Nothing Left to Lose (Guarded Hearts 1)

I took the note and read it over quickly; it was addressed, ‘Dear Princess’. Realisation hit me: that guy on the CCTV footage had called her princess too, that’s why she’d gotten kicked out of school. It was essentially a love letter expressing how much he missed her, how he couldn’t wait for them to be together again, and how he was expecting her cooperation at the appeal, should she be called upon to give evidence against him again. He wanted to take her away and treat her like the princess that she was. He went into a lot of crude detail about all of the things he wanted to do to her. I felt the bile rise in my throat, so I quickly swallowed it down, trying not to picture the images that were trying to force their way into my head.

I was so angry that my hands were shaking. I looked up at the senator; he looked extremely sad and tired. “This came this morning, sir?” I asked, folding the note and handing it back to him.

He nodded. “I have the others if you want to read them,” he offered, rifling through his desk drawers.

“Er… No thanks, sir. Unless there’s anything in there I need to see,” I said uncomfortably. I wasn’t sure I could read another one of those.

He waved his hand at it, a look of disgust on his face. “No, they’re basically the same as this one.”

“How many have there been, sir?” I asked curiously. That information wasn’t in the file.

He sighed. “He sends one a week, every week for the last three years. Always the same thing,” he answered. I gasped at the revelation. One a freaking week for three years and they haven’t told her? I’d assumed that it was only since the retrial was ordered. “We get one of those love letters from him, and a death threat from somewhere within his organisation,” he added grimly.

“Sir, you’re sure we can’t tell Miss Spencer? I really think she would be better off knowing. It would help her guards if she was more cooperative with us.” My mind shot to her naked in the bed, where she’d seemed very cooperative indeed.

“No, Agent Taylor. It’s my decision, and I feel that she’s too fragile,” he refused, shaking his head fiercely. I nodded in agreement. I knew she was fragile; I’d seen her sobbing her heart out, shaking. Fragile didn’t even seem the right word to describe Anna’s state of mind. “I think she’s gotten much stronger since you came. She seems to like you. I’ve never seen her like that with anyone since it happened. I mean, she smiles for goodness’ sake, and the contact you have with her boggles my mind,” he said, shaking his head in disbelief.

Oh yeah, it boggles my mind too alright! I bit my lip to suppress the smile that was trying to escape at the thought of the contact I just had with her, and hopefully would have with her again in a little while.

Suddenly my cell phone rang; I looked at Senator Spencer apologetically and reached to reject the call, but then saw it was from Dean, Anna’s far guard. “I’m sorry, sir, I need to take this.” He nodded, so I answered it quickly. “Dean, what is it?”

“Where the hell are you? For f**k’s sake, you can’t just keep taking off and leaving me! If the senator finds out I’m not with you, he’s gonna have my balls!” he shouted angrily.

Where am I? What the heck is that about? “I’m with the senator right now. What’s the problem?” I asked, confused.

He gasped. “Well, f**k it! She went on her own then!”

I jumped out of the chair as my heart started crashing in my chest. “Anna? What? She left?” I cried, annoyed. Damn that girl! The senator jumped up too, looking at me curiously. “Did she take a car? When did she leave?” I asked quickly, double checking to make sure I had my gun in my ankle holster.

“She sped out of here about ten minutes ago. I thought you were with her,” he growled. She obviously did this little disappearing act a lot.

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, my mind whirling. Where would she go? I thought about what I knew about her, and all my thoughts led me to just one place. Jack. She’d be at the cemetery.

“Get a car, I know where she is,” I ordered, disconnecting the call and pushing the phone into my pocket. I turned back to the senator. “Sir, Miss Spencer’s left without guards; I think I know where she is. I’ll come and speak to you later.”

“Where do you think she is, son?” he asked, looking at me desperately.

“At the cemetery with Jack.” I turned and rushed out of the door, running as fast as I could to the carport. “I’ll drive.” I snatched the keys out of Dean’s hand and jumped in the driver’s side. I waited impatiently for him to run to the passenger seat, and took off while he was still doing his seat belt. “Why the hell weren’t you watching her?” I snapped accusingly.

He glared at me. “As if that girl could be watched! She does what she wants! She doesn’t want guards. She’s always running off like this, it annoys the hell out of me,” he growled, folding his arms over his chest.

As I pulled into the cemetery parking lot and stopped next to her car, Dean looked at me curiously. My muscles loosened now that I’d found her. “Just wait here. She won’t want to come away, so I’ll have to give her some time there,” I instructed, jumping out of the car without waiting for an answer.

I ran up the path that we had walked the other day and stopped at the top of the hill, looking down. She was sitting there at his grave, cross-legged, trailing her fingers along the letters of his headstone. She was sobbing uncontrollably. My heart broke at the sight of her, she looked so terribly sad.