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eBook Category: Suspense/Thriller/Romance
eBook Description: Maggie O'Shay's life is endangered by her stepfather's political campaign. Maggie's brother convinces Hunter Thomas, a former intelligence operative, to infiltrate Maggie's life and keep her safe without letting her know that he's her bodyguard--and to win her heart if that's the only way to keep her safe. But Hunt loses his own heart in the encounter. Then, the question becomes: Can he keep her safe and win her love, despite the initial deception. Or will the murderer, who has already tried once, be the winner and destroy them both?

eBook Publisher: The Fiction Works, Published: http://www.fictionworks.com, 2004
Fictionwise Release Date: June 2004

11 Reader Ratings: Great Good OK Poor

Available eBook Formats [MultiFormat - What's this?]: Adobe Acrobat (PDF) [776 KB], eReader (PDB) [247 KB], Palm Doc (PDB) [231 KB], Rocket/REB1100 (RB) [208 KB], Microsoft Reader (LIT) [254 KB] - PocketPC 1.0+ Compatible, Franklin eBookMan (FUB) [250 KB], hiebook (KML) [636 KB], Sony Reader (LRF) [364 KB], iSilo (PDB) [190 KB], Mobipocket (PRC) [240 KB], Kindle Compatible (MOBI) [310 KB], OEBFF Format (IMP) [317 KB]
Words: 72101
Reading time: 206-288 min.
Microsoft Reader (LIT) Format: Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud ENABLED
Adobe Acrobat (PDF) Format:  Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud DISABLED
All Other formats: Printing DISABLED, Read-aloud DISABLED

Hunt Thomas sat across the desk from the red-haired man. The small room was decorated in the style which Hunt privately called "Utilitarian bureaucrat:" a small metal desk, two wooden chairs which had seen better days, and a battered filing cabinet. The only objects in the room less than twenty years old were the telephone, computer, and the shredding machine. Those were state of the art.

"Listen, O'Shay, this really isn't a situation I want to get involved in. I am not a babysitter," Hunt said as he raked a hand through his dark, just beginning to gray, hair. "That's not my strong suit at all. Even when I was still active, it was never my area."

"There's an old saying that you can buy in for a penny, but that it costs two to buy your way out," Colonel John J. O'Shay, III, replied with a smile. "I need this favor from you. I wouldn't ask otherwise."

"Why me?"

John smiled again. "Michael McLaughlin will be in the running for the presidential nomination."

Hunt smiled slightly, amusement in his slate gray eyes. "That should be interesting. But, I don't understand what this has to do with your sister. Or with me."

"Mags, my half-sister, is Michael's stepdaughter."

"Ah. And thus the request for a bodyguard. Why not the secret service? They are better equipped for that sort of thing. Taking care of the families of candidates and public officials is their job."

"Mags would be miserable. She hates minders. Besides, I can't believe that the Secret Service would put up with the stunts that she would pull if she were to be placed under their supervision. After a few run-ins with my mule-headed sister, they would be only too glad to wash their hands of her rather quickly, I should think. Either that or place her in protective custody. Neither of those options are particularly palatable."

"What kind of stunts she is likely to pull?" Hunt asked, carefully, in spite of the firm knowledge that by asking, he had just told O'Shay that he was becoming interested in the Colonel's sister.

"Let's just say that over the years, Mags became, and probably remains, quite adapt at losing bodyguards and then disappearing into the woodwork, only to resurface when she gets good and ready to do so."

"She makes a habit of doing that?"

"I don't know that 'habit' is the right word. She's had instances where she has done so. Sometimes, I think that she is the reason why Michael went completely gray. I know that I have been concerned about her over the years, and she's never really been my responsibility. I can only imagine how she and Michael must have fought. Of the two of them, I don't know who is the more stubborn. As far as I can tell, it's dead even."

"Her relationship with the Senator is shaky?"

"I'm not certain that you could say that she still has much of a relationship with Michael."

"Oh?"

"She did a bunk from Michael's house right after she turned eighteen. We only got a line on her because she wanted to be found. If she hadn't wanted to be found, I'm sure that locating her would have been a fluke."

"Was there a reason that she left?"

"I'm sure that there was a reason. But, she refuses to talk about it. Her fiance's funeral had been the day before she disappeared. I think that she just needed some time alone to think things out."

"Eighteen is awfully young to be engaged," Hunt remarked quietly.

"Mags has always been extremely precocious. She won the Leeds International piano competition when she was sixteen. She was the featured soloist with a major orchestra by the time that she was seventeen."

"Margaret Mary O'Shay," Hunt replied lowly with a whistle. "This is your Mags?"

"Ah, you've heard of her."

"Yeah. I've heard her play. She is brilliant."

"Yes. She is brilliant. But as far as I know, she hasn't played for an audience in years. Not since J. Roger died."

Hunt nodded in acknowledgment. He remembered the story. "Why do you think she would accept a bodyguard, now?"

"Let's just say that I would feel more comfortable knowing that someone was looking after her."

"You would feel more comfortable. That doesn't answer why she would accept a bodyguard."

"I'm not certain that she would. In fact, I am fairly certain she wouldn't like the idea at all," John O'Shay replied with a small smile. "If she knew."

"If she knew?"

"You and she have friends in common. It would be easy for you to infiltrate her life without her knowing about your protective role."

"Common friends?"

"Chuck and Natalie Ferra. Natty, Dani Faulks, Rusty Davis and Mags were roommates at boarding school."

Hunt raised an eyebrow. "I'm not sure exactly what you want from me, O'Shay. Playing bodyguard to a woman who hates bodyguards isn't exactly my strong suit, you know that. Your suggestion that I pass myself off as her lover would require cooperation from the lady in question."

"Not necessarily, Hunt," John said quietly.

Hunt was silent for a long moment. "Those aren't games that I play, Colonel. There are specialists in the intelligence community who are trained for that sort of thing."

"I wouldn't set a raven at my sister. Damn. What do you take me for?" John O'Shay replied hotly.

"We've known each other for years, John," Hunt replied firmly. "I don't have to take you for anything. We both know who the other is, and of what he is capable. Why have you picked me for this?"

"Because you are well trained. Because in all the years you were active in covert operations, there was never as much as a hint of a chink in your cover as a businessman. Because you are the sort of tough SOB whom she could identify with."

"Are you complimenting me or insulting your sister?"

"Mags is an exceptionally strong woman," John O'Shay replied, diplomatically, with a smile. "Strong, strong-minded, strong tempered, a loyal friend, and a fierce enemy. She's quite a woman. She'd run over any man who was weaker than she is. Fortunately, you aren't in that class."

"I repeat, why me?"

"I already told you. You share common friends with Mags. You can meet her as a social equal. You can plausibly use the cover of a romantic interest in order to explain your presence in her life. You aren't likely to raise eyebrows."

"I always knew you were a cold bastard, John," Hunt replied dryly.

John smiled, but the expression didn't touch the emerald green frostiness of his eyes. "I understand that you will be going stateside for a couple of months over Christmas. What will it be, your first time home in almost six years?"

"Something like that."

"You going to be seeing Natty and Chuck while you are stateside?"

"I've got an invitation to stay for a week or so with them, yes."

"Mags spends a lot of her free time with them. You'll probably run into her. If you had been able to get back to Connecticut for the wedding, you would have met Mags there. She was Natty's maid of honor."

Hunt recalled the wedding photographs Chuck had sent to him. The maid of honor had been a tall, striking, redhead, with eyes as green as those belonging to the man on the business side of the desk. "You are a real piece of work, you know that?"

"Look, Hunt, I am asking you for a favor. I can't leave London for long enough to keep an eye on her during the election. And I know I would never talk her into leaving her job in order to come here."

"What does she do? Now that she's abandoned her music?"

"Pharmaceutical sales for Faulks. She's extremely good at her job. In fact, she's been the top salesperson for the last several years. I really thought she would have gone back to music by now."

Hunt digested that information. "She sounds like a woman with her feet firmly on the ground."

"I think that we can safely say that she is that. Look, Hunt, I need someone whom I trust to look out for her."

"Trust. Can't you trust the Senator to look out for his own stepdaughter?"

"Mags hasn't spoken to Michael since she left his house. She goes out of her way to avoid him. I don't know the precise reason for the estrangement. In all these years, she has never spoken of it to me, except to warn me off the subject. Whatever the reason, I would wager it is explosive and quite dangerous to her, especially now, with Michael in running for the nomination."

"Would the Senator harm her?"

"I don't think so. She has always been like a daughter to him. But, that doesn't mean some of Mike's enemies wouldn't like to get their hands on her."

"What sort of relationship do you have with your sister?"

John sighed. "Not as close as we should be. We exchange cards on Christmas, birthdays, that sort of thing. There is the occasional long chatty letter exchanged between Emily and Mags. Once in a while, I'll call her and we'll talk. I would like to be closer to her. But, it's difficult to maintain any degree of closeness when we are so far away from one another."

"What about your sister? Assuming I enact the scenario which you have charted--I get her to fall for me--how is she going to feel when the election is over and I am no longer in her life?"

"Broken hearts mend a lot better than broken bodies."