The Bodyguard

Chapter One

“Stop the wedding!”

Frankie Forrest’s cry echoed through the thin mountain air and towering pines. A blue jay screamed in raucous reply. As Frankie slammed the car door and lunged toward the chapel, she stepped on a patch of ice. Feeling herself sliding, she shifted her weight, overcompensated, lost her balance and fell onto her right knee. Her teeth clacked, jarring her skull.

Pain jangled from kneecap to hip. Stars burst before her eyes. Arms outspread, her back at an awkward angle, she lifted her face to heaven.

A very bad sign, she thought in dour superstition. Dark forces conspired to keep her away from her sister.

Wary now, she got to her feet. She gingerly tested her right leg. Her knee throbbed, but it bent the way it should and she could walk.

A long, white limousine idled in the parking lot. The exhaust formed crawling clouds. The driver most likely kept the interior warm for the bride and groom. Frankie shivered. It had been a mild forty degrees when she left her apartment in Colorado Springs, but here, at an altitude of eight thousand feet, the temperature hovered in the low twenties. She wore a fleecy sweatshirt, but the cold pierced the thick cotton and pricked her flesh. Her blue jeans might as well have been made of nylon net—already her thighs were tingling. She glanced toward the chapel. Its roof and spire were visible through the trees. She jammed a key into the trunk lock and gave it a hard twist. The trunk snapped open. She grabbed her parka and shoved her arms into the puffy sleeves.

Her sister hated this parka and urged Frankie every year to buy a new coat. Frankie had owned it since high school and hadn’t found another that felt as good. Its age showed in faded blue nylon, permanent stains and numerous small tears. She had repaired the big rips, but used whatever thread was handy, so clumsy stitches in black, white, red and green marred the ragged fabric. Penny called it the Frankenstein coat.

She noticed logos printed on the driver’s-side doors of two vehicles in the parking lot. A blue circle with a bugling bull elk, its rack of antlers overlapping the circle perimeter—Elk River Resort.

“Traitors,” she growled. She’d learned about the wedding only a few hours ago. A terse, anonymous voice on her answering machine had said, “Penny is marrying Julius at Elk River Resort today. Are you going to let it happen?” She’d be damned if she would let it happen.

She limped up the path to Sweet Pines Chapel. With each step her hurt and anger swelled. Penny knew exactly how Frankie felt about Julius and his family, and Penny knew why. Despite all her promises—her lies!—the brat had gone behind Frankie’s back and married that perverted loser anyway.

As she neared the chapel, she grudgingly admitted that winter was a good time to hold a wedding. She’d been to this chapel twice before, once for her cousin Ross Duke’s wedding and then again for her cousin Megan’s. Those weddings had taken place in the summertime when wildflowers popped through the forest floor, and the scrub oaks and aspens were bright green with leaves. Snow, however, turned the forest into a magical place, a study in charcoal with blacks, whites and grays brushed by green and framed by a porcelain sky.

Magical, that is, if this were a wedding that should take place. Which it wasn’t. If Frankie had any say in the matter, it wouldn’t.

A man stood on the chapel stoop. He wore a black cashmere greatcoat over a black suit. Black wraparound sunglasses shaded his eyes. Black hair glinted in the sun. She recognized J.T. McKennon and stopped dead in her tracks.

McKennon’s presence meant Max Caulfield attended the wedding. An image of her ex-fiancé’s smirking face swam before her vision, and her calves itched with the urge to run. Tom between saving her sister or saving her dignity, she hunched inside the parka.

McKennon nodded. A slight gesture, noticeable only because she was so intently staring at him.

Determined that not even Max Caulfield could stop her, she continued up the path. McKennon stepped to the center of the chapel’s double doors. At the base of the steps she waited for him to open the door and welcome her inside. He stood as rigidly as a solider guarding a post.

“Move over, McKennon,” she ordered. “I’m stopping this charade.”

Swarthy and unsmiling, McKennon looked like a mob enforcer. Two years ago, when she’d first met him, she’d dismissed him as the tall, dark and stupid type. Tall and dark fit, but it hadn’t taken long to figure out he was in no way a stupid man. He had an engineering degree and was an expert in electronic security. He’d served with valor in the marines and for a while had operated his own martial arts studio. He was an expert marksman with firearms ranging from pistols to grenade launchers.

He possessed a dry sense of humor and an oddly appealing detachment from the world, as if he were an alien observing the natives. Frankie used to marvel over his cool head and objective world view—his mild temperament was so very different from her own hot-headed impulsiveness. Nothing rattled McKennon.

It looked as if that much hadn’t changed in the past six months. “I said, move, McKennon.”

“I can’t do that, Miss Forrest.”

She huffed. She kicked a chunk of snow. “You’re guarding the door? Who do you think you are?”

His aristocratic mouth thinned. “I have my orders. Nobody goes in.”

“She’s my sister! I have a right—”

“Especially you.” He folded his arms over his chest.

McKennon’s sunglasses reflected her angry image. From far away a jay screeched a mocking note. Frankie clenched her teeth to keep them from chattering. Her jaws ached. The corners of her eyes watered, and her cheeks felt brittle. She strained to hear what was happening inside the chapel. She couldn’t hear any music—another bad sign.

“Come on,” she pleaded. “We’re friends. You know me.” As soon as the words emerged she felt stupid. Of course he knew her, since they’d worked together for almost two years, but they were not friends. He still worked for Max, and Max had dumped her like yesterday’s garbage, which McKennon had witnessed in all its humiliating glory. They would never be friends.

Embarrassment settled like a lump of dough in her throat. Countless times she’d replayed The Big Dump in her head, trying to figure out what had gone wrong. She’d come to the conclusion that Max had insisted McKennon stay in the room because Max enjoyed making her crawl in front of an audience.

She climbed another step. She stood five feet, ten inches tall. Few men physically intimidated her. Unmoved, McKennon gazed down at her. She sized him up. He had five inches and at least sixty pounds advantage, plus, she’d seen him in action at the gym.

She lifted her chin in an attempt to look down her nose at him. “I want to speak with Max right now.”

“Mr. Caulfield isn’t here.”

One of Max’s biggest ego trips lay in having his very own, personal, trained ape following him wherever he went. McKennon’s quietly deadly presence made Max feel like a big shot. In dark moments Frankie imagined McKennon accompanying Max to the toilet, holding the newspaper for the boss while Max did his business.

“You’re lying. I know he’s in there.”

“No, he’s not.”

His calm assurance irritated her tattered nerves. “If Max isn’t here, why are you here?” She paused, but received no response. “Have a heart. You know what Julius is like. Penny can’t marry him. He’ll ruin her life.”

“I have my orders, Miss Forrest.”

His smooth baritone held a faintly lyrical hint of a Southern accent. Frankie imagined she heard a note of distaste. Perhaps he despised Max’s stepson, Julius, as much as she did.

Which didn’t matter, since he wasn’t moving. She backed off the steps and plunged her icy hands into the parka’s deep pockets. She peered suspiciously at his face and wished he’d take off the sunglasses. She didn’t believe him about Max not being here. Yet, it made no sense for McKennon to lie about something so obvious. “Did you screw up, and baby-sitting is your punishment?”

The taunt failed to move him.

She tossed him a glare of pure disgust and went in search of another entrance to the chapel. The tiny building, built of logs and stone, contained a native-stone apse and a double row of pine pews. She walked completely around the building, but the stained-glass windows were too high off the ground for her to see through or even to pound on. She debated throwing rocks at the windows to catch the attention of the people inside, but the windows were handcrafted antiques, and if she broke one, she’d never be able to replace it. The door was her only hope.

McKennon watched her stomp her feet to clear snow off her boots and jeans. Goon, she thought hatefully. Nothing but a hound, following orders.

Then a solution occurred to her. She filled her lungs with winter air and let rip with her loudest, most blood-curdling scream.

McKennon jumped like a burned cat. “Stop that!”

“Help!” she hollered. “Rape! Fire! Murderers! Help! Help!”

McKennon bounded down the steps. His speed startled her. Men his size rarely moved so fast. She darted away and screeched loud enough to bring down the heavens. McKennon lunged for her left arm; she danced to the right Too late, she recognized a feint. He snatched her right wrist in an iron grip.

“Ra-a-a-ape—”

He twisted her against his solid body and slammed a gloved hand over her mouth. His chest heaved against her back. “You’re acting outrageously, Miss Forrest. Stop it.”

She called him every filthy name she knew, but his hand effectively muffled the words. The leather glove tasted unpleasantly metallic. She slammed a foot down, aiming for his instep, but he anticipated the move and she struck gravel. The arm around her chest could well have been carved from oak. He practically lifted her off the ground. She fought to regulate her breathing. No easy task considering that the cold had stuffed up her nose. She snuffled desperately and hated him even more.

“I have orders. No one interrupts the wedding. Not even you. Do I need to contact the police?”

She mouthed murderous threats against the leather glove. She squirmed, attempting to slip from beneath his arm, but he held her tighter, crunching her rib cage.

A commanding voice rang from the chapel door. “What is the meaning of this?” Her uncle, Colonel Horace Duke, decked out in a black tuxedo, his silver hair shining, glared at the scene below. “Francine? Is that you? Mr. McKennon, unhand my niece at once.” The Colonel closed the door firmly behind him.

As soon as McKennon removed his hand from her mouth Frankie yelled, “You’ve got a lot of explaining to do, Colonel! But first, stop the wedding!” She managed to wriggle one arm free and rammed her elbow into McKennon’s gut. His surprised woof gave her a small measure of satisfaction. She sprang away from him, whirled and put up her fists. “I’ll get you for that, you big bully.”

He tugged his lapels and used a knuckle to slide his sunglasses higher on his nose.

The Colonel marched down the steps. “What are you doing here, Francine? The latest report showed you deployed to Europe.”

“Europe?” That gave her pause. The farthest she’d ever traveled had been camping trips to Arizona, Utah and New Mexico. “What would I be doing in Europe? Oh, never mind. Let me into the chapel. I’ve got to stop the ceremony.”

The Colonel placed a hand on her arm. “They’re speaking their final vows. You can’t interrupt.”

Taking on McKennon was one thing, but the Colonel, her late mother’s brother, was another matter altogether.

“If Penny said I was in Europe, she lied. I can’t believe she roped you in. Let me inside the chapel. Then I’ll explain everything.” She beseeched him with her eyes.

Organ music filled the still, mountain air, the bass tones rumbling through the heavy doors. Frankie groaned and covered her eyes with a hand. When the colonel took her arm and hustled her away from the steps, she made no protest.

Penny and Julius, legally wed—her worst nightmare had just come true.

The chapel doors were flung wide. Seconds later, a bride and groom appeared. Frankie took in the bridal gown, yards and yards of creamy silk encrusted with glittering crystals and gleaming pearls. A headdress rose from the bride’s pale hair like a frothy crown trailed by an endless swath of pearl-dotted tulle. For a disconcerting moment Frankie felt she’d made a horrible mistake. No way could Penny have come up with a dress like that on such short notice. But no, that was Penny, looking radiant. She seemed to glow.

Frankie felt certain the top of her head was about to blow off.

Penny’s smile switched off like a blown lightbulb. Next to her, slick as an oil spill, Julius Bannerman clutched his bride’s elbow. He smiled greasily at Frankie.

Frankie knew McKennon always carried a sidearm, and wondered if she could get it away from him. Spending the rest of her life in prison seemed a paltry price to pay in order to rid the world of Julius Bannerman.

Behind the bride and groom, the Duke family gathered. Aunt Elise and her children, Janine, Kara and Ross and his wife, Dawn, were dressed in full finery, a further indication that this wedding had been no mere impulse. The Dukes—traitors all!—had helped Penny.

“I do not believe this,” she said, each word clipped.

Aunt Elise hurried to the fore. Arms outstretched, she skipped down the steps toward Frankie.

“Francine, dear! I am so glad you were able to return home from Europe. Penny said—”

Frankie threw up her hands, backing away from her aunt. “I never went to Europe. I can barely afford the gas to get up here.” Unable to take her eyes off her sister, she shoved her fists in her pockets.

“What diff does it make, now?” Julius said. “We’re sister and brother. Isn’t that peachy? Welcome to the family, Frankie darling.” Full of false cheer, each note rasped across Frankie’s nerves like sandpaper. Julius’s Adam’s apple bobbed in a convulsive swallow. “Aren’t you happy for us? Now that you’re here, we can all celebrate in proper good form, what hey?”

Penny snuggled closer to her new husband. Her face had lost what little color it possessed, but her eyes glinted with pure rebellion. “Go away, Frankie. I’m married and there’s nothing you can do about it. Stop trying to ruin my life.”

The words struck with the force of a punch. Frankie opened her mouth, but air refused to move past her throat. For the past eleven years she’d sacrificed everything for Penny. Loved her, mothered her and nurtured her. Now Penny accused her of trying to ruin her?

The Colonel reached for Frankie’s arm. She twisted out of his reach. Disgusted and heartsick, she trudged toward the parking lot. She heard Penny say, “Let her go, Aunt Elise! I don’t want her wrecking my wedding day.” The words stung like an arrow piercing her back.

“Frankie!”

At the sound of her cousin’s voice, she stopped and turned. “How could you do this to me, Ross? How could all of you do it?”

Ross Duke placed a hand on her shoulder. His brow and mouth twisted with confusion. She hadn’t seen him since his sister’s wedding last summer. He was the hell-raiser of the Duke clan—or had been up until the day he’d married Dawn. He’d always been her favorite cousin, but at the moment she wanted to punch out his lights.

“What’s going on? Penny said you were in Europe and couldn’t get back in time.” He huffed, exhaling a long, white cloud. “You’re opposed to the wedding, I take it.”

“I can’t believe that little brat sneaked around behind my back like this.” In frustration, she shoved at his shoulder. “I can’t believe your mom and dad went along with it! She’s only nineteen.”

He shrugged, showing his palms. “She’s an adult. Besides, Julius seems okay. He’s kind of a wimp, but he’s harmless enough.”

Frankie wanted to howl. “You, of all people, should be able to see right through him.” She held up a hand and ticked off a finger. “One, he’s forty-three years old. He’s old enough to be her father.” She ticked off a second finger. “Two, he’s been married three, five, maybe six times already. Not one of those marriages lasted more than a year.” She shoved at his shoulder again. “He’s a stinking drunk and probably does drugs, and God only knows what kind of diseases he’s picked up from all the women he runs around with.”

Frankie clamped her mouth shut before she spilled the part about how Max had dumped her so he could marry Julius’s mother. The only redeeming factor of the entire affair was that she hadn’t told the Dukes about her engagement to Max. She was in no mood now to rehash the nasty details.

Ross raised an eyebrow. “Oh.”

“Didn’t it give you a clue when Penny said I couldn’t make the wedding? God, Ross, I’ve devoted my whole life to her. I’m working my butt off to keep her in college. If I thought for one second she was making a good marriage, a herd of polar bears couldn’t keep me away.”

“Oh.” He looked as guilt-stricken as a puppy caught chewing shoes.

She idly kicked clots of snow. “She told me, she promised me she wouldn’t see him anymore. But she dropped out of college and didn’t even tell me. She’s been living with him.”

“I—we didn’t know. I only learned about the wedding last week.”

She glanced at the limo, which still idled on the other side of the parking lot. “She’s been planning this a lot longer than a week.”

“What can I say?”

Unable to bear looking at him one more second, she hurried to her car. Once inside, with the door locked, she rested her face against the steering wheel.

“Damn you, Penny,” she muttered. Their mother had wrested a deathbed promise from her eldest child: take care of Penny. She’d prevailed against the social-services bureaucrats who had stated that since she was only nineteen years old she couldn’t handle the guardianship of an eight-year-old. She’d gone to war and won, when her father’s ne’er-do-well relatives had learned Virginia Forrest had left a sizable insurance policy for the care and education of her daughters. She’d given up her dreams of attending medical school. She’d given up the university and a social life in order to mother Penny full-time.

She drew in several long, soothing breaths then fished her car keys from her pocket. She’d given it her best shot, tried to save Penny from making a horrible mistake, and in gratitude received a kick in the teeth. She fumbled with the keys, but her fingers were stiff from the cold. She dropped the keys on her lap and slammed the heels of both hands against the steering wheel.

Leave, she told herself. Drive away, forget this mess and wait a few weeks until Penny came crawling in search of forgiveness. She kept envisioning that look on Penny’s face, kept hearing the accusation that Frankie tried to ruin her life. She rested her face against the wheel again.

Irony tweaked her. Because of Penny, she’d gone to work for Max Caulfield. He owned the largest private security firm in the state of Colorado. He’d offered health insurance and flexible hours—benefits her age, experience and schooling hadn’t warranted. She’d started work as a researcher and gofer, which meant she could do some of her work at home so she could be there when Penny got out of school. Max had taken her under his wing, praising her intelligence and affinity for details. When graphology became popular as a useful tool in hiring employees, he’d paid for Frankie’s education in the field. To her delight she discovered that handwriting analysis was something she was good at. She’d made a lot of money for Max by helping his clients weed out dishonest employees.

In her wildest dreams Frankie had never thought she’d fall for her boss—or that he’d fall for her. Her worst nightmares had failed to prepare her for the Bannermans. Belinda and Julius, mother and son, two of the most greedy, self-serving people on earth. Max had fallen in love with Belinda’s vast wealth. Julius had taken one look at Penny and put her on his list of amusing little conquests.

Her life had been in the toilet ever since.

She opened one eye and peered at the dashboard clock. If she hurried, she’d make it to work on time.

Soft tapping on the window startled her. She jerked up her head. McKennon had removed the sunglasses.

She rolled down the window. He had unusual eyes, like emeralds shot with gold—bright and piercing against his dark face. Frankie couldn’t recall ever seeing him look so concerned. Her throat choked up.

“My apologies, Miss Forrest. It wasn’t my intention to get rough with you. But I had my orders.”

“Stick your orders where the sun doesn’t shine. I don’t need your apology.” She sniffed and groped through the mess on the front seat for a tissue. “Or your pity.”

A hank of thick hair had fallen over his forehead, softening somewhat the hard angles of his face. His sympathy embarrassed her. She’d never been particularly nice to him. When they worked together she’d been a tad jealous of his close relationship to Max. Even more, she hadn’t liked the effect he had on her. Any man who, through simple actions such as holding a door or offering a cup of coffee, could make her insides turn mushy had to have something seriously wrong with him. She hated the way he invaded her more sensuous dreams. She was a one-man woman and wasn’t about to let a hulking mercenary turn her head. Sarcasm and thinly veiled insults had always kept him at bay before.

At the moment all she could do was miserably return his gaze and wish somebody, even McKennon, would hold her and assure her that everything would be all right.

“Want to talk?” he asked.

His compassion annoyed her. He had no right to feel sorry for her. He certainly had no right trying to make her feel better.

“Julius is your brother-in-law now. If you’re going to have a relationship with Penny you need to be polite to him.”

She fumbled the key into the ignition. “Thank you very much for the advice, McKennon. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go home.”

He laid a gloved hand on her parka sleeve. “You’ll lose her.”

Damn him to hell and back for being right. Penny was as prideful as Frankie. “She could have at least finished college.”

“She has to make her own mistakes.”

In the rearview mirror she glimpsed approaching figures. Her cousins walked in a knot, all of them looking at Frankie’s car. She loved her cousins, but at the moment she wished a spaceship would swoop down and abduct the lot of them. She shoved McKennon’s hand away and exited the car. She searched the path for any sign of Penny.

Janine Duke took command, as usual. She gave Frankie a perfunctory hug, then stepped back. Garbed in a dark blue silk suit with cartouche trim, Janine looked like a fashion photographer’s dream. All her cousins looked great, Kara and Ross, Dawn, too, all were dressed like movie stars. Frankie was not merely an interloper, she was an oversized, lunkish mess wearing ragged jeans and the Frankenstein coat. She must look as wild as she felt.

She glanced surreptitiously at McKennon. He’d put back on the sunglasses and his strong-as-steel facade. She guessed he was thinking Frankie was the family nut. The family loser.

“Penny won’t leave the chapel as long as you’re here,” Janine said.

“Why am I not surprised?” She turned back to the car. “I have to go to work, anyway.”

Ross slid an arm around his wife’s waist. He and Dawn exchanged knowing glances. “If you leave now, you and Penny will have a harder time patching things up. Come to the lodge. We’ll get Penny calmed down. You two can talk.”

She needed to leave. She wanted to leave so she could hide and lick her wounds in peace. She thought about how she needed to go to work, and her cat was probably starving by now, so he’d be looking for a few books to shred in order to vent his frustration. She had a video to return. Like McKennon said, Penny needed to make her own mistakes. “None of you understands what’s going on here.”

“Try us, Frankie.” Kara, the youngest of the siblings, stepped to the fore. She took Frankie’s cold hand and rubbed it briskly between hers. “Why is Penny so angry with you?”

Startled, Frankie caught her breath. Angry? Penny had no reason in the world to be angry with anyone, much less with Frankie. Yet...she’d seen the look in Penny’s eyes as she stood on the chapel stoop. There had been a strange hardness in the girl’s expression, a glint of something deep and dark and hurtful.

“She has no reason to be angry,” Frankie said hotly. “She knows I’d do anything for her.”

Kara shrugged. “Okay, maybe she isn’t angry. Maybe she’s just embarrassed. You know, about—”

“She should be embarrassed. Julius is old enough to be her father.” Frankie didn’t like the way her cousins shared knowing glances. “What? You all know something. What is it?”

Silence hung heavily over the parking lot. The idling engine of the limousine began to sound very loud, like a rumble of distant thunder, and the stench of exhaust clashed with the clear mountain air. Frankie searched their faces one by one. Ross averted his gaze. Dawn stared at the toes of her pumps. Janine twirled a strand of her lustrous hair around her fingers. Kara clamped her arms over her bosom and shivered. McKennon appeared to meditate upon the distant mountains.

“Sheesh,” Kara said. “Penny didn’t—”

“Shut up,” Janine interrupted. “Penny will tell her.”

“She should have told her already.” Kara reached again for Frankie’s hands. “She’s pregnant.”