The Bodyguard Affair

“Huh?” Bianca looked over her shoulder.

“Don’t look!” Sam’s voice had the intended effect. Bianca froze in place, staring straight ahead. “Put your head down. Act like you’re rummaging through your bag. Be casual.”

Of course, telling someone to do something “casually” guaranteed they were as awkward as a mannequin pretending to be human. Not that it mattered. Because when Sam whipped onto the next street as suddenly as it appeared, Bianca was knocked across the backseat, seatbelt be damned.

“Ah!” One of her bags fell to the car floor. “Hey!”

“Keep your head down.”

Squeaking in dismay, Bianca pulled her torso closer to the seat as Sam made several more evasive maneuvers. Still, the mysterious Subaru followed them.

Until Sam turned directly into traffic on one of Seattle’s many one-way streets.

“Holy shit!” Bianca covered her eyes and groaned in fright as Sam honked her horn and weaved between sedans. Luckily, the other drivers slammed on their brakes right in time, giving Sam the perfect chance to course-correct down another side street.

Only then did she look up and let out a hard breath. They had lost the Subaru. And almost caused an accident in the process.

Sam glanced at Bianca in the mirror. “Are you all right?”

Bianca nodded, her face pale. She was safe, for now. But Sam kept her eyes open all the way back to the Black Diamond Building.

When they finally turned into the building’s private lot for family members, Sam signaled for the guardsman on duty to keep an eye out—and to close the garage door now.

“What was that about?” Bianca ripped off her seatbelt as soon as they were parked in Sam’s guest parking spot. Right next to the Corvette. Thank God they hadn’t been driving that. No, thank God Bianca hadn’t been driving. “Ugh, my stuff is all over the place.”

Sam remained in the driver’s seat, keeping an eye on the garage door while Bianca grumbled over her things, now scattered across the floor. As she picked them up and stuffed them in her bags, Sam pulled out her phone and shot a message to her team covering the other members of the Black family. “We might have been tailed from the mall to the BDB. Managed to lose pursuant. Silver Subaru sedan. Keep your eyes open, report immediately to me if you see it. Maintain caution.”

“Seriously, Sam.” Bianca appeared in the space between seats, the scent of her freshly moisturized arms filling Sam’s head. “What was that about? You could have crashed, driving like that!”

“I knew what I was doing. And I did it to keep you safe.”

“From what? No one was following us. My mom is just paranoid. And you’re as paranoid as her.”

But Sam knew what she saw. That car had been following them.Did Vivianne’s paranoia have some merit to it after all?

Something is going on around here.

Sam had to keep her eyes open. And not just to ogle the client. Because that was a road she could never go down.

Don’t get attached. Don’t get emotionally involved.Feelings left at the door. That included any feelings of attraction. To give in wasn’t just to compromise her professionalism. It could put her client’s life at risk.

And Sam wouldn’t let that happen again.