Barefoot With a Bodyguard Read Online Free PDF Page B

don’t—”
    She lifted her hand to stop him, and in a flash, he enveloped her wrist, jerking it down with one lightning-fast move and a shocking amount of power but no pain.
    At her gasp, he released her.
    “I wasn’t going to touch you,” she said, her voice trapped in her constricted throat.
    “Doesn’t matter. I wouldn’t have let you.” He glanced at his hand, as if his reflexes surprised even him, then hid it behind him. “And I’m not going to tell you my name or anything else about me. Every single thing I say to you will be a lie, so you might as well know that now.”
    “Why?” His secrecy made no sense. She understood them using an alias for her because of the threats, but he was just a bodyguard.
    “Because that’s the arrangement. Just live a lie. Can you do that?”
    She gave a soft laugh, thinking of Steven Jessup and how often she’d played a happy wife for the benefit of everyone but herself. “I was married for five years to a man I loathed and despised, so, yeah, I have mad lying skills. But I have a good reason, they say, for using a fake name. What’s your reason?”
    He shook his head, obviously not going to answer, which just sent a new wave of irritation over her.
    “And by the way,” he said, “the eighty-year-old man is not calling the shots.”
    “Who is?”
    “ I am.”
    They both turned to face another man standing in the French doors, his gaze just as blue, but not nearly as menacing.
    “And if I can waltz into this fucking villa, so can some lunatic with a gun and bad intentions. That’s twice today, cowboy.” He turned those blue eyes on the bodyguard. “Next time someone walks into this place and isn’t instantly on his ass and getting pummeled by your knee and fist, you’ll be in training for a new job. In Moscow.”
    Benjamin—or whatever his name was—crossed his arms and seemed unfazed by the dressing down. “Glad you’re here, Mr. Rossi. There seems to be a misunderstanding about my, uh, wife’s role in the operation.”
    Kate felt like her head was going to explode. “Mr. Rossi? I thought that other man—”
    “My grandfather,” he said, adding a smile that somehow took the sting out of every word. “He’s good, isn’t he?”
    “He’s not in charge?”
    “Nino? God help us. He’d be handing out cannoli instead of ID packets. I run things.” He stepped forward and offered a hand to Kate. “Gabe Rossi, and welcome to life undercover. You are now officially off the grid, below the radar, and one hundred percent secure.” He slid a vile look to the other man. “Assuming you aren’t too busy arguing with her.”
    Benjamin lifted one eyebrow. “She’s a lawyer.”
    “That explains it,” Gabe said with a soft laugh.
    “I’m sorry, but that explains nothing.” Kate glared at one, then the other. “And I’m not ever going to be a lawyer if I don’t have the solitude and serenity I need to study.”
    “And security,” Gabe added. “You got this cover, right? You are his adoring bride who doesn’t let anyone within five feet of him because you are incredibly jealous and clingy. And make sure he keeps his hand covered when you’re in public.”
    “His hand?” None of this made sense, but…his hand? “What are you talking about?”
    “Show her,” Gabe said.
    He looked a little pained at the order, but he stuck his right fist forward so she could see the purplish-black writing tattooed on his fingers between his knuckles, exactly where he’d land a punch.
    He didn’t hold them long enough for her to make out the symbols. No, letters. The Cyrillic alphabet? So, Russian or Slavic, she presumed.
    “It says kill ,” Gabe said in response to her frown. “And he will, if he has to.”
    “Why do I have to hold his hand?”
    “Because that’s not a tattoo he got while he was drunk with his friends. It’s a tag that identifies him, and there are people who would love to separate that hand from his body, along with other choice