The Bodyguard

by LENA DIAZ,

  Cornell frowned. “We’re not exactly amateurs here. We’ve been checking that out since the abduction. No dice so far.”

  Luke raked his hand through his hair. Carol had been gone for over two hours. What was happening to her? He couldn’t even let himself think the worst—that it was already too late. No, she was strong. She’d proved how strong she was by surviving living with her abusive husband for so long. She couldn’t have survived that hell only to die now.

  He’d promised to protect her. He’d already broken one promise. He wasn’t about to break another. He had to find her.

  “What about Stellar Security?” Luke asked.

  Cornell’s brows rose. “What about them?”

  “They’re a common thread. They’re linked with everything the Ashtons do. I had an investigator look into them, but he didn’t find anything.”

  “What did you expect him to find? You think one of the security guards is behind the murders and Mrs. Ashton’s abduction?”

  “No, I think Grant abducted her. But he may have had help. As amazing as Stellar Security is supposed to be, Grant was able to break into the mansion and attack Mrs. Ashton a few nights ago even though they were supposedly guarding the place. And in all the time Mrs. Ashton lived in the mansion, and Stellar Security was there, it seems rather odd they never realized the abuse that was going on. They turned a blind eye to it.”

  “You think they turned a blind eye to murder, too?”

  Luke clenched his fists. “I don’t know. I don’t have anything to go on except a gut feeling. Carol didn’t trust them. That’s why she hired me.”

  “Looks like she bet on the wrong pony in that race.”

  Luke didn’t bother to glare in the direction of the detective who’d issued that statement in a loud stage whisper. How could he be mad when the detective was telling the truth? Maybe his distrust of Stellar Security was influenced too much by Carol’s own fears instead of facts. Maybe if he’d told her to stick with the much larger security firm, she’d be okay instead of out there suffering at the hands of another Ashton man.

  He shoved his way through the crowd and opened the door.

  “What are you going to do, Dawson?” Cornell called out.

  Luke shook his head. For the first time in his career, he had no clue what to do.

  * * *

  LUKE SPENT THE next few hours driving his car every place he knew of that the Ashton family owned—from Carol’s mansion in town, to Grantʼs and Daniel’s houses, and even out to the country house where he and Carol had been a few days ago. So far, no luck spotting anything that even hinted that Carol might have been there recently.

  He made dozens of calls to everyone he knew in law enforcement. He called the private investigator that Alex had hired and spoke to him about what had happened. He asked the investigator to focus again on Stellar Security, because the more he thought about it, the more their bumbling incompetence seemed glaring, as if it had been on purpose.

  When he was at the police station earlier, he couldn’t very well have told Cornell that Stellar Security hadn’t noticed Leslie Harrison going upstairs and getting into Richard Ashton’s safe. He couldn’t do that without mentioning the video card, and he certainly wasn’t going to do that again.

  He winced.

  Please, God, don’t let me breaking a promise and betraying Carol be the last memory she has of me.

  A call to a friend at the courthouse landed him an email with a list of every piece of property the Ashtons owned. The list was extensive, over ten pages, and half of the places were within driving distance of Savannah. He forwarded the list to Cornell.

  Somehow, there had to be a better way to narrow down where to look for Carol.

  He called Cornell and checked in with him frequently, but even though the detective was doing everything Luke would have done in his place, the results were still that the sun was about to set and Carol was nowhere to be found.

  A visit to Grant Ashton’s house yielded nothing but an aggravated butler who had already been grilled by Cornell’s detectives. He emphatically told Luke he didn’t know where any of the Ashtons were and the next time someone asked him he was going to fill out a harassment complaint.

  Luke drove around with no particular destination in mind anymore. He wasn’t surprised when he again ended up outside the office building that Daniel Ashton owned and where he was working today. There weren’t that many cars still in the lot since it was so late. Finding Ashton’s car wasn’t difficult. But even if the lot had been full, he’d know which car was Daniel’s. Luke had cashed in just about every favor anyone owed him today trying to get as much information about the Ashtons as he could find. As a result, he knew exactly which car in the parking lot was Daniel’s—the forest-green BMW sedan.

  Surprisingly, he didn’t park in a reserved spot with his name on it as Luke had expected. Instead, he parked way out at the end, near the street. Why? So he could get away quickly if he needed to?

  Luke scrubbed his face and rested his head against his seat. He would search every place on the list of Ashton holdings if he had to, but without a starting point, something to help him narrow the list down, it was like looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack. It would take days, maybe weeks, to thoroughly search all those possible hiding places.

  Carol didn’t have days. She sure as hell didn’t have weeks.

  He checked his gun at his hip and his backup in an ankle holster. If he thought going into Ashton’s building right now and holding a gun to his head would yield any useful information, he wouldn’t hesitate. But Cornell’s men had already questioned him earlier, and Daniel had been coldly polite, insisting he knew nothing. Luke’s hope was that if he followed the man he’d lead Luke to Carol.

  Two men emerged from the exit at the back of the building. Luke straightened in his seat. Daniel Ashton was easy to pick out. He towered over the much shorter man walking beside him. The other man talked with his hands as he apparently said something funny. Daniel laughed and shook his head, then waved as the man headed to his car on the opposite side of the lot.

  Daniel continued to his car and got in without glancing toward Luke, who was parked in the shadow of some oak trees on the street. Luke waited until Daniel turned the corner. Then he floored the gas and headed after him.

  * * *

  CAROL STUMBLED AND fell onto the hard concrete floor. The door slammed shut behind her before she could make it to her feet.

  “Grant,” she called out. “Please, don’t do this! Let me out of here.”

  The sound of his footsteps rapidly walking away was his only response.

  She ran to the door and tried the knob, unsurprised to find it locked. The upper part of the door was glass, but on top of the glass were iron bars. No way out, unless she could figure out how to pick the lock. That was one “lesson” Richard had never taught her.

  She made a quick circuit of the room. A row of tiny windows near the top of the ceiling were too high for her to reach. A fluorescent light illuminated the small room, which wasn’t much bigger than her master-bedroom closet at the mansion. The walls were concrete. And there was nothing inside the room, not even a chair to sit in. She moved back to the door. If she was going to get out of here, it would have to be through the door. Somehow she had to figure out a way to get it open.

  Would Grant really hurt her? She’d thought so, at first. He’d certainly been rough as he yanked her out of the car and shoved her in front of him, forcing her to go into the processing plant. But he’d turned solicitous, taking her to the restroom and waiting outside for her. Then he’d taken her to an office where he had sandwiches and drinks waiting in a cooler. They’d both eaten in tense silence. She tried to glance around, looking for a way to escape without seeming obvious. He checked the time on his cell phone every few minutes.

 
They sat in the little office for hours. Every one of her attempts at conversation had been met with stony silence. He’d become more and more agitated the later it got, and when the last of the sunlight disappeared from the windows and he was forced to turn on some lights, he swore and grabbed her arm. He tugged her after him and gave her another chance to use the restroom. She took advantage of every minute he gave her, testing the windows, looking for something she could use as a weapon. He must have grown suspicious at how long it was taking her, because he came in as she was trying to pull a paper-towel dispenser off the wall.

  His eyes had narrowed dangerously and, without a word, he’d brought her to this room and threw her inside.

  Footsteps sounded again down the hall. She peered into the gloom. A moment later, Grant appeared, carrying what looked like little pieces of paper in one hand and a roll of duct tape in the other.

  She moved back from the door, rubbing her wrists at the memory of the tape he’d wrapped around them earlier. But he didn’t open the door. Instead, he ripped a piece of tape off the roll and used it to hold the pieces of paper in place on the glass part of the door.

  When he was done, he tossed the roll down and motioned her forward.

  She hesitated, then moved to the door. She glanced at the papers and realized they were computer printouts of pictures. She gasped and pressed her hand to her mouth when she realized who was in the pictures—Grant’s wife and daughter. They were both tied up, blindfolded, gagged. Carol couldn’t even tell if they were alive or dead.

  Her gaze flew to Grant’s.

  “I didn’t kill Richard, or that photographer.” His voice sounded muted through the thick glass. “But I did kill Leslie, and I’ll kill you, too, if I have to.” He tapped the glass above the pictures. “Daniel took them, Caroline. And if I don’t do what he wants, he’ll kill them.” He tapped the glass again. “I would do anything for them, Caroline. Anything. Even if that means slaughtering you like one of the cows they butcher in this place.”

  He turned on his heel and disappeared down the hallway.

  Carol sank to the floor and covered her face with her hands.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Daniel Ashton didn’t seem to be in a hurry to get home. Then again, he didn’t have anyone waiting for him. He was single, never married, no girlfriends or even close friends that Alex’s investigator had been able to find. The P.I. had called while Luke tailed Daniel through the city. The only real news he’d been able to tell Luke was that he’d traced Stellar Security through dozens of holding companies to its real owner.

  Daniel Ashton.

  Luke had immediately called Cornell and told him the news. He also reminded Cornell that Mitch had once worked for Stellar Security and had quit to work for Luke. While Mitch had never shared the details of why he’d quit, Luke knew something ugly had happened while he’d worked there.

  Luke would lay odds that the “something ugly” had to do with Daniel Ashton, either directly or indirectly. And now Mitch was dead. Luke had had a crash course today during all those phone calls about the Ashton brothers, and it wasn’t a pretty picture his contacts had painted.

  The brothers had always been rivals, but with Richard and Daniel in particular, that rivalry went to extremes. Carol was the one who’d told Luke that Daniel didn’t visit the mansion much anymore. And while Luke didn’t have proof yet, he’d heard speculation that the reason for that was because Richard and Daniel had gone after the same acquisition, a business takeover, and Richard had come out the winner.

  Daniel had never forgiven him.

  The business Richard bought had taken him from millionaire to billionaire in less than a year. But Daniel was still a mere millionaire and appeared to blame his brother. The only question was, did he blame his brother enough to kill him over it? Or had the other brother held a grudge no one knew about and he was the one who’d decided to shoot Richard?

  At this point, Luke didn’t care which one had killed Richard. They were both dangerous, a pit of vipers. But they were still family, and Luke was betting Carol’s life that there was a bond between the two brothers, a bond that meant that Daniel knew where Grant was.

  * * *

  DANIEL SMILED AT the waitress and stood to leave the restaurant Luke had tailed him to half an hour earlier.

  Luke held a menu up in front of him. As soon as Daniel went outside, Luke would scramble after him again and see where else the man went.

  “Mr. Dawson, fancy seeing you here.”

  Luke slowly lowered his menu.

  Daniel Ashton stood beside the table, staring down at him as if he were the worst kind of vermin, his mouth curling in contempt. “Why are you following me?”

  Luke tossed the menu on the table and slid out of the booth. He rose to his full height, which was only an inch taller than Ashton, but it was enough to make Daniel’s smug look fade. He seemed to assess the breadth of Luke’s shoulders as they stood toe to toe.

  “Where is she?” Luke asked.

  Daniel arched a brow. “‘She’? I’m sure I don’t know who you’re talking about.”

  Luke grabbed Ashton’s lapels and slammed him against the nearest wall.

  Diners at the next table gasped in shock. Excited voices rose from the nearby waiters.

  Luke ignored all of them and pressed his hand against Daniel’s throat. “Tell me where she is, you filthy piece of—”

  “Now, now,” Daniel clucked. “No reason to act so uncivilized, Mr. Dawson.”

  “Sir, you need to let him go before we call the police.”

  Luke glanced over his shoulder. A group of five men stood behind him. Three appeared to be waiters. The others, judging by their clothing, were the bartender and the restaurant manager.

  “You heard the man, Dawson. Let me go. Now.”

  The laughter in Ashton’s voice had Luke gritting his teeth. He forced his hands to relax their death grip on the other man’s lapels and he took a step back.

  Daniel straightened his collar, frowning at the wrinkles Luke had made. He flicked the fabric and gave Luke a smile that didn’t come close to reaching his cold, dead eyes.

  “You should try the filet mignon in this restaurant, Mr. Dawson,” he said. “I hear the meat’s never frozen. It’s freshly butchered.” He laughed as if at a private joke and headed out the front door.

  Luke moved to follow, but the restaurant manager stepped in front of him. “Hold it, sir. I think you should sit and calm down. Whatever happened between you two—”

  Luke shoved the man out of his way and ran through the double doors to the street.

  The sound of squealing tires had him turning to see Ashton’s green BMW speeding away. Daniel lifted a hand out the window, waving, before the car turned down a side street and disappeared.

  Luke cursed viciously and ran to his car. But ten minutes later he pulled to the curb and slammed his fist against the dash. No sign of Daniel Ashton. His last link to the man who’d taken Carol was gone.

  Or was it?

  He stilled, thinking about the list of holdings on his phone and the last words Daniel had thrown at him.

  You really should try the filet mignon. It’s freshly butchered.

  He fumbled for his phone and opened the email. He quickly scrolled through the list. Yes, there, on the fifth page—Matheson’s Beef Packing Plant. Sweat broke out on his brow.

  Oh, God. Please. Don’t let her die like that.

  He slammed his foot on the accelerator and rocketed away from the curb, praying harder than he’d ever prayed in his life that he wouldn’t be too late.

  * * *

  CAROL SHIVERED IN the concrete room. It might have been hot outside, but the air-conditioning in the plant kept it chilly, and the longer she was there the colder she became. As minutes ticked away and Grant d
idn’t return, she began to wonder if it wouldn’t be better to just try to go to sleep and hope she was cold enough to succumb to hypothermia. It had to be a better way to die than whatever her brother-in-law had planned for her.

  She closed her eyes and leaned her head on her arms, resting on top of her drawn-up knees. Footsteps sounded outside the room, but not just one set. This time, there were two. She jerked her head up. Grant rounded the corner, and beside him was Daniel.

  The chill that went through her had nothing to do with the temperature in the room.

  The men stopped at the door.

  “Open it,” Daniel ordered.

  “Not until you tell me where you’re holding Susan and Patty. That was the deal.”

  Daniel calmly raised his hand and shot Grant in the forehead. He dropped to the floor like a rock.

  Carol screamed.

  Daniel pointed the gun at her through the glass. “Shut up.”

  She clamped her shaking hands over her mouth.

  He took out a handkerchief and wiped the specks of his brother’s blood off his face. He put the handkerchief in his suit pocket then unlocked and opened the door. “Hello, there, dear sister-in-law. It’s been a while, if we don’t count that little visit at the hospital, or the exchange of pleasantries at the funeral. Before that, I hadn’t seen you in a year or more, I suppose.”

  He clucked his tongue and shook his head as he stepped into the room. “Not my choice, I assure you. Entirely your late husband’s. Tell me—” he crouched down in front of her and used his gun to tilt her chin up “—did you miss me? No? I missed you very much. You see, I’ve always wanted you.” He slid the cold barrel of the gun down the side of her neck, then across her lower lip. “Grant wasn’t the only person who argued with Richard. He and I argued, too, about business and money mostly. But that wasn’t all we argued about.”

  He slid the gun lower, until it pressed against the valley between her breasts.

  Carol flinched and flattened herself against the wall behind her.