Muted masculine chuckles rumbled from the far end of the vast penthouse living room, the cluster of donors huddled around Florida’s current governor each vying for favors for one cause or another. While the room was as big as some ballrooms, it was decorated with light colors that made it easy to see every detail and wasn’t overcrowded in a way that made protection difficult. The number of guests was a challenge, though, each of them roving from group to group and waiting for their turn to schmooze with the man of the hour.
There weren’t supposed to be that many people. Gia had insisted on a limit before they’d ever left Dallas, but they’d found out ten minutes prior to moving in someone had countered the restriction only yesterday—that someone being Judd.
And Gia was pissed.
She’d covered it with everyone else, but the tight concentration on her face and hard line of her lips said she’d drawn up at least fifty gruesome ways to free him of his nuts.
Beckett couldn’t fucking wait to watch it happen.
As it had far more often than it should have with him in charge of protecting the governor’s wife, Beckett found his gaze straying to Gia on the far side of the room. In a sea of business suits, she should have blended in with her tailored black pants and jacket. Even her hair pulled back in a slick ponytail was designed to avoid notice.
She still stood out. Whether it was the fact that she was a curvaceous woman amid mostly men, or that she was a good head shorter than the rest of them was hard to say, but every single person in the room noted her. Men and women. Though, those from the latter group tended to deliver their consideration with an edge of competitiveness or envy.
The governor’s wife hugged the woman next to her in an airy way that lacked any warmth at all and discreetly scanned the people gathered outside her circle for her next move. Sure enough, she departed the cluster that had held her attention for a solid ten minutes and moved toward another group closer to the door.
Beckett stayed in lockstep. Not quite in arm’s reach, but close enough he could get there with little effort.
She gave Beckett a coy head-to-toe, grinned and murmured, “And to think I was jealous my husband had a woman looking out for him this weekend. If I’d realized I’d get you rather than the standard fare, I wouldn’t have even blinked. Any chance you’ll have time to spare after the gala tonight?”
While her comments hadn’t been loud enough for the people around them, they were clearly audible for the rest of the team through his headset. Beckett gave the usual response he got under such circumstances—a bland smile that was more warning than it was welcoming.
Her grin turned into more of a wry mew. “Well, you can’t blame a woman for trying, now can you?” With one last glance from under her eyelashes, she faced the next group of women and started in with the faux hugs.
Beckett zeroed in on Gia still locked in place on the other side of the room.
Blank. Eyes rooted on Governor Lansing and hands clasped loosely in front of her. Not a single hint she’d heard, much less responded to the blatant invitation.
But she’d heard it. Had to have considering the barely suppressed smirk Danny aimed at him across the room.
Tempted as he was to call Danny over and have him take over with the governor’s wife, Beckett stayed where he was. Such propositions weren’t at all unusual. Hell, more men than he cared to count actually welcomed them. Surely Gia knew he wasn’t one of them. Never had been and had no respect for the ones who did.
He watched her for a few more seconds, the sudden realization she’d likely had similar offers lighting an uncomfortable burn in his gut when he scanned the room out of habit and caught Judd’s gaze on Gia.
And it wasn’t a friendly look. Far from it. More something fitted to a self-righteous man pre-killing spree.
The burn in Beckett’s gut sharpened and every warning instinct he’d honed from his earliest days fending for himself in a run-down apartment complex fired at once.
A competition.
That was how Gia had described her relationship with Judd. Said it had lasted for as long as she could remember. And the way he’d undercut her at the gig not too long ago supported that behavior. Come to think of it, he’d bragged about his gun knowledge at one of their happy hours about a year back. Beckett had chalked it up to empty bluster at the time, but if it was accurate, Judd would have had the skills to mess with Gia’s piece.
Forcing his shoulders to relax, Beckett looked away just as Judd turned Beckett’s direction.
Danny strolled along the far wall. Unassigned to any specific person, his primary job was to stay mobile and keep an eye on the general guests and check for anomalies.
Beckett waited, most of his focus on the governor’s wife, but his peripheral attention narrowed on Danny. It took a good ten minutes, but Danny finally ambled close enough for Beckett to motion him over with a subtle lift of his chin. He muted his headset, an action Danny noted and repeated.
Moving in shoulder to shoulder with Beckett, Danny clasped his hands in front of him. “What’s up?”
Indifferent expression back in place, Judd mirrored everyone else’s professional stance about fifteen feet away from Gia, his attention back on the man he was supposed to be watching.
“Need you to call Knox when we’re done here,” Beckett said. “Have him run some checks on Rainier. See if he’s got an alibi for those gaps in the range’s security footage. If I do it, Gia might overhear and now’s not the time to make her jumpy.”
The statement knocked the blank mask off Danny’s face and made him whip his head toward Beckett way too fast, drawing more than one eye their direction. Almost as fast, he shrugged the shock free and played it off with a grin that made it look like they were shooting the shit. “You shitting me?”
He wished he was. Gia wouldn’t just be pissed if his guess was right, she’d be gutted. Judd might not be her best bud, but they’d clearly been close at one point, and nothing hurt worse than a knife in the back from a trusted source. “Just a hunch.”
“That’s a wild-ass hunch.”
“Is it?” Beckett paused long enough to check a man strolling past as he slipped a hand in his pocket. When all he lifted out was a cell phone, Beckett kept going. “We’ve found nothing. No more suspects. No more actions toward Gia.” He paused a beat, letting the possibility settle in his belly. “What if we’ve been looking in the wrong direction?”
Danny shrugged.
Gia’s low voice cut through their headsets before he could answer. “Beckett, is there a reason I can see your lips moving and not hear you in my headset?”
Meeting her gaze across the room, he flipped on his mic. “Danny wanted to know if I really made you gumbo.”
Danny snickered then turned his own mic back on.
“Gossip on your culinary prowess can wait,” Gia said. “Get back to work.” Quiet moved through their headsets for all of a second. When she spoke again there was a smile in her voice. “But for the record, he did and it was great.”
Every one of the men positioned around the room kept their hard stares, but there was a lightness behind their eyes that hadn’t been there before. Not just shared humor, but appreciation for the way she’d handled it.
Except for Judd. His expression was too hard. Anger barely contained.
Beckett shared a look with Danny.
Danny nodded and sauntered off to finish his sweep of the perimeter.
And that was it. Not another word spoken over the course of the next hour save what was necessary to convey one party or another taking their leave. The stragglers—mostly those who hadn’t managed to score time with the governor or one of his aides during the prime crush—hung on until the bitter end, then practically bolted in the governor’s wake.
He’d walked side-by-side with Gia, tailing the governor and his wife to their high-security suite. Where the g
overnor had been quick to give Gia his assurances he’d stay behind closed doors and not venture out without contacting her first, his wife had saddled Beckett with a request for assistance with luggage—a less than subtle ploy to get him to reconsider her previous offer.
Finally able to escape, he exited the suite and found Gia braced between the two guards stationed outside, her attention sharp and her voice sharper as she ran down her expectations for them both.
Beckett waited, not crowding them too much, but painfully aware that Jamey and David—two of the men he’d volunteered from his own staff to save her hiring time—were struggling not to crack a smile. When Gia circled back for another run from the top of her expectations, Beckett took mercy on them and stepped in. “G, we’ve got two hours tops before we gotta be back here.”
She stopped mid-sentence, frowned up at him for all of two seconds, then seemed to realize she’d waded neck-deep into overkill. “Right.” She refocused on Jamey and David. “Let me know if you run into any problems.”
This time they both nodded and smiled, one of those yeah, boss good-natured gestures they’d cast at Beckett more times than he could count.
Before Gia could remember any last bits of wisdom, Beckett cupped her elbow, guided her toward the elevator and lowered his voice. “Jamey’s got it.”
“I know.”
He punched the up button. “So does Dave.”
“I know that, too.” She punched the button again like that might make the thing come faster and she glanced at the suite’s front door. “I just don’t want to screw up.”
“The only way you’re gonna screw up is if you don’t let the men you hired do their job, or you’re too tired to function when you need to. You need the downtime and so do I.”
The elevator dinged and the doors whooshed open. He’d thought she’d settled into the quiet she usually preferred after a job, but all of three seconds after the doors closed and the car started downward she craned her head up at him and spoke, her voice distracted and more than a little fatigued. “What were you and Danny really talking about?”
There it was. Proof his woman was a tough one to dodge. Though, he’d thought he’d at least make it until after tonight before she dug in.
For a second, he considered laying it out. But considering how much she was putting into this gig already and the night still ahead of them, he scratched that approach and took a different direction. “Just running down a hunch. Rather you let me check it out instead of distracting you.”
Her gaze narrowed. “Not something about the event?”
“No, an idea I had on the stuff back home.”
“Nothing that’ll blow back here?”
It better not. If it did and he could prove Judd was behind it, Beckett couldn’t guarantee the fucker would live to see another sunrise. Still, Judd wasn’t stupid. If he pulled a stunt here, he’d risk implicating himself on proximity alone. “Can’t imagine how it could.”
Guilt jabbed like a knife at the back of his neck, but when she simply nodded and faced the door again with an audible sigh of relief, his conscience took a hike and eased up on the pressure.
The rest of the trip to their own suite settled into the quiet he’d expected. That quiet was knocked on its ass, though, the second Beckett opened the door and Axel’s booming laughter filtered out into the hallway.
Gia aimed a what the hell? frown up at Beckett then hustled past him and into the big living room.
Knox he’d expected. After all, he’d been the one to insist on setting up their central communications in the general area between the two bedrooms on each end. And Knox was right where they’d left him this morning—camped out behind a big table with five huge computer screens.
All the other people in the room were a complete shock.
Apparently, it was for Gia, too, because she planted her hands on her hips and cut into whatever humorous conversation was under way. “What’s going on?”
As one, Axel, Ninette, Sylvie, Jace, Vivienne and Darya all turned eyes on them from the sitting area. Personally, Beckett found the formal red sofa with its gold trim and the even stuffier gold club chairs at either end uncomfortable as hell, but the way the women were settled in them made the space look downright cozy. Jace and Axel stood between them and Knox, each nursing what was undoubtedly Scotch out of crystal tumblers.
Dark hair loose around his shoulders and dressed in his usual jeans and T-shirt, Jace had probably given the hotel’s staff a coronary prowling through the lobby. He grinned and lifted his chin in greeting. “You didn’t think we were gonna let you have all the fun, did ya?”
“I can’t wait!” Sylvie clasped her hands in front of her and stopped just short of bouncing like a six-year-old girl who’d just been given a lifetime supply of tiaras. “A woman can never have enough chances to dress up. You should see the dresses Ninette and I found last week.”
Ninette anchored her elbow on the arm of the sofa and propped her chin on her hand, a devious smile on her face. “Don’t let her fool you. She’s really hoping she gets to see Gia kick somebody’s ass. Dressing up is just a bonus.”
“Ha!” Viv chortled. “I’ve seen that dress. She’s got a man hunt on her mind.”
“Oh, that should be fun.” Darya shifted in the club chair and craned her head for a better view of Knox. “Please tell me you’ve got good angles in the ballroom.”
Knox snickered and gave his woman a sidelong look. “Sweetheart, I’ve got all the angles that count.”
Axel volleyed his gaze between Darya and Knox. “You mean to tell me we flew all the way up here and I don’t get to see your leggy Russian all dolled up again?”
From Axel’s angle, he wouldn’t have seen Knox’s smirk, but Beckett could. “I’m puttin’ her to work. Need someone I can trust tracking network activity.”
More than a little dazed and obviously clueless on how to handle the curveball his family had thrown, Gia slowly pivoted her head and gazed up at him. “They flew all the way here?”
“Appears so.”
“Why?” She shifted her attention back to the general audience now aiming pleasantly smug smiles her way and repeated, “Why?”
Jace finished off his drink, set it on the end table and ambled over to Viv. “Well, the good governor has a decent reputation. Far be it from us not to be good contributing citizens.”
“Contributing citizens, my arse,” Axel grumbled. “The bawbag’s getting twelve large a plate. For that, I’d better see top shelf everything and no cash bars.”
“Yeah, don’t hold your breath on that,” Knox said.
Chuckling along with everyone else, Ninette stood, motioned for Sylvie and Viv to do the same and grabbed the two designer shopping bags near her feet. “Come on, you guys. These two only have a little time before they’re back at it and Gia looks like we short-circuited her brain.”
She wasn’t wrong. In the time he’d known Gia, he wasn’t sure he’d ever seen her so dumbfounded. He slid behind her and wrapped one arm around her waist, his other hand bracing her at her shoulder for the well wishes he was certain were headed her way.
Sure enough, everyone but Knox and Darya filed their direction, Ninette leading the pack. “You’re gonna do great tonight, beautiful girl.” She cupped one side of Gia’s face in that strong but motherly way she used with everyone and smiled. “And the answer to your question is, we’re here for you. Simple as that.”
“Yeah,” Viv said, stopping just short of shouldering Ninette out of the way. “Gabe, Nat and the boys would’ve been here, too, but Levi’s got football games all weekend, and Gabe said the only place she’s wearing a dress to is your wedding.”
Sylvie moved in beside her and mock-whispered, “On the off chance ye do get to flex yer bonny muscles, be a good lass and try ta do it where I can see. I’ll try ta get a picture.”
“Bloody hel
l, Ma.” Axel shooed them both toward the exit, aimed a wry smile at Gia that said he wasn’t nearly as put-out as he sounded and winked. “Though, I wouldn’t mind gettin’ a look at that either.”
Jace chuckled, swung the door open for the lot of them and jerked his chin at Gia. “Go get ’em, tiger.”
Her hand covered Beckett’s at her shoulder, the subtle tremor in it echoing the emotion in her voice. “Thank you.”
Without another word, they shuffled out.
The door clicked shut and Gia still didn’t move. Just stared at the now empty space where they’d been, mindless of Knox and Darya across the room pretending not to be aware of her response. “I can’t believe they flew all the way here.”
It was quiet. Spoken more to herself than to anyone else. But Beckett remembered the feelings that went with it all too well. How an impenetrable warmth and foreign awe had shifted beneath his sternum the first time they’d shown en masse to give their support. How they reinforced that feeling every single day just by being who they were. A little over-the-top sometimes, but always steady in showing their love.
He kissed the top of her head and hugged her close. “Get used to it, gorgeous. That’s what family does.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
A sea of sparkle and refinement on a classic backdrop of pale peach walls and ivory accents. Crystal chandeliers hung from the ballroom’s soaring ceilings overhead, their lights strategically dimmed to create what the event planner had called an intimate setting.
Sure, it made things more cozy. More elegant. But Gia knew the strategy for what it really was. Atlanta’s elite might want for nothing in the financial sense, but even the best couture, workout regimens or plastic surgeons couldn’t make them as picture-perfect as they strove to be. The subtle lighting helped that. Let those all too aware of their physical flaws mingle with more self-confidence in their finest evening wear.
Stand & Deliver Page 24
