The Assassin’s Billionaire Bodyguard
Chapter 55

Isabella skidded to a stop on the tiled floor as she entered the house through the back door and found Portia kneeling on the floor with a box on the floor in front of her. She kicked the box away from her and pulled Portia into her arms and away from the box. "I ordered a dress from the shop for our play tonight and they said they'd courier it to me today," she was shaking and crying as she kept her head turned away. "I thought it was from the dress shop. The box is from their shop."

Cam grabbed the box and investigated it and immediately looked to his daughter in confusion, "where did this come from?"

Cam tossed the box to Erik who made a face as he peered into it.

"A dead rat?" Erik looked to Cam. "Someone's pissed at Portia?"

Isabella pulled her cell phone out and dialed Artemis, bypassing Clara. Sometimes things needed to go to the top. "Hey, someone threatened Portia. She ordered a dress from a shop," she told her the name of the exclusive shop, "and instead of shipping her just a dress, she got a dead rat with it." Erik held up the note, "the note says she's next."

Artemis spoke swiftly, "I'll have the info to you in ten minutes and your man can dispatch who he needs to."

"Thanks."

"She'll hack their system and security cams and I'll know in ten minutes who did this and she said she'll let you manage it the way you want."

"Who is she and how can she get info in ten minutes what would take us a days to replace." Erik raised his eyebrows.

"Don't ask questions Erik. Just accept the help." Isabella retorted.

"Why would someone send me a dead animal?" Portia wiped tears off her cheeks, avoiding looking at the box.

Isabella exchanged a glance with Cam, "Portia do you know what a rat is?"

"It's a rodent."

The group surrounding her chuckled at her naïveté. Cam pulled her into his arms, "honey, it means someone thinks you tattled on them. A rat is someone who breaks a secret or tells on someone. I'm betting it's one of Evgeni's group, but Isabella will replace out. Do you have a different dress to wear because I'm fairly sure you don't want to wear one covered in rodent?"

"We're still going?" she blinked dampened eyes at her father incredulously.

"Yes, we are."

"I'm sure I could replace something in my closet, but I had this whole thing planned, around the dress."

Isabella looked at her curiously, "what size are you?"

"Zero, maybe a two? I've been eating my emotions lately so maybe a two."

"My mother would approve of you eating your emotions," Isabella squeezed her hand tightly. "Let me call in a favor and I'll get you a dress."

"How? I mean, my dad's super rich and I had to beg to get this today."

"Yeah, but you're not sisters-in-law with the sister of Merry-Beth Winchester, are you?" She shook her phone, "and I have her on speed dial."

She called Merry-Beth on video, "hey ugly. How's life in the French countryside with your brats and your fugly husband?"

"Well, well, well, if it isn't the least popular Ruiz, the only accident out of six kids."

They both busted out laughing.

"God, I miss you." Isabella moaned into the air, ignoring the confused looks from the crowd.

"I miss you too!" Merry-Beth grinned into the phone before turning to yell at her husband to shut up and it was none of his business who was on the phone. "I swear, we got married and he instantly became my personal secretary." "Is that what I have to look forward to as part of marital bliss?"

"Clara said you got engaged. Congratulations."

"Yeah, if I can survive the Russian Dickheads attempts on my life," they both groaned, "Listen, I'm with Portia Torres and she had a dress mishap and she's going to see Rent tonight after dining at some exclusive restaurant."

"Oh god I miss Broadway," Merry-Beth moaned, "Give me her number and I'll call her. Clara messaged me earlier, so I was going to reach out anyway. I'll get a dress to her in an hour, but I just want to chat with her first and get a feel for what she's looking for." "Just sent it to you and thank you. You have no idea how helpful you are."

"Well, considering how much money I made off you in Vegas our last trip, it's the least I can do."

"You made a quarter of a million dollars. This is a drop in the bucket, bitch." She laughed at Merry-Beth's chortle of glee. They blew kisses at each other on the phone and then Isabella looked up to see the inquisitive stares.

Erik spoke first. "You have Merry-Beth Winchester on speed dial? She's a f*****g movie star."

"She was a model first and she's Clara's kid sister and so by default, my sister who has contacts in fashion which will be helpful for Portia. We're the same age pretty much and whenever she's in New York we hang out. I love her to pieces." She looked to Portia, "she's going to call your phone and if she said she can get you a dress in an hour, you'll have a dress in an hour."

Portia started crying, "I don't know how to say thank you."

"Don't thank me. Thank her. Also, I told Clara earlier today about your vlogging thing, she said Merry-Beth would put you in touch with some of her contacts. She's a great resource. Use her." Portia flung her arms around her neck in a quick hug, immediately forgetting the threat to her life and the scare she had before racing up the stairs as her phone rang.

Isabella's phone rang in her hand, and she listened to the information coming from her boss. "Are you f*****g kidding me? Let me guess, it's the first time she ordered from here?" She turned her back on Cam and took a long slow breath, "yeah, thanks for letting me know. I'll let him deal with it for sure."

She turned to face the group of five men standing at the door. "Cam, maybe you don't want to know this in front of your guys."

"She found out already who it was? One of Evgeni's guys I assume?"

"No. You sure you want to do this here?"

"Yes, it's fine. I trust them."

"Okay," she grinned widely, "this is too sweet. I'm not the only one with a crazy ex."

"What?" he suddenly went pale

"Did you have a girlfriend you dated named Jasmine Porter?" She saw him inhale slowly. "Did Portia happen to catch her with some other guy?"

He rubbed his chin suddenly wishing the guys weren't there because they were all starting to laugh lowly, "yeah, we dated a few weeks and then Portia saw her making out with some guy on Fifth Ave and took a video and sent it to me. I ended it immediately." "She works for the dress shop and saw her chance to f**k with Portia for ratting her out," she snickered at the play on words. "My boss doesn't feel she's a real threat considering she didn't even kill the rat herself, just pulled it out of a trap from the back alley and gagged the whole time she was putting it in the box. My boss told me 'The big guy can handle his bunny boiler"."

"Your boss is hilarious." Cam was not amused. "I'll take care of it."

"Uh-huh," Isabella laughed and started towards the stairs. "I'm going to go let Portia know her life isn't really in danger while you take care of your ex-girlfriend." She paused halfway up the stairs and turned to look at him, "don't kill her though. I feel like one of us having to have our exes murdered is enough." Casper was hot on her heels and barked once as if to say he agreed.

The guffaws from the guys made her grin as she went up the stairs towards Portia's room. She could hear her talking excitedly to Merry-Beth and smiled as she knocked and stepped into the room. Immediately she regretted her decision and her inner neat freak screamed in disgust while Casper pawed to be picked up. She tiptoed through what had to be thousands of dollars of clothing as she moved to the closet where Portia was holding up shoes to show Merry-Beth. "Ooh, ooh, Isabella's here." Portia flapped her hands excitedly at her, "Merry-Beth is sending me a dress from one of her designer friends. He said I could even tag him in my social media! I'm so excited I could cry!"

"Great," she tried to be interested as she pushed a pile of clothes to the side and sat on a bench. "Merry-Beth," she called out to the woman on the speaker phone, "this closet is twice the size of Clara's."

"Which means it's ten times the size of yours. Portia, you'll have to help Sabine and Amelia keep Isabella looking appropriately dressed. Her idea of dressing up is changing from her sweats to yoga pants. I don't even see her, and I know she's wearing a pair of leggings and a t-shirt." Merry-Beth mocked her.erHery

"At least I'm wearing clothes. We went to Vegas, and you wore Christmas tinsel as a dress." Isabella grinned back as she looked down at her black leggings and Cam's t-shirt, she'd stolen off his bed.

"The dress was a Victor Sanchez original and cost ten grand." Merry-Beth told Portia who was hanging onto their every word.

"You know Victor Sanchez?" Portia squealed and her eyes bugged with amazement.

"Yes, don't be so excited though. Every time I see him, he propositions me and the last time, my husband was with me, so he propositioned both of us."

Isabella laughed as Portia's face fell. "Don't worry Portia, Merry-Beth is an actress now. She faked her way through the threesome."

Merry-Beth squealed and asked Portia to throw a shoe at Isabella and Portia giggled. Merry-Beth groaned as she heard her daughter screaming in the background and said she had to go.

Portia clutched a beaded bag to her chest and smiled brightly at Isabella. "Thank you for doing this. You have no idea how much this means."

"Don't mention it."

"I asked her how she made a bunch of money off you and she said something about Fight Club and rules. I don't know what it means."

Isabella chuckled. "You like Brad Pitt?"

"Who doesn't?"

"Edward Norton?"

"I guess."

"Watch the movie with your dad. He'll think you're making an effort to bond but the eye candy is superb."

Portia sighed, "I'm surprised he didn't cancel tonight. I know he didn't like taking me to the theatre last time."

Isabella pulled a face, "he told me he did. He's just not used to sitting so long but he did enjoy it."

"Really? I thought he was just saying it to make me feel better."

"Your father isn't one to lie to make you feel better. He's as honest about his opinions as they come."

"You're the only one of his girlfriends who ever actually talked to me, you know." Portia spoke quietly. "Usually, they ignored me or made me feel I was in the way."

"Speaking of," Isabella segued into the topic with ease, "the person who sent the rat was your dad's ex-girlfriend Jasmine. She works at the dress shop."

Portia wrinkled her nose, "ugh, I hated her. I was so glad to see her playing tonsil-hockey with her boss. Wait, why did she send me a dead mouse?"

"Dead rat. You told your dad, and she is apparently still angry about it."

"She was spending his money faster than I was and I was flying the jet across the ocean," Portia grumbled.

"You must miss going abroad."

"Truthfully, I was going away just so dad would call and yell at me to get my a*s home," she admitted as she dug through a pile of clothes looking for something. "I just wanted him to pay attention. Had I known telling him I was dating Evgeni would get his attention, I would have told him months ago."

Isabella chuckled, "seriously girl, there's an easier way to get your dad's attention than dating an a*****e."

Portia was quiet as she thought about her words. "Evgeni wasn't the first guy I slept with. I dated a guy at college. I really liked him, but he was using me. I found him in bed with the girl I thought was my best friend. I met Evgeni when I used my fake ID to get into a bar on the Lower East Side. I went there trying to replace a new boyfriend to make my ex and my so-called best friend jealous. I'm realizing I have really shitty judgement in people."

"I don't know if you have poor judgement or poor reasoning." Isabella commented as she watched clothes fly past her face. "If you're trying to make friends or boyfriends for the purpose of pissing someone off, then you're going to attract the kind of people who piss others off."

Portia paused and looked at her, "I hadn't thought of it like that."

"Would you like to meet someone because they're actually interested in you instead of trying to get your dad's attention?" Isabella asked curiously.

"How? I'm grounded for eternity. I'm not exactly meeting new people and I will never date one of my dad's guys. Their loyalties aren't with me." "What about one of my guys?"

"What?"

"You made an impression on one of my friends. He likes your feisty attitude. He's been after me to get your number, but I wasn't sure if you were ready. He promised to go slow."

Portia plunked down in the middle of her clothes, "I'm so confused. Who are you talking about?" Her blue eyes were perplexed as she plucked a scarf off the floor. "Detective Dylan Chavez."

She watched as the wheels turned in Portia's head before her face snapped back up at her. Isabella chuckled at the surprised expression.

"I made an impression on him? He's gorgeous."

"Yup. I'll warn you now, he's the king of going slow and it's the only reason I agreed to give his number to you. He doesn't date a lot because of his job. His last girlfriend got really upset with him because he had to leave during dinner and he got called into work." "He's a cop. Doesn't he work set schedules or a rotation or something?"

"He does but he also does a lot of volunteer work for the women's shelter. When the guys at the precinct come across a situation where they know someone might be in need of the shelter, then he will drop everything and anything to go help."

"I remember him saying he was a guest at the shelter when he was a kid."

"His Dad tried to murder his mom in front of him and his kid sister."

"Holy shit."

"Yup. She'll be here tonight actually. She's a good friend of mine."

"And his ex got mad because they were having dinner and he just left to go help a stranger who needed help from someone at the shelter."

"Yes."

"She sounds like a bigger a*****e than me. It's not like he was leaving to go bang someone. He was legitimately going to save someone's life." Isabella chuckled, "I'll send you, his number. Do with it what you like."

The sound of Sabine calling her name made Isabella shake her head. "Sounds like the doctor is in the house."

Sabine picked her way into the closet, "Portia, you need to do something with this. One of these days you'll go missing and we'll replace you under an avalanche of clothes. Also, Isabella is likely to have a panic attack from the lack of neatness. She cleans her toothbrush with a toothbrush when she's done with it, so this must be nerve-wracking for her."

Isabella tossed a shoe at Sabine and cursed her out.

"Did you give her Dylan's number yet?"

"Just sent it to her."

"Jesse will be glad. She said he's been so wound up he's been at her house every damn night for supper and she's ready to kill him. She said she'd pay you to take him out, Portia."

Portia giggled as she blushed, and Isabella shook her head. "Will you guys still be around when we get back from the show?"

Sabine grinned wickedly and Isabella groaned, knowing full well what the smirk was about. They weren't going anywhere, and the girls were going to get rowdy.