Wicked Attraction (The Protector) Read online

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY “Villanova’s going to vote in favor.” Ewan clapped his hands together in triumph and came around the side of the desk to kiss Nina’s surprised face. “Turns out that almost everyone at the party who saw you get attacked lent their support to the initiative.” Nina kissed him but then drew back. “I guess I couldn’t have hoped for a better outcome if I’d planned for it.” “Katrinka did ask me again if we’d staged it,” Ewan admitted. “Of course she did.” Nina shook her head and tugged him by the front of his shirt to give him a longer, more thorough kiss. “She’ll think we planned the whole thing no matter what we say, and she won’t care either way, because it got the results she wanted.” Ewan stroked her hair off her forehead and over one shoulder. “Also the results we wanted, baby. This is a good thing. And we’ll figure out who was trying to get to you, and why.” “I’m less concerned about why. It doesn’t matter, really, does it? If someone’s coming after me, I don’t need a hi

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE Despite her protests, it hadn’t taken Nina very long at all to pack for the weekend. She’d done a quick bit of research on the place Ewan wanted to take her, and she wasn’t going to need more than a few flowing maxi dresses and some sandals. The resort had individual cabins private enough for nude swimming, if they decided to get in the water—which was sure to be chilly. When she told him so, Ewan chuckled. “There’s a hot tub.” “A hot tub isn’t like swimming in the lake.” Nina settled against the transpo’s synthleather seats and looked out the window as the vehicle prepared to exit the highway it had taken to get to the magrail system. When it had settled into the tracks, waiting for the space in the constantly monitored traffic to allow them entrance, she relaxed. “You want to swim in Lake Erie, we’ll get you into the water. Whatever you want, baby.” “I’m not saying I want to. I’m just . . . saying. It wasn’t so long ago that nobody would have dipped a toe into that

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO “Are you sure you don’t want me to go with you?” Ewan stepped back with a low whistle to look her up and down. “Whoa. I’m not sure I can let you out of the house without me when you look as good as that. Someone might take such a liking to what they see, they might just run off with you.” Nina had been nervous about meeting Patrice, but Ewan’s leering appraisal of her forced a laugh out of her, easing the anxiety. “Sure, because I’d let that happen.” Her giggles faded away at the sight of his expression. “You know I wouldn’t. Right? Never mind the near-impossibility of anyone being able to do anything to me that I don’t want them to . . .” “That’s what I’m worried about,” Ewan said. “That you will want them to.” Nina pushed him gently onto the chair in the corner of the bedroom and settled herself onto his lap. Her fingers curled behind his neck. She kissed him, letting him feel her breath on his face as she lingered. She pressed their foreheads together and looked d

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE There’d been so many threats of blackmail, violence, and things that Ewan wouldn’t like should he dare not to respond to the demands that right now, all he could do was laugh and shake his head at the way Jordie had so clearly believed he was scary. Ewan stopped laughing a moment later when a countdown popped up at the bottom of the viddy message. Jordie’s image had frozen for a second or so, but now he started speaking again. The clickable link was still running across the bottom of the message, remaining unobscured by the numbers now ticking rapidly in reverse. “The thing is, Mr. Donahue, I need money. Credits. Cash. Moola, if you will.” Jordie hunched forward again. A little twitchier now. He shifted in his chair. “Because I’m going to work on this project, whether you like it or not. I’m going to make it happen, because I believe in it, and that’s what you always told us to do, Mr. Donahue. Do what we believe in. Right? So in order to do that, obviously, I need

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR The money transferred within seconds of Ewan authorizing it. Jordie’s viddy kept playing with the kid ranting on and on about things, but the moment the transfer was approved, the screen went blank. The comm pinged with an incoming call. “Hey, Mr. Donahue,” Jordie said with a grin, acting for all the world as though nothing was wrong. “Thanks for the credits.” “Jordie, I’m so disappointed in you,” Ewan said in as calm a voice as he could manage. “What are you thinking? Blackmail? What’s going on? This can’t just be about me not approving your work proposal.” Jordie’s expression turned serious. “It is, though.” “Why?” Frustrated, Ewan tapped the screen off to the side, trying to send a message to his security team so they could track Jordie’s location. “Because you’re the only one with the pieces I need, Mr. Donahue. See, it’s like this.” Jordie shifted around in his seat. He wore the same clothes from the viddy message, and the background looked the same. Either he

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE Nina had been here before, or a place enough like it that it was instantly familiar even if nothing else was. She couldn’t remember how she’d ended up here, or when or why she’d been in a place like this in the past, but she knew enough to understand that her memories would come back to her eventually. Probably. The blank spot didn’t feel like a permanent loss, but more circumstantial. Injury related, perhaps. The distinct scent of antiseptic that was probably too faint for anyone else to even notice wrinkled her nose. The place smelled like a hospital but looked like a hotel. She lay in a comfortable bed big enough for three of her. Thick pillows, soft sheets. A twitch of the comforter revealed she wore flowered pajamas that she would never have picked out for herself, not even under duress. Of course, Nina hadn’t chosen these pajamas. Someone else had put her in this bed and dressed her this way, and while she wasn’t too weirded out by the idea of someone handling

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX The slight figure with the white-blond hair in the doorway looked determined not to let him in, and Ewan supposed he couldn’t blame Al for being upset at being awoken at this strange hour. He didn’t have time to be polite. He put a hand on the door, forgetting for an instant, stupidly, that Al was as strong and quick to act as Nina and probably as quick to react. He was lucky Al hadn’t put him to the ground. “Please,” Ewan said and took a step back. “It’s about Nina.” Al yawned and blinked. “What about her?” “She went to visit her sister and disappeared. Someone took her. Jordie Dev is involved, somehow. I need you to help me find her, but more than that, to get her back once we do.” Ewan had spent the last few hours working with his team, trying to locate both Jordie and Nina, but so far there’d been little luck. “How’d you figure out where I live?” Al yawned again, looking curious, not angry. Ewan drew in a breath, determined not to lose his temper at Al’s lackadai

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN Nina hadn’t been keeping track of the minutes. Her memories of this particular place and circumstance might be borked, but she did recall that being too focused on the time only made it harder to stand the boredom of being locked up. When her stomach rumbled, she ordered a meal through the tablet as Adami had instructed. The menu header said Limone Luxury Health Spa, along with accompanying graphics to prove she was truly exactly where they’d told her she was. The food itself had arrived within the hour on a tray delivered via a small portal in the wall. She’d opened it quickly, but the door on the other side was locked tight, and the portal itself was far too small for her to fit through. Spa food. Fancy, pseudo-healthy options that arrived on plates decorated with edible garnish that did nothing but get in the way. Nothing so gauche as a cheeseburger had been offered, so she settled for a protein patty on a bed of greens, adorned with cheese that claimed to be re

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT Ewan’s team had come up with a series of possible locations for Jordie Dev, and therefore Nina, based on information they’d been able to strip from the data stamps on Jordie’s viddy message. Ewan had also gon