The Assassin’s Billionaire Bodyguard
Chapter 43

Isabella stared at Cam and wished she could be less emotionally involved.

"It is what I do," she saw his face trying to remain neutral, but the flick of irritation kept rising to the surface. "I am contracted by a highly organized collective who investigates and traces s*x traffickers, both individuals and well-structured rings. When Clara rescued me nearly seven years ago, I was one of fifty girls who had been selected from the USA for a buyer in the Middle East who had proclivities for virgins. He had a physician working on his payroll here in New York who had examined me when I had gone to a clinic for birth control. She flagged my file, I was tracked and then kidnapped and held for shipping. Clara intercepted the night before I was set to be sent to Miami to be put in a shipping container with forty-nine other women so some billionaire could take my virginity and make me his s*x slave."

The curse he emitted made her wonder if he was mad, she had left out this information when she'd told him of her kidnapping or if he was pissed off at the details themselves. Either way, he was angry.

"Our collective rescued all fifty girls. They also completely dismantled the ring, terminated every member, and gloriously exploded the entire compound of the a*****e who bought me. We also took all his money and used it to fund other operations." He rocked backwards on his heels in surprise. "You're serious."

"I am. Several months after my rescue, I was offered an opportunity to be part of the collective. I was told I could join whenever I wanted, the invitation was open-ended and there was no pressure." She paused, "well there was some pressure," she admitted with a half-smile, "I mean they sent my sister-in-law to recruit me."

If he had any thoughts on this information his face didn't show it.

"I joined on the spot. I love the field work, don't get me wrong but my talents are far better used in the command center, and they use me there far more than they do in the field. I'm good in the field," she bragged, "but my ability to replace anomalies has come in handy."

"Your team?"

"There's a difference between field and mission teams. My mission team is five women. Most teams are four women and we run in local areas. We do occasional international missions and sometimes we combine teams. The East Coast of the US has seven teams of four women except for ours. Ours has five. I'm the fifth. The only way Elian doesn't have a stroke when I go out is because he knows his crazy wife is covering my a*s."

"Elian knows?" his voice was almost as high-pitched as Portia's.

She made a face, "He has one rule, and it is to bring me home alive because he doesn't want to tell Mama some s****l deviant got me a second time. Since Clara is set to be the one to take over the entire organization in about ten years, she was given a choice to tell him or not."

If he was surprised by this information, he said nothing for several long seconds. "Why were you permitted to tell me? This highly secretive organization is one I've never heard of, and I know a lot. Why me?"

"Our current head of the collective is a purposeful person. She likes plans. She's also nosy as f**k." Isabella rolled her eyes. "I love her but she's in my personal s**t all the time."

"You're avoiding the question"

"Both her and Clara felt it was appropriate."

"Why?"

"Clara is the two point oh of our organization." She sucked in a breath, "I'm three point oh. I'm being groomed to run the place in twenty to thirty years."

"You're going to run a company of mercenary women who intercept s*x traffickers for the purpose of killing them and rescuing their victims?"

"Yes. Eventually." As she said it aloud for the first time a frisson of excitement coursed her veins.

"Is this why your house has all the security?"

She chuckled, "No. My house has the security because Clara Draxton is insane and thinks everyone is trying to steal her company secrets, and maybe they are. I work on significant projects for companies all over the world and some of the security things we work on are highly sensitive. Technology is cutthroat and brutal. Frankly, I'm more likely to be kidnapped and tortured over Draxton Enterprises secrets than any of my extra curricular activities." "Are you serious?"

"Cam, the head of her Innovation team has had his, his wife and kids' lives threatened to the point Clara has had to hide them more than once." She grimaced, "I'm safer taking on a cartel than I am running numbers at Draxton. The reason my windows are what they are is because Ben was worried living in Queens and not in a gated community put me at risk for crazy people to replace me. He wasn't wrong, you found me the same day you saw me in a deli. Didn't take you long at all. It did take Evgeni a bit longer." She watched as he ran a shaky hand over his face. "Are we finished yet? I have four hours before I meet my parents at Pygmalion. I really need to try to sleep." She noted the darkness around his eyes and decided he too was sleep deprived. Misery loves company apparently.

"I have one other question."

"Fine. Go ahead." She expected he was going to ask the name of the organization or Artemis' name. His question surprised her.

"Why did Clara and whoever your leader is feel it was appropriate to tell me?" his eyes were steady and intent as they stared at her daring her to tell him the truth.

She bit the inside of her cheek as she debated her next words. She felt Casper on her lap nudging her hand under the blanket and she patted him absently, his wet nose nudging her arm. She felt her heart racing and her palms dampening as she held his gaze, "because they know I'm in love with you and between them they're convinced I'm the greatest thing since sliced bread so you either feel the same way now or you will feel the same way at some point. I'm not convinced but Clara threw me under the bus in front of the Andropov house leaving me no choice." She shrugged as if she hadn't just laid her heart bare for the first time in her life and as Casper slipped his head up from under the blanket to nestle his head under her chin, she waited for the consequences of what she'd just done.

"You're in love with me?" he asked quietly.

"The whole reason I never wanted to date you was because I wanted to avoid this like the plague."

"You don't want to be in love with me?"

"I don't want to be vulnerable to anyone. I don't like how this feels. I don't like how I'm sitting here feeling an i***t after telling you how I feel or the way it hurts. Calvin joked he sometimes wonders if Clara didn't create me in the lab because I don't get emotional. Well other than angry. I get angry a lot. Falling in love, well, not really my schtick." She looked at Casper and nuzzled him, "if I'm honest, I didn't think I could. I mean I was with Evgeni three years and never said it once. Sabine often jokes in this line of work, most of us have personality disorders."

"Sabine, the psychologist you told Portia to call knows what you do?"

"She is the Gamma on our team. She was at the location to get Portia before me. She helped me get her out."

A thought occurred to him, "all the women I saw you with in Rio?"

"Two teams of really good friends who have been together for years. Clara and Naomi were a team for more than ten years before they separated them."

"Were you there for a job?"

"God damn it Cam I just told you I loved you and you're worried about the activities of my friends?" She stood up suddenly and rubbed her face against Casper's fur. "Can you let yourself out please? Tonight, I must face my parents and my siblings for a damn family dinner I don't want to attend. I'm going to bed."

She didn't even look at him as she carried Casper up the flight of stairs towards her bedroom. She hadn't wanted to sleep in her bed because it still smelled of him and his presence had infiltrated her safe space but now her whole house reeked of Cam Torres, and it hurt. She wondered if she could get the pyromaniac from the clean up crew to burn it down and she could just start over somewhere else. She sighed as she crawled onto her bed and Casper curled up against her chest.

She was a strong independent woman, and she didn't need a man but damned if she didn't want one and she wanted the one she just told to leave. She had already cried more in the last day than she had in years, so she had no tears left to shed but her throat was parched, and her eyes were burning. She wanted to sleep but her mind was not cooperating.

She heard his footsteps on the stairs and groaned. Why was he so damn incapable of following direction? Casper licked her cheek at her annoyed breath, and she kissed his little face. "I know buddy, I know. I'm okay. I promise."

She felt Cam sit on the edge of her bed, the weight of his body pulling her in a roll backwards and she shifted against it. He lay behind her and wrapped his arm around her.

"Cam, I can't."

"Isabella, just sleep. You need sleep. I need sleep. We can talk more after but set your alarm on your watch and just sleep. We both sleep better this way."

Casper let out a low growl and Cam lifted his head and stroked him, "it's okay buddy. You're mad at me too and I get it. I just want your mama to rest. I think we all need to rest, huh little buddy."

Isabella considered her dog a traitor as Casper nuzzled his hand before tucking his head back under her chin. She considered her own body a traitor as it snuggled against the thick hard chest behind her, and her eyelids instantly closed.

The sound of Cam's even breathing told her he had fallen asleep, and she wasn't long in following behind. She didn't get the easy dreamless sleep she had been hoping.

Memories of her kidnapping, twisted with Portia's rescue and tangled with Evgeni's stalking of her over the last month and she was spiralling into a blood-filled panoramic display. She flailed in her sleep as she fought her way through an army of soldiers trying to rescue Portia from a crazy Evgeni. Using her knives and a gun she shot and sliced her way only to replace Portia dead and Evgeni gone. She screamed in frustration and then the sound of Casper barking made her look around for him in the dark warehouse of her nightmares. She called to him, but he just kept barking leading her towards him.

She felt strong hands stroking her back, trying to soothe her and the thought of Evgeni reappearing made her angry and she lashed out kicking her leg defensively. Casper barked again and she could feel him licking her face. As she focused on the sound of Casper's bark, following him up, up, surfacing towards the light and away from the darkness she heard him more clearly coupled with the sound of a man's voice.

Confusion marred her ability to think, and she instinctively reached for Casper and pulled him close to her chest. He nuzzled her, barking one more time telling her she was well and truly awake, and she gasped for breath.

"Shh," Cam's voice was hot in her ear. "It's okay Isabella. You're safe."

"I know I'm safe." She muttered angrily as she hugged Casper tight. "I know I'm safe." She sat up in the bed and groaned as she relaxed under Casper's guidance. "Damn it." Cam had sat up beside her and rubbed her back in slow circular motions. "You, okay?"

"Fine, wasn't me in trouble in my dreams. I dreamt I couldn't get her fast enough. Clara warned me I'd dream of her. It's harder when you know them," she whispered as she pushed her hair out of her face. "Thursday night took me thirty-one minutes to get to her. I knew you and Gideon were in Mikhail's and it was why she couldn't reach you. It took me thirty minutes on my bike in November. If it would have been summer with more traffic it would have been longer. If he had woken up and beat the door in and found her on the phone," her breath was shaky as she talked it out. "If Josephine hadn't met us and got the door open. God I would have had to scale the bricks." She ran a shaky hand through Casper's fur. "I mean I would have. I would have done it but there was too much luck involved. Thank God she was sneaky enough to have a second cell phone tucked in her boots."

"Hey, come here," Cam's voice was soft as he tugged her backwards to lay in his arms. "You did good Isabella." He wrapped his arms around her middle as she rested half-reclined against his chest. The feel of his uneven breathing against her back proving he was affected.

"I'm angry I wasn't there." The low timbre of his voice echoed in the quietness of the room.

She closed her eyes at his words.

"She's my daughter and she couldn't reach me and I, the CEO of one of the largest security agencies in the world, didn't protect her. I should have seen what she was up to. I should have told Mikhail to f**k himself over his phone rules. You did for her what I failed to do and I'm so angry with myself. She could still be missing. She could be dead. I should have killed Evgeni Andropov weeks ago when I found out he was banging my little girl."

She felt Casper stretch across her shoulder to nuzzle Cam and she let her head fall back against Cam's shoulder and turned her face upward to look at him. She reached one hand up and touched his stubbly cheek. "She's okay Cam. Frankly, she demonstrated she is far more cunning than you've given her credit for. She's smart and the dumb blonde act is for show. I didn't know whether to shake her silly for having two phones and the way she got away from her security detail or hugging her because her sneakiness kept her alive."

"Tell me again how you killed the fucker." His tone told her he was serious.

"Our Beta is a sniper. He was passed out and I wanted him awake when we killed him." Her voice was monotone as she delivered the details coldly, "our Beta shot his d**k off. I stuck my knife into the bullet wound and fileted him to his gut. Sabby slit his throat. He begged to be allowed to live after he confessed to raping four women and kidnapping two."

They sat in silence for a few moments, in a quiet embrace. "I love you, Isabella. I loved you before you rescued my daughter and murdered the son of a b***h, but I swear I love you a hundred-fold more because you did it slowly and painfully." His words were slow and deliberate so she wouldn't misunderstand his intentions. "I'm sorry I've been an a*s. I'm trying to sort out the guilt that someone else had to rescue Portia. It should have been me. I do love you. Please forgive me."

She felt a single tear of relief slide down her cheek.

"I love you too," she whispered as she leaned forward and kissed his arms folded over her chest. She took a breath. "Wanna meet my family tonight?"