It all came crashing down, the moment he thought how close he could have come to stopping the bastards by insisting on taking her home. To satisfy his own conscience as well as her safety, he had to track each one of them down and deal with the bastards. Permanently. He couldn’t even imagine a next time, when they dropped her body off to a morgue instead of a hospital.
“How is she?” he whispered as night fell and the doctor came for his last rounds of the day. Vaughan had been caught up at the office, trying his best to pretend nothing was amiss in his personal life. Ed had insisted Vaughan only come back if he’d gotten a couple of hours sleep. “You’ll never be able to live with yourself if you’re asleep when they come for her.” Cruel to be kind. But the warning could just as easily apply to him.
“She’s holding her own; we’ll know more when we change those bandages tomorrow morning.”
“When can she be released?”
“Do you really think that’s necessary,” the doctor asked, flicking through that damn chart again.
Ed was too tired to argue. “You tell me, doc. You’ve seen her injuries. Those bastards knew what they were doing.”
“Yes, but …”
“Can you guarantee her safety here?”
“Her health, yes—but not her safety. We aren’t equipped for high value targets.”
“Then, I want a full list of her after care requirements—a full list of her medications and anything else that my team is going to need to know.”
“When can you get your team in place?”
“Is tomorrow early enough?” Luckily, the best all owed him favors and his favorite ex-military paramedic was already on standby and two security personnel were in transit.
“Much of her healing will come down to being calm and feeling safe. Allow her body to recover.”
“When?”
“You’ll have to promise to watch out for any spike in temperature. If her condition worsens in any way …”
“You have my word, at the first sign, I’ll organise an unmarked ambulance to get her back here as if she never left.”
“She’ll need twenty-four-hour care for at least the next week.”
Ed didn’t know if Vaughan could afford it, but the worst case was a call to his older brother. Their parents kept boasting that Scott could never spend all the money he had, and Ed couldn’t think of a better cause.
“Give me the list and tell me when.”
“Let her wake first.”
“Fine.”
Now, he at least had a goal to get the adrenalin pumping. He organised subtle surveillance on the hospital, making a note of everyone who arrived and left, with particular note of anyone who came anywhere near Anastacia’s medical records or floor. A friendly operator was given strict instructions on how to trace any calls inquiring after Ms Vaughan or Mrs Thielman’s condition.
He only reached out to a handful of people he trusted, and their advice was the same. Less than a dozen people in Australia could have orchestrated last night’s snatch and grab – even less could have meted out the precision beating.
To a man—and woman—they all agreed to come on board. Out of personal debt to Vaughan or Ed—and out of a professional sense of vengeance. “Who the fuck goes after an innocent woman?”
Indeed.
Anastacia
ANASTACIA
Anastacia couldn’t remember a sounder sleep but as she started to wake, her eyes wouldn’t open, and her throat was too dry to call out for water or something soothing. She longed to fall back to sleep and keep dreaming of the stranger’s kiss.
Beautiful, sensual kissing with the tall stranger who made her feel so …
Then her body tightened with memories of being bundled and tied up, thinking she was going to die. Repeatedly punched so hard she wondered what she’d done to deserve dying that way. When the cold knife entered her stomach, it had almost been a relief that the dying would quicken, and her pain would stop. Of the three faces, it was the taxi driver who had taken the greatest delight in her torture. For the others, it seemed almost like another day in the office.
She was still alive! The thought came as a pleasant shock, and she pushed aside the next question—why did they let her live?
Even through the warm drugs she could imagine flowing through her body, Anastacia could feel the undertones of pain. As seconds passed, she felt the pain medication fade and not a part of her body was immune to the pain, so intense that she almost felt nauseous. From her face to her chest and sides, and stomach. Who had done that to her and why? They wanted money—but she didn’t have much, certainly not enough to justify the men kidnapping her in what must have been a planned and expensive attack.
The footsteps and hushed voices mingled around her room, and as much as she wanted to open her eyes and comfort her father, Anastacia wasn’t ready for the inevitable questions. Not until she’d figured out at least some of the answers.
Drawing on years of yoga, Anastacia forced controlled breathing and took herself back to the beginning of the night. A last-minute invitation from her closest friend.
Then she remembered seeing the stranger through all the other bodies in the ballroom. She should have been immune to men in uniform by now. Growing up on bases all over the world, he didn’t have to say Defence for her to know he normally wore a uniform. Distinguished, confident and with the aura of a man who expected others to obey his command but a gentle humility to at least ask first.
If it wouldn’t have hurt and if she could open her eyes and rejoin the living, Anastacia would have laughed. Thinking about the stranger, she had just given him all the qualities of her “perfect man” whether he deserved them or not—and none of which her ex-husband would aspire to.
No, she refused to think of the two men in the same breath.
Back to last night, she tried to think harder but all she could remember was falling head over heels because of a stupid kiss. Yes, at one point she wanted to follow that kiss anywhere, but it had blinded her to all the rules.
If her attackers had been waiting for her to leave the party, she made it bloody easy by taking the first cab that arrived instead of the second or third. Then, too caught up in the stranger’s kiss and his hands helping her into the cab, she hadn’t double-checked that the driver and photo-id matched. All the normal checks she grew up with had been discounted all because of one gorgeous man in a tuxedo and one, delicious kiss.
No!
Anastacia tried to quell her rising panic that set off beeping alarms and quickly filled her room with hastening footsteps.
It was all his fault – the stranger! He’d found her at the party, kissed her and used every part of his charm to make her forget normal safety procedures. Did he pick the cab or had she? It didn’t matter, it was his arm that guided her to the door, opened and helped her in.
He had made no attempt to get her number so he could see her again—clearly, he thought that after tonight, she’d be a corpse.
It had to be him. She’d been so careful, only going to the ball because everyone would be wearing masks, hadn’t told anyone her real name or any information that could be used against her later. Only her father and Bella even knew she was going—and only because Bella ended up with a spare ticket. Until a week ago, Anastacia wasn’t even going to be in the country. No, it couldn’t have been them; Bella, she’d trust with her life and her father would give his life for hers in a heartbeat.
The stranger.
No matter how hard she tried to think of someone else, it had to be him. Yet again, a man she trusted with her body had betrayed her.
Other people must have found the beeping machines as annoying as she did. A warmth flowed her arm and the pain disappeared and sleep came again, despite her concerns, she dreamt again of the stranger’s eyes, soft and trusting. Surely his kisses hadn’t lied.
The next time she awoke, Anastacia felt the presence of other people in the room, or at least one person. A man’s voice was reading one of her
favorite books from childhood. A crazy adventure story of a tree so tall, it reached the heavens and the children who loved to play in the new worlds each week.
She wanted the voice to be her father’s, but it was younger, deeper. Such a soothing tone but with the right amount of animation when the book needed to engage her imagination and stop her from drifting off to sleep.
The man might not be her father, but she wanted to believe that her father sent him, otherwise, why that particular book? Only her father knew how much she loved the author and it had become a family joke when she insisted on lugging a box filled the author’s books from one posting to another. In the absence of constant friends, it had been books that stopped her from feeling lonely as she followed her father’s career.
If she opened her eyes, the voice might stop, so Anastacia lay awake and listened as strange voices came, checked in on her and left. Apparently, she was lucky not to be pregnant or at least one of the blows would have been fatal to the baby. She stifled a smile at that, if she’d been pregnant then leaving her marriage would have been impossible. With one more possession to protect, her ex would have double-downed on security and her ability to go to the bathroom alone would have been impossible.
So yes, anonymous nurse, it was very lucky she wasn’t pregnant.
One of her doctors seemed very interested in telling the nurse about his new holiday home on the central coast. When the giggling nurse agreed that an open fireplace gave a cottage a romantic and homely feel, Anastacia knew that there would be more than just logs that would be burning up the holiday home.
It was amazing how much she understood about people by listening and not being able to see. Years of moving in diplomatic circles, she’d learned to mingle, listen and report back snippets of conversation, but this was so much better! She imagined the doctor in his mid-forties with a sprinkling of grey, probably spent his life serving his patients and in the absence of meeting “real people,” his only dating prospects were either patients or from the hospital.
Her mind wandered back to the stranger; what was his story? He’d been as mysterious about his occupation and personal details as she had been—but at least she had a reason! Had everything, the dance and the kiss, been a set up?
The machine started to beep again, and Anastacia tried to focus on the man’s reading. Slowly matching her breaths to his, listening to his tones and allowing him to sooth her panic until the beeping slowed down and the alarms stopped.
Whoever he was, she felt calm and safe.
Too tired to open her eyes just yet, she drifted back off to sleep imaging the man in the mask and the man with the voice were one.
Bodyguard
ED
Finding comfort behind his powerful car, Ed ignored the speed limits to push his baby to hug each corner and floor the pedal on the straights. It had taken twenty minutes to get to the hospital at night and with no traffic, only fourteen to get back home.
Ed needed to buy time, get away from the hospital and its smells, Vaughan and his guilt, Anastacia and—well everything about her. Making excuses to Vaughan, he’d come home to change out of the tuxedo that had seemed so appropriate for the ball but out of place walking the hospital hallways. He’d already borrowed plain hospital garb from one of the orderlies, but eventually someone was going to ask him for his identification or directions—or even worse—to do something medical!
The last thing he needed was to draw attention to himself or Anastacia. He needed to get into clothes that would allow him to blend into any crowd but could also stash a couple of knives and a handgun or two. Maybe three knives and three guns—quicker to grab a spare gun than reload in the heat of battle. He wouldn’t even put it past Anastacia to point and shoot if her life depended on it. A woman with the feisty passion he’d witnessed on the dancefloor could be a force to be reckoned with if she woke up.
He’d never looked at his apartment from a security perspective before, but it could be perfect. At the end of a cul-de-sac in a small and secure complex, by the time he arrived, Spider was at work installing extra security cameras.
“Long time,” Spider nodded, not even breaking stride to shake hands.
“Thanks for doing this.”
“Anything for the Colonel—and you don’t ever need to ask. You’ve saved my ass more than once.”
“Yeah, well no one saw this coming.”
“Seriously—they took the girl from the street? Any idea how it happened?”
Ed hedged, “She hasn’t woken up yet. Hopefully, she’ll remember and give us some answers. In the meantime, I want my place tighter than a drum.”
“No problems—I’ve got two cameras capturing every vehicle that comes into your street. Within an hour, I’ll have the car registrations for every car that is registered for this building and a warning will go straight to your phone if an unknown car approaches.”
“You can do that?”
“I’m trialling some new software—but we’ll do some old-school surveillance just in case.”
“My place has three bedrooms and I figure she can have the one in the back and we’ll set up a war room in the front. Close to the front door and my room.”
“Anything else I need to know?”
“A balcony off the lounge room and a smaller one off my bedroom. My place is on the third floor and I’m happy for you to do anything to secure both doors.”
“Alarms?”
“Hell yeah, and anything else you can think of. I need to be able to convince the Colonel that she will be safe.”
“No probs, I can do some shifts if you need and I heard that Jax will be setting up camp.”
“Thanks, appreciate all the help. If you’ve got everything organized here, I’ve got to pack and head back.”
“Leave me your keys and I’ll have your place kitted out in under an hour.”
Ed turned before heading inside. “We have to get these bastards. Whether they come back for her or not.”
This time, Spider smiled, grabbing his arm, “It’s been too long since we’ve had some fun. Whoever they are, they don’t know that they just stepped onto our home turf.”
“Remember how we like to roll?” Ed had skills he hadn’t needed to use in years—not since promotions got in his way of a good time.
“Hard and dirty—like we used to like our women.”
“Mate, you’ll never change.”
“You took your bloody time.” Despite his enforced rest, Vaughan looked like he hadn’t eaten or slept in days. “I thought you were just ducking home to get clothes!”
“Here.” Ed ignored the insult and handed Vaughan two burner phones. “For you and your daughter. There are two numbers programmed in each of them—so you can contact each other and me. I want you to use your other phones for normal conversation. You know, call her and leave a message that she’s probably sleeping but you miss her. Personal phones are for leaving bait but these are for tracking down who did this and so we can monitor your daughter’s whereabouts.”
“Because they used her phone last time?”
“And because no one is going to question a woman for being attached to her phone. Her real phone will stay at the hospital until we decide on ‘officially’ releasing her.”
“Where will you take her?”
“To my place.”
“I don’t know,” uncharacteristically, Vaughan hesitated. “I could make some calls and arrange security.”
“No,” Ed cut him off. “This is my job and with all due respect, Sir, I’ll do it my way with people I trust.”
“But …”
“Sir, you asked me to defend your daughter. I declined. After the attack you asked me to come here and protect her until you could make other arrangements, that’s your call. If you want someone else, I’ll stick around until the hand over.”
“Have you changed your mind then? Are you saying you’ll see this through?”
Ed didn’t know whether he wanted Vaughan to give him a way out�
�and didn’t trust himself to look over to the still sleeping Anastacia. He couldn’t get involved with the client; he didn’t know Jack shit about security protection; but knew enough to understand it was complete madness to get involved with the woman he had to protect.
Her life or her love.
One kiss.
He didn’t have a choice.
“I’ll protect her with my life, sir, but we’re going to do it my way.”
Ed left the room while the doctor came in to check on Anastacia and reassure her father. How on earth did he get himself in this situation? Yesterday, he’d been so sure that he could decline Vaughan’s request to look after some girl—but he couldn’t abandon the woman in the red dress. Then here was no way of predicting the woman dancing in his arms had been the boss’s daughter.
Fuck—no matter what messed up shit he’d done in the name of country—he’d always drawn a very firm and clear line between his professional life and the women he dated. He’d refused to feign interest in women to form strategic or professional alliances and refused to date anyone connected with the Army. He’d even managed the gauntlet of single daughters, ex-wives and even some brazen wives.
All to kiss the woman in red who had captured his imagination at a bloody masquerade ball.
The daughter of his colonel.
Ed pulled Vaughan into the bathroom so they could talk without the possibility of being overheard.
“Vaughan, you need to take some time off, use family as an excuse. Your daughter has just returned, and you want to catch up.”
“I can’t—at least if I’m at work I can call in favors, get new information.”
“Look,” Ed needed to be firm and treat Vaughan as a client, not his commanding officer. “You asked me to get involved and against my better judgement, I am. Take time off so if I need your help off the books, your absence won’t be missed.”
Defend Her: A military suspense romance (Aussie Military Romance Book 4) Page 5
