The Assassin’s Billionaire Bodyguard
Chapter 34

Isabella looked at the watch which never left her wrist and grimaced, it was nearly seven and she'd missed two messages from Clara.

She reached for her phone and smiled at the first message. Clara found Evgeni. She had known she would. She then frowned as she looked at the second message. She'd returned him to Mikhail to deal with.

She threw the blankets off the bed and gave an impatient snort. She called Clara's personal cell but there was no answer. She sent her an angry text message as she made her way to the shower. Usually, she was on the subway by now and she'd not only overslept, but her stalker was also free again to be monitored by his bloody father whose inattention had let him loose on her mother yesterday. She was pissed off.

By the time she got downstairs she was furious.

Myriam was coming out of the kitchen, and she looked up and smiled. "Cam and Gideon are in his office. They said to send you in when you came down."

She stomped angrily in the direction of the office and knocked once on the door and received an abrupt "come" in response. She flung the door opened impatiently. "I need to go to the office." "How the hell did Clara Draxton replace Evgeni before my guys?" Cam's face was hard set.

"You'll have to ask her." She folded her arms over her chest, unwilling to reveal she was irritated with the woman herself. She would die before she betrayed her boss and her leader. "She needs to share intel."

"She doesn't need to share anything. Her job is to protect her family."

"She hired another team when I'm right here!" he stood up behind the desk and while his voice didn't raise an octave, the fury radiating off him was barely controlled.

"Sounds like she did the right thing. He was caught while you were sleeping."

"Oh, we weren't sleeping Isabella," Cam's sardonic eyebrow raised wasn't missed by Gideon who stood up.

"This is my cue, I think. Let me know when you're ready to leave." He quietly passed Casper to Isabella as he crossed her path.

She pulled the dog to her chest, and he nuzzled her under her chin, "that's where you went."

"He had breakfast by the way," at Isabella's raised eyes, he shook his head, "don't worry, just the food you sent. I couldn't eat in front of him. I felt guilty." He scratched his ears one last time as he patted her shoulder. "See you in a bit." She smiled tightly at Gideon. She looked back at Cam. "I mean it. I need to go to the office."

"And I mean it, I want to know what security services your sister-in-law used. She refused to tell me saying it was in-house job, but I know Ben and I know damn well, he's not better than my guys. Nobody is better than my guys."

"Outside my paygrade," she quipped as she mocked his stance. Wide feet, crossed arms, back straight and a deadly stare. Her voice was calm and measured, much calmer than his as she honed every single ounce of Bellona training. This man thought he was going to question her about things she would never reveal. She had been through significant training to deal with situations far worse than this.

He noted the change in her demeanor instantly and c****d his head to one side. "You know but you won't tell me."

"I need to go to work. I have a report due at noon. I didn't bring my laptop here, thefore I need to go to the office."

"Answer the question."

"You didn't ask one."

"What security team did Clara Draxton use to get Evgeni Andropov? They were fast. Too fast. They had intel nobody else would have."

"I need to go to work." She responded ignoring the question.

"You're keeping secrets from me."

"I already told you, it's above my paygrade."

"You're lying."

"And you can tell this how?"

"Gut instinct."

"Get your gut checked, it's off."

"Isabella, I told you last night. I'm trying hard to be different with you and to try to trust you and to respect the boundaries you are setting but you are making it difficult. I'm asking a direct question which requires you to give me a name of the company your sister- in-law uses for what she dubbed her in-house security."

"If my sister-in-law wanted you to have this information Cam, it would be on your desk. I'm not your spy. What you're asking me to do is choose loyalty of you over the woman who saved my a*s," she held up her fingers, "twice now."

"It was too slick." He shook his head. "My team is the best of the best."

"Apparently there's one team out there better," she mocked him.

"And I want to know who they are and where they get their information."

She turned her head sideways and looked at him curiously, "what has your panties twisted? Is it because Clara managed a situation involving her family faster than you or because a woman managed to sort a situation faster than you?"

"Its because," he rounded the desk and approached her, "someone gave her information I didn't share with anyone outside a specific team and somehow she not only managed to get my intel, but she also had other information at her disposal I wouldn't have access to in a million years."

"You think she spied on you?" Isabella threw her head back and laughed in his face, ignoring the hiss of irritation. "Torres, if you could access the information, what makes you think another team couldn't?" She watched as his arms crossed and uncrossed on his chest. "I want to go to work now. If you don't take me to work, I'll call a ride share." She kissed the top of Casper's head and murmured to him, "little buddy you're going to come to the office today. Calvin will be pumped to see you. Lisa too. Maybe we'll take you to the deli for lunch," she turned away from Cam. "I expect to leave here in five minutes. Either have a car waiting or I'll replace my own way."

She exited the office just in time to see Portia descending the stairs wearing a pair of hot pink silk pyjamas. She reminded Isabella of a barbie she'd had when she was a kid.

"Good morning, Portia."

"Hi Isabella."

As she got closer, she noticed the girl's eyes were red rimmed and she knew she had been crying and had desperately tried to conceal it.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing," she shrugged starting to walk towards the kitchen before she stopped suddenly. "How do you do it?"

"Do what?" Isabella waited as Portia considered her question carefully.

"How do you get everyone to like you so much? Dad, Gideon, Mickey, Myriam, Evgeni," the last name trailed off. "I mean you're pretty but you're not a supermodel or anything and these guys fall over you."

She made a face at the backhanded compliment. "Thanks, I think?"

"I just don't get it."

"I don't know Portia. I guess I just am who I am. I try to be a decent human being and to live my life the best way I can."

"You're so tough and strong. I watched you fighting with Gideon and you're tougher than some of the guys. He hit you hard with those sticks and you got up and asked for more."

"Wrong," she shook her head, "I got up and asked him to show me how he managed to land the hit. Portia, it wasn't about Gideon beating me up, it was about replaceing out how he was doing it to anticipate the next strike. I genuinely enjoy feeling in control of my own life, including my safety. I started karate to defend myself in case I got mugged walking from the corner store. I found significantly more in it and in kendo. I learned peace and balance and the desire to know my place in the universe and to be better."

"I gave myself a bloody nose when Dad and Gideon tried to teach me self-defence."

"You don't need self-defence Portia; you need to replace yourself." Isabella said quietly, "you've got yourself wrapped up in desperately wanting someone to love you, you forget you need to love you first. Evgeni doesn't deserve your love Portia, but you certainly do." "What does it even mean?" Portia grumbled.

"It means you're so busy trying to make someone else love you, you'll go to any lengths, including asking your dad to kill me," she saw the blush ride heavy on the woman's cheeks, "but you didn't stop to ask yourself why you were desperate for his attention." "What are you, some kind of shrink?"

"No," she laughed, "I just happen to be best friends with one and a damn good one. My advice to you Portia is to figure out whether it's really Evgeni you wanted or just the attention he gave you. I'm guessing it's the latter and if it's just the attention, then you need to sort out why." "He said he loved me."

"I'm sure he did love you, in the best way Evgeni can love anyone." She sighed, "my Mama often tells me something about her marriage and maybe it will mean something to you or maybe it won't, but I'll share it with you. Even the brightest and hottest of fires will burn out if you don't have the right fuel to keep it lit. My parents have been together over fifty years and my dad can't walk past my mom without touching her somehow. She knows when he's in a room without even looking up. He can identify her scent and she doesn't wear perfume. We know because we tested him last Christmas and he did it drunk on mulled wine." She grinned at Portia's small smile. "My parents taught me I never have to settle for anything in my life. Not in my career, not in my friends, not in my love life." She grinned suddenly, "and as long as I keep adding the right kind of fuel, hard work, dedication, honesty then the integrity of who I am will keep my fire lit long and well."

She gave a long sigh and noted Casper's eyes were closed against her chest. "That's a lot for this early in the morning and even Casper is bored." She looked at Portia, "I don't know how else to answer your question other than I just try to be the best version of me I can be." Movement coming behind her caught her ear and she saw Cam and Gideon both listening to their conversation. "Can we go? I'm now late for work and my boss is probably wondering why I'm not at my desk."

As if on cue her phone rang. She held it up, "yup, Calvin." She stepped away from everyone and answered the phone. "Hey Calvin, I'm on my way. Sorry I'm late."

"Clara said she expected you to be here for our meeting. It's at nine."

She groaned, "Calvin, I don't want to go to the Board meeting. You said you'd get me out of it."

"I tried. I reminded her of the time you implied none of them had passed kindergarten because their math skills were horrible and yet she insisted."

"Why am I doubting you?" She paused and then groaned, "No, you want me to deliver the report we did saying the risk of the new prototype is too high to continue."

Calvin sighed, "Isabella, someday you'll be running this office and you need the practice."

She felt Casper lick her face and she grumbled incoherently and hung up on her boss. She looked to Cam and Gideon. "I have to go now. Apparently, I have a presentation to the Board members in an hour and it's going to take the time just to get to headquarters. Why do you live so damn far away? I should have just had Clara swing by and pick me up on the way."

"Your boss told you right now you have a presentation in an hour?" Portia asked curiously. "I had to do a presentation for my college class, and it took me months to prepare, and I still was too nervous to do it."

"It's my presentation." She made a face, "I did the whole thing for him to present. I know it better than he does."

"You're really smart, aren't you?" Portia asked suddenly from where she had given her father a hug as he was heading towards the door.

"Yeah, I am in some things. I can do calculus without a calculator, and I can calculate the risk of you fracturing your ankle while wearing stilettos based on your years of experience wearing them. If, however, you put me in a store and told me to put an outfit together my sister and my best friend would tell you I don't have the ability to match a pair of socks. Everything in my closet is put there specifically by them and they raid my closet once a month to make sure I haven't gone astray." She looked at Portia, "even right now in your pyjamas you are more put together than I would be if it weren't for their guidance."

"Really?"

"Yup," she shrugged. "Casper and I have matching pyjamas, if it tells you anything."

As Portia giggled at the revelation Cam's driver knocked on the door.

"We're ready," he spoke brusquely.

"Good," she knew he was pissed off at her, but she didn't care. She wasn't going to reveal secrets to him about Bellona. She knew it was a couple of the girls from Bellona who had collected Evgeni and took him home to his father. It wasn't exactly a mission, more of a recovery.

She opened the door, exited into the yard, and headed straight for the car, keeping Casper held tight to her chest.

"You're coming back here tonight. You could leave Casper here for the day with Portia," Cam said suddenly. "No, I'm going to my own house tonight."

"Until I am satisfied Mikhail can manage Evgeni then you are most definitely not going home alone. You are coming here." He paused, "Also if you insist on going to the game tomorrow night, you and your father will have security detail." "Whatever," she rolled her eyes at his back as she slid into the car, surprised when he slid in beside her. Gideon got in the other door, and she was sandwiched between them. "Isn't this cozy?"

Gideon chuckled, "we're all friends here, right?" Casper jumped onto his lap and promptly fell asleep.

As soon as Cam spoke again, she groaned.

"Who did your sister hire to replace Andropov?"

Isabella wondered if Bellona had any rules about murdering your lover and hiding his body for using professional interrogation techniques. "Cam, this little set-up," she waved to where she was sandwiched between the two of them, "is not going to make me miraculously know something I've repeatedly told you I don't know."

Evidently, he didn't believe her as for the next hour, the entire drive to Draxton Enterprises, he was relentless. At one point she closed her eyes and managed to fall asleep which only infuriated him more. By the time she got to work, she was bedraggled, annoyed and ready to hire Bellona herself. Thankfully, he made no attempt to kiss her as she got out of the car, and she stormed away angrily. As Ben met her at the door to escort her straight to the boardroom, she looked over her shoulder and noted Cam still standing at the curb watching her through the glass lobby windows.

"Relentless," she mumbled. "Bloody relentless."