The Reluctant Bodyguard

By Suzy C. Dickens

Brad doesn't want to keep his reason for staying with California girl Saffron over the holidays a secret, but if it will keep her safe, he will. He'll even sing in the choir and eat health food. But, keeping one step ahead of both her busy holiday plans, and the men lurking nearby, isn't as easy as it sounds.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Suzy C. Dickens
• Release date: Dec 18, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370429820

Book preview

Dedication

To my mother; the best mom ever,

and a very special person. I never

knew anyone with more grace, or

love for her children. She was so

excited about this book, and

talked over the title with me.

Thank you, Mom. I love you,

and know that you are

looking down with pride.

Acknowledgment

Writing is not as glamorous as people might imagine. And, neither is being married to a writer. There are times when some of us stay up all night, furiously writing, or when we might not get properly dressed all day while our characters solve their mysteries, or fall in love, and when we need someone to read the 4th chapter . . . again.

My husband is married to a writer. He has slept with the light on through my writing marathons, listened to whole chapters and books, more than once, to hear slight changes, and has entire conversations about people who don’t exist, other than in my books and imagination. He gives me honest opinions, and excellent suggestions. But, most of all, he just lets me be me; always encouraging me in anything that I want to do, and I am so grateful.

Thank you, Robert. I love you more than anything, even chocolate.

Chapter 1

Brad’s unsuspecting client looked completely out of place. It was a nippy November day in Northern California, and she was wearing a tee-shirt that named a concert across the front, and cutoffs.

Golden blonde, she was sitting cross-legged on a divan and making sweeping, curved lines on a sketchpad. Around her were a variety of lush, green plants, a bubbling aquarium with tiny, multicolored fish darting through it and, along one wall, a long flight cage of colorful red, blue, and orange finches singing quiet, complicated songs.

The air in the rest of the house was about average for the time of year, he’d noticed, maybe even a little on the cool side, but in this room it was almost summer-like, without actually being hot or stuffy. And she was dressed for it.

Blonde-haired and blue-eyed, he noted when she looked up from her work to hug her brother and extend a cool hand to him. That was a bad sign. Everything about Saffron was so stereotypically Californian, that he was afraid that she might not think much past malls, granola, and surfing. Saffron. As in, Donovan’s song: Mellow Yellow. Could it get any flakier than that? On the other hand, if she was an airhead, maybe this would be an easy assignment after all.

The only part that disconcerted him, was how attractive she was. He would be staying alone with her, and he knew that pretty women were a liability. Not with him, of course; he had absolute self-control. Just, in general. They tended, from his personal observations, to think differently than their plainer sisters.

However, he believed in this assignment, and would succeed in it, he thought, flexing a jaw muscle grimly. Even if it meant dealing with a pretty, California-blonde airhead.

Her brother, Dave, had gotten in touch with him through a friend because he was concerned about his sister’s well-being. It seemed that he was receiving threats from people associated with his position as an upper-level executive in a small, but up-coming company, and that the most recent threats had included his family. That meant his sister, being the only close family that Dave had.

Whoever was making the threats had proven that they knew who and where she was by providing him with her name and address. Her brother, currently having to work 3,000 miles from home, was beside himself with worry. And, Brad didn’t blame him. After reading the threats for himself, he was concerned as well.

The problem with being Dave’s sister’s personal bodyguard until the FBI could track down and eliminate the threat, was that she was not to know that she had a bodyguard. Dave had been insistent on that point. No matter what, his sister could not know Brad’s true purpose for being there.

He’d said that she would never agree to it if she was told that she was being given a protector, but that she had a kind heart. If he told her that he had a friend who needed a place to stay and relax for a while, especially over the holidays, she would gladly put him up in her home.

There had been no arguing the point with him, though he’d tried. Dave was willing to pay whatever it took to keep his sister safe, and recognizing the danger that she was in, Brad had agreed to take the job, regardless of his misgivings. Besides, he was not nearly as convinced as Dave that his sister would take in a perfect stranger. That she might, was a scary thought in itself.

Some people just didn’t live in the real world, he thought. From what he’d seen of it, which had been far too much of the dark side of man, the world was a pit of human evil, and every person would be better off if they would recognize and acknowledge that fact so that they could take steps to ensure their own safety, and that of the people they loved, as they went about their daily lives. Steps which did Not include letting strangers into their homes, yes let to stay with them.

At least he didn’t look the part of a bodyguard, which he only did because it paid well. And, because he was good at it.

He had high-ranking belts in several martial art styles, was fit, well versed in the use of various weapons, had elevated observational skills, the intensity and will to do the job at hand, and was an expert in defensive driving. He recognized these facts without being egotistical. It was what it was. It was who he was.

* * *

Saffron was thrilled to see Dave. She’d missed seeing him as often as she was used to, since his job had taken him so far afield. At least he was only on the east coast temporarily, until spring, and she reminded herself of that fact whenever she missed him.

She adored her brother, and was closer to him than many people were to their siblings, since she’d practically raised him. She would do just about anything for him. So, when he’d called and mentioned that he had a friend who really needed to get away for a while for his health’s sake, and might he stay in her relaxing home, she had been happy to agree. He so infrequently asked anything of her. Besides, why not? The poor man was suffering from physical and mental exhaustion, according to Dave, with nowhere to go. At the holidays.

Looking at Brad Smith now, however, it was hard to believe that he was run down at all. She knew that looks could be deceiving, but he was as healthy and robust looking, as any specimen of the male gender that she’d ever seen. Tall, with wavy chestnut hair worn just a little on the long side, and surprisingly green eyes, it looked like Mr. Smith got plenty of sunshine, and exercise. And, ate right. His body appeared, without her staring, of course, to be well conditioned. Not at all the gaunt, sallow man that she’d expected.

Actually, he was darned attractive. Handsome enough to be a model, she thought, but not in a ‘pretty boy’ sense. Brad Smith had enough ruggedness about his features to keep him out of that class. He was all man, and yet she had been surprised when her heart had fluttered when she’d first looked up to find those intense green eyes looking back at her.

Well, if he was rundown and stressed, even if it didn’t show on his face, then she would do her best to provide a restorative environment for him, she decided, folding closed her sketch pad.

* * *

Okay, so he’d been wrong. It seemed that Saffron had accepted him at face value, and while Brad was glad that her brother knew her well enough to have known that would be the case, he now knew for certain that she was too trusting for her own good.

With people who were threatening to harm her on the loose, and possibly close by, it also meant that he couldn’t let her out of his sight for a minute. Not when she left the house, at any rate. And, from the sound of what she was telling her brother about her plans for the next few weeks leading up to Christmas, that would mean a lot of places to convince her that he should be tagging along. That would almost certainly prove to be more challenging than having gotten his foot in the door.

After everyone had exchanged greetings, Saffron had led them into the room that he was to stay in, then headed into the kitchen with instructions for them to meet her there when they were ready.

What do you think? Dave asked, once she’d left them to freshen up after their trip.

I’ll do it, Brad told him, accepting the retainer check that they’d agreed on.

The rest would be paid upon the successful completion of the job, something that Brad fully intended on being able to collect on, and not because he needed the money, but because he had no intention of allowing any harm to come to Dave’s overly trusting sister.