Protecting Lulu (Global Protection Agency) (36 page)

“I
don’t know whether to be hurt or overjoyed.” Lulu had finally met her match.

“Don’t
be hurt, sweetie,” she said, “I just don’t know what’s going to happen next. He
hides it well, but I think he’s mortified we slept together. He has some
unbroken rule about not being involved with a client. And last night he broke
that rule.”

Aiden
thought about her statement and what he knew about Noah. “Lulu, if it helps, I
doubt he would have broken his rule if he didn’t have some very deep feelings
for you, too. He’s not the kind of man who would do something thoughtlessly or
needlessly. Last night had meaning for him, too.”

Lulu
didn’t look cheered. Instead she turned back to the door and opened it. She
stepped out without looking back to see if Aiden followed.

Aiden
waited a moment, half-frowning. Then shrugged and followed after Lulu. He would
never understand hetro-love.

Lulu
entered the dining room. Noah already sat at the end of the long table, the
morning’s newspaper spread out in front of him. “We made the front page.”

“What
rag are you reading?” She could see it wasn’t a Bennington newspaper.

“New
York Times is not a rag,” he replied, reaching for the coffee pot to refill his
cup. He held up the front page. She leaned forward to see E.J. kneeling next to
Ian while a paramedic worked on him. Next to that was a glamour photo of Lulu.

“You’d
think with the war in Afghanistan and the economy, the editor would find
something else to put on the front page.” The headline read,
Street Shooting
At Prominent Citizen’s Home.
Lulu tried not the cringe.

“You’re
news, Lucinda,” Noah said.

“I
only want to be news when I want to be news,” she retorted turning to the
buffet and picking up a plate. The sensual smells of maple syrup, bacon and
sausage rose to greet her. Her stomach rumbled.

“You
haven’t looked out the window this morning, have you?” Noah said.

She
bit her bottom lip, not ready to face the press. “Do I want to?”

“A
hundred reporters are camping on the street waiting for a glimpse of you.”

“You’d
better have the car brought round to the back. I have too much to do today to
spent time shoving reporters away from me.”

Noah
chuckled.

She
filled her plate, poured coffee into a cup and sat down near him.

Silence
fell between them as Noah continued to read the newspaper, the paper rustling
as he turned the page. Lulu fell back to eating, ignoring the pull of desire
she felt for him. Were they back to business as usual?

“It
can’t happen again,” he finally said, glancing up from the newspaper.

She
raised one eyebrow. “You’re just upset because you didn’t think we’d sleep
together this soon.”

“Lucinda,”
he said.

She
held up her hand. “Let’s be honest with each other. We both knew this was going
to happen from the beginning, we just didn’t know the time or the place. Now
that it has, it’s out of the way and we can go on with our lives. And you’re
upset because I made the choice and you didn’t.” She patted his hand. “Noah,
women are always in charge of sex in a relationship. If I say we’re going to
have more sex and more often, we’re going to.”

He
didn’t say anything. She couldn’t tell if he was stunned, wisely staying quiet
and just holding in the rage.

“That’s
just the way it’s going to be.” She finished the last bit of eggs on her plate
and sipped the last of her coffee. “It’s time to get started. We have a long
day ahead and I would like to take time to see Ian later this afternoon. I owe
all of you my life.”

“Does
that mean I can convince you to leave the city for a while?” Noah asked
hopefully.

“If
this isn’t concluded by the time the charity ball is over, then I will go away.
Maybe we can take a week or two and head to the Cayman’s, or maybe even
Martinique for a little rest and relaxation. See, I’m even giving up Fashion
Week to make you happy.”

“I’m
willing to give blood to keep you safe.”

“Good,
that makes us even, then,” she retorted, the sight of Ian’s blood suddenly
appearing in her memory. She’d dreamt all night about Ian’s blood staining her
hands, her clothes. Then her parents’ dead bodies had superimposed themselves
over Ian’s body and she’d relived that horror as well. Though she’d tried to
wake herself up, the dream had kept a lock on her even with Noah’s warm body
next to her. Would she never get over her parent’s murder?

Wilder
walked in, looking tired with dark circles that matched Lulu’s.

“Oh,
look,” she said to Noah, “you have reinforcements.”

Wilder
reached for the coffee pot. “How are you doing?” he asked Lulu. He set the pot
down and leaned over to kiss her on the forehead.

“What?”
she said in surprise. “No yelling, no screaming, no attempts to make me feel
guilty?”

He
filled a plate with scrambled eggs, bacon and a piece of toast. He sat down at
the table and proceeded to slather butter and jam over the toast. “Would it
help if I did?”

She
looked down at her empty plate. She didn’t remember even eating much less
finishing everything. She didn’t respond.

“I
think we have our answer.” Noah reached for the coffee pot and poured himself a
fresh cup. “If it makes you feel any better, she agreed to leave the city once
the charity ball is concluded.”

Wilder
perked up. “About time.” He picked up his fork and then sat there staring at
his food. Finally he replaced the fork on the table next to the plate and looked
at Lulu. “Thank you, Lulu; you’ll make my life so much easier.”

She
patted his hand. “I’m going to ignore that little edge of sarcasm, just because
I know you adore me.”

“Don’t
ignore it.” Wilder ran a hand through his hair.

“If
you were me, would you abandon everything?” Lulu said, tired of the argument. “Yes,
I could run away, but who’s to say the stalker won’t take out his rage on you
or Aunt Julia or my friends? He’s shown he can get to me anywhere.”

“I’m
sorry Lulu, for thinking of you.”

She
glanced at Noah and he mouthed the word
Ouch
to her.

“You’ve
made your point,” she said to her brother. “I’ve already agreed to leave New
York and go somewhere safer.” A part of Lulu hated that Wilder and Noah had
gotten the better of her. She truly hated that the stalker was getting the
better of her. She didn’t want to run to stay safe. She wanted to confront him,
to ask him why, to ask him what she had done to him? The answers probably
wouldn’t make sense. Stalking didn’t make sense, but people did it anyway.

“We
could sit here all day and throw daggers at each other, but I have things to
do, especially if I’m going on an unplanned vacation.” And she needed to talk
to her PR people to see how they could spin this. Her gaze rested on the
newspaper, she was front page news, above the fold. She hated being news when
she wasn’t in control of what was said.

Noah’s
phone rang. He answered, listened for a few seconds, and then said, “I’ll have
her there in a half hour.” He disconnected and looked at Lulu. “That was John.
He wants you stop by the station this morning to give your statement.”

“I
didn’t really see anything,” she said.

“Then
tell him that.” Noah folded up the newspaper and then stood. “Aiden says you
have a busy schedule today, we may as well get started.”

“I’ll
call my attorney and have him meet us there.” Lulu pushed back from the table
already weary. When would this end?

Mark
sat hunched over his computer while Aiden watched him. Aiden pushed a mug of
coffee at Mark and then sat down. He’d brought fresh coffee and bags of chips
for Mark who tended to forget to eat when he was on the trail of something
interesting.

One
wall had a series of photos and bits of paper stuck to it. Aiden studied it for
a moment not understanding the purpose of the photos.

The
conference table was littered with laptop computers, papers strewn haphazardly
and a couple of iPads.

“What
are you working on?” Aiden asked curiously.

Mark
looked up, his gaze slightly unfocused. “I’m tracking Benny through the foster
care system in Chicago. How is Lulu?”

“She
thinks she’s holding it together.”

“She
has Noah to hold her hand.”

“And
she’s had Noah,” Aiden said. “Can you believe Harrison won again?”

 “He
knows Noah better than anybody.”

“Are
there any dirty secrets about Noah, I should know?” Aiden prompted.

Mark
grinned. “Noah has racked up lots of secrets. He was in covert operations for
ten years doing things we don’t like to talk about.”

“Do
you know anything?”

“I
know lots, but one thing I do know is that Noah’s secrets are his secrets.”

“But
you can hack into anything.”

“I
can hack into anything, but that doesn’t mean Noah has reported everything that
happened to him on a mission. And some things I chose not to hack into. One
thing Special Forces guys pride themselves in is their loyalty to each other. The
same way you’re loyal to Lulu.”

“So
this means you’re not going to hack into Noah’s background information for me,
are you?” Aiden sat back holding his mug of coffee cupped in his hands. Being
loyal to Lulu was easy. Lulu was so transparent; she couldn’t keep a secret if
her life depended on it. Aiden could intuit them all just by looking at her.

“Pretty
much. If I go all covert on him, there will be pain, and not the fun kind.” Mark
jiggled his eyebrows.

Aiden
almost blushed, time to change the subject. “Can you tell me about Benny?”

“Benjamin
Nelson McKenzie was found abandoned when he was around four years old. He was
already a problem. Once in foster care he was bounced from one family to the
next, never fitting in and being a general troublemaker. I’ve talked to about
half the foster parents I can find. A few have moved away from Chicago, but for
the most part they all agree he was a problem child. So far I haven’t found
anything that could lead to him now. After all, he was a Ranger. If he doesn’t
want to be found, he won’t be found.”

“How
difficult can it be to find one man? He would need a credit card, an ID, a
driver’s license.”

“It’s
not impossible to live off the grid. He could have a dozen different identities
set up and is using one of them. Unless we stumble on an alternate identity, he
would be virtually impossible to find.”

“I
thought computers were this magical thing that could lead you to anyone. Aren’t
you some kind of tech-god?”

Mark
chuckled. “I still need a starting point.” He opened a bag of chips and
starting eating them. “And I’m not a tech-god, I’m
the
Tech-God. Get
your facts right.”

Aiden
laughed. “My bad. If you can’t find him, what do you do?”

“I’ll
find him. Everything I need to know is here; I just have to put it in the right
perspective.” Mark squinted at the laptop. “All the information that everyone
has collected needs to be processed and put into the order and then it will
start to make sense.” He sat back and looked at the wall with its bits of
paper, photos, and sticky notes.

“Well
do your magic before Fashion Week; I want to show you Gay Paree.” Aiden gave
him a peck on the cheek and left him studying his wall.

Noah
sat in the living room with Harrison and E.J. E.J. sipped a soda while Harrison
nursed a bottle of water. Noah read through the daily report and then the
security detail for the charity ball. With Benny McCall still on the loose,
he’d added extra security. “Nothing on Benny. This guy is a ghost.”

“He
was a Ranger,” Harrison said. “He could be standing right in front of us and we
wouldn’t notice. New York is the best place to hide in plain sight.”

E.J.’s
phone rang. She answered it quietly and then disconnected. “I have a line on
Benny,” she said.

Noah
frowned. “Where is he?”

“At
the Marriot in Times Square,” she answered.

“Fancy
digs for a mail room clerk,” Noah observed. The bastard was right under their
nose the entire time.

“I
doubt he’s footing the bill,” E.J. said.

“How
did you find him?” Harrison asked.

“I
put Sal on it. You know he knows everything that happens on the Eastern
Seaboard.”

“We
track down terrorists for a living,” Noah said, impatiently. “And a fence finds
him. There is no justice in this life.” He could walk through a jungle and spot
anyone hiding anywhere and walk out with them all in tow.

E.J.
laughed.

“Harrison,
you and Roman stay with Lulu. I’ll take Gideon, Dante and E.J. with me to find
him.”