to find out more about her new client. It always paid to know as much as she could about who hired her—as well as any opponent she might be up against.
“I’ll be there by two.” Elizabeth held out her hand to shake his.
When his palm touched hers, warmth radiated up her arm. She nearly snatched her hand away. His firm grip indicated a self-assured man who liked to be in control. A man who wouldn’t take no for an answer. An image of her father danced through her thoughts for a few seconds, driving all warmth from her. A quiver snaked down her spine, and she stepped back, pulling her hand away.
“Until then.” His long strides ate up the distance to the door.
As he left the office, Kyra returned and made her way to her desk. “I’m sure you have a few questions.”
“I’ve heard his name before. Who is he?”
“He’s the founder of Digital Drive, Inc.”
Elizabeth nodded. No wonder she recognized the name—his company was a huge, world-wide organization. “You seem to know him pretty well.”
Kyra waved her hand toward the chair in front of her. “I knew Slade’s wife years ago. She died five years ago, right about the time I left the Dallas police force. She had a long, hard battle with ovarian cancer. After she died, I kept in touch with Slade. A few times he has sent friends my way.”
“Given his position, it’s more likely he has the enemy, not his daughter.”
“Probably. I’ve given him a few suggestions on how to protect himself. One being that he work from the ranch to minimize his exposure. Another being Joshua.”
“For the security assessment?”
“Yes, but I also suggested Joshua guard Slade. You and Joshua would work well together.”
“Uncle Joshua is the best.”
“I know.” Kyra’s eyes twinkled. “I worked for him for many years.”
Her uncle had been a police captain on the Dallas force until his retirement a year ago, at the age of fifty-five. He was the one who had recommended her to Kyra as a bodyguard. If it hadn’t been for her uncle/mentor, she didn’t know where she would be today. He’d helped her pick up the pieces of her life when she’d hit rock bottom five years ago after her husband left her for another woman.
“What kind of man is Slade Caulder?” Elizabeth finally asked when she found her employer staring at her with a question in her gaze. She didn’t journey back into the past often. The memories hadn’t been pleasant ones.
“He works too much, more so since Catherine died. He loved her very much, and I suspect it was his way of dealing with her death.”
Avoidance? She’d become good at that, too. For a moment she felt a connection to her client. “What about Abbey?”
“She’s precocious. Looks just like her mother and has Catherine’s soft heart. But you’ll have your hands full keeping tabs on her.”
“What kind of relationship does Abbey have with her father?”
“It used to be a close one when Catherine was alive, but I haven’t been around them together much in the past few years. She’s a teenager, not an easy time to curtail a person’s life when they don’t want much to do with adults.”
“He mentioned his mother-in-law. Did he say her name is Mary? Does she live with them?”
“Yes, Mary Bradley. And yes, she came to help when Catherine was sick and stayed on after her daughter’s death. Slade has mentioned to me how indebted he is to Mary for staying.”
“What’s she like?”
“Prim, proper, kind. I used to attend the same church as she did until she moved to the ranch. She is deeply faithful, like Catherine was.”
Elizabeth was glad to hear that. It was Kyra and Joshua who had shown her the way of the Lord. Now she didn’t know how she’d lived without her faith. But then, her first twenty-five years hadn’t been what she called living. She’d just existed.
Elizabeth pushed to her feet. “I’d better head home and pack.”
“As usual, call if you need any assistance. This assignment is special to me.”
She smiled. “They all are to me.”
An hour later, after contacting Joshua Walker, Slade sat at his desk at DDI, trying to clear it of everything of importance. He intended to work from home until this was resolved. Yes, he had a bodyguard for Abbey, but it was hard for him to turn something like his daughter’s safety totally over to another. He needed to be around, to help protect her.
His secretary, Ramona, entered with a stack of folders and set them in front of him. “These are the files from personnel you requested. Anything else you want me to do?”
“I’ll have a videoconference tomorrow at eleven o’clock with the department managers. Let them know. Also, scan the Wilson contracts when they come in and send them to me. I’ll go over them from home.”
“I’m taking my lunch break unless you want me to skip it and stay.”
“No. Go. I’ll be here when you get back. I’m not leaving until two-forty.”
His secretary started to turn away but stopped. “If you need me to come to the ranch and work, I will.”
“I might. Hopefully I won’t be there long.”
Once Ramona shut his door, Slade lounged back in his chair and swiveled it around to look at the tall buildings surrounding his headquarters in North Dallas. Ever since the wreck, his life had been whirling out of control. It was a lot like how he’d felt when Catherine died. He didn’t want to go back to that time. He’d almost totally lost it. The only things that had kept him going ahead were his work and his daughter.
He shut his eyes, taking a few minutes to compose himself. The coming weeks would be hard, especially with the extra people in his house. They were only a few weeks from Christmas, which was supposed to be about family. Having strangers around would be awkward. He was a private person who didn’t relish the intrusion.
A picture of the woman he’d hired to guard his daughter teased him. He still couldn’t believe she was a bodyguard. The vision of long auburn hair hooked behind her ears, eyes the color of a pine forest, delicate features and a petite frame mocked that. She should be protected, not the other way around.
The ringing of his private line yanked him from his thoughts. He snapped his eyes open and snatched up the line, hoping it wasn’t something wrong at the ranch. “Slade here.”
A long pause, then a mechanical-sounding voice came over the line. “Do you know where your daughter is?”
TWO
Slade clenched the receiver. “You’ll regret ever having messed with me and my family.”
Click.
His
