Protecting Lulu (Global Protection Agency) (32 page)

“His
fingerprints were on file.” Lulu frowned trying to figure out how Benny escaped
notice.

“How
often do you check fingerprints?”

“If
an employee works directly with Wilder or I, we do a very extensive background
check. I’m sure Wilder knows everything he needs to know about your
background.”

“I
volunteered everything about myself for him to check out,” Noah said. “Didn’t
you look at the information?”

She
studied him for a moment. He looked tired. She wanted to touch his face to ease
the strain she saw lurking in his eyes. She wanted him to confide in her, to
tell her all about himself. “I’ve been dying of curiosity, but resisted the
urge to check you out. I don’t second guess my brother. I trust him with my
life and he would never hire anyone who would deliberately harm me.”

He
looked up startled. “That isn’t the answer I expected.”

“Why?”

“Because
you’re Lucinda Bennington and you have the power to get whatever you want.”

“Yes,
I do,” she said, leaning toward him. “I know you’re going to volunteer the
information.”

He
chuckled at her, the lines of strain around his mouth easing.

She
waited, hoping he’d open up. She could tell he’d had a lot of tragedy in his
life, but he kept it hidden. Hidden probably even from himself. He didn’t like
anything he couldn’t control. She almost burst out laughing, because she didn’t
either. Her mirth died away at the serious look on his face.

“You
want to know about me?” he asked his voice harsh. “My father was muscle for the
Irish mafia in Boston. When he wasn’t kicking dock workers’ asses, he was
kicking me and my mom around. He got sent away to prison for manslaughter and
my mother ran away with me. She found another man who cared deeply for her and
she married him, gave him two daughters. My father got out of prison, killed my
mother and my step-father then I almost killed him. That’s it. Did I shock
you?”

Lulu
tilted her head. “No.”

“I’m
a killer, Lucinda Bennington.”

“You’re
not a murderer though.”

“I
wanted to murder my father,” Noah said.

“You
didn’t. Why?”

He
looked down at his hands. “My sister, Daisy came in. I was ready to snap his
neck, but I couldn’t do it in front of her.” He clenched his fists with the
strength of the memory.

Lulu
wanted to touch him, to smooth away the anguish on his face. “You stopped
yourself.”

“I
didn’t want to. I wanted to kill that man whose only purpose in life was to
kill other people and hurt my mother.”

“Do
you think I didn’t want to do the same thing to the people who murdered my
parents? I don’t think I’m as charitable as you. If I could, I would use every
means possible to hunt those men down and kill them without even thinking about
the consequences.”

“But
you didn’t.”

“Neither
did you,” she said softly trying to ease the pain inside her as well as inside
him. “Those people are still out there somewhere and I want to find them.”

“To
kill them?”

“Not
anymore. I just want to know why.” She made peace with her parent’s deaths, but
the reason they had to die still haunted her. Had her parents been involved in
something? Or had someone been angry at them for reasons Lulu couldn’t
understand. Were they angry enough to commit murder? She thought about how the
loss of her parents had shaped her life. She’d lost their love, their companionship,
and their influence in her life. Aunt Julia and Grandma Penny had given them
time to grieve. They forced Lulu and Wilder to go on and told them it was okay
to be sad. There had been nobody there for Noah. She thought about how the two
of them had faced similar losses and gone in such different directions. He hid
his pain, she embraced hers.

“What
happened to your sisters?”

“I
don’t know.”

She
paused to think how to phrase her next comment. She slid her hand across the
table to gently touch the back of his. “You never found out what happened to
them? Why not?”

He
didn’t answer right away. She saw the struggle on his face.

“My
father killed their father. They watched me nearly kill a man. Do you think
they needed that in their lives? They had enough to bear.”

“They
knew you were protecting them and had nothing to do with the murders.”

“I’ve
killed a lot of people, Lucinda, from nearby and from a distance. I heard the
last words they would ever say and I couldn’t tell you if they deserved to die
or not. I may have forgotten their faces, but I could still hear their last
breaths and see the looks in their eyes as they died. They looked at me as
though I was a monster. Daisy looked at me as though I was a monster. They
don’t want to see me. They don’t want to remember.”

“You’re
afraid, aren’t you?”

He
gave her an angry glance. “I’m not afraid.”

“I
think you’re wrong.” Lulu ached for him. Not only had he lost his parents, but
two people who he loved more than he knew. “It’s been twenty years and they
have probably put it all in perspective.”

“Don’t
therapist me, Ms. Bennington.” He drew his hand away.

She
could feel him withdrawing, pulling the mask back over his face. He’d revealed
more to her than she expected. “I’m not being a therapist. I’m being a friend.”

“Is
that what we are, Lucinda, friends?” He watched her.

She
blushed under his scrutiny. They were already more than friends. “Even though I
know you are trying to distract me from talking about your past, I’m going to
answer your question. You like me, Noah Callahan.”

“What’s
not to like?”

“In
more than just in a boy-girl way.” She found herself smiling, struggling to
keep her attraction to him under control. He’d turned her life upside down and
seemed to be enjoying it too much.

He
nodded his head in agreement. “So when this is all over, we’re going to have
mani-pedis and do lunch?”

“You’re
not a mani-pedi and lunch friend. I have much more in mind for you, Mr.
Callahan. Much, much more.” She ran a finger over his lips and watched his eyes
go wide.

“Are
we going camping?”

“I
doesn’t camp unless it’s at the Ritz-Carleton. If you want, we can go camping
there.”

“That’s
the problem, I want to,” he replied. He stood and leaned over to kiss her on
the forehead.

She
leaned into the warmth of the kiss enjoying the moment between them. She wanted
more. Much more than a chaste, good-night kiss.

“Good
night, Lucinda,” he said. He left, taking his laptop and the pile of files with
him.

As
she watched him close the door to the backstairs listening to his feet on the
treads, she shook her head. That man was such a tease. He was a bigger tease
than she was. She adored that. She hadn’t had this much fun in a long time. Too
bad someone was trying to kill her.

She
cleared the table of his coffee cup and her tea cup. As she rinsed the dishes,
she realized he’d done exactly as he’d planned. He’d distracted her from his
sisters and she’d allowed it. Lulu was a fixer and she knew she had to find his
sisters. She suspected they were just as worried about him as he was about
them. Somehow, some way she was going to fix this.

Noah
lay on his bed, the lamp on the nightstand throwing light over his hands as he
stared at the photo of his sisters. He couldn’t believe he’d told Lulu about
his father and his sisters. The only other person in the whole world who knew
was Harrison.

The
photo was creased and frayed a bit on the edges. It was starting to fade a bit.
His mother sat on the front porch of their Los Angeles home with Daisy on one
side, Jasmine on the other and his stepfather seated on the ground in front of his
mother. Noah kneeled behind his mother. His new digital camera had come with a
timer, so that he could be in the photo, too. He’d loved his Kodak digital
camera, the first ever with digital technology. Max Callahan had given him the
camera to celebrate being accepted at West Point.

He
remembered that day. California had been cool and slightly cloudy. He’d coaxed
his family onto the front porch for just a few minutes. He remembered Daisy
wanting to help him. At five years old, she was always underfoot wanting to be
with him. She’d been so sweet. Jasmine had only been two and still forming her
personality, but she’d toddle after him and demand a story. Her chubby hands
could barely hold the Dr. Seuss book she loved and demanded it be read to her
over and over again.

Jasmine
had smelled so sweet that day. Like grass and sunshine. His mother had always
smelled like Ivory soap. In the photo she looked so relaxed and happy, so
different from the strained, stressed woman who’d dragged him out of his bed in
the middle of the night and fled west to get away from her abusive husband.

Max
had loved her and he could see the love in his mother’s face as she gazed at
him. The twenty years had gone by so quickly. Jasmine would be twenty-two now
and Daisy twenty-five. He wondered what they had become, what they looked like
now. What were they doing?

Noah
remembered how much he’d come to love Max. Originally, Noah had been difficult.
He hadn’t wanted another man in his mother’s life, but as the years went by he
could see how gentle Max was, how loving. Noah missed them all so much. The
ache in his heart grew until he felt the well of loneliness smothering him,
taking his breath. They had been so alive that day, and the next day they were
gone. Max and Noah’s mother were dead, the family pulled apart because of the
anger of one man who wanted what he considered to be his possessions, his
property back.

Slowly
he folded the photos and put them back in his wallet. Outside in the hall he
heard Gideon checking the house, walking down the hall slowly. Usually Noah
joined him, but not tonight. He wanted to live with his memories. He wanted to
call the Geek because he knew Mark could find them, but he didn’t. The fear of
seeing the look on their faces was too much for him. He’d faced dangers in Iraq
and Afghanistan, but not like this. The dread of seeing the look on their faces
that told him they knew he was a monster was more than he could bear.

He
turned the light off and lay in the dark, closing his eyes. Lulu was right. He
was afraid. He admired her. She admitted her fears, but she kept going, no
matter what challenges stood in her way. He half-smiled. Lulu was an amazing
woman and Noah had to admit, he loved her. The feelings had been growing in
him, half-formed. But tonight as she talked to him, listening to him admit his
mistakes, he’d known he loved her.

He
loved the way she embraced life. He loved her kindness and he adored her
arrogance. She had no shame, nor a sense of guilt. He was completely fascinated
by her vanity, because he had none. He had the basics in his life—three suits,
underwear, three pairs of shoes for business and a pair of combat boots and
fatigues for the woods because he liked to camp.

He
loved the exotic way she smelled, the softness of her skin. He loved the way
her clothes hugged her curves. She was damn hot and sexy. Just thinking about
her made him want to open his door, walk to her room and crawl into her bed.

Instead
he turned on his side and closed his eyes.

Lulu
stood on a small stool while the seamstress walked around her slowly, stopping
a time or two to twitch the skirt into position. Lulu admired herself in the
mirror. The black strapless Versace gown clung to her as she stood perfectly
straight, her hair pulled back from her face into a pony tail to keep it out of
the way. The bustier bodice cinched in her waist and the long slit on one side
showed just enough leg to make her feel sexy but not slutty. The girls looked like
perfect cream puffs peeking over the top of the bustier. She couldn’t wait for
Noah to see her in this dress.

Aiden
hovered around her while E.J. stayed out of the way, looking not quite bored.

Aiden
clapped his hands. “Perfect. You are going to be a hit at the charity ball. I
deserve a raise for this.”

“You’re
already the best paid personal assistant on the planet. How about I just buy
you a house in the Hamptons?”

“Then
you’d have to build me a helipad because you know how I hate to drive those
windy little roads,” Aiden retorted as he moved around her his critical eye,
taking in every detail about the dress.

The
seamstress tugged a bit at the bodice. She mumbled something around the pins
stuck in her mouth. Lulu nodded. “Aiden has my shoes and the jewels.”

“How
do you know what she’s saying?” E.J. asked from her position across the room.

“Emily
and I have worked together for years. I know every mumble.”

E.J.
laughed. Aiden positioned a briefcase on a table and opened it. He pulled out a
velvet case. Inside was a pink diamond necklace nestled against the material.

“Why
did you bring those? I thought we decided on rubies.”