Top Gun Guardian

by Carol Ericson

  Raven hated feeling vulnerable.

  Her grip on Garrett’s gun tightened as she pulled Malika close to her side. They sidled along the wall. Raven had spent plenty of time in this building and knew exactly where they were. She also knew the location of a janitor’s closet nearby.

  She had the overwhelming sense that she needed to keep Malika under wraps. Anyone could be out there now. She didn’t even know if President Okeke was dead or alive.

  Reaching the closet door, Raven pulled it open and shoved Malika inside the small space crowded with brooms, mops and buckets.

  Raven whispered. “We’re going to stay here for a while until I can figure out what’s going on.”

  In the darkness, Malika scooched in closer to Raven, who could feel the trembling of the small girl’s body. She slipped an arm around Malika and squeezed her shoulder. “It’s going to be okay. Do you understand?”

  Malika nodded, tickling Raven’s chin with her hair. Then she slipped her sticky hand in Raven’s. Why did kids always have dirty hands? Raven curled her fingers around Malika’s.

  Despite the recent turn of events, maybe President Okeke had the right idea bringing his daughter along. It beat stashing her with some nanny or shoving her into some boarding school. Raven knew all about that.

  She’d vowed never to do anything like that to her children. And the best guarantee against that was to skip motherhood altogether. Of course, that decision had cost her Buzz, her ex-fiancé. Second time she’d thought of Buzz today, not that she didn’t think of him every week, or dream about him, or…

  Must be all the high-octane excitement.

  “Now that we’re in a safe place, I’m going to get us some help.” Raven slipped her cell phone out of her pocket where she’d dropped it after discovering the comatose bodyguards. Walter should know the status of events. She called him, only to have her cell phone inform her that a closet in the middle of the U.N. was no place to get reception.

  Malika tapped the phone. “Help?”

  “Not yet. We’ll stay here for a little while longer. Police and security should have this building secured shortly, and then we can just walk out.” Raven patted her oversized handbag, where she’d stashed Garrett’s weapon. “Besides, I have protection.”

  Malika emitted a puff of air from her lips. “My mother had a gun, too.”

  A knot tightened in Raven’s chest. This little girl had been through too much already. When would it end? Raven’s own childhood had been no picnic, but privilege, wealth and distant parents couldn’t compare to revolution, gunfire and death.

  “D-did you see it happen?” Raven bit her lip as Malika stiffened beside her. Any idiot knew you didn’t ask a child questions like that. You should change the subject, pretend it never happened, stuff down those feelings.

  Raven should know better. That’s how every adult had treated her as a child, even after her little brother had drowned in the family pool.

  Malika drew in a noisy, wet breath. “Yes. The rebels broke into our home. They got past our security forces. My mother had her gun—” Malika lifted her shoulder “—but they got her first.”

  “I’m sorry, Malika. That must have been…horrible.” What an inadequate word. The kid must think she’s some kind of monster for asking her to dredge up that moment.

  Malika increased the pressure of her fingers around Raven’s hand. “My father never asked me about it.”

  Raven glanced down, trying to discern the expression on Malika’s face in the dark. Maybe Raven hadn’t been crazy for wanting to talk about her brother, Jace, after he’d died. But nobody would allow her to talk about him. Instead they’d politely avoided the topic and studied Raven’s every word and expression for signs of trauma. Her parents were big on opening up…to a bevy of therapists, anyway.

  A footstep fell in the hallway, and Raven’s body jerked.

  Malika pressed her head against her knees, her entire frame tensing. Raven slipped her hand into her handbag and withdrew the gun. She released the safety and pointed it toward the closet door. She didn’t plan to go down without a fight. And she didn’t plan on allowing anyone to snatch this brave girl beside her.

  A door opened and closed, and Malika rolled her head to the side, resting her cheek on Raven’s knee. “They are coming. They always come.”

  A twist of fear spiraled up Raven’s spine and she shook it off. No time to panic. It could be the police or U.N. security or even Burumandan security forces.

  Yeah, like the ones who killed Malika’s mother?

  A bead of sweat rolled along her hairline. With her finger poised on the trigger of the gun, Raven braced her stockinged feet against the door. She knew the door swung outward, giving her an advantage over their stealthy attacker. She could hit him with the door first…and then the bullet if it became necessary.

  Then they’d just have to chance it and run helter-skelter out of the building, throwing themselves on the mercy of the first uniformed person they encountered.

  Raven coiled her muscles as the footsteps drew nearer. Target practice had nothing on real-world situations.

  Another door snapped shut. Click, click. Dull clicks, not women’s high heels but a man’s dress shoes or some kind of heavy heels. Not the soft soles of a security guard or cop. Secret Service?

  Her legs ached with tension, trembling with the effort to stay poised for action. Click, click. Pause. The handle of the door turned.

  Raven flattened her feet against the door and coiled her thigh muscles. A slice of light appeared, and she shoved her legs forward. The door hit resistance. Raven sprang to her feet and charged out of the closet, clutching the gun in front of her.

  A man in a dark suit staggered back, cursing and reaching beneath his jacket.

  Raven steadied her weapon and took up a shooting stance, just like Buzz had taught her. “Don’t move or I’ll blow a hole in your gut.”

  The man dropped his hands and jerked his head up. A slow smile spread across his handsome face.

  “If it isn’t Raven Pierre—city girl turned…guntotin’ vigilante. And you already blew a hole in my gut, girl.”

  Raven choked as she scanned the tall figure in front of her dressed in a tailored suit and…cowboy boots. Her gaze traveled back up, all six feet three inches, until she met the blue eyes, brimming with laughter, of her ex-fiancé and former weapons instructor, Buzz Richardson.

  Chapter Two

  Damn, his ex-fiancée looked better than ever with her black hair slightly askew, her expensive silk suit wrinkled and a Colt .45 clutched in her manicured hands.

  But what the hell was she doing hiding in a closet?

  “What are you doing in there? U.N. security already has the two shooters in custody, or at least one’s in custody. The other’s dead. They nailed the two guys right in the General Assembly.”

  The news did nothing to unfurl the frown creasing her beautiful features. Her hand tightened on the weapon as she narrowed her dark eyes. “They didn’t nail all of them.”

  His pulse ticked up several notches. “What are you talking about? You weren’t even with the Burumandan contingent.”

  “I was with one part of that contingent. One very important part.” She stepped to the side and swung open the closet door behind her.

  Buzz raised his brows at the girl huddled in the closet, her chin balanced on her knees. President Okeke’s daughter. He should have figured Raven’s boss had assigned her to the First Daughter. Security was going nuts looking for the girl after finding her bodyguards and the Secret Service agent conked out in the anteroom where she’d been stashed.

  Still didn’t explain why Raven had been ensconced in a dark closet with the girl. Raven didn’t even like kids. He knew all about that firsthand.

  Buzz smiled and waved at the girl. “How you doin’, sweetheart? Excitement’s all over. Your daddy’s A-OK.”

  Her big brown eyes got bigger. She dropped her gaze to his boots and then sent a beseeching look toward Raven.<
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  “Does she speak English?”

  Raven snorted and finally lowered her weapon. “She speaks better English than you, Buzz.”

  Extending a hand to the girl, she said, “It’s all right, Malika. I know this man. He’s…safe.”

  Buzz cocked an eyebrow at Raven. She’d never called him safe before.

  As the girl scrambled out of the closet and grabbed Raven’s hand, Buzz folded his arms and squared his shoulders. “What did you mean about not nailing all of them?”

  “When Garrett and then the bodyguards lost consciousness and we saw the shooting erupt on the closed-circuit TV, I didn’t want to take any chances.” She dipped into the closet, grabbed her handbag and tucked the gun away in it. “I mean, why incapacitate Malika’s security if you’re just shooting at President Okeke?”

  Buzz’s mouth went dry and he ran his tongue along his teeth. “Your time with Prospero paid off. Go on.”

  “So I locked the door of the anteroom, grabbed Garrett’s gun and headed for the secret exit.”

  “There’s a secret exit in the anteroom?”

  She nodded, and her dark hair swept across one shoulder. “I know all the ins and outs in this building.”

  “And the secret exit led you here?”

  “Not before I heard two men in the anteroom desperate to find the president’s daughter.” Raven rested a hand on the girl’s shoulder.

  Buzz tightened his jaw. President Okeke had been whisked away to a secure hotel room, frantic over his daughter’s disappearance. Shortly after the shooting, the CIA had gotten word that rebel forces had attacked the capital of Burumanda. And now the First Daughter was in danger.

  “We need to keep her safe.” He crouched in front of the girl. “What’s your name, darlin’?”

  Again, her gaze slid to Raven, who inclined her head.

  “Malika.”

  “A lot of people are very worried about you, Malika, including your daddy. But we’re going to take good care of you.”

  The girl inched closer to Raven and clutched her hand, still resting on Malika’s shoulder. Must have been the fear that had drawn these two together. He’d never seen Raven close to a child before.

  He liked it.

  “What next, Buzz? Are we going to bring Malika to her father?”

  “Not so fast, Raven.” He ran a finger along the seam of his lips. Truth was President Okeke didn’t want his daughter anywhere near him. He didn’t want his proximity to put her in danger. And neither one of them could go home right now with trouble brewing.

  Raven dug into her suitcase-sized handbag and pulled out a pair of shoes—high heels with lethal-looking points on the ends. She slipped her feet into them and grew four inches in stature. “What is your involvement, anyway? I thought you’d retired from Prospero and were flying the friendly skies for a living. What are you doing here?”

  “Special assignment.” A special assignment that had everything to do with Prospero. Jack Coburn, the former team leader of Prospero, was missing and his disappearance had been linked to the upheaval in Burumanda. Buzz needed to stay involved in this investigation and follow the trail that had begun with his former Prospero team members, Riley Hammond and Ian Dempsey.

  “So I repeat—” Raven tugged at the hem of her jacket “—what next?”

  Buzz studied the toes of his boots. “We’re going to let President Okeke know his daughter is safe and take our cue from him.”

  “Hold it. Put your hands out where I can see them.”

  Buzz raised his head to see two cops at the end of the hallway…both pointing guns. He held his hands out in front of him and told Raven to do the same.

  Raven coughed as she shook her hand loose from Malika’s. “Can’t they see we have a child here? They shouldn’t be pointing their weapons at us.”

  Buzz murmured under his breath. “Unless they think we’re in the process of kidnapping her.”

  Raven called out to the approaching cops. “This is President Okeke’s daughter. I’m a U.N. translator. I was with her when the shots were fired in the General Assembly.”

  One of the cops spoke into the radio on his shoulder. Then he tightened the grip on his gun. “Until we can verify that, get on the ground.”

  As Raven grumbled about the general condition of her silk suit and dropped to her knees, Malika screamed and threw her arms around Raven’s waist.

  “Do not hurt Raven.”

  Buzz’s eyes nearly popped out of his skull. Raven and this little girl had sure forged a bond over the past hour.

  And he had every intention of using it to his advantage.

  RAVEN TAPPED HER STOCKINGED feet together as she sipped a diet soda and furrowed her brow at the cartoon on TV. The cartoon hero was a sponge living underwater. How could that be funny?

  Malika giggled and bounced on the bed next to Raven. “He is very funny but stupid.”

  Raven smiled at her. Malika hadn’t wanted to leave her side ever since the cops turned them over to a phalanx of security people and eventually Malika’s father at the hotel.

  The president had been so relieved to see his daughter and had showered so much praise on Raven, she thought he was going to offer her a position in his new government. Or what was left of that government after the renewed rebel attacks.

  Raven’s gaze shifted to the closed door between the hotel suite and the conference room. High government mucky-mucks were in there now with President Okeke…and Buzz.

  How had Buzz known she’d been hiding in that closet? He’d maintained that he had super-duper radar where it concerned her. She’d almost given him a big kiss, well, after she’d almost shot him. Warm relief had flooded her body when she’d looked into his baby blues. That man always could make her feel safer than an egg packed in cotton.

  “See.” Malika poked her in the ribs. “Very funny sponge.”

  “He’s hilarious.” Raven rolled her eyes. Holding up her soda can, she asked, “Do you want another one?”

  Malika nodded and bounced on the mattress again. Raven rolled off the bed and padded to the minibar. Why not? The kid deserved a double shot of sugar and caffeine after the morning she’d had.

  She handed Malika a frosty can and settled against the pillows. She’d known Prospero had disbanded and had heard that Buzz was working as a commercial airline pilot. Did he have a wife and baby to go along with his white picket fence? She hadn’t noticed a wedding ring on his long, strong fingers—and she’d been looking.

  Sighing, she wiggled her toes. They had gotten engaged when they were both still working with Prospero, the covert ops group headed by Jack Coburn. Jack was the one who had recruited her to translate some of their bugged conversations between terrorists.

  She still couldn’t figure out why she’d fallen for Buzz instead of Jack. Jack had been as commitment-phobic as she was, a loner. Maybe that was it. She would’ve had to try too hard to maintain any kind of relationship with Jack, while a relationship with Buzz had been inevitable from the moment they met.

  Once Buzz had decided on her, there was no holding him back. With his slow Oklahoma drawl and his easy grin, he’d swept her off her feet before she even knew his true intentions. Once he had a ring on her finger, he’d revealed his plans for settling in the small Oklahoma town where he grew up and raising a passel of kids. He’d even used the word passel.

  Raven had taken off faster than one of those jets Buzz maneuvered through the sky like a paper airplane.

  The connecting door swung open, and Raven’s fingers clawed into the bedspread. She still hadn’t regained her composure after the wild escape at the U.N. But she always put up a good front.

  President Okeke opened his arms, and Malika hurled herself off the bed and against his chest. He smiled and winked at Raven over Malika’s head. “Are you happy here with Miss Pierre?”

  “Yes, she gave me soda pop and fixed my hair.” Malika twirled one finger around her pigtail.

  Raven had bounded off the bed and stuffed
her feet into her heels when the president had entered the room with Buzz lounging against the doorjamb behind him. Her cheeks heated and she spoke in the president’s dialect to restore her dignity. “I hope the soda is not a problem, Mr. President.”

  He waved his hands. “A small treat for a difficult morning, and please speak English. We do not want to be rude to our friend Mr. Richardson.”

  Friend? Raven narrowed her eyes, giving Buzz a sidelong glance. He sure had gotten chummy with the president in a short space of time. Leave it to Buzz. He could charm just about anyone into anything.

  She should know.

  “Are you finished in there? Have they found a safe place for you and your daughter?” Not that Raven wanted to dump Malika. The girl had grown on her…a little. But she did have a life and a fabulous apartment on the Upper East Side and even a date for dinner.

  Her gaze wandered across Buzz’s wide shoulders and broad chest. Her date didn’t have a fraction of Buzz’s mouthwatering physical attributes. But he had something Buzz lacked—a big-city, superficial nonchalance that suited Raven just fine.

  President Okeke shifted his gaze to Buzz and then back to her. “We’re not quite finished. We have a few more details to arrange.”

  Buzz stepped to the side as the door behind him nudged open. A suit stuck his head into the room. “Everything fine with your daughter, President Okeke? We’ll have the two of you out of this hotel and installed in a secure location in no time at all.”

  The president nodded and crouched next to Malika. He whispered something in her ear in their own language, and Raven caught just one word—safe.

  The Secret Service agent ushered President Okeke back into the conference room and held the door open for Buzz. “Are you joining us?”

  The agent’s clipped tone made it clear he didn’t think Buzz warranted a place at the table with the Secretary of State and the other high-level security representatives.

  Buzz shrugged. “You don’t really need me in there. I’ll hang out here and watch—” he cocked his head at the TV “—the sponge.”