Protecting Lulu (Global Protection Agency) (13 page)

A
tear slipped down Aiden’s cheek. “Lulu, I--”

 “Go
up to legal and make sure everything is taken care of for Maria. And switch
tomorrow’s show to Studio Two. I don’t care how much overtime the crew will
need to make the change.”

Aiden
sprinted ahead of her. Noah supported her. “Is he going to be okay?”

Lulu
nodded. “As long as he’s occupied.”

The
harder she leaned the tighter his grip. He could feel her trembling and knew
she was close to her own emotional breakdown.

The
clinic was a large rectangular room with curtain partitions. Each partition had
a bed. He figured accidents happened all the time. He saw one bed already
occupied by the woman who’d been injured. The nurse was taking the woman’s
vitals. Another bed held a man who looked to be asleep.

Noah
helped her into a private room that the nurse led him to. Dr. Burns said he’d
be with her in a few minutes. Noah eased Lulu down on the bed and she sat
looking pale and drained.

“Would
you close the door and lock it, please,” Lulu asked, her voice quivering.

Noah
did as she asked and when he turned back, he saw tears building in her eyes and
then a huge sob erupted. Noah sat down next to her and pulled her into his
arms.

He
breathed in the clean scent of her hair. She fit against him as though made for
him. He stroked her back. “Everything is going to be okay,” he said gently.

Her
sobs continued. A part of him enjoyed the sensation of holding her. He never
thought he’d ever find himself comforting a woman. He liked the way she clung
to him, the way her hand gripped his, the way her perfume clung to her. He
hadn’t held a woman like this since his sister Daisy skinned her knee. He
didn’t feel the least bit uncomfortable and surprise flooded him. He wanted the
moment to go on and on.

The
door handle jingled. Then pounding sounded. “Lulu, its Wilder. Let me in.”

“Let
him in.” Lulu’s head dropped back. “I don’t have to put on a happy face for my
brother.”

Noah
opened the door and Wilder catapulted in. He righted himself. “Are you all
right?” He sat down next to her bed.

“I’m
fine. If not for Mr. Callahan, I’d be…I don’t want to think about what I’d be.”

Wilder
pinned Noah with an angry glare. “What the hell is going on?”

“The
stalker is getting serious.” Noah ran a hand through his hair. He noticed wet
spots on his the lapel of his jacket. His arms ached to hold Lulu. Her tears
were almost too much for him to stomach. His need to comfort overtook him
again, but he resisted the urge to sit down. Wilder didn’t need any competition
right now.

“I
think you need to get away,” Wilder pleaded. “Take a holiday. Go to London for
a few weeks. I’ll call the staff and have them get the house ready. Or go to
our estate in France. Go to the Hamptons. Go somewhere. Be somewhere other than
here.”

“Go
to the Hamptons in the winter time!” Lulu said. “I can’t leave. I have the charity
ball, a movie premiere and a show to shoot. What about fashion week? My new
line is too important to abandon my responsibilities. Would you leave? Too many
people depend on us, Wilder.”

“Someone
isn’t trying to kill me.”

“I’m
not some scared little rabbit who turns tail when it sees a fox.”

“The
scared little rabbit lives for another day.”

Anger
filled Lulu’s face. She pushed her brother away. “Do you know how many people
are being stalked in this country? Thousands. I have the ability and the means to
fight back. I’m not just fighting for me, I’m fighting for all the other people
in this world who are in the same position I am. When this is all over, I’m going
to Washington D.C. to get the stalker laws changed. We are Benningtons and
Benningtons do not run away. We had to once because we were children, we’re
adults now. We’re not running away again.”

Wilder
leapt to his feet, his face a mask of anger and a haunting fear. The look in
his eyes made Noah think Wilder was hurt by her last statement. “That will make
a nice epitaph,” Wilder shouted at her. He stormed out, slamming the door so
hard the wall shook.

Wilder
stormed out of the clinic and down the hall to the elevator. People got out of his
way. He stepped into the elevator and went back to his office. Sylvia stood in
front of his office door with his coat and hat. She handed them to him. “Go
home.”

“Excuse
me,” he replied.

“You’re
done for the day. There isn’t anything I can’t delegate. Go home. You need some
time away.”

“Did
Lulu call you?”

She
shook her head. “You need to ask?”

He
glared at her, but didn’t refuse. He took his hat and coat, and then hurried to
the elevator. Once inside, he loosened his tie and stuffed it in his pocket. He
slipped on his camel hair coat and positioned his hat. When the elevator doors
opened to the foyer, he nodded at a few people and then stalked outside into
the cold January air.

He
stood on the curb searching for a cab when he felt a hand slide around his
elbow. He glanced down at E. J.

“You
need a drink.” She belted her gray coat and wound a pink scarf around her neck.

 “What
are you doing here?” he asked.

“Until
all this is sorted out, someone will be keeping you company. Today, I drew the
short straw.”

Wilder
pulled the lapels of his coat. “What are you going to do? You’re about five
nothing. All you’ll stop is a gust of wind.”

A
cab stopped and E. J. opened the door and shoved Wilder inside. She piled in
after him. “I’m five foot three. Be nice. Don’t make me show you my skills.”

“Are
you going to pick my pocket?”

She
smiled as she handed his wallet. “You busted me.”

He
stared at the wallet in her tiny hand. He didn’t feel anything. “You took my
wallet in less than ten seconds.”

“Another
five and I would have had your watch.” She leaned toward the shield that kept
the driver separate from the back seat. “Flannigan’s Pub in the Village.”

The
driver took off.

Wilder
settled back against the seat. “Are you old enough to drink?”

“You
realize that if something happens, I’m supposed to take a bullet for you. You
might try to be less insulting.”

Wilder’s
eyebrows rose. As bold as Sylvia could be, not even she talked to him like this.

After
ten minutes the cab let them off in front of a building painted brown with fake
flowers nested in plastic pots. Inside a large bar ran the length of one wall. A
large, burly man stood behind the bar watching them.

“Two
whiskeys, a diet Coke, and two burgers with the works,” E.J. said as she passed
the bartender. She led Wilder to a shadowed booth in a dark corner. He took his
coat and hat off before sliding onto the bench. E.J. did the same, unwinding
her scarf from her neck, removing her hat and unbuttoning her coat. Underneath
the coat she wore a red cardigan.

A
minute later the bartender set two shots of whiskey down on the table and the
diet Coke in front of E.J. E.J. pushed the second shot over to Wilder and took
a sip of her soda.

“Can’t
handle your liquor?” Wilder eyed her soda. He really didn’t trust anyone who
didn’t drink.

 “I’m
on duty.”

“So…what
does E.J. stand for?” He took a sip of the whiskey. The warmth flooded his
body. For a moment, he forgot his anger at Lulu.

“For
E.J.,” she replied.

“You’re
good, but you’re lying to me.”

She
turned gave him an innocent look. “What do you think E.J. stands for? She
continued to sip her soda while he downed the rest of the shot and slid his
hand over to the second one.

“Elizabeth
Jane,” he said.

“Nope.”

“Eliza
June.”

“No.”
Her blue eyes twinkled. “You’ll never guess.”

“What
would you give me if I did?”

She
reached into her pocket and handed him a dollar. “A dollar.”

“Not
worth my time.”

“What
would be worth your time?” She popped a shelled peanut into her mouth.

“I’ll
have to think about that.” He grinned at her.

“Okay,
you think and I’ll think and maybe we’ll come up with something.”

A
friendly silence fell between them. Wilder found himself studying her.

She
glanced up at him. “Do you want to talk about it or sit here and drink?”

He
wanted to brood, drink and generally be angry at Lulu. He appreciated E.J. giving
him options. “Let’s just play it by ear.”

Lulu’s
words had stung even though he knew she was right. The weight of her words
pulled him down. At the time, getting out of the house had been their only
option. Only afterward had he been told that his mother had put up quite a
fight to give him and Lulu a chance to escape.

The
memory of their parent’s murders would always haunt him. He remembered the
sound of the gunshots, his mother’s screams and his father’s cries of pain. Wilder
himself had been shot in the leg as he’d scrambled out a window pushing Lulu
ahead of him.

He
drank the second shot. The strong liquid burned the inside of his mouth and
seared his throat. Lulu had pulled him into the lake. The water had been deadly
cold, but had probably saved him from bleeding to death. The swim had been a
nightmare but Lulu had tugged him along even as he fought her. He’d wanted to
go back to get their parents, but she wouldn’t let him. He realized she had
been beyond scared and not until they’d arrived at their grandparent’s boat
dock did he realize how scared she’d been.

The
bartender brought their burgers along with another whiskey for Wilder and a
second diet coke for E.J. She watched him thoughtfully.

“Do
you need to talk?” she asked.

He
gazed at her. “Are you the therapist bodyguard?”

“No,
but it seemed like something I should say, being a chick and all.”

Suddenly
he grinned at her. “You’re compassion astounds me.”

She
shrugged. “I’m good like that.”

“I
want to sit here and drink. I want to forget.”

“We’re
going to catch this guy.”

“Thanks
for the pep talk.” They could catch this guy, but he could still lose Lulu. Deep
down he wasn’t sure he’d survive that.

“Consider
it part of the service,” she replied with a grin.

He
settled back against the vinyl seat, his mind drifting back. He closed his eyes
remembering the deadly coldness of the lake and the way Lulu pulled him through
the water. He was never sure how she got them both across the lake. Maybe it
was a testament to her iron will. “Why does Callahan need a thief?”

“Body
guarding isn’t all we do. But then you already know that, Mr. Bennington.”

Studying
her for a second, he pictured her in a black cat suit leaping over a roof top. “Have
you stolen anything interesting?” he asked, curiously.

“A
few things.”

“Like
what?”

“I
can’t tell you that, Mr. Bennington.” She leaned her chin on a balled fist.

God
this woman was a lot of work. Why he found that exciting was beyond him. “Elsa
Joanne.”

“We’re
back to that. No.” She tilted her head at him, her eyes sparkling.

“Have
you thought about payment if I guess correctly?”

“Figure
it out and I’ll let you see me naked.”

Surprised,
he stared at her. “I’m might not stop with just looking.”

“Fair
enough.” She finished eating her hamburger. Delicately she wiped her fingers on
the napkin.

Wilder
stared at her hands. The fingers were long and delicate with her nails
unadorned by polish or any of the other embellishments women tended to use. He
found that he liked her more and more. The idea that something more could
happen heated his blood.

“You
shouldn’t have said what that to him,” Noah told Lulu.

“I
know, but I’m so angry.” She clenched her fist. “I’m not letting this person
win. Is that wrong?”

“All
things considered and you being all girly, I think you would have made a hell
of a soldier.”

“We’d
have to redesign the uniforms. I’m doing it again aren’t I? Making a joke when
this isn’t joking matter.” Lulu started crying again.

Noah
sat, his arms sliding around her again and pulled her to rest against him. “That’s
how you deal.”

“I
didn’t mean it. I know Wilder wants to protect me. I don’t want to die, but I
don’t want to live in fear. You made a promise that nothing would happen to me
and you would catch this person. I trust you to keep your promise.”

Noah
brushed his lips across her forehead. He closed his eyes, inhaling the
sweetness of her perfume and gently caressing her arm.