The Assassin’s Billionaire Bodyguard
Chapter 37

An hour later Isabella was laying on her sofa with a throw blanket over her, Casper cuddled up to her chest and the television flicking a commercial about indigestion medication making her wonder if the ache in her chest was caused by the popcorn or by the fear of losing Cam if he knew her truth. Her phone rang and she grabbed it knowing it was Clara.

"We got him." "Alive?"

"Yes," she said quietly, "but we're taking him to Mikhail's and this time I'm not leaving until I have a serious conversation with Mikhail, Raisa and Evgeni. If he continues to harass my family, I will not be held responsible. Mikhail wouldn't tolerate this kind of bullshit from anyone if it were happening to his family. I need him to understand I won't either."

"Okay," she said quietly. "Where did you replace him?"

"At a rave of all places. He's higher than a kite complaining of a headache."

"Who goes to a rave at thirty years old on a Thursday night?"

"Evgeni Andropov apparently," Clara's voice was irritated. "Ben may or may not have punched his buddy Anton out cold."

"Good. I hope it hurt. He's the son of a b***h who drove Evgeni to Mama's house."

"I know, it's why Ben knocked him out." She breathed frustratedly, "I'm not going to lie Isabella, I'm here at Mikhail's waiting for them to bring him and I don't want to go in. I want my team to scoop him up and drop his corpse off to Mikhail to deal with. Mikhail cuts him too much slack but he's stalking my sister."

"I know Clara, I'm sorry."

"You have nothing to be sorry for. Your brother on the other hand feels tremendous amounts of guilt and I told him I blame him for ever putting it in your head to date Evgeni all those years ago."

She chuckled, "the one sneaky thing Elian ever did in his life was use reverse psychology on me and told me not to date Evgeni and of course I had to go for it."

"He was almost in tears tonight. Asked how the hell he's going to manage Callie dating when she's old enough because he'll have to learn how to use a gun."

"Callie isn't dating," Isabella said seriously. "Edward and Elian will ruin her for any man. They have her spoiled to the point nobody will want to date her."

Clara laughed aloud at the comment. "There's a plan."

"Clara," Isabella's voice was hushed, "Cam said he wants me for the long haul. I don't even know what it means but he pretty much admitted what he does for a living to me."

Clara was quiet and for so long Isabella had to look at her phone to see if they were still connected.

"You'll have an important decision to make then Isabella. If you're going to be with him all the time and you suddenly need to disappear a couple times a month, sometimes for days on end with no communication, you may need to let him in on your secret." "Is it even allowed?" She blinked rapidly sitting up

"Elian knows."

"Yes, because you're Artemis two point oh." She bit out in surprise. "Can I tell him such a thing?"

"If you're serious about him Isabella, if you love him and you think you trust him to never tell anyone anything, then as Artemis three point oh, you may not have a choice."

"I'm not Artemis three point oh," she whispered and then asked curiously, "Am I Artemis three point oh?"

"Grooming at it's finest," her sister-in-law wisecracked. "You're smarter than me, stronger than me at your age and you learn s**t way faster than I ever did. Artemis may skip the two point oh and just go with the latest version."

"Nope," she shook her head, "I'm too young. You need to be a hundred to be Artemis."

"She'd have your balls."

"I know. I called her old a few weeks ago and she grabbed my ponytail and threatened to rip it out of my head. Though what you just said explains why she said if I wasn't damn invaluable, she'd throw me out of the airplane without a chute."

"She has a way with words. She likes you Ruiz. I love you." Clara was quiet for a second, "looks like your boyfriend is here. He really doesn't like it when my team gets somewhere before his."

She chuckled, "imagine if I tell him I'm a trained assassin with access to intel his company could only dream of. I don't know if such a conversation will be high on my list of priorities."

"I'm more worried he tries to recruit you for Juggernaut." Clara whistled lowly, "he is good to look at though. He's all angry marching towards my car with his black leather jacket all rippled over those muscly bits. Those eyes could cut like glass if I weren't a seasoned professional."

Isabella chuckled. "Do me a favor and take a photo and send it to me? Then tell him you did. Also, get the photo of his expression when you tell him you did."

They ended the call with a laugh and in seconds she had two photos of Cam Torres appear on her phone and she zoomed and laughed. He did look good with his body encased in leather but the expression on his face when Clara obviously told him she'd asked for the photo, obviously confused made her laugh until her sides hurt.

She lay on her back with Casper laying on her chest and a few minutes later she got a message from Clara saying Evgeni had just arrived and she and Cam were going to have words with Mikhail. They would be unavailable for some time, but she would give her the full scoop when she was done. She replied with a thumbs up emoji and then rested the phone on her chest.

Closing her eyes, she allowed herself to breathe slowly as she recalled the conversation she had with Clara. How serious was Cam when he said he wanted her for the long haul? Was this the mercenary code for love? If it were, could she live the rest of her life with someone who didn't say I love you but instead simply wanted her for the long haul. Also, why was she considering the rest of her life when she'd only known him a month or more.

Did she love him? She lay there and considered the question. Did she love Camden Torres? How did what she felt compare to any relationship she had before. Without question she felt more for him than she ever did Evgeni or the boy she'd been interested in when she was nineteen and ready to give her virginity to.

She was a numbers woman, and she did lists and details and emotions like love and adoration were hard for her gauge but as she lay there, she considered how she had felt the moment she had seen him tonight at Madison Square Gardens. Relief and excitement, desire, and lust and, she thought seriously, love. It wasn't a surprise to her of course. She had said all along she didn't want to date him because she would be heartbroken at the end of it. Even in the phone calls she had shared with him or the middle of the night conversations between lovemaking and sleep she loved his brain and how thoughtful he was, how he considered things and how he listened to her. She loved how he enjoyed just holding her and when he threw his head back and laughed, the way his chest rumbled.

She loved the only name tattooed on his whole body was his daughter's. She adored even though his daughter was an a*****e, he was still trying and hadn't given up on her. He'd fought hard to get her and now he had her, he wasn't letting her go, no matter how hard she was on the brain. She recalled with a smile how he would have paid her a million dollars to get Evgeni Andropov away from Portia. Not the slickest move in the world, in fact, it was a d**k move, but at least he had his daughter's best interests at heart and Evgeni Andropov was not in her best interests.

She thought of her conversation the morning prior with Portia and felt her cheeks pull up as she realized Cam had been listening. Could he be someone to help her feed the flame of a relationship or would he stomp all over the fire like Evgeni had? Could he love her? Was he capable? She knew he was a mercenary, given he all but admitted it tonight. Some people in this field of work had to compartmentalize, rationalize what they were doing, and some refused to have any kind of relationship. Like he had done for most of his adult life.

She grunted as she rolled to her side on the sofa and nestled Casper to her chest. She was overthinking everything. At no point had Cam said he loved her. He didn't say he wanted to be with her forever or even until death do them part. He simply said he wanted her for the long haul. For someone like Cam Torres, the long haul is anything longer than thirty days. She kissed Casper's wet nose. "Little buddy, I'm so f*****g confused."

Her phone rang suddenly, and she looked at the number, recognizing it immediately knowing it wasn't one who had called it in the last couple of weeks.

She accepted the call, "Hey Portia what's up?"

"Isabella," her voice was raspy as if she were crying, "Isabella. I'm scared and I can't get in touch with my dad."

"Where you are?" She sat up immediately throwing the blanket to the end of the sofa.

"Evgeni," she moaned into the phone. "I went with Evgeni to a party. I wanted to be like you, and I demanded he respect me and treat me better." "Where is your security detail?"

"I snuck out," she started crying harder. "They all think I'm in my room watching a movie. I don't know where I am."

"One minute Evgeni was with me partying and then we had a fight and he called me a spoiled brat and told me nobody would want to be with a child. I saw what he was doing Isabella. Just like you said, he needed to be the center of attention and he was only being nice to me when people were looking. Then he was rude. He said he had a headache and he yelled at me and then said he was going to a different party with adults and no kids."

"Where are you? Do you have any idea of landmarks or places you passed?"

She had her on speaker phone and was sending a text message to Lacey next door to trace the location of the caller on her phone. As she listened, she was also slipping out of her sweatpants and shimmying into the leather she wore for missions in the city. "He left the party Isabella, and I was mad. I let someone give me a drink and I think he spiked it. I don't remember much, and I think I blacked out. I'm at his apartment. I started to come to, and he was on me."

Isabella was going to throw up as she paused in tying her hair back. "Did he rape you?"

"No, he passed out." She sobbed, "he locked his house from the inside though with a key. I can't get out and it's an apartment on the top floor somewhere. It smells bad. I'm in his bathroom and I locked the door and I'm scared."

She was racing down her basement steps and slapped the wall opening the door. Lacey met her on the other side. She pointed to Casper and Lacey nodded and motioned for the dog.

"Portia, I'm coming to get you. I know where you are." She grabbed a few items from her armory and Lacey disappeared into Isabella's house to stay with Casper.

"My dad is going to be mad."

"Not nearly as mad as I am. Evgeni Andropov is a dead man leaving you unattended at a party." She reached her bike. "Portia, I'm coming. I need to drive to get to you. My friend Lacey is going to get on this call with us, okay?" she patched Lacey in, "Portia, honey, Lacey is going to stay on the phone with you and she's going to talk to you about whatever you need to talk to. She has Casper with her okay."

"Okay."

"I need to hang up to drive but Lacey is going to stay with you. You stay in the bathroom until I come and get you."

Isabella got her bike to the street and got it started. She fixed her helmet on her head and tied the second one to the handlebars. She prayed to a God she didn't believe in she got to Portia before the man who'd drugged her woke up.

It took Isabella thirty-one minutes to arrive where Lacey indicated Portia was and when she got there, Sabine was climbing off her own bike, having just arrived.

"Lacey called me," Sabine said seriously. "How do you want to do this?"

"As violently as possible," Isabella said with a sneer as she ripped a knife from her boot and pulling her balaclava over her face before kicking in the door of the dilapidated building.