Close Quarters With the Bodyguard

by Lisa Childs

  She didn’t want to lose Landon. But it was better to lose him as a lover than for him to lose his life. Just as she’d struggled after her grandparents’ murders, she would struggle after Landon’s—struggle with living in a world without him. He might hate her, but she wouldn’t care as long as he was safe.

  She pulled open the door and stepped out.

  “Who was that?” Landon asked. He’d pulled on his jeans but left them unbuttoned and riding low on his lean hips. He was so damn good-looking it wasn’t fair—not to Jocelyn’s furiously pounding heart.

  She wanted him again. But she loved him too much to keep putting him in danger. She replied, “Judge Holmes.”

  “Is Tyce okay?” he asked.

  She nodded. “Yes. He and Bella are going out of the country, so nobody can get to her during the trial. The judge has also managed to move up the trial date.”

  Landon gasped. “Why would he do that?”

  She suspected that it was for the same reason she was happy that he had. “So all this will be over soon.”

  “It’s too dangerous,” Landon said, as he had just a short time ago.

  She agreed, but instead, she shook her head. “It’s smart. We need to get Luther convicted and sentenced to a high-security prison with guards who will hopefully do him no special favors.”

  She hadn’t figured out yet which ones were helping him, but she and the chief would. Woodrow Lynch was as determined to stop Luther as she was.

  “You don’t need to have any part in this,” Landon said. “You can let someone else do this.”

  “The only person I would trust to try Luther besides me is off on maternity leave,” she reminded him. “I have to do this.”

  He drew in a deep breath. “Okay, then I’ll do everything in my power to keep you safe.”

  That was her greatest fear. She shook her head. “I don’t think that’s a good idea,” she said.

  His brow furrowed. “What?”

  “Your protecting me,” she said.

  “Why not?”

  She gestured at the bed with the sheets tangled from their lovemaking. “We crossed a line, Landon.”

  “We did more than that,” he said, and he moved closer, his arms outstretched for her.

  But she stepped back. He could not touch her. If he did, she might not stick with her plan. “No.” She shook her head. “We didn’t.”

  “What are you saying?”

  “That being with you was a good distraction from worrying about the case,” she said. “But that’s all it was. And now I can’t afford any distractions.”

  He snorted. “Just a distraction...”

  Maybe he knew her better than she’d realized now. Maybe he already knew how she felt about him, that she loved him.

  She turned away from him, so he wouldn’t see the longing on her face. And hopefully he would think she was dismissing him and what they’d shared. She opened her closet door and peered inside, but she couldn’t see any of the clothes hanging from the rods because tears were blurring her vision.

  She kept her voice clear and sharp, though, when she replied, “Yes. You must know you and I have no future together.” And they wouldn’t, if he died. But she forced herself to sound haughty and snobbish and added, “My parents would never approve of my involvement with a bodyguard.”

  She silently apologized for misrepresenting the people who’d raised her. They were not snobs. They didn’t care what anyone did for a living as long as they were a good person. And they didn’t come any better than Landon.

  Her parents would love him...just like she loved him.

  He sucked in a breath, though. “I didn’t realize I wasn’t good enough for you.”

  He was too good; that was why she had to let him go. She forced herself to turn back to him and look down her nose at him. “Come on, Landon. You see where I live.” She gestured at the massive master bedroom. “You see how hard I work. I have big aspirations.”

  For law and order—nothing else.

  “I don’t have room in my life for someone like you,” she continued coldly.

  A muscle twitched in his cheek just above his rigidly clenched jaw. “No,” he agreed. “You don’t.”

  That was what she’d wanted—to make him angry, to hurt him, so that he would give up his assignment. But she felt a twinge of pain for causing him pain.

  She loved him so much...that she hated hurting him. But it was better than getting him killed.

  “Good,” she said. “Then you agree that I need to have another bodyguard for the duration of the trial.”

  He nodded. “We agree,” he said. “You don’t need me.” He walked out of the bedroom with a finality that had panic flashing through her.

  Would she see him again? Was he leaving now? Without even really saying goodbye...

  But then, she’d already said it all—cruelly. And she knew that he would probably never forgive her.

  Chapter 22

  She was never going to forgive him. But she’d left Landon no choice. He needed to save her life, and since she didn’t want him as her bodyguard, that left him only one option: to make sure she was not able to prosecute Luther Mills.

  If she wasn’t threatening his freedom, then Luther would have no reason to want her dead. She would be safe.

  Safe but furious.

  Did it matter, though? If he believed what she’d just told him, then he had no chance of a future with her anyway. But he wasn’t entirely sure that he believed what she’d told him...or if she’d only been trying to make him mad enough to quit his assignment.

  Something she almost confirmed when she descended the stairs and remarked, “I’m surprised you’re still here.”

  She’d expected him to run off in anger. Maybe she’d been counting on it.

  “I wouldn’t leave you unprotected,” he said. He was too well aware of what had happened the last time she’d taken off alone. Even though she’d looped a scarf around her neck, he could still see a bit of the bruise from her nearly being strangled to death.

  How had she not learned how vulnerable she was from that experience?

  She moved her hand to the bright-patterned scarf, pulling it up enough that it covered the bruise. “Is Parker sending over someone else?” she asked, and she sounded impatient, as if she couldn’t wait for him to be gone.

  Before he could answer, the doorbell rang. And she breathed a sigh of relief, probably thinking his replacement had arrived. She would not be happy when she saw whom he’d called and figured out why.

  But he would do anything to protect her, even if she hated him for the rest of their lives over what he’d done.

  “It’s Dubridge,” a deep voice called through the door as Landon walked toward it.

  “Are you and Keeli switching assignments?” Jocelyn asked almost hopefully.

  Keeli was a damn good bodyguard, but Landon didn’t trust her to protect Jocelyn any more than he trusted himself right now. Luther was entirely too dangerous. The only way the bodyguards had been able to protect their principals from harm had been to take them away where Luther would not be able to find them.

  But Jocelyn refused to leave River City. She refused to give up the case. So Luther would know right where to find her: the courthouse.

  Or her office as she prepared for the trial. He had no doubt that was where she was heading now. But she wouldn’t get there. He unlocked and opened the door, stepping back to let Dubridge and Keeli walk past him.

  They both looked at him as they passed. Dubridge appeared skeptical. Keeli looked triumphant and sympathetic at the same time. She reached out and squeezed Landon’s hand as she passed him. And both Jocelyn and Dubridge noticed and narrowed their eyes as if jealous.

  Which was funny since Jocelyn had said she cared only about her career and all Dubridge had done was give Ke
eli grief since she’d been assigned the job of his bodyguard.

  “You have to be wrong,” Detective Dubridge told Landon.

  “No, he’s right,” Jocelyn said. “I want a different bodyguard. It’s for the best.”

  “Why?” Keeli asked. “Because he figured out what you’ve been up to?”

  Jocelyn’s brow furrowed with confusion. “What?”

  Landon quickly glanced away from her, though. He couldn’t look at her when he did this. So he focused on the detective. “The evidence is in the briefcase,” he said. Fortunately, she hadn’t had time to close it yet, so the phone and pill bottle were easily visible.

  “You called him about that?” Jocelyn asked. “I was going to bring it to him.”

  Landon shook his head. “No. You weren’t.” But he was talking to Dubridge instead of her. “If I hadn’t heard the text Luther sent her, I wouldn’t have found it.”

  Keeli sucked in a breath. “Luther sent her a text?”

  Landon nodded. “Thanking her for tipping him off about Tyce finding the judge’s daughter.”

  Dubridge cursed.

  But Keeli cursed louder and lunged toward Jocelyn. Landon stepped between them. He was trying to protect Jocelyn—not put her in more physical danger.

  “How could you!” Keeli shouted. “He could have died.”

  “I didn’t purposely tip him off,” Jocelyn defended herself.

  But it was too late. Dubridge was inspecting the phone and the pill bottle. “She drugged the backup bodyguards,” he murmured. “But why...?”

  “To get rid of Landon,” Keeli replied. “Just like she tried getting rid of Tyce. She’s trying to get us all killed—it’s part of her and Luther’s plan.”

  Jocelyn gasped in outrage. “I am not working with Luther Mills.”

  But Dubridge just shook his head and pulled his handcuffs off the clip on his belt. “I have to bring you in, Jocelyn.”

  “This is ridiculous,” she insisted. “I can explain the phone and the pill bottle. Someone planted them in my filing cabinet in my office.”

  “A locked office,” Landon said, and he shook his head as if he didn’t believe her. “And she only claimed that after I found the items in her briefcase.”

  “You don’t believe her?” Dubridge asked, and he focused his dark gaze on Landon now.

  He didn’t want to lie. But he had to—to keep her safe and alive. He shook his head. “No. I don’t.”

  A cry slipped through her lips, as if he’d slapped her. And maybe he had—emotionally instead of physically. “I can’t believe you’re doing this,” she said. “I don’t understand.”

  “I couldn’t let you get away with it,” he said.

  She cursed him. “How could you! You know I hate Luther as much as you do. That I want to bring him to justice!”

  Dubridge linked her arms behind her back and snapped the cuffs around her wrists.

  And both she and Landon flinched. He didn’t want her hurt. He hadn’t thought Dubridge would actually lead her away in handcuffs. But that was the kind of cop he was: by the book. The kind of cop Landon had been.

  Shame flashed through him that he’d caused her arrest when he knew the truth. But finding those items in her briefcase looked bad for her.

  “What are you doing?” she asked. “You’re going to screw up the whole case against Luther. You’re going to delay the trial and get another ADA assigned to it.” Then the color drained from her face, leaving her eyes wide and bright. “You’re the one working for him. You must be. You’re trying to get me taken off the case.”

  He wasn’t working for Luther. He was working for her—to keep her safe. But just like he’d had his doubts about her when he’d first found those things in her briefcase, she clearly still had doubts about him.

  No matter how much he cared about her—even loved her—he realized she was right. They could never have a relationship, and not just because she claimed he wasn’t good enough for her, but because they couldn’t completely trust each other.

  And now, after what he’d done, he realized he’d destroyed that trust even more as well as what—if any—chance he’d had for a future with her.

  But at least she would have a future—if she was taken off the case. Luther Mills would have no reason to kill her now.

  Now Landon was the one in danger, though, because as Detective Dubridge led her away in handcuffs, Jocelyn looked as though she wanted to kill Landon.

  She’s a lawyer, Landon had warned Dubridge before he closed the door and locked Jocelyn into the back of his department-issued sedan. She’s good at presenting arguments, so don’t let her get to you.

  She’d glared at him then—like she glared at him now as he sat in on the meeting she’d convinced Dubridge to call with the chief and the district attorney and Parker Payne. Fortunately for her, the detective had listened.

  “You let her get to you,” Landon remarked to Dubridge.

  The detective shook his head. “I think you’re the one she got to.”

  No. Landon had gotten to her, had gotten her to trust him. Then he’d betrayed her. He could have destroyed her had she not convinced the detective to take off the cuffs and hold off on booking her until he spoke to the others.

  With the cuffs off, she was able to pull down her scarf. “If I’m working for Luther, why would he have tried so many times to have me killed?” she asked. She pointed to the bruise on her throat. “This happened just as I found that stuff—” she gestured toward where the bottle and phone sat on the chief’s desk “—in my filing cabinet. Someone had planted it there, and then they nearly killed me.”

  If not for Landon, she would have died. How could he save her one moment and then betray her the next? Her heart ached with pain so intense she wanted to double over and wrap her arms around herself. But she would not let him affect her. So she lifted her chin with pride and met the gaze of everyone in the room but him.

  She couldn’t look at him, not without her heart breaking over his betrayal.

  Amber Talsma-Kozminski rose slowly from her chair and walked over to Jocelyn. She pulled her into a hug. “I’m so glad you’re all right.”

  “Why didn’t you tell anyone about that attack?” the chief asked. But he was addressing Landon—not her.

  She answered, though. “I didn’t know who to trust then. I’d just found out that Tyce Jackson is Luther’s brother.”

  “You were wrong about him,” Keeli remarked.

  “He is Luther’s brother,” Parker said.

  “But I was wrong that Tyce was working with him,” Jocelyn admitted. “And you’re all wrong if you think I’m working with him.” She glanced at Landon then. But he was looking away from her. And she knew that, while he’d initially had doubts about her when he’d found that phone in her briefcase, he didn’t still believe she was working with Luther Mills.

  So why had he tried to convince the detective that she was?

  Amber squeezed her shoulders and assured her, “I don’t think that. You’re trying this case because you’re the one I trust the most. I know nothing and nobody will prevent you from doing your best.”

  Nothing and nobody would. Not Luther Mills and not Landon Myers.

  “Thank you,” Jocelyn said, “for believing in me.”

  Amber turned toward the chief. “I do believe in her,” she said. “And I will not bring any charges against her.”

  “She didn’t report her assault. She held on to evidence,” Detective Dubridge interjected.

  The chief looked at him and then at Keeli. “Have both of you reported everything that’s been happening?”

  Keeli’s face flushed a bright red. And Dubridge looked down.

  What the hell had been going on with them?

  The chief turned back to Jocelyn. He was beginning to show his age with a few more
lines in his face and dark circles beneath his eyes. “I know you’re not the leak in your office,” he assured Jocelyn. “I know you’re the best ADA to prosecute Luther Mills.”

  She released the breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. She hadn’t wanted to admit to herself how scared she’d been that someone might think her guilty of conspiring with a monster like Luther Mills.

  But she knew now that she had been sleeping with the enemy. Landon had proved to be her enemy.

  “Then I better get back to work,” she told him, “so I can do my job.” She turned toward the door and faced Landon. She saw no regret or remorse on his face. He wasn’t sorry for having made her look guilty to the others.

  And all that love she’d thought she’d felt for him turned to loathing. “I hate you,” she whispered as she passed him on her way to the door. But before she could escape that room, the chief called her back.

  “Please, stay a few more moments,” he implored her.

  Did he actually believe her? Or did he only want to interrogate her alone? Because he dismissed everybody else—politely—one by one until only he, she and Parker Payne remained in the chief’s office.

  She braced herself for an inquisition. But what she got instead had her furiously blinking back tears.

  Parker knew an apology was not enough. So he wasn’t surprised that Jocelyn Gerber didn’t accept it. She just turned away from him, as if unable to look at him. He understood. He had to force himself to look at the chief as he apologized to him, as well.

  “I’m sorry,” he said. “I thought my team could be professional.”

  “I hired you and your team because I knew it was personal,” the chief replied. “And that because it was personal, you’d all do your best.”

  Guilt weighed heavily on Parker’s shoulders, though, compounded when he noticed Jocelyn’s shoulders shaking slightly. She hadn’t turned away out of disgust; she’d turned away to hide her tears.