rushed to Cooper’s face, but he just shrugged. “My wife reads the tabloids. They’re always lying around the house. I’m surprised Manny wouldn’t know.”

Manny was notorious for not being able to keep a secret except the ones that would endanger all their lives if revealed. Those he kept.

Cole snorted. “We don’t have any tabloids lying around our apartment.”

He and Manny shared an attic apartment in some old downtown house. They were the ultimate odd couple. Manny talked incessantly while Cole was reticent. Manny had grown up in poverty while Cole had money. Cooper certainly didn’t pay him enough to afford a private plane.

“He has no idea who she is,” Cole added.

“He’s going to find out soon,” Lars warned him. “You’re going to have to send up someone else when he turns around and flies right back.”

Cooper shook his head now. “You all heard him. He demanded the assignment. So he has to protect her and find out who the hell’s stalking her.”

Teddie Plummer was in danger. And protecting her would put Manny in danger, too. Even though he was an excellent bodyguard, he should have been briefed. But he had been so anxious to leave, he really hadn’t given Cooper the chance.

Or at least, that was what Cooper wanted to believe—that Manny hadn’t given him the chance and he and Teddie Plummer would be safe.

The supermodel had called the Payne Protection Agency because someone was stalking her. He’d escalated from sending her threatening notes to breaking into her penthouse and trying to grab her in the park. This person was obsessed with her, so obsessed that he wasn’t likely to give up until one of them was dead.

* * *

She was dead.

Teddie had never been so tired. Not even after twelve-hour photo shoots had she ever been this exhausted. She had hiked miles through the pine trees and rock formations of the Porcupine Mountains Park. Then she’d kayaked across the clear blue surface of the Lake in the Clouds. The muscles in her arms burned. The muscles in her legs burned. She ached all over.

But as exhausted as she was, nervous energy filled her. The snap of every twig along the trail had her jumping. And despite seeing no other hikers for over an hour, she felt as if she was being watched.

She glanced around but could see no one through the thick branches of the pine trees lining the narrow trail. This wasn’t part of the park anymore; it was the trail that led from her property to the park.

She would be back soon to the cabin. She would be able to lock herself inside and pull all the blinds to make sure nobody could see her.

Another twig snapped, and a startled cry slipped through her lips. The noise was too loud for it to have been a squirrel or chipmunk. Something bigger was out there.

Something human?

She shivered and quickened her pace. Her legs ached with each step, but she ignored the pain. She ignored everything but the fear.

The fear had kept her alive the past several weeks. She’d been able to outrun her stalker before—in Central Park. But that had been on neatly paved running trails. And he had nearly caught her then. He’d grabbed her arm.

She could feel his crushing grip even now. The bruises from his fingers had turned yellow on her forearm. If she hadn’t kicked...

If she hadn’t screamed...

What would he have done to her?

All those things he threatened in the letters he sent her? All those damn letters with cut-up images of her face—of her body...

She shivered despite the sweat that had dampened her clothes, or maybe because of it. The temperature had begun to drop along with the sun. Dusk had begun to gather on the trail, casting ominous shadows. Of the trees? Or of the man who always found her no matter where she hid?

Of course it had been easy for him to find her in the city—despite all the people. The paparazzi followed her and posted enough photos of her day that it was easy to know where she went and what she did.

But he had found her at her mama’s house, too, in the hills of Kentucky. He’d gotten inside the small house her mother had insisted on keeping even though Teddie had wanted to buy her a bigger one once the modeling contracts had started coming in. He had been in Teddie’s childhood bedroom, touching her things, cutting them up.

She shuddered as she thought of that, of how the space where she had once felt safe had been violated. Of how her mama could have been hurt.

But Mama was tough. She’d been only seventeen when she’d had Teddie. The boy who’d gotten her pregnant had wanted nothing to do with her anymore, not once he’d gotten what he’d wanted from the girl he and his jock friends had all called trailer trash. Mama’s parents had already abandoned her, so she’d been living with her grandmother in a trailer park. Once her grandmother had died, Mama had raised Teddie alone in the little house she’d used the small inheritance from her grandmother to buy.

Mama had worked two jobs to keep them fed and clothed. And she’d also worked hard to keep them safe. So when they had returned home from eating out and discovered the intruder, Mama had pulled a gun from her purse and fired it.

If only she’d hit him...

But she’d broken the window instead. And the masked intruder had jumped through it and escaped. A slight smile curved Teddie’s lips as she thought of Mama’s fierceness.

She probably didn’t have to worry about the stalker bothering her mother again. But she hadn’t wanted to take the chance. So Teddie had insisted on leaving.

She had bought this place up north sight unseen. She’d fallen in love with the area a few years ago after a friend had brought her to the area to hike. She’d fallen in love with the trees and trails and water. She had felt so at peace here.

But not anymore.

Another twig snapped, and she gasped. Her heart was beating fast and hard, and she was beginning to pant, not from the exertion but from the fear that pressed on her lungs.

She hoped it was a bear. She’d seen them before in the woods. They’d left her alone. They hadn’t been any more interested in her than she’d been in them.

But now...

Now she felt as if she were being followed. Stalked.

And again, she couldn’t help but think it was him. That he had found her.

Maybe she should have taken the gun as Mama had suggested. Since she had little experience firing one, she’d thought it might be as dangerous for her to have the weapon as it was for her to have the stalker. So she’d taken her mother’s other suggestion instead.

She’d hired the Payne Protection Agency.

Mama had seen a feature about them on a nightly news broadcast, about all the people they’d protected from harm or death, and all the cases they’d solved. If anyone could help her, they could.

But could they?

The police hadn’t been able to help Teddie. Not the big city departments in New York or LA or even the local force down in Blackwater, Kentucky. She doubted the Payne Protection Agency could do what no one else had.

She doubted they could stop her stalker. But she would give them a chance. Cooper Payne, the owner, had tried to convince her to come to River City in the Lower Peninsula of Michigan, where their office was. But she’d refused. The drive was too long, and Teddie could not fly anymore. She couldn’t handle the fear, not of crashing but of being trapped in a confined space with her stalker. What if he were on the flight? She wouldn’t be able to get away from him on a plane.

So Cooper had told her that he would send a bodyguard up to her. She didn’t expect him anytime soon, though. Even if he flew, there was no airport nearby. He’d have to drive part of the way—if he would be able to find her at all at the remote cabin.

Another twig snapped, this one closer. If it was a bear, she was supposed to lie down and play dead. If she ran, it would chase her. And she wouldn’t be able to outrun the bear like she had her stalker.

But instinct had her running, her legs burning as she sprinted along the trail. She knew it wasn’t a bear following her. She knew it was him. And he was too close.

Finally the trail widened, the trees along it not as thick as they had been between the park and her property. The darkness was falling, casting shadows so deep she couldn’t see where she was going.

She glanced over her shoulder to see where she’d been and whether he emerged from the narrow trail behind her. She didn’t want him to follow her here, to the cabin where she’d finally felt safe.

She was so close to it. She turned toward it, where her legs were instinctively carrying her. The muscles were numb now, all sensation gone from them. She had to will herself to keep moving. As she neared the small structure with its cedar siding and big windows, she felt a flash of relief. And then a flash of panic.

A light glowed inside it, burning behind the blinds she’d kept closed since she’d arrived. Had she turned on a lamp before she’d left?

She had awakened after dawn. With sunshine streaming through the tall windows in the peak of the A-frame, where blinds weren’t necessary for privacy, she wouldn’t have needed a light. And she hadn’t intended to be out as long as she’d been, so she probably wouldn’t have thought she would need one to see her way back home.

But if she hadn’t left that light on, then someone else must have turned it on. She began to slow her pace. Then she heard it again—another crack of a twig or limb breaking behind her.

Was she running from danger or straight toward it?