Above and Beyond

by Riley Morgan

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  Riley Morgan

  Savior

  Riley Morgan

  Table of Contents

  Part One

  Part Two

  Part Three

  Part Four

  Prologue

  Things had really turned around for Ramon. He was sober, getting back in shape, and making a shitload of cash. All he had to do was keep the Lena out of trouble and himself out of her pants.

  Too bad she wasn’t going to make either of those things easy.

  She’d gone from refusing to acknowledge his existence to flirting with him relentlessly. And she seemed to have a hard time keeping her clothes on. This was just the second time today that Ramon had turned around to see her naked. If that weren’t bad enough, he’d been dumb enough to walk into her bedroom once everyone else was fast asleep. She’d said that she needed help with her assignment, and Ramon had believed her. Or maybe he was looking for an excuse to see her. Maybe that had been the case, but Ramon didn’t want to be here now. He had to keep Lena safe, and that wasn’t going to be easy if he was always thinking with his dick. Not to mention what her stepfather would do if he found out that he was fucking around while he was on the clock.

  Lena looked awfully pleased with herself for getting him into the room with her. She ran her hands over her naked body and sized Ramon up. He could see her thinking all sorts of terrible things. In any other circumstance, he would have been all too happy to oblige her, but the way things were, he didn’t have a choice.

  Ramon had spent a lot of time thinking about what it would be like to kiss her. Would she taste like the strawberry lip balm that she always wore, or would she be even sweeter? Would she be as be as bold as she always pretended to be, or would she the facade crumble away and leave a vulnerable girl in his arms?

  He didn’t have to think about it any longer. Lena cornered him by the desk and he had no choice but to meet things head on. He stopped backing away and she grabbed him by the collar and pulled herself into his chest. She kissed him. There was no timidity there, no hesitation. She knew what she was doing. She pulled back and a wicked smile turned up the corners of her lips. She thought she’d won this round of her little game. She had no idea that Ramon hadn’t yet made his move.

  Part One

  Ramon

  Ramon awoke and bolted upright. He immediately regretted it. His head began to spin. He was cold, his sheets were wet and clung to his body. And that fucking noise. He fumbled around the bed for his phone, but could not find it. It wasn’t on the nightstand, wasn’t plugged in, and as far as he could tell, wasn’t down between the mattress and the wall. Mercifully, the sarcastically cheerful ringer subsided after a few more agonizing seconds. Ramon laid down and was going to try to get back to sleep when his stomach turned over and a shooting pain hit him right behind the temples. Without thinking, his legs kicked away the sheets and pushed him out of bed and towards the bathroom.

  He wrapped himself around the toilet and was not at all surprised to find that his stomach was empty. After a few miserable dry heaves, he wiped the tears from his eyes and looked around his cramped apartment for clues as to what had happened last night. There was puke dried on the rim of the toilet bowl and fast food wrappers in the trash can. A bottle of painkillers open and spilled on the counter. There were eight or nine empty beer cans scattered around the various corners of his bare room. He picked up a crumpled pair of jeans and found his phone, his wallet, and an ATM receipt that confirmed he’d just drank away most of this month’s rent money.

  The news wasn’t all bad though. On the kitchen counter were two untouched sandwiches from the night before. Ramon breathed a sigh of relief and devoured them. His stomach still growled with hunger. He rooted through the kitchen and found that the refrigerator was empty. Before he could go through the all the cupboards, his stomach churned again and he was once more propelled to the bathroom.

  While he was kneeling over the toilet, mourning the loss of the last bits of food in his home, his phone rang again. He wiped his mouth, washed spit and partially digested hamburger out of his dark stubble, and went to get his phone and give somebody a piece of his mind.

  “Hello,” he muttered.

  “Ramon, is that you?” The voice on the other end of the phone was eager and excited.

  “Yea, who the fuck is this?”

  “Holy shit am I glad to hear your voice. You’re a hard motherfucker to track down, you know that?” He recognized the voice, but had not heard it in a long time. He never expected to hear it again.

  “Gabe?”

  “Who else would have gone through all the trouble of finding your sorry ass? How you been man?”

  Ramon looked around his apartment. It was empty of furniture save for the bed he’d pulled off the curb when he moved in. The closest thing to decoration were the empty beer cans. He couldn’t remember the last night that he could remember. Honestly, it had been a rough year.

  “I’m fine,” he lied.

  “Are you in Miami? I’m in town for a few days, we gotta get together.”

  “I don’t know, I’m a little short on cash right now, and I know how you roll.”

  “What a coincidence,” Gabe said. “I know a job that would be perfect for you.”

  “Yea? Tell me about it”

  “This old school don out in the ‘Glades needs a bodyguard for his daughter. It’s just for two months and pays a fortune. You’ll love it.”

  Ramon groaned. Bodyguard work was basically babysitting with the added fun of the constant threat of violence.

  “Nobody in the world can pay me enough money to nanny some drug lord’s spoiled little kid.”

  “Believe me brother, I know. But this guy’s daughter? She’s not exactly a little kid, if you catch my drift.:

  “Spell it out for me.”

  “Ramon,” Gabe said. “She’s a fox. A babe. A perfect 10. Muy caliente. Are you hearing me now?”

  “You know what, Gabe? Why don’t you take me out to lunch. I think I’d like to hear more.”

  Lena

  “I’m not getting a stupid fucking bodyguard,” Lena Buldova said to her stepfather. “You already have enough braindead henchmen in this house, not even counting Andris and Basil.”

  She glared at her stepbrothers, who returned her look with equal distaste. In their eyes, Lena sat around doing nothing while they worked their asses off for their father, Zeus.

  Zeus ran an “import-export” business, which is how people like him legitimized the traffic of illegal narcotics and weapons across national borders. Lena was only vaguely aware of the family business. Zeus worked hard to keep her in the dark. It was, he said, not a woman’s place. His plans for her were to make her into a capable and desirable bride. One that would one day join his family with another, and in doing so, grow the family business. About this, Zeus made no effort to deceive his step-daughter. No deception was necessary. Lena had grown up in less than glamorous circumstances and had seen the value of marrying up. For a girl that was born in a dirt-floor shack in the swamp, she was living large now.

  “Lena,” her step-father said. “What kind of father would I be if I didn’t protect you? Let me bring in some nice people for you to talk to, and I’ll let you choose which one you want to work with.”

  It seemed like a fair enough compromise, and Lena had long ago learned that once her step-father had made up his mind about something, there was nothing to be done about changing it. That didn’t mean that she couldn’t make her displeasure known, or that she couldn’t negotiate her own terms for the arrangement.
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  “And I tell him what he can and can’t do.”

  “Of course.”

  “And I’m in charge of him. He answers to me, not to you, not to the boys.”

  Zeus hesitated for a moment, but agreed. He had learned that when arguing with his stepdaughter, some degree of pliability was necessary to avoid more dramatic encounters.

  “And when the hell is the pool boy coming? I might as well be swimming in the fucking swamp.” In reality, the Olympic sized swimming pool behind the sprawling Buldova estate was in immaculate condition. The day before, Lena had found a small frog wading in the shallow water of the steps, and had abruptly changed her plans for the afternoon as a result.

  Before Zeus could imagine an appropriate answer, Lena stormed up the stairs towards her room. From the second floor and down a hallway, she informed her stepfather that she was ready for lunch.

  In the kitchen, Michaela was already working hard on the family’s afternoon meal, and five minutes after hearing Lena’s announcement, she pushed a cart of freshly prepared food out into the sitting room for the brothers and Zeus to enjoy. Tia, the other woman who helped around the hose, carried a silver tray of slightly different offerings upstairs to Lena.

  Lena was laying in bed, considering the possible benefits of a live-in bodyguard when there was a soft knock on the door.

  “Go away,” she shouted.

  Tia opened the door and sat down at the foot of Lena’s bed, setting her meal on the nightstand next to her.

  “I’m sorry,” Lena said. “I thought you were someone else.”

  “What’s the matter, picarina? You’re so sad these last few days.”

  Lena groaned and buried her face in her pillow. Tia had take care of her since she was eight, but as Lena remembered it, she had always been a part of her life.

  “Stupid Damien,” she muttered.

  “Did that jackass show up again? I swear to God if I see his face in this house,” Tia made three quick stabbing motions at the air in front of her, and then dragged her fingers across her throat with a look of mock bravado on her face. Lena laughed from deep in her belly. In just over ten years that Lena had known her, she’d never seen Tia hurt anything. Even when creepy crawlies would come inside from the Everglades, Tia would go through great lengths to capture the intruding creature and return it safely to it’s natural habitat. But Tia had seen the way that Damien had treated the girl that she saw as her daughter, and the old woman’s threat was sincere.

  “He just keeps sending me stupid messages. He called me like, ten times yesterday.”

  “Loser. What, he doesn’t have anything better to do?” Tia waved her hand dismissively, hoping that Lena would adopt her own attitude of dismissiveness regarding Damien. “You didn’t answer, did you?”

  Lena’s bright red cheeks betrayed her, but Tia did not scorn or scold.

  “You deserve so much better than that asshole. I hope you know that.”

  “Thanks Tia. It’s not just him, either. Dad’s making me get a bodyguard. What’s the fucking point? All I do is sit around here in this stupid fortress.”

  Tia rubbed Lena’s shoulder reassuringly, then coaxed her to sit up and have her lunch. Every day, she and Michaela prepared Lena’s meals separately, without meat, in spite of Zeus’s protestations.

  “Who knows,” Tia said, flexing and posing like a champion bodybuilder. “Maybe your new bodyguard will be handsome and sexy.”

  Ramon

  Gabe had been right about one thing.

  Lena Buldova was very hot. Or at least her temper was. Ramon heard her before he saw her. While he was waiting in one of the back rooms for his interview, the distinct sounds of a screaming woman came straight through the heavy wooden walls of the mansion that he come to. Entire sentences were impossible to make out, but her tone was clearly angry, and words like “moron” and “troglodyte” jumped out at him. At least it was clear why she needed a bodyguard. A woman with a mouth like that in a place like this was bound to get herself into trouble sooner or later.

  Ramon was a little enamored with his potential employer. He’d always appreciated a woman who wasn’t afraid to make her mind known. But he was about to meet Lena face to face and he wouldn’t be the first man to change his opinion about her after being subjected to ten minutes in a room to her.

  The door to the small office creaked open and an older woman with grey hair and wrinkles that suggested a lifetime of smiling stepped inside.

  “Mr. Sanchez,” she said in a Mexican accent that did not suggest how long she’d lived in Florida. “They are ready to see you now.”

  Ramon got up and followed the woman through the enormous house. She was smaller than her voice would have lead him to believe. She was nearly two heads shorter than him, and she walked at a slow but deliberate pace, reaching out to steady herself on walls and furniture as she passed them.

  Ramon tried to avoid gawking at the finery of the house. It was lavishly equipped, and had been done so at great cost. The true cost of the home was incalculable, as it was paid for by blood and tears as much as dollars and cents. They walked through the kitchen and into another room.

  It was small, cluttered, and poorly lit. It took a moment for Ramon to realize that near the far wall was an enormous wooden desk, and behind it, and enormous man with a magnificent beard and an expensive suit. It did not take him nearly as long to notice a beautiful woman in a modest blue dress leaning on the wall beside him. Her hair was dark and curled softly. It tumbled down over her face, making it impossible to see too much of her expression in the dim light of the room. Ramon saw a sharp nose and cheekbones on olive skin, and thick lips that pressed together in what was clearly a scowl.

  He straightened himself up and offered her a handshake.

  “Ramon Sanchez.”

  The woman made no attempt to take Ramon’s hand, or his introduction.

  “You’ll have to excuse my daughter,” said the huge man. “Her manners seem to have escaped her today.” He stood up and thrust his hand out to Ramon. The grasping tentacles of a huge, faded octopus were tattooed on his fingers, and they converged onto the body of the beast on the back of his wrist.

  “I am Zeus Buldova, and this is my daughter Galena.” Both men shook hands and sat down. “She is in need of a personal protection detail, and I understand you believe yourself to be the right man for that job.”

  The big man spoke with a faded accent. Ramon guessed correctly that it was Greek. He said nothing beyond his introduction, and Ramon looked to Lena and then back at her father before realizing that it was his turn to speak.

  “I wouldn’t be so presumptuous,” he said, “without knowing specifically what is required of me.” Nobody took his bait, so he continued. “But I gather than you have some concerns for Galena’s personal well being, and I do not think it would be too presumptuous to say that I am more than capable of providing you with some assurance in that matter.”

  He spoke as much to Lena as he did to her step-father, guessing that she would have as much say in his hire as her step-father did. More than anything, Ramon surprised himself with the words that came from his lips. It had been a long time since he’d spoken like that, and he no longer fully thought himself to be capable of either such eloquence or speechcraft.

  Zeus nodded with approval, but Lena’s scowl did nothing if not intensify.

  “My daughter’s safety means the world to me, Mr. Sanchez, and you are correct to think that I am concerned for it. I have no specific fears, but there are many people who would benefit from any harm that comes against me, and it is little secret that I could be most profoundly injured through my daughter.”

  The conversation carried on like this for some time, Ramon and Zeus trading off on lofty expositions about their needs and capabilities. Lena listened carefully, but did not make any effort to participate in the exchange until both men had exhausted their seemingly endless breath.

  “Do you have any questions for the man, darling?”<
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  Lena eyed Ramon up and down, looking straight through his borrowed suit and his fake smile. He wondered if she could tell that he didn’t want to be here. He wondered if she knew that he was afraid.

  Lena

  Lena had wondered earlier if the candidates to be her bodyguard could possibly any worse. Ramon Sanchez seemed to be the universe’s sarcastic answer to that question. She didn’t like his stupid jerkoff face or his stupid jerkoff name. She didn’t like the way that he pretended to talk to her father like they won’t both morons. She didn’t like the way that he pretended to care what she thought when he talked to her. His suit was three sizes too big. It looked like he’d borrowed it from his dad. She couldn’t help but noticing how big his arms and chest were, even in spite of the sail he was wearing, and his eyes were easily the most beautiful thing that she’d seen all week. What a shame it was wasted on this gu.

  But all of that was extraneous. Lena could spot a coward from a mile away, and Ramon was big pussy if she’d ever seen one. She’d never had cause to be terribly brave in her life, but she’d seen lots of men swagger in front of her father, only for their courage to break. All of them were eventually reduced to sobbing piles of useless humanity, and every sense that Lena had said that Ramon was imminently on his way to joining that fraternity.

  But she had to give him credit, he was a good pretender. He held his own against Zeus better than most, and even though he was practically shaking by the time it was her turn to talk, he hadn’t lost his mind like the others had. The worst of them had remained resolute throughout their interrogations, clearly oblivious to the truth that sat in front of them. These men should have been afraid but werent. Lena had met a lot of people like that, and they never seemed to get much older than twenty five.

  Lena expected to see fear in the eyes of each candidate. The absence of such was damning proof of idiocy. All the men that came before Ramon had been afraid, but they’d pretended not to be. This moron was scared shitless and didn’t even have the brains to hide it. And Zeus was eating it up. He loved a hireling who was afraid of the big bad boss.