Chapter Five
Danny watched Bella’s car leave the parking garage. He’d seen her two weeks ago, so he knew what she looked like at thirty.
But damn, it hadn’t stopped his lungs from seizing when she turned to face him at the hotel. The reminder hit—how tiny she was, even in heels. That business suit hadn’t disguised the curves of her breasts and hips, or that sweet little ass.
And her eyes. Golden brown that deepened to amber with emotion. Like they had when he’d taken down his hood on the yacht.
He hadn’t needed to remove it—he’d wanted Bella to see him. Recognize him.
And she had.
She’d whispered his name, and he was grateful his wetsuit kept his body’s reaction from showing.
Consuela roared to life, but the rumbling purr of her engine did nothing to soothe his nerves. The hurt in Bella’s voice when he’d tried to apologize for how he’d left things between them was another reminder of how badly he’d failed her.
The timing had been all wrong. She’d been too young. His path in the Navy already set.
And look at her now. Strategic Events Coordinator for AegisShield Defense Solutions, a Charlotte-based defense company that designed and manufactured missile defense systems for the US and its allied partners.
The file Nathan had compiled on her noted her meticulous attention to detail, her calm under pressure, and her ability to handle complex projects.
No wonder her father had asked her to organize his re-election gala.
But the irony of her career choice wasn’t lost on Danny, given what he knew of her childhood.
There was much more to grown-up Bella than met the eye.
Exiting the parking garage, he headed south to the Ballantyne neighborhood in south Charlotte, where he’d gotten a hotel close to Bella’s townhome.
This job required getting close to her. But he didn’t have to add to the hurt he’d already caused. Maybe by the time he left, he could fix the mistakes he’d made, and they could part as friends.
They couldn’t be anything more. Because he would leave.
His life as a Navy SEAL, and now as a protection agent with Dìleas, was exciting, straightforward, uncomplicated.
Relationships weren’t.
Unlike his buddies at Dìleas, he had no plans to settle down.
His phone broke into the hard-driving bass drum of “Enter Sandman.”
Nathan’s ringtone. The dude got a weird kick out of programming a personal ringtone for everyone at Dìleas into a thirty-second distillation of their personality.
Danny’s assigned ringtone was “Crazy Train.”
He’d own it.
A grin tugged at his mouth as he hit the button on his steering wheel to accept the call. “L-T, what you got for me?”
“I’m monitoring the dark web for any chatter about Senator Strickland and his family,” Nathan replied.
“And I asked Ryan to do a check on Miran Hassan. He gets released from California State Prison tomorrow. According to the conditions of his parole, he can’t leave Los Angeles County without permission from his parole officer. ”
Danny’s fingers tightened on the wheel until his knuckles turned white. “Guy should have never been let out of prison.”
“It’s been eighteen years, amigo. He served his full sentence, which is unusual and, I suspect, due to pressure from the senator.”
“Bella should know,” Danny said. “She’s the one who spent three days trapped inside a storage unit with no air conditioning or heat.”
“Trust me, after my experience with Emily and her father, both Lachlan and I made our opinions known to the senator. He doesn’t want her afraid, although I doubt Hassan poses much of a threat.
The man is in his sixties now and in poor health, with no ties we could find to known terror networks or sympathizers.
His wife divorced him after he went to jail and she and their son and daughter moved to northern California and went no contact. ”
Nathan’s voice lowered, his disgust clear. “Still deserved jail time, though. No one knows who shot the missile that supposedly killed his family members and even if they did, kidnapping a young girl? That’s fucked up. You made contact yet?”
“I just left her. We’re having dinner tonight.”
“You work fast. Don’t do anything to get your ‘nads cut off by the senator.” The humor in Nathan’s voice was hard to miss.
Too late.
Cold sand. The glimmer of the moon behind clouds.
He already had.
“I won’t, but if I’m not allowed to tell her that part of my assignment involves her personal protection—which I still object to—I need reasons to see her outside of being head of security for this event.”
“Your objections are noted, for the record. If shit hits the fan, we’re pointing the finger in the senator’s direction. Let’s hope Hassan sticks to his parole and the senator’s enemies all behave so this gala goes off without a hitch.”
Amen to that. “The hotel events manager is sending me a list of all staff assigned to the event. I’ll forward it to Ryan as soon as I receive it.”
By the time Danny hung up with Nathan, he’d reached his temporary home away from home—an extended-stay hotel.
The suite held a living room with basic kitchen amenities, a bedroom with two queens, and a bathroom.
The décor was hotel chic—neutrals of white, beige, and brown with artwork highlighting the Queen City, Charlotte’s official moniker, after the city’s namesake, Britain’s Queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg.
Removing a glass from the cabinet over the fridge, he filled it with cold tap water, letting the liquid wash away the ache that had formed in the back of his throat.
Bella hadn’t been happy to see him. He had some work to do if he was going to earn her trust.
A weary sigh slipped free.
Outside the window, a canopy of trees bordered the parking lot, their pale green underbellies exposed in a sudden uptick of wind from gathering storm clouds.
He stared at them, unseeing, as his mind hurtled back to that day.
Jaynie’s funeral.
Cold rain misted the air—the gray clouds drooping low as if even the sky bowed beneath the weight of sorrow. He sat rigid between his parents in the front pew of the church.
No grief.
No anger.
Just a numbness in his chest that emotion couldn’t breach, even as he listened to his mother weep.
His sister’s mahogany coffin gleamed beneath the altar lights while the priest prattled on about eternal life.
Bella was there.
Seated across the aisle with her parents and brother, eyes downcast, her hands clenched so tightly in her lap, she looked as if she’d shatter into a million pieces if anyone so much as breathed on her.
As if she sensed his stare, her head lifted. Those warm caramel eyes darkened to shimmering pools of amber so raw it stabbed straight through him.
A clap of thunder boomed in the distance, rattling the hotel windows.
Danny yanked shut the drapes.
He never should have brought Bella with him to the beach that night.
Not even a long workout and a cold shower could make the rest of the afternoon go by quickly enough. The storm had come and gone, lowering the temperature to a more manageable level.
Danny could handle the heat. This Southern humidity threatened to suck the life out of his soul.
He arrived thirty minutes early at Bella’s townhome.
Not that he was eager to see her again or anything.
She lived in an end-unit in a block of two-story brick and vinyl-sided homes, all with matching black shutters and white garage doors.
Mid-size ornamental trees lined the sidewalk in front of the homes, and across the street, a median filled with more trees and bushes created a visual buffer from the next street over.
The neighborhood seemed family-oriented, with a fair number of people walking dogs, kids playing outside, riding bikes. It’d be harder for a stranger to loiter around Bella’s home unnoticed. But the tree-covered median in the street presented an opportunity for concealment that he didn’t like.
A short sidewalk curved from the driveway to the front door. There was a security camera fixed to the upper corner of the garage. And a security camera doorbell, too.
Good. He’d find out if both cameras were hard-wired and tied into a monitored system and send the information to Nathan.
He tugged on the collar of his pink Hawaiian shirt and rang the doorbell, nerves jittering like he was still in high school and taking a girl on a first date.
Which was crazy. This wasn’t a date.
Not really.
It was a deliberate attempt to get closer to Bella so he could keep her safe.
Another reason to hate him if she ever found out.
A dog barked from inside. His shoulders relaxed a fraction. Something else that would make it harder for a stranger to enter Bella’s home unannounced.
The door opened. Bella stood at the threshold in a black tank top and jean shorts that exposed tanned, toned legs ending at dainty feet with hot pink toenails. The faint outline of her nipples showed through the soft fabric of her top.
No bra.
He tore his gaze away and focused on the golden retriever Bella gripped by the collar, tongue and tail both wagging as he eyed Danny like a long-lost friend.
“I lost track of time.” Bella pulled the dog back and stepped aside to let Danny enter. “Trip, no. Don’t get hair on Danny’s clothes.”
“I’m early.” He kept his gaze on her face, where it belonged. Because he was a professional, and, like it or not, she was the job.
Her words finally registered. “Trip?”
She dropped her head, a curtain of hair hiding her face. “It’s not an uncommon dog name. I’ll be back in a minute.” Still avoiding his gaze, she herded the dog up the carpeted stairs to the second floor.
He stared after her.
She named her dog after him?
Nah, it had to be a coincidence. She’d never called him Trip like everyone else had. She’d always called him Danny.
Her voice, muted in volume, came from upstairs. “Make yourself at home.”
“Take your time,” he hollered back, then gave a mental shrug. If she was going to leave him waiting down here alone, he’d gather a little intel about this grown-up version of the girl he remembered.