The Assassin’s Billionaire Bodyguard
Chapter 17

Cam looked at Gideon in the back of the limo as they pulled away from the curb of Isabella's home.

"I don't like how anyone can just walk up to her house."

"She has bullet proof windows, and she can take care of herself," Gideon responded not looking up from his phone. "She pinned me in a half second of touching her."

"I want a deeper file on her."

Gideon looked up in surprise. "Why? She's cute and all but she's hardly the type you usually keep around longer than a few weeks. She talks back too much, and she doesn't take your bullshit. I give you two weeks before you're over it."

Cam shook his head, "maybe but humor me. She has an emotional support wiener dog. She cuts Evgeni Andropov too much slack and the way she snuck out of my place last night took ninja skills. I want to know what's going on with her." "Fine," Gideon made a face, "but you're wasting your time. My preliminary check was boring. She's an accountant."

"Actuary," he corrected and looked back at his phone and grimaced. "Also, Portia is going to give me bleeding ulcers. Do you remember the name of the woman who did the social media thing?" Gideon looked at him like he had three heads. "No."

"You know, the Saudi with the wives and one of his daughter's was into social media? She had taken some kind of course from the American woman and we provided security detail to the class?" Gideon nodded, "Peabody," he said quickly. "Her name was Peabody."

He sent off a text message to his admin assistant to set up a meeting for Portia and the social media expert. "Maybe if I give her a project she's actually interested in, I can keep Evgeni Andropov's d**k away from her." "I think Isabella was right."

Cam looked at him questioningly.

Gideon scowled, "she told you Portia wants him because she knows you don't want him near her. She's trying to get your attention."

"Well, she has it." Cam rubbed his face in frustration. "I want to strangle her."

"Do something with her."

"Like what?" Cam groaned. "I've taken her away and she spent the entire time on the phone and when she wasn't on the phone, she was complaining about not being on her phone."

"Find a shared hobby."

"Yeah, I'll take her on my next trip to Ecuador or Columbia and let her beat the snot out of cartel members. Do you remember when we tried to teach her self-defence?" They both shuddered with the memory.

"I don't know, man," Gideon groaned and stretched, "I was with my sister and her kids this weekend and her husband was doing Disney Princess Lego with the girls and painting his nails."

"I'm not doing a spa day with my nineteen-year-old daughter."

"I'm just saying, the girls were giggling and laughing, and he was having a good time too."

"Well, she's not painting my nails." He grimaced at his friend, "but maybe you're onto something." He pulled his phone open again and called Isabella.

"Torres, I'm not talking to you right now."

"But you answered."

"Only to tell you we aren't speaking."

"I'm sorry Isabella."

"What do you want?"

He noted her tone wasn't nearly as sharp as when he'd left her house moments before. "I'm looking for a female perspective."

"You've come to the wrong person," she quipped smartly. "I have the parts, but the brain isn't wired for girly shit."

He chuckled at her comment. "You're the best of both worlds which is why I need your advice."

"On what Torres?"

"Portia."

She cursed lowly into the phone. "I'm not helping you with the spawn of Satan."

He saw Gideon's shoulders move with laughter and knew he heard the comment. "Gideon thinks I need a shared hobby with Portia."

"Gideon is a smart man. It's evident the girl is trying to get the attention of a parental figure, likely yours. Spend time with her." She paused, "what did Gideon suggest?" "Nail polish and Lego."

She laughed aloud, and he smiled at the sound. He could listen to her laugh all day.

"What do you do for fun?"

"It involves you, nudity and things I can't say in front of my best friend."

Gideon shifted his shoulders in discomfort.

"You're perverse," she chastised, "I meant things Portia might be interested in as well."

"I don't have a clue."

"Movies, music, concerts, Broadway?"

"Our tastes in movies are not the same."

"Compromise Torres, she wants to know you're making an effort. It won't kill you to take in a musical if she's into it."

"What do you do with your dad?"

"We watch a lot of sports, drink beer in his favorite pub, tinker in his garage."

"You really are his favorite son."

"Yup."

He knew from her tone she was smiling. "Come on Isabella, help a guy out here."

"Listen, my father and my sister Amelia are also pretty close and she's as girly as they come. They do the theatre once a month and she and my father go to her favorite tea house every other Sunday." "What's a tea house?" he looked up at Gideon who shrugged.

"It's a coffee house but with tea and fancier. You get dressed up, order tea and crumpets or whatever pastries they have. Usually, it's a brunch or late afternoon thing. It's a place to feel fancy, drink tea out of little cups and talk." She paused, "I went once but spilled the tea all over the table, Amelia was mortified, and I never was invited again."

"You don't strike me the clumsy type," he accused suspiciously.

"I'm not. Amelia loves the time with dad on her own, the way I do with Dad watching a game. Amelia likes sports as well but not to the degree we do. She watches to see men sweat. We watch to see them bleed."

"You have a violent side Isabella," Cam furrowed his brow.

"I do," she didn't bother to deny it. "Anger management issues stemming from when I was a child. Someone would tell me no and I'd be apoplectic. I blame my entire family for spoiling me rotten."

"And you're also really good at accepting responsibility for your shortcomings." He teased her.

"Shouldn't you be at a meeting?" she questioned suddenly.

"We're just pulling up now. I'll call you later. Have a good day, Isabella."

"You too, Torres."

He could hear her grin as she refused to use his given name even once in the conversation.

"I like her," Gideon said as they pulled up to the curb of Juggernaut. "She's smart, beautiful and I especially like how she tells you to go f**k yourself."

"I admit, she is the first woman I've dated who has no qualms about pissing me off. She literally cannot control her mouth." He shook his head, "you should have heard the way she was talking to her boss. I'm surprised she still had a job." "She must be damn good at her job then."

"Well, she allegedly can hold her own against Clara Draxton."

"Now there is a woman who scares the hell out of me. She's tiny but I swear to God I've seen grown men whither to nothing in front of her from a simple look."

"She is definitely someone who could keep you on your toes, but I feel like Isabella is fierier. Where Clara is always controlled and precise, Isabella jumps first, asks questions last and takes no damn prisoners."

"Well, if we ever need a woman's touch against a cartel, either of them would probably do in a pinch." Gideon joked and Cam laughed.

"Right, they'd show up in heels and silk," Cam stepped out of the car and buttoned his coat as they walked towards the entrance of the building.

He nodded to Gideon as they separated in the lobby, "send me the file as soon as you get it."

"Will do."

Two hours later as they climbed back into the car to head to the airport, Gideon groaned at Cam's pointed glance.

"Man, I don't know what to tell you. If there is anything on Isabella Ruiz, I didn't already give you last week, I can't replace it. She graduated school early, she's smart as hell and her background over the last seven years is so well hidden it's ridiculous. No speeding tickets, no hospitalizations, no lovers other than Andropov and a guy she dated for two weeks about a year ago." As Cam looked up, he shook his head, "he's nothing. Based on his social media comments, he met a nice girl through her mother who he knew from church. He made multiple comments for two weeks and then nothing."

"Dating apps?"

"If she's on a dating app, she's using a pseudonym I can't replace." He shook his head, "Cam, the girl is boring as dust. She goes to work, she goes home, she works from home. She has a couple of friends, Sabine, Corrine, and her sister Amelia. She does a lot with her family. She walks her dog at least twice a day and takes him to the dog park and to a café on the weekends."

"Why does she need an emotional support dog?" Cam pushed.

Gideon sighed, "if there is anything in her past, I don't know, maybe a dirty uncle or something, it's buried so deep I don't think Draxton herself could replace it."

"Could Draxton have buried it?"

Gideon paused and c****d his head and considered his friends question, "possibly. If she has, do you really want to go the route to replace out what it is? If she had her sister-in-law bury her traumatic secrets, then maybe we leave them buried."

Cam sighed and rested his head against the back of the seat. "There's something about her Gideon."

"I agree. I've never seen you this worked up over a chick before. The fact you almost blew a million-dollar meeting this morning to go yell at her for doing you a solid is proof."

"She should have woken me."

"She let you rest. Do you know how much I would appreciate a woman simply letting herself out of the house and replaceing her own way home instead of expecting me to cuddle, make her breakfast and drive her to her parents house?" Gideon shook his head, "I'm with her on this. She did you a favor. She needed to go to her dog and there was no need for both of you to be up as a result."

"Next time I'm going to her house."

"I can't believe you're saying there's a next time," Gideon grinned. "You like her far more than I expected you would. Helena's must have been one hell of a restaurant."

Cam grinned back at his friend, "it started out a joke but I'm not going to lie, I had to use her as a shield on the way to the car. I think they dump s*x potions into their food."

"Power of suggestion," Gideon twisted his lips. "Most men only need a suggestion. Women need the romance and the experience." He flailed his hands in a dramatic fashion mockingly.

"Well, it was all there." He stopped talking as his phone rang and he rolled his eyes as he answered it. "Portia, I'm on my way to the airport. What's up?"

"Daddy, when are you coming home? I'm bored."

"Where's your boyfriend?" He deliberately taunted her but also wanted to know he wasn't there.

"Who knows, he's not answering my calls or my texts. Is Isabella with you?"

"No, she's working from home today. I saw her this morning though and she was most assuredly alone at home." He paused, "and before you ask, yes, she was with me last night too so I can't account for Andropov's whereabouts. I do know when I was with her this morning she had multiple text messages from him, including a d**k pic. I hope to hell he doesn't send you those."

"He wouldn't!" she argued on the phone. "Obviously, she's lying."

"Obviously," he replied sarcastically, "it must have been her own d**k on display on her phone."

"Daddy!" she whined.

"Portia, honey, I do have to go. I'll be home tomorrow." He paused, "do you like musical theater?"

"I don't know," she mumbled, "I've never been."

Gideon gave him two thumbs up. "Friday night, you and I will take in a show on Broadway. Sound good?"

"Just us?" she asked carefully.

"Yes, just the two of us. We can make a night of it if you want. Dinner and a show."

"I'd really like to," she whispered.

"Then go replace a new outfit and some shoes for Friday night. I'll see you tomorrow." He hung up the phone and put his finger in his ear to stop the ringing from her delighted squeals of being permitted to shop. "One woman in my life managed." He grinned at Gideon.

"I think she's the easiest of the two. Good luck with Isabella Ruiz. Something tells me there is far more to the story than meets the eye."

"Agreed but I'm really looking forward to replaceing out what she's hiding." Cam sat back in the seat and contemplated all the ways he was going to learn about Isabella and smiled wickedly.