Bare Facts (2 page)

“Of course I have,” he said, pacing away from her to face the windows that looked out over the D.C. skyline, which he’d be glad to abandon for Seattle and his view of Puget Sound. Two days of testifying before a house subcommittee made him claustrophobic and eager for the breathing room of the Pacific Northwest.

She came over to him, pulling him back from the windows, and led him to one of the side chairs.

“What are you doing?”

“Keeping you out of harm’s way. That’s my job.”

“I’m pretty sure a sniper isn’t something we have to worry about.”

“Most people are pretty sure of that until they’re dead. Better to be safe than sorry.”

“Is that your mantra?” he asked.

That gray gaze of hers dropped and she shook her head. “No, that’s not my mantra. But it’s a good one for a man whose life has been threatened. Do you have any idea who could be behind the threats?”

He always played his cards close to his chest. This investigation was no different. If Sam hadn’t relayed the information he’d already given to Charity, then neither would Daniel.

“No clue. I’m just a guy trying to run his business.”

“Give me a break. You’re one of the most powerful men in the import business.”

“Yeah, there is that. But otherwise I’m just like everyone else.”

“Most people who are being threatened have an idea why.”

“I’ve discussed my thoughts with your boss.”

She narrowed her gaze and he had the first glimpse of the woman he’d read about on paper. “Very well. When are we leaving?”

“In an hour. I have one last meeting in a few minutes.”

“I’m going to check out the suite. How confident are you that your security team can protect you?”

“I hired you, didn’t I?”

“You don’t give much away, do you?”

“It doesn’t pay in my business.”

“Well, I’m your new best friend if you want to stay alive, so consider sharing with me,” she said.

“Honey—”

“Please don’t call me that. You may address me as Ms. Keone or Charity.”

“Charity, then, I’m not the sharing type,” he said. She might play at being tough as nails, but he was damned sure he would have to protect her if they got into any trouble.

What the hell was Sam Liberty doing hiring a woman like her?

“Wait here,” he said, turning his back on her. He sent a message via his BlackBerry to Sam Liberty.

I need a bodyguard, not a distraction. Please send a replacement ASAP
.

There was a rap on the door and he moved to open it. But Charity got there first, stopping the door from opening all the way, using her body to shield the room.

“How can I help you?” she asked.

“I need to speak to Mr. Williams,” Alonzo said.

“What’s your name?”

“Alonzo MacAfee. Tobias Jenner is here to see Mr. Williams.”

Daniel walked over to Charity and tried to scoot past her. She stopped him with a hand on his arm.

“Mr. Williams, I need to secure the room before you enter it.”

She definitely was going through all the motions of what he thought a bodyguard should. His BlackBerry twittered and he glanced at the message from Sam.

Keone is the best I know
.

“I’m not going to need a bodyguard.”

“Alonzo,” Charity said, “please give us a moment. Have you searched Mr. Jenner?”

“Yes, ma’am. And this room is secure.”

She nodded at Alonzo and then closed the door, leaning back against it. She crossed her arms over her chest.

“Why don’t you need a bodyguard? Has the threat to you passed?”

“No, but I think I can handle this myself. In fact, I have from the beginning.”

“Give me twenty-four hours to change your mind.”

“Why?”

“I don’t want to see you make a stupid mistake because you don’t think I can do my job.”

He refused to lie to her. “You’re right—I don’t believe you are capable of protecting me. I think you’re probably really great at protecting celebrities on the red carpet because you blend in with the Hollywood crowd, but in my line of work, on this assignment, you’re out of your league.”

“What will it take to change your mind?” she asked.

“You can’t,” he said.

“Let me contact Sam.”

She turned on her heel and left the main room of the suite and went to the little alcove just inside the main doorway.

He watched her go, wishing he was at a different point in his life where he could have indulged himself by keeping her around as his bodyguard.

C
harity knew it was going to take more than divine scripture to save Daniel. He was stubborn and too sure of himself. She wasn’t sure why she was surprised that Daniel didn’t want her as his bodyguard. It wasn’t the first time.

“Please contact your boss.”

She smiled tightly at him and turned away, pulling her BlackBerry from her pocket.

: DW wants me to leave him unguarded.

: Give me a few minutes and I’ll talk to him. We are still on the job.

: I’ll stay. But he’s resistant to safety measures.

: I have faith in you.

: Thanks.

“Sam will be contacting you shortly. I can’t leave until he pulls me off the job. Until then we’ll operate with me as bodyguard.”

“I don’t have time to wait; I’m expecting a colleague for a meeting in a few minutes. In fact, you’ve left him standing in the hall.”

He glanced down at his watch, clearly dismissing her from his mind. She shook her head and walked the perimeter of the room. The suite was spacious and well appointed, the main room divided into two different areas.

A loveseat and two wingback chairs were placed around a cherry wood coffee table. A dining room table with six chairs sat closer to the window. There was a desk in one corner near the window with a laptop computer set up on it.

“I’m going to be in a meeting.”

“Who is the meeting with?”

“Tobias Jenner—he’s in charge of my East Coast operation.”

“Regular spelling on both names?” she asked, her thumbs moving over the keyboard on her BlackBerry.

“Yes. He’s worked with me for over fifteen years. I don’t think he’s blackmailing me.”

As soon as he affirmed the spelling she sent the name to Anna with a request for more info. Anna could find all the details on anyone in less than five minutes. She was pure magic with her computer.

“Blackmail is a crime of passion. This is someone who knows you.”

“Tobias isn’t the blackmailer.”

She noticed he didn’t say the blackmailer was a stranger. She tucked that away for later examination. She also noted the missing fingertip on his right hand. She wanted to know more about it and made a mental note to investigate. “You sound confident.”

“I am.”

“I’m not. I can’t guard you unless I have all the information available.”

He tipped his head to the side, studying her. She fought to stand still and appear as he wanted to see her, but she realized she’d just let him see a chink in her armor. Just let him glimpse something that wasn’t part of her super-model image.

He walked closer to her and she stood her ground. She backed down for no one. Pride was one of her greatest strengths—and her biggest weakness. It was why she suspected things hadn’t worked out with Perry. Ah, hell, she wasn’t going to get into that right now.

“Do you trust Alonzo?” she asked.

“As much as I trust anyone,” he said.

“You’re not Confucius, so stop talking in riddles. This room is secure as long as you stay away from the window. I’ll check out this Mr. Jenner and then escort him in here.”

“You’re not in charge,” he said. “And I’ve got it all over Confucius.”

“So says you, and until Sam pulls me off the job, I am in charge.”

He crossed the room like he owned it, which she guessed he sort of did. His stride was long and his body language aggressive. He didn’t stop until barely an inch separated them. His aftershave was outdoorsy and spicy and she tried to pretend she didn’t like it, but lying went against the grain. Even white lies to herself.

She wished she could say that meeting him in person had made him seem less attractive. In person he exuded an animal magnetism that made her very aware of her femininity and angry that he didn’t want her on the job, because she wanted to be with him. Not necessarily to work.

He put both hands on the door on either side of her head and leaned in. “I don’t take orders.”

“You give them?” she asked, trying to keep her wits about her. He was a distraction that she didn’t need. The sheer physicality of him was so different from Perry’s urbane smoothness. Daniel was raw, masculine—delicious, she thought. She put her hand on his sternum and pushed—he didn’t budge. She could force the issue but she didn’t, wanting to see how this would play out.

Instead he leaned closer, sinking his lower body against hers. “If you want to stay with me, alternative arrangements can be made.”

“That’s sexual harassment,” she said.

His left hand caressed the side of her face, following the line of her neck to the base, where he rested his thumb over her pulse.

“Only if I said you could have the job if you sleep with me. I’m saying don’t work for me but be my lover.”

“I’m not really into being a rich man’s plaything.”

“Why not?”

“Because I have to look at myself in the mirror every morning,” she said, bringing her hand up to capture his wrist. She did the same thing with his right hand, fingering the nub of his missing finger before drawing both wrists down to waist level.

“You like to be in control,” he said, glancing at his wrists bound in her fists.

“Yes, I do,” she said, moving her right foot and widening her stance. The only way Daniel was going to take her seriously was if she proved she was more than a pretty face. And the aikido move she had in mind should do the job nicely.

She pulled her left foot inward and brought her right arm across his chest, keeping her left arm fully extended forward, forcing Daniel to bend backward as her arm came down across his neck. She twisted her hips, following the movement through, throwing Daniel off balance and stepping away from him.

Daniel caught her wrists as she tried to step away, pinning her arms to her sides and stepping in close behind her. “I didn’t realize you were familiar with aikido.”

“Are you?” she asked.

He moved his right arm above his head, dragging her arm up with his, pulling her off balance. He wrapped an arm around her waist.

“Yes,” he said. The easy way he held her told her that in one-on-one combat he could hold his own.

“Is this why you don’t want a bodyguard?” she asked.

He swiveled his hips and she felt his erection nudge the small of her back. “No, this is.”

“You’re attracted to me,” she said, so very tired of having men be turned on by her looks and not her skills or her brain.

“That’s an understatement.”

“You don’t even know me,” she said, bringing both of her hands to the arm around his waist and trying to subtly move her stance so that she’d be able to gain the advantage and throw him over her shoulder.

“I’m not going to let you gain the advantage here,” he said, moving his stance so that they were back to where they’d been before.

She had a few other moves that she could use but they were down and dirty street fighting and would really hurt Daniel. Something she was oddly reluctant to do.

“I’d love to really spar with you,” she said.

He laughed. “I think I’d like that, too. The next time I’m in D.C. I’ll call you.”

“So you still want me out?”

He dropped her arms and stepped away from her. “Yes. I think you’ll prove to be more of a hindrance than a bodyguard.”

“That’s insulting,” she said.

“I don’t mean it to be,” he said.

“Then how should I have taken it?”

He shrugged and straightened his suit coat. “Just that I want you and right now that could be a huge disadvantage for both of us.”

“I’ve been in this business long enough to keep personal feelings out of the equation,” she said, not sure what he was getting at.

He closed the distance between them again, cupping her jaw and tipping her head back. His mouth came down on hers, not hard like she’d been expecting, but so softly that she melted. He brushed his lips over hers repeatedly until she wanted to relax her guard and sink into him. To have his big, strong arms come around her. That freaked her out big-time because she wasn’t usually distracted by men. Not even Senator Perry Jones, whom she’d thought she’d marry.

Daniel hadn’t gotten to where he was in life by not going after what he wanted. And he wanted Charity Keone. He’d experienced lust before—hell, he was thirty-eight years old. He’d thought he was past the point where lust at first sight was an issue, but he was glad to be proved wrong.

Instinctively he’d known that forcing her to his will wasn’t the way to get the kiss he wanted from her. And since they were going to part ways shortly, he saw no reason to deny himself a kiss. God, her mouth was so lush and full, it distracted him almost as much as her curvy body and her aikido moves. He was the first to admit he was drawn to strength.

There was something about Charity that spoke to him on more than one level. Any other woman he’d made a pass at would probably have accepted him for various reasons. He knew his money drew some of them, his strength others, and a few others sensed the dangerous quality that had saved him during his years on the street and were drawn to that.

But with Charity he sensed she was drawn to him in spite of all those things.

She encircled his neck with her hands and he tensed, not sure if she was going to caress him or crush him. The uncertainty was as much of a turn-on as her made-for-sin body.

The rapping on the door had him drawing away from her with a few soft, last-minute kisses. She shook her head. “You’re very lucky, you’re a good kisser.”

“Is that what saved me?”

“This time,” she said, palming a Sig Sauer from the holster under her arm and motioning for him to stay where he was.

“I’m pretty sure it’s Alonzo,” he said dryly. “Or maybe even Tobias.”

“Pretty sure is a good way to end up dead. You have to know with absolute certainty who your enemy is, Mr. Williams.”

“I think we are way past the point of formality.”

“You’re not as smart as you think you are, Mr. Williams.”

He bit back a chuckle, thinking he might have been too hasty in telling Sam to send Charity packing. There was a real zest for life in the way she talked and moved.

She put one hand on the door and then opened it, keeping her gun in easy position for firing at a target.

“I think I’m expected,” Tobias said. “You can put the gun away.”

She didn’t put the gun away—instead she pulled Tobias through the door. “Keep your hands where I can see them.”

Tobias did as he was ordered and Charity quickly and efficiently searched the other man. Her total concentration and skill were a turn-on, Daniel thought. Her confidence showed through as she went about her job.

The woman he’d glimpsed when he’d kissed her a few minutes ago was gone. He wondered, as he watched the ultra-efficient bodyguard, which one was real.

Her BlackBerry twittered, but she didn’t reach for the instrument.

“You may put your hands down now, but stay where you are.”

“Is she new?” Tobias asked.

“No, I’m temporary,” she said.

She put her gun away and picked up the BlackBerry. She read quickly, her eyes moving over the screen, and then nodded.

“I’ll be right outside, Mr. Williams, until I hear from Sam.”

Daniel watched her leave and turned his attention to business. Charity was a distraction—the last thing he needed right now. Too bad his body didn’t agree.

“Temporary?” Tobias asked as soon as the door shut behind her. “I can make room for her on my staff.”

Daniel shook his head. He knew that Tobias wouldn’t be able to handle a woman like Charity. She was more than met the eye, and his colleague was looking at the super-model and thinking she’d make a nice ornament. The first time she showed him her teeth, Tobias would probably run for the hills.

“What is the problem with Customs?” Daniel said, forcing the subject to business.

“I can’t get anyone from the office to call us back. We’re in quarantine and they won’t lift it.”

“We don’t even carry anything that could be disease-bearing. I’ll make a few calls and see what I can do.”

“I’ve been on the phone for two days.”

This kind of thing was a nuisance and Daniel could totally see Sekijima’s hand in this. It would be just like his old friend to bribe someone to make Daniel’s life harder.

“Let me give it a try. Anything else?”

“Not unless you will authorize my hiring your temporary employee.”

“Not going to happen.”

“Are you interested in her?” Tobias asked.

“She is a very beautiful woman.”

Tobias stood up and Daniel watched the other man leave. He put in two calls to friends he had in Customs. And had to leave messages both times.

He walked over to the window, ignoring Charity’s rule to stay away. He wanted Sekijima to see him. To know that Daniel wasn’t afraid of him. The Japanese understood “face.” Hell, Daniel had learned about it from Sekijima. His old friend was coming back for his blood, and Daniel could understand that but he was tired of waiting.

Tired of the attacks on those around him. He knew they were the opening volley in a deadly game that Sekijima was playing. Daniel was ready for the waiting to stop. Once Charity was out of the picture and he was back in Seattle, he was going to leave the corporate CEO behind and go after Sekijima in the only way the other man would understand. He rubbed his right shoulder where the tail of his dragon tattoo rested. Sekijima might be the Oyabun of the Yakuza but Daniel had once been his Gashira Hosa—second in command—and Daniel had learned all of his boss’s secrets.

When Charity closed the door quietly behind her and took a moment to scan the hallway, she noticed that Alonzo was on the phone and not really very alert. The job, always her saving grace, gave her the impetus she needed not to think about what had happened with Daniel.

Alonzo MacAfee was a tall black man with intense eyes and the kind of muscles that came from working out in a gym a lot of hours every day. He glanced up as she entered the hallway and then went back to lounging against the wall. He had his Bluetooth phone activated and she could tell he was in conversation. When the conversation continued for more than a few minutes, she grew concerned that there could be a threat to Daniel.