The Line: The Complete Series

by Nikki Rose

  I thought about calling my best friend and fellow agent, Hunter, but I didn't feel like dragging him out of bed to help me deal with the brat. So instead, I waited, stewing until I was sure steam was ready to erupt from my ears.

  “What the hell was she thinking, sneaking out of the house like a teenager? I could be on a real mission right now helping people who actually want my help instead of stuck babysitting this entitled, spoiled, little—”

  The door to the club opened and Caroline came out on her own. That prick from earlier was smart not to show his face again.

  “There you are. Finally.” I rushed over to her and gripped her biceps firmly so that she couldn't get away but without enough force to bruise.

  “Let go of me.”

  “Not a chance. You wanna tell me what the hell you were thinking? We tell you there's a threat and you'll need a security detail until it's taken care of and your reaction the first night is to sneak out to a club so you can dance with some prick?”

  “There is always some threat. It's spring break for my last year in college. I wanted to get out and have a little fun before going back to school.”

  “You have some pretty fucked up priorities, you know that?” I dragged her down the walkway to my car parked on the side of the street. “Now get in the car before I put you in there.”

  “I'm not a child—”

  “No, you are a grown ass woman and you snuck out of the house like some disobedient teenager.”

  “So, when I sneak out of the house, I’m a grown woman acting like a kid and when I insist, I'm a grown woman who can decide for myself what I do or don't do my dad assigns me a babysitter?”

  “Maybe if you stop acting like a child people would stop treating you like one.” I nudged her into the car and she slid inside.

  “but I need to be free to make my own mistakes.”

  “Not when the stakes are life or death.” I shut her door and rounded the hood to take the driver's seat before continuing. “You don't seem to get what's at stake here, or maybe you don't care. I don't know but your insolence is becoming a pain in my ass.”

  “Well, excuse me for the inconvenience.”

  “See, I know you're being a smartass but an apology would be smart about now because I'm seriously considering getting you an ankle bracelet to keep you in the house.”

  Her eyes widened as a gasp escaped her lips. “You mean like they put on criminals under house arrest?”

  “Precisely.”

  “You can't. I have rights. And, —how did you find me tonight, anyway?”

  “I have my ways.” I was not about to give away my secrets. Something told me, with the way she was, I might need them again.

  With that, she crossed her arms and leaned back in the seat as I drove us back to the Director's house.

  CHAPTER 4

  Chris

  By the time the Director got home, Caroline and I had already fallen asleep. The guest room was much nicer than the bedroom at my apartment. I’d never known what I was missing but I slept like a baby on whatever that pillowtop mattress was. Saturday night was another late night so I crashed there again that night. I was beginning to see why the Director needed someone there to watch over Caroline. He was never home.

  I woke up late Sunday morning to the loud shrill of my cell.

  “Hello?”

  “Hey, where are you? You stood us up last night.”

  “Hunter?”

  “Yeah, man. You were supposed to come over for dinner. How hungover are you?”

  “You know I don't drink enough to get hungover.”

  “You also don't just not show up like that either. You go home with another girl last night?”

  “No. Sorry. It was a work thing.”

  “Everything okay? I've been kind of out of the loop while on vacation.”

  “Yeah, just on protective detail...at the Director’s house.”

  “Seriously? He chose you as his protective detail?”

  “No, he chose O'Neill. He assigned me to his daughter.”

  “Oh shit. Goodluck.” I could practically hear him fighting back a laugh.

  I sat up in bed and looked out the window at the gloomy, gray sky and rubbed my forehead. “I'm gonna need it.”

  We hung up and I drug myself out of bed. I was usually up and out of bed with the sun so I could hit the gym before work but I dreaded starting my day as Caroline’s babysitter.

  I spent the morning reviewing case files and any findings I could on the hackers who had broken into the agency's servers while Caroline made herself busy around the house.

  I was enjoying the peace until she emerged from the foyer and peeked into the open door of the study.

  “There's a change of plans. Amanda’s wanting me to come to her house for movie night.”

  I let out a frustrated sigh and pushed my laptop aside. “You said you two were doing that here.”

  “We were but she doesn't want to have to get out in the rain and I want out of this prison for the evening.”

  “No.”

  “What do you mean no?”

  “Well you know if I said yes how you'd walk outside, get in your car and go to Amanda's?”

  “Yeah?”

  “It's kind of like that but the opposite.”

  Caroline let out a loud huff and put her hands on her hips. “You're a jackass, you know that?”

  “My job is to protect you, Caroline. Not keep you happy.”

  “Fine. Whatever. I'm going to take a bath before Amanda comes then.”

  “Enjoy.” I smiled which only seemed to irritate her further. Maybe I was a sadist, but I so enjoyed getting under the spoiled princess's skin.

  Caroline whirled around and stormed off to the upstairs bathroom. Good riddance. At least I would have some peace for a little while.

  I went back to work on my laptop, studying everything I could about the case. I was determined to find out more information about whoever these people were who had hacked into the agency’s system.

  Forty-five minutes passed before I knew it and I realized I hadn't seen Caroline come out of the bathroom yet. The layout of the bathroom flashed in my mind, including the window just next to the sink. When I scanned the house that first night, I'd thought that the trellis just outside could pose a security threat should someone try to get in. I hadn't given much thought to the security risk of Caroline sneaking out that same window. But, after the night before, it was a real possibility.

  I rushed up the stairs, taking two at a time until I reached the bathroom door. I knocked but there was no answer.

  “Caroline? You still in there?”

  No answer. Shit. Not again.

  The nice thing about interior door locks is that they are mostly designed to just keep someone from walking in at an inopportune moment, not to actually keep out real invaders. I pulled my good old Swiss from my pocket and picked the lock within seconds.

  There was Caroline, lounging back in the tub, her body covered by a blanket of white bubbles with her long, tanned leg propped up on the side of the tub.

  It was the sexiest thing I’d ever seen in my life—and I'd seen a lot.

  Caroline caught a glimpse of me out of the corner of her eye and nearly jumped out of the tub, wrapping her arms around her chest to better cover herself.

  “Geez. What the hell, Chris?”

  “You've been in here a long time. I started to worry we'd have another incident like last night.”

  “Ever heard of knocking?”

  “I did.” I finally recovered from finding her naked in the tub. I stalked over to her and yanked the earbuds from her ears.

  “Hey, what the—?”

  “Maybe if you didn't have these turned up so loud you could hear when someone was calling you. It's really not safe to have those up loud enough to drown out your surroundings.”

  “Well excuse me for thinking I was safe in the privacy of my own tub.”

  I lingered a moment, as unprofession
al as it was, I lingered, soaking up the sight of her in the tub.

  “Do you mind?”

  “Oh, sorry. Just answer next time I knock.”

  I left the bathroom and went back into the study to try to get my mind on anything other than how sexy Caroline had looked, dripping wet with patches of bubbles barely hiding her most intimate spots.

  A thunderhead rolled in just after five and I was glad we had nowhere to go on such a gloomy day. I sat at the Director’s desk while he was at the office wondering if he was always away from home so much. It seemed like he was always at the office. The rain began to pound onto the ground outside. Thunder rumbled and a large flash of lightning lit up the only window in the room. Thank God we were staying in tonight.

  I loved storms but they always seemed to bring out the crazy drivers so I preferred to enjoy them from the comfort of my own home, or the Director’s home as the case may be.

  I was busy reading the case updates on my laptop when there was a knock on the front door. Instincts kicked in. I jumped from the chair and hurried to the door. I reached my hand to my hip to ensure my gun was still in place and pulled my shirt down over the pistol. Ms. James was just reaching the door as I made it out of the study.

  “Amanda, dear. You are soaked to the bone. Come inside and let's get you into something dry.”

  “Thanks, Ms. James. You're awesome. I—who are you?”

  The young blonde who couldn't be more than 100 pounds dripping wet—which she happened to be from trudging up the drive in the storm—looked me over.

  “I'm Chris.”

  Her eyebrows rose with interest and she scanned me up and down. “You're the bodyguard?”

  “Yes.”

  “Lucky.” The word was whispered under her breath as she turned back to Ms. James but I was still able to hear it. “I'm going to go on up and see if Caroline has anything I can change into.”

  Before anyone could respond she was already bouncing up the stairs.

  I checked in on the girls every few minutes for the whole hour they were upstairs, not trusting them to not sneak out again after the first night when Caroline snuck out to the club. It was almost time for me to go up to check on them again when I spotted Caroline and Amanda coming down stairs through the open study door. Both of them were dressed in pajamas like they were ready to go to bed. Caroline was in a loose pair of pajama pants, Amanda wore extremely short sleep shorts, and they both wore skimpy little tank tops like the ones women would wear under their clothes. I knew I couldn’t be so lucky that both of them were tired and going to sleep early. Caroline would never make it that easy on me but a guy could hope.

  “You girls turning in early?” I called out to them and they both came trotting into the room.

  “At nine o’clock? We haven’t even had dinner yet.”

  “Then what’s with the get ups?” I motioned to their clothes, however lacking they might be and Amanda giggled.

  Caroline nudged Amanda with her elbow to stop the giggling. “We’re going to order pizza and watch a movie or two in the den.”

  “You should join us.” Amanda’s voice had turned to what could be perceived as seductive if I hadn’t found her immaturity irritating.

  The last thing I wanted was to sit around with these two watching chick flicks and listening to them giggle all night. But it was my job to watch over and protect Caroline and I was nothing if not loyal to my job. I wasn’t comfortable leaving her unattended for more than a few minutes at a time so I figured I might as well settle in for an evening in the den rather than get up and down all night checking on them every few minutes.

  “Sure. Sounds...fun.” I couldn’t hide the sarcasm in my voice. Caroline rolled her eyes at me and Amanda grinned before they both turned to lead the way to the den.

  Amanda was a little troublemaker. That much I was sure of. She put an extra sway to her hips, knowing I was walking behind her down the hall. I might have appreciated the little show if I hadn’t found her personality so off-putting. Physically she was an attractive girl but otherwise, she just wasn’t my type.

  After pizza and a movie, I fought sleep in an overstuffed chair in the corner of the den while Caroline and Amanda were entranced in their second mushy chick-flick on the big screen. They were both sniffling at a sickeningly sweet moment, surrounded by empty soda cans and the reminiscence of the pizza we’d ordered earlier.

  The storm had blown through and the late night was quiet. Or, it would be quiet if I wasn’t having to sit there and listen to the sniffling girls. There was a thud from upstairs just as the movie credits began to scroll on the screen to a romantic love song. I grabbed the remote from next to Caroline and muted the T.V.

  “Hey, I was listening to that.”

  “Shh.”

  “What—?” The damn girl didn’t seem to know what shh meant. I clasped my hand over her mouth to quiet her but her protests still came through muffled until another thud silenced her.

  “Someone’s in the house.” I whispered as I removed my hand from her mouth.

  “How’d they get past the security system?”

  “I don’t know but I’m going to check it out. Stay here and call the police. Lock the door when I leave and don’t come out no matter what.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  “My job.”

  I pulled out the gun I kept on me at all times while on mission—even if the mission was just watching romance movies—and slipped out of the den. I waited until I heard the click of the lock behind the door before moving away from the girls.

  I hated the idea of leaving them unprotected, but it was better that I caught the guy away from the girls than waited for him to come to us. I crept up the stairs without a sound. The quiet thud we’d heard from the den was right above us. From my calculations of the house layout, that put the intruder in Caroline’s room. I didn’t tell her that, but it concerned me more because it told me that she was most likely their target.

  I kept my gun extended, ready to shoot if need be as I crept down the dark hall, closer to her room. There were no other noticeable sounds and no way to tell if the intruder was still in there. The door wasn’t fully closed. I used my foot to slowly push the door open. Stepping inside the darkened room, I looked one way then the other just as a shadowy figure struck hard, knocking the gun from my hands.

  As his body came down with the strike that knocked the gun from my grip, I brought my elbow up into his face. There was a sickening crunch as I connected with his nose under the black ski mask and he stumbled backward. It didn’t take long for him to rebound. I bent down for my gun but he brought both elbows down hard across my back, knocking me off my feet. His right foot struck my ribs and I rolled out of the way before he connected again.

  I kicked, taking out his knee and bringing him down on the floor with me. He pulled a large blade from his ankle. We rolled, fighting for the upper hand but he landed on top of me. He aimed the knife at my chest but I held his fists away. My arms shook. We were well matched and he had gravity on his side bringing the blade slowly creeping closer to my throat.

  My strength faded. Each moment I held the blade from my neck, my muscles were slowly giving out. I had to act fast. I put all my strength into shoving the blade away and to the left. That caught him off guard and the knife flew out of his hands, clattering onto the hardwood floor. He scrambled for the knife but I managed to bring my knee up and kick him in the side just below his ribs.

  He flew across the floor and I scrambled for my gun. I grabbed the pistol and turned to shoot but he zigged when I was sure he would zag. Before I could aim my gun again, he slipped out of the window and down the trellis. I tried to catch him but by the time I’d made my way down he’d already disappeared beyond the gated lawn.

  Flashing lights signaled the police had arrived. My phone rang and I pulled it from my pocket. It was the Director.

  “Director Applegate, I was just about to call you.”

  “I was on my way
home when it came across my police scanner. There was an intruder?”

  “Yes sir.”

  “Is Caroline okay?”

  “She's fine but the intruder got away. I've got uniforms arriving now to do a sweep.”

  “Alright, I'll be there in ten.”

  “Roger that.”

  I hung up and met the police at the front gate with my I.D. In hand.

  “Agent Chris Andrews. The intruder took off into the woods on the East side of the property.”

  “We’ll scan the area and see what turns up. Anyone injured?”

  “Nothing that needs assistance. I’m going to go check on the girls. You’ll let me know if you find anything?”

  “Of course.”

  I shook his hand and he called to his men as I took off running back into the house. I didn’t stop running until I made it to the still locked door of the den.

  “Caroline? It’s me. It’s Chris.”

  The door clicked unlocked and as soon as it was open, Caroline lunged at me, wrapping her arms around my neck and holding me close.

  “We could hear the fight through the ceiling. It sounded awful. Did you get him?”

  “He got away but the police are searching the woods now. Your dad should be here in a few minutes. Stay here and keep the doors locked. I’m going to help them keep looking.” I turned to walk away but Caroline grabbed my arm. The unfamiliar feeling froze me in my tracks as I gazed down at her, waiting.

  “Can’t you stay here with us? The police can look for him. I just—I’d feel better if you were here.”

  She looked so sweet and so scared, there was no way I could say no to those big doe eyes and pouty pink lips. “Come on. Let’s see if we can find another movie to watch.” I motioned the girls back into the den.

  CHAPTER 5

  Caroline

  Monday morning came too early. After the break in the night before, it was hard to sleep. Amanda went home because we had class the next day but part of me knew she wanted to get out of that house as much as I wanted to. She just actually had an excuse. I spent the night staring up at the ceiling and thinking of what could have happened if a number of things had been different.