That Kind of Special (12 page)

“Trent?” Katina called from the hallway.

“In here.” He turned.

Katina rounded the corner, came to a complete stop, and gaped at him. Sawyer laughed and quickly snuffed the sound. Trent glanced between the two, followed their gaze, and looked down the front of his shirt.
Fuck.

He pulled out Katina’s panties hanging out of his pocket, wadded the material, and shoved his hand into his jeans’ front pocket, hiding the evidence. He fought a grin and shrugged apologetically at Katina.

Her cheeks flushed, and she backed out of the room and around the corner. He looked at Sawyer, raised his brows in a silent threat that what he saw should not leave the room, and then followed Katina down the hallway.

In the closed elevator, she smacked him on the arm. Hard. “I can’t believe you.”

“I forgot.” He chuckled.

“Now everyone who saw you walk through the office knows I’m not wearing any panties under my skirt, and they know what you did to me in the file room.” She rolled her eyes.

“Who cares?” He shrugged.

“I do.” She glared. “It’s embarrassing.”

He pulled her to him, his arm around her shoulders. “Baby, every single one of the guys back there is trained in keeping secrets. It’s a must with the level of security they perform.”

“You’re their boss,” she hissed.

He couldn’t hold it in any longer. He tilted back his head and laughed. God, she was hilarious.

“This isn’t funny.” She elbowed his ribs.

He nodded his head. “The fuck it isn’t. I’m their boss, but right now they all know what I have, whom I’m going home with, and what’s in store for me when I get home. Right now, they’re all wishing they were me, and I’m damn glad I am who I am.”

She stared at him, her mouth open, her eyes studying him. He slid his hand down her back and patted her ass. Knowing it was just her skirt keeping him from touching bare skin got him hard again.

She snorted, but her mouth softened, and her hand went to his stomach as she turned toward him. “Remember this. I took one for the team. You owe me.”

The elevator dinged. The doors slid open. He smiled as they walked through the parking garage. He had a million ways he could pay her back.

At his car, her phone rang. He pushed the remote, unlocking the car, and noticed she wasn’t answering her cell. “Don’t you want to get that?”

“No.” She slid into the seat.

He walked around the back of the vehicle and climbed behind the steering wheel. “Is there a problem?”

“Nothing I can’t handle,” she muttered.

“Kat…”

She peered at him behind her hair. “Colby keeps calling.”

“How long has this been going on?” His gut tightened. He remembered at the restaurant her ex-boyfriend claiming to have left messages and her mentioning earlier calls too.

“Since the night you punched him.” She tossed her phone into her purse. “He’ll give up eventually.”

“Baby…” He lowered his voice. “I’ll deal with this.”

“I got it covered, Trent. You can’t control everything. This is old news. I’ll continue to ignore him, and he’ll go away.” She strapped her seat belt around her. “You’re off duty, honey. I don’t need a bodyguard.”

“Don’t answer his calls.” He started the car and hesitated. “Continue to have Tim take you everywhere you need to go if I’m not around. I’m going to have a talk with your doorman at Swanson Skyrise too.”

“Let it go, honey.” She leaned over and kissed him. “I want to go home and make up for all the time we were apart this week, and I don’t want to talk about an ex-boyfriend.”

He nodded before pulling out of the parking spot. The situation was not finished. First thing in the morning, he’d talk to the door attendant at her apartment building and then convince Katina to move in permanently with him. He didn’t want another man around her, and it seemed like her ex-boyfriend had a hard time understanding his attention wasn’t wanted.

Chapter Fourteen

The purple accents in the Mitchells’ recreation room cooled the ambience, leaving a relaxed and homey feel perfect for the Mitchells’ two children. Katina stood back and studied the room. “Something’s missing.”

“We still have the canvas baskets that go in the bookcase.” Doreen tied the window sash back.

“Right.” Katina nodded. “Maybe that’s it.”

The six long weeks of reconstruction, redecorating, and pleasing Celine Mitchell was worth the amount of money she was paying Katina. Katina ran her hands down her thighs. With the deposit alone, she was able to add more promotions and advertisement to her business plan.

Doreen climbed off the step stool and glanced across the room at her. “You’re quiet today. Is everything okay?”

“Yeah.” Katina bent over the coffee table and brought up visual plans on her laptop.

Doreen moved the fern off the hearth to the end table. “Are you sure?”

Katina straightened. “No, not really. I just have a lot on my mind.”

Doreen walked to the couch and sat. “Spill, girlfriend. Let me solve all your life problems with a wave of my”—she wiggled her fingers in the air—”hand.”

“How do you handle Tim’s job?” Katina paced in front of the coffee table. “Not the driving part but when he gets called up to do security.”

“From what he’s told me, he only works security when the Seahawks play.” Doreen shrugged. “It’s a bet he won off Trent, and in the off season, he’s Trent’s driver. Last year, Trent won and worked during the games.”

Katina scraped her teeth over her lip. “So, he never goes on anything dangerous?”

“No, he says the hardest thing about doing the home games is watching everyone else chug beer while he’s freezing his ass off.” Doreen laughed. “Is that what this is about? You don’t like what Trent does for a living?”

Katina nodded. “He’s gone on two assignments since I met him. I thought it would get easier, but I worry. The last one he did, he couldn’t even tell me who he was running security on or where he was going—not that I needed to know—but when he walked out of the house with enough arsenal to wage his own war, what am I supposed to think? I don’t want to lose him right after just finding him.”

“Oh, my God. You love him,” Doreen whispered.

She stopped pacing. “Yeah, without a doubt.”

Doreen grinned, her hand pressed to her chest. “I knew it would be this way for you.”

“What way?”

“When you finally figured out what you were looking for, you’d fall deeply in love. The kind of love we’ve dreamed about since junior high.” Doreen slouched farther down on the couch. “This is so romantic. I’m thrilled for you.”

“Thanks.” Katina smiled.

“Should I tell you I saw this coming years ago? You were just holding out for a Trent in your life,” Doreen said.

Katina laughed. “No.”

“Listen, girlfriend. I know Trent’s occupation is freaky scary, but you have to admit there’s something about him that drives him to be the best in business. He’s old. He’s—”

“Stop that.” She stretched and swatted Doreen’s leg. “He’s older, not old.”

“Okay, okay. You know what I mean. The guy is tough and doesn’t take shit from anyone, not even you.”

That was true. He had a reason for the way he stood firm on being safe and keeping others protected. Not wanting to share Trent’s experience dealing with his sister with Doreen, because it wasn’t her story to tell, she sighed. “I still think we’re missing something in this room.”

“I brought all our bags in after Tim dropped us off,” Doreen said. “There can’t be anything else. I think it looks good in here. One of our better projects.”

She studied the couch. “The pillows!”

“What pillows?”

“Remember, I told you I bought fabric at the market six weeks ago and recovered those ugly beige throw pillows Celine had in here.” She picked up her cell. “I’ll call Tim and see if he can come over and take me back to my apartment, and then we can call this job done.”

“He can’t come. We told him to pick us up at six, so he was going to take the limo in to have a lube job or whatever they do to cars.” Doreen stood. “Isn’t your car at Trent’s?”

“Yeah.” Katina stuck out her lip and blew her bangs out of her eyes. “But I promised Trent I wouldn’t go anywhere alone. Maybe I should call him and see if he can take a break from work.”

“That’s stupid.” Doreen held out her hand. “Give me your keys, and I’ll jog the half mile to Trent’s, pick up your car, and then go to your apartment. I’ll be back in an hour at the most.”

“I don’t know…” She glanced at the phone, thought better of bothering Trent, and reached for her bag. “Okay, but hurry.”

“Sheesh, Trent’s got you paranoid.” Doreen shook her head. “Relax. This is Seattle, and we’re in the swankiest neighborhood. Trent will never know, and if he finds out, you’ve done nothing wrong. I’ll take the blame. He knows he has no say over what I do.”

“Okay.” She let out her breath. “I’ll clean up around here while I wait, and maybe we can get out of here early.”

“Deal.” Doreen paused on her way out of the room. “Hey, Kat?”

“Yeah?”

“Thank you,” Doreen said.

“For what?”

Doreen grinned. “The job, the new boyfriend, and just about every good thing that’s ever happened to me in my life.”

Katina smiled. “You’re welcome, but you did it on your own. You’re the best. Now get out of here. You’re going to start getting sentimental, and I don’t want to cry.”

Doreen’s friendship meant everything to her. She walked over to the pile of empty bags. If anyone was thankful, she was for having Doreen in her life.

For the next half hour, she threw herself into tidying up the room. She unplugged the vacuum hose from the wall outlet and returned it to the utility room. When she returned to the rec room, her phone rang. Thinking it was Doreen, she answered without looking at the screen. “‘Lo?”

“Kat. I’m so glad I caught you,” said Colby.

“Colby. Stop calling.” She pushed the button to disconnect the call. She shivered. He was really starting to piss her off. Not wanting to deal with him today, she shut off her phone. “Take a hint, dude,” she mumbled to the empty room.

* * * *

Trent slammed the desk drawer in his office shut. Two hours of paperwork, because of one claim that Rodrigues put a play on a woman during coverage of the Republican Party’s convention put him in a bad mood. He pushed the intercom button.

“Barbara, page Rodrigues and Thompson to my office, and tell them to get their asses in here. Pronto.” He turned and walked back to his desk.

The two men came through the door minutes later, elbowing each other. Sam Rodrigues, a compact bulldog, took on the duty of bodyguard while out on assignment. Phil Thompson was the brains behind the Durango team, more useful behind the computer and cracking codes.

“Take a seat.” He clasped his hands behind his head, and leaned back in the chair. “Which one of you wants to explain about Mrs. Vanessa Keegan, Senator Keegan’s wife?”

Thompson raised his brows but otherwise didn’t make a sign that he even knew the name Keegan. Rodrigues grimaced. Trent nailed the younger man with a look. Bingo.

“Make it good, because I spent my afternoon filling out paperwork promising that this kind of behavior would never happen again from a Bauer Enterprise employee,” he said.

Rodrigues cleared his throat. “I knew better, boss.”

“Did you come on to her while on the job?”

“Yes.” Rodrigues shifted in the chair.

“Did you instigate contact with her?”

Rodrigues’s head snapped up. “No, sir.”

Trent had figured. His men were highly trained, but he’d experienced the way women had no qualms about coming on to the guy in suit and tie, wearing a handgun, and went out of his way to appear standoffish. Certain females, usually married, saw a bodyguard as a safe way to get some attention from men other than their husbands.

Trent nodded. “Here’s the paperwork. Take it home with you, read it, and bring it back signed.”

“I’m not fired?” Rodrigues swept the papers up and stood.

“You’re not the first man to be the object of a woman’s attention. I don’t condone what you did, and I hope you’ve learned that while you’re on the job, your focus is on your details. This is your first written warning, and it will go in your file,” he said.

Rodrigues held out his hand. “Thank you, sir. I won’t screw up again.”

“If you do, you’ll be looking for another job. You’ve got promise, Rodrigues, but I don’t condone that kind of behavior on a case. If you put the moves on her, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. You’d be finished.”

“Understood, sir.”

Trent shook the offered hand, and then motioned for them to go. “Shut the door when you leave.”

Before he could sit back down, his cell vibrated in his pocket. He removed the phone, eyed the screen, and frowned. “Bauer here.”

“Mr. Bauer, this is Fred Jackson at Skyrise. You asked me to call you directly if I noticed anything suspicious with Ms. Lindtson’s apartment.”

His chest tightened, and he braced himself on the edge of the desk. “What’s wrong?”

“Probably nothing.” Fred paused. “A gentleman friend of Ms. Lindtson’s walked past me a half hour ago. I didn’t think anything of it at the time. He’s been here before, and I’ve seen him with Ms. Lindtson on occasion.”

Fuck.
“Details, Jackson.”

“Usually, I would know if Ms. Lindtson is home, but I was pulled away from the desk earlier, and I might have missed her return. Sir, the gentleman hasn’t walked out of the building. I’ve stood at the door, waiting the whole time. I sent one of our janitors up to her floor, and the man isn’t anywhere. I know he hasn’t walked out. I tried ringing Ms. Lindtson’s apartment, and it goes directly to her answering machine.” Fred inhaled loudly. “You wanted to know if anyone entered the apartment, and I think the answer is yes.”

“Well done, Jackson.” He picked up his revolver from the desk and slipped it into the holster strapped to his chest, grabbed his keys, and headed for the door. “Do not move. Whatever happens, you do not move from that front door. I’ll be there in less than ten minutes.”

He disconnected and instantly punched the key to ring Katina’s cell.
Pick up, baby. Pick up.