The Assassin’s Billionaire Bodyguard
Chapter 26

Cam watched Isabella and her girlfriends head to their plane and felt Gideon approach him. "I'm surprised you let her go."

"It's a direct flight to New York. I'll call the office and make sure someone meets her flight and she gets home safe. I'm going to wring her neck though when she doesn't have eight women acting as a feminist peanut gallery at her disposal."

"Did you notice though, not a single one of them is out of shape and they were all hot?" Gideon queried as he watched the row of tight asses climb the stairs into the Draxton corporate jet.

As the last of them ascended into the plane he and Gideon turned to look at the eight men accompanying them and noted they too had been watching the women with interest.

"Who was the girl, boss?"

"His girlfriend," Gideon threw his friend under the bus.

"You have a girl boss? Thought you were a eunuch."

Cam gave the man a dirty look and he laughed. Mickey was the newest one on his team but far more relaxed with Cam than some of the other guys who'd been with him for decades.

They were notified the flight was ready to board and they headed toward the jet. Like Clara, he had his own jet and it made traveling all over the world much easier. He and Gideon could fly the jet if they felt inclined, but they had a captain and co-pilot for today's flight back home.

"Those girls were hot." One of the other men, Erik mentioned. "What were they doing here?"

"Girls weekend apparently."

"Why can't you book us at hotels where groups of women looking like them hang out?"

"Because I need you focused on the job not on your c**k." Cam shot back at the man.

"Yeah, but did you notice how they were all fit and fine?" Sly asked seriously. "Like really fine. Your girl had legs that went on forever, even in those sweatpants."

"Get your a*s on the plane before I leave you here to replace your way home on your own."

As the men got on plane he and Gideon stood at the bottom of the stairs.

"What are you thinking?" Gideon eyed his friend straight forward.

"Why the hell is Clara Draxton jet setting all the way to Rio on short notice with a bunch of girls to get wasted in bar in the off season when she has two kids and a husband at home?" "Valid question."

"Makes no sense. Of all the places in the world, she happened to be at the same airport we are at. The same independently owned airport just outside of Rio?"

"You think she knew we'd be here?"

"No, I think if she knew we'd be here, she wouldn't have been. She was uncomfortable even for someone as hungover as she was portraying."

"It was a dumbass risk if you ask me. I didn't see one security person unless they were hiding on the plane. None of Ben's team for sure. Considering how stupid Andropov has been, I can't believe Isabella would follow Clara." Gideon said quietly rubbing his hand against the back of his neck.

"Especially when Saturday morning Isabella was talking about how Clara and their team works twenty-four seven and have people working all the time for her but then she just ups and leaves everything to go for an impromptu weekend of debauchery?" he paused, "Isabella smelled like a tequila farm."

Gideon gave a small laugh, "I heard her friend say how much she'd drank. I'm surprised she was upright."

Cam grimaced, "she told me she does stupid things when she drinks. I hope to hell she didn't do anything foolish in Rio to come back and bite them all in the a*s when they get home. Clara's usually pretty careful with her PR."

They started up the stairs and made their ways to the seats. The men had made a couple of mistakes on the mission they were coming home from, and he knew they were all dreading being told off once they were in the air.

He took his seat with Gideon at the front of the plane and buckled in.

"Hey boss, did you notice."

"Mickey, if you're going to talk about my girl's a*s, I'm going to throw you from the plane mid-flight."

"No, I mean, yeah, her a*s was fine but no. Did you notice how they all moved well together?"

"What do you mean?" He spun the leather chair around, the luxury of having his own jet at his disposal.

"They all walked together in sync. Not like cadets from Norfolk or anything. More like synchronized swimmers or a dance troupe."

Cam held his gaze. "What do you mean?"

"They all swung their backpacks the same, not to mention, they all carried backpacks. They seemed to know where they should stand in their line as they walked out, and they climbed the stairs as if they knew we were watching their asses. Confidence and buckets of it." Cam spun the chair back to Gideon who was looking at him with his eyebrows high on his forehead. "What the f**k?"

"Do you think Isabella is in trouble?" Gideon asked quietly. "She has the anti-spyware built into her house. Maybe Clara keeps an eye on her."

Cam felt his stomach roll in protest. "You think she watches her?"

"Maybe it's why she had that five-a.m. call, letting her know the boss is aware you were there."

"For what purpose?"

"Dancers?" Gideon gripped onto what the younger man had said, "you said Isabella has past trauma, right? What if it is related to Clara? What if Clara is her pimp?"

"Pimp?"

"C'mon Cam, you've had other rich people offer you weird a*s s**t before. What if Clara provides hot girls for other rich people? Flies them to exotic locations and makes them perform as a group?"

"To what end?"

"Money, power, blackmail. Rich people think they're above the law Cam. It's why we're always in demand."

"The way Clara commanded her to move. Ruiz, move!" Cam quoted the woman. "She's definitely the boss."

"They all followed her out like the pied piper." Gideon spoke. "She's tiny but mighty."

"Ain't that the truth," he scrubbed his face with his palm and stared at his friend. "Clara Draxton flies a group of women on a whim to a resort and then they perform for some creep and then pimps the girls out. Maybe they drink and party with the john?" He pointed at his friend, "Gideon, get on your computer. Find out where they were in Rio, what resort they were at. I want to know what they did, where they did it and who they did it with. If Isabella is in danger because of Clara Draxton, I want to know."

As the plane taxied down the runway, he stared out the window and felt an uncomfortable burning in his chest. If Isabella was in trouble, he was going to save her. He had known Clara's security agent Ben a long time. There's no way he would have let Clara just jet off to Brazil without protection unless he didn't know what was going on.

Once they reached altitude, he, and Gideon both arose, Gideon to grab his laptop from overhead and he to do the mission recall with his guys and go over what went well and what didn't. Three of the guys had screwed up epically, nearly causing one of them to get killed. Instead, the man had a knife wound in his left shoulder and would have a scar to remind him for the rest of his life to follow instructions to the letter. After forty minutes he stopped ranting at them and discharged them to have a drink and relax. He zeroed in on his next target, "Mickey, you've been with us what two years?"

"Around that."

"You've done some security detail at my house with Portia right?"

"Yeah." He made a face.

"You hate it don't you."

"She's your kid, boss."

"She's an a*****e." Cam grinned at the man's discomfort. "I'm aware. I love her but she's a brat. You'll have worse assignments than her in this industry I promise you, but I know she's tough."

"I've had worse. You sent me for two weeks with the Oscar winner and she was a nightmare on legs. Told me if I didn't f**k her, I'd lose my job. I was never so glad to be on a contract that told me to keep my d**k clean in my life."

Cam chuckled, "why do you think I sent you? There was no way I was sending one of the other guys. They would have nailed her without thinking and she would have taken a bullet to the head while they were pounding her. You saved her life not doing her." He nodded. "You take direction well, you listen, you observe and damned if you didn't see things today that both Gideon and I missed." He nodded, "I'm going to take you off the detail of Portia and put one of the other guys on her. I want you to second Gideon. Dustin was doing it, but I have him on another project in the Middle East again since he did so well. You up for it?"

"Yes." Mickey said seriously. "I'm in."

"Meet Gideon at nine," he saw Gideon shake his head, "sorry ten," Gideon nodded, "in the morning and he'll go through what will be expected of you." "Sounds good."

He made his way back to Gideon. "What did you replace?"

"Well, the girls definitely partied hard at the resort. There's multiple photos of them in the tabloids," he shared his screen with Cam's computer he just opened. "There's also this little video."

He played a video of Isabella, the black woman with the cropped blonde hair she had called Sabby and the mouthy one, doing body shots off a young bartender. Isabella licked a trail of salt off the man's abdomen, leaned over his body to take the shot of tequila in her mouth and then flipped her head backwards to toss the tequila down her throat before her friend kissed her and slid a slice of lime in her mouth. All the girls laughed uproariously at their antics.

"Your girl knows how to party."

"What else did she do?"

"Nothing. They flirted and danced, and they did it Saturday night and Sunday night. I'm guessing they laid low all day or were on the beach as there isn't much of them during the day Sunday but," Gideon made a face, "if they were there to be pimped out, their target either didn't show up or he was a quick draw and ended it fast because they were out late."

Cam was quiet for several minutes as he watched the video of the girls partying. Even Clara was doing shots of tequila and at one point was being piggybacked on the dance floor by one of the women he didn't know. "What do nine women all have in common to allow them to be this close they would behave like frat sisters at a resort?"

"She's a billionaire. We know Elian Ruiz is the link between Isabella and Clara but what are the rest of their connection? Where did Isabella meet her friend Sabine?"

"I don't know. I didn't ask."

"Would she tell you if you did?"

"She's so damn secretive. I still don't know why she has a therapy dog." Cam gave an exasperated snort. "All I know, I want to replace out everything, every single detail of all eight of them. Find it out and get it to me."

"Cam, digging into Clara Draxton is dangerous. You sure you want to go this route?"

"Isabella is important to me Gideon. I don't know why but she is. Maybe the reason I'm drawn to her is because I'm meant to protect her."

"Years of experience in sensing dangerous situations telling you she needs help." Gideon nodded his agreement.

"I want to replace out everything. Why is her history hidden? What does Clara Draxton have on these women they would all just arbitrarily drop everything they are doing and follow her to Rio?"

"You're thinking Draxton is the common denominator."

"I do."

As Gideon refocused his attention back to his computer, Cam logged into his work email and began the arduous process of getting caught up on missing two days away from the office. His mind however was focused on Isabella Ruiz. Her smile, her drunken stagger, and the way she had kissed his cheek all prominent in his brain. However, the way she jumped to attention for Clara, the way she fell into line with the women and how she moved fluidly with them jabbed at his sensibilities. Something was off with the way they acted more like a troupe than they did a bunch of friends who had things in common.

He was going to get to the bottom of it and when he did, Clara Draxton better not be doing anything to hurt her sister-in-law or there was going to be hell to pay.