Unmasked (Godmother Security Book 1) (11 page)

She laughed with him. “So no bid for President, then?”

“Seriously,” Sebastian said when he’d stopped laughing enough to talk.  “To be honest, I probably have more practical power to change lives for the better now than I would as President.  So, no.  No politics for me. What about you?” 

Cindy let out a bark of laughter.  “Me? In politics? Did you hit your head?”

He grinned.  It was a slow, sexy grin that made Cindy’s stomach do flip flops.  “No, I mean why do you do what you do?  Why did you quit the FBI to work in private security?  For that matter, why the FBI?  Why not the CIA like your aunt?”

“I see I’m not the only one who does homework.”

The grin was back.  “Well, it’s my job to know who is protecting me. “

“Fair enough,” she laughed.  His smile was infectious.  “I don’t dare ask how you got your information, but I will ask how much you know.”

He held up his hands in a shrug.  “I told you, wealth equals power.  Plus, I know people.  As far as what I know, not much, but probably more than is public knowledge.  Your parents died when you were three.  There are no records after that until you started attending a private school in the States at the age of fifteen.  You graduated early the next year.  You had undergrad degrees in Sociology and Criminology, and a masters in Homeland Security when you applied to Quantico shortly after your twenty-third birthday. You worked in counterintelligence until you quit and went to work at Godmother Security two years ago.” He paused, then snapped his fingers.  “Oh, and in addition to English you are fluent in French, German, and Russian, and are passable at Chinese and Spanish.

“I don’t think there is anything I could tell you that you don’t already know, except maybe my bra size,” she quipped.

His eyes went dark, “Well, that wasn’t in your file, but I could hazard a guess if I you didn’t wear such baggy clothes.”

Cindy’s face went red, and her whole body warmed at memory of his hands sliding across the bare skin of her shoulders.  She turned her face away so that he couldn’t see it in the light streaming through the windows from inside.  She didn’t dare let him see her reaction.  She had been successful in keeping her identity from him this long, but she didn’t know how much longer she could keep up the ruse. 

Thankfully she was saved from responding when a voice sounded in the dark, just beyond the balcony. 

“Morning, boss,” Gus said jovially as he came up the steps. 

“Wow, is it ten already?” Cindy asked, surprised.

Gus chuckled.  “No, it’s eight.  I’ve had enough rest.  I thought I’d come up and see if I could rustle up some grub before I went on duty.”

“There’s leftover lasagna and salad with your name on it in there,” Sebastian told the big man.

“Excellent.”  Gus went inside leaving Sebastian and Cindy alone once again.

Cindy put her book aside and stood.  “Well, that’s my cue to go get some sleep.  I go on shift early in the morning.  Goodnight.”

He smiled up at her, his gaze telling her he knew she was avoiding his questions, and it amused him.  “Goodnight.”

She turned and followed Gus inside, walking quickly, knowing she was followed by Sebastian’s gaze.

That night the dreams came back, waking her up in the middle of the night feeling cold and lonely.  It took her a little while to get back to sleep, but she finally managed to catch a few hours of dreamless sleep before waking up for her shift.

The day passed rather pleasantly.  Sebastian spent the morning working, then he and Jack took a small aluminum boat out onto the lake and fished a couple of hours before Jack went on duty.  That evening Sebastian grilled the fish while Cindy managed, with the help of an online recipe, to make a pasta salad. 

Like the night before, she and Sebastian sat on the back deck after dinner, this time while Gus did clean up.  It was cozy and quiet as they looked out over the lake and listened to the night sounds.

“So, you never did tell me how you ended up in the FBI,” Sebastian said conversationally.

She slid him a sideways glance.  “It’s not really that exciting, you sure you want to hear it?”

He nodded.  “Absolutely.”

“Well,” she took a sip of coffee, “there’s not much to tell.  I wanted to catch bad guys like my aunt, but not in the CIA.  The FBI seemed the next best choice.”

“But three degrees by the time you were twenty three?  That’s pretty impressive.”

Cindy couldn’t help the flush of pride that warmed her.  “The boarding school I went to in Europe was advanced, academically,” she said, amazed at how normal she could make her childhood sound.  “I was so far ahead of the kids at my new school, I ended up taking all of my exams two years early.”

“Wow, that’s kind of cool.”

She gave a short laugh.  “Ha! I was barely sixteen when I started college.”

Sebastian grimaced.  “Yeah, I can see where that would be a bit awkward.”

“Awkward is too mild of a word for what I was in college.  Not only was I at least two years younger than everyone else, but I was a kid that had spent her entire life in a European boarding school.  I had zero social skills.”

This time Sebastian’s grimace was sympathetic.  “That had to be rough.  Being sixteen is bad enough.  But to be away from home and in a strange culture all at the same time.  I’m sorry.”

Cindy smiled at his warm tone.  “Don’t be.  It wasn’t as bad as all that.  I went to Columbia for undergrad, so I lived with Faye. But, I did have plenty of free Saturday nights free to study and get through school quickly.  I didn’t start getting a social life until grad school.  I was still younger than everyone else, but I had at lease acquired a few social skills.”

“Why did you leave the FBI?”  He held up his hand when she shot him a dirty look.  “I don’t mean to be intrusive.  You said you knew you wanted to go into the FBI when you were sixteen, yet you only stayed in a few years.”

Cindy sighed.  “My supervisor and I had a tiny conflict.”

“What kind of conflict?”

“The kind where my fist and his nose conflicted after he grabbed my ass.”

Sebastian sat forward, fury radiating from him.  “What the hell?  I hope you had the asshole fired.”

Cindy shrugged.  “It was my word against his, and he was the one with a broken nose.  It was either resign or be reassigned to post in the middle of nowhere Alaska or something.  As it turns out, it wasn’t a bad thing.  I do a lot more of what I wanted to do working with Godmother Security than I ever did in the FBI.”

Sebastian’s lip quirked.  “So it was your lifelong dream to be personal bodyguard to a billionaire with a price on his head?”

“This assignment isn’t so bad.  I get to lounge by a lake after dinner,” she said, waving at the scenery in front of her.  “I mean it’s not as glamorous as staking out a drug cartel in the Mexican desert, but there are some definite perks.”  She laughed, but it came out half laugh, half yawn.

“Tired?”

“A little.  I’d better hit the sack.  Early to rise and all,” she rose.  “Goodnight.”

Cindy ascended the steps to her bedroom, Sebastian’s “Goodnight” still ringing in her ears.  It had been a nice day.  A really nice day.  Talking to Sebastian was so easy and comfortable.  When she wasn’t purposefully being prickly and standoffish they got along so well.  If she’d met him some other way, not as a mysterious masked woman or his personal bodyguard, she wondered if they would have clicked and perhaps dated.  The idea seemed preposterous considering their very different lives.  Her parent’s had left her well enough off that she didn’t have to worry about money, but she was nowhere near his level.  He was CEO of a multinational company and richer than many small countries.  She guarded rich people for a living.   He wore suits to work, she wore a gun.  Yet, despite all of those differences, there was something about him that made her feel comfortable and relaxed.  She was going to miss him when the assignment was over.

She pushed that thought out of her head, showered and climbed in bed.

It was dark and cold.  Cindy lay perfectly still, trying to get her bearings.  Where was she?

“Thought you could leave, did you?” A sneering voice came out of the dark. 

“No one would ever want you, you pathetic little bitch.”

Cindy recognized the voices of Kimber and Audra as teenagers.  She tried to sit up but she was tied to the bed.

“You’re not going anywhere.  Nobody wants you,” Audra hissed in her ear while Kimber cackled in laughter.

The room brightened and came into focus.  She was in the dormitory of the Bauer School.  The door was open and Faye stood just outside it, talking to Ingrid Bauer.

“Faye! In here.  Help me!”  Cindy screamed, but Faye didn’t hear her.  Cindy kicked and pulled at her bindings, screaming until her throat hurt but there was no reaction.

“Thank you for taking her off my hands,” Faye said to Mother Bauer.  “I never wanted her.  She was such a burden.”

“No, Faye, please don’t leave me,” she cried, but Faye ignored her.

“Yes, thank you,” said Sebastian, who had suddenly appeared in the doorway with his arms around a masked woman wearing a ball gown.  “She was so tiresome.  I much prefer my beautiful and mysterious Ella.”

“But it’s me.  I’m Ella!  I’m Ella!”  But he was already gone, and so were the Bauers.  Faye turned and looked into the room, finally seeing Cindy, but all she did was shake her head in disgust before she turned and walked away.

“No, Faye, don’t leave me.  Don’t leave me.  Please come back.”

“Cindy.  Cindy wake up sweetheart.” 

A gentle shake broke Cindy out of the dream and she peered up at Sebastian’s distraught features.  “What…” she asked groggily.

“You were having a bad dream.  I was on my way to bed when I heard you crying in your sleep.”

Cindy’s hand went to her cheeks and she found tears there.  “I’m fine, just a dream.  I’m sorry I disturbed you.”

Sebastian rolled his eyes.  “You did not disturb me.  And I don’t think you are fine, your hand is shaking.”

She looked down and saw he was right.  As a matter of fact her whole body was shaking.    For a moment her mind had been blank, but as the fog of sleep cleared the memory of the loneliness and terror from the dream came rushing back as real as it had been in her sleep.

“I’ll be okay,” she said, but was disgusted at the watery tremor in her voice as tears started flowing.

Sebastian put one arm behind her back and the other under her knees and scooped her up.  Before she knew what was happening he was sitting on the bed, his back against the headboard.  He settled Cindy onto his lap, her head against his chest, and pulled the comforter up over them both.  “You know, it might help if you talk about it,” he said gently.

“It’s stupid.”

“I won’t judge.  Besides, if it bothers you, it’s not stupid.”

Weak and tired and feeling more comfortable than she knew she should with his arms around her, Cindy sighed and relaxed against him.  She told him about the dream, leaving out the part about him.

He dropped a soft kiss onto the top of her head and held her a bit tighter.  “Oh, honey, why would you dream something like that?”

“To explain that I’d have to tell you my whole life story,” Cindy said with a small, water laugh.

“I’ve got nowhere to be but here,” he said, his voice husky.

“Okay, you asked for it.  I suppose I should first explain my relation to Faye.”

Confused, he said, “I thought she was your aunt.”

“She is, but not by blood.  She and my mother met shortly after they both joined the CIA, they were both very young.  They were partnered together and became like sisters.  Faye was an orphan and had never had a family, so my mother shared hers with her.  Faye went home to Ohio with my mother one weekend and met Mom’s brother and fell spectacularly in love.  They were married a year later.  He never knew either of them were spies.  They were married barely a year when he was diagnosed with cancer.  He died fourteen months later.  So, technically she is my aunt because she was married to my uncle, even though it was years before I was born.  But my parents also made her my Godmother when I was born.”

“Your mom was a spy.  That must have been interesting growing up.”

Cindy shook her head.  “I wouldn’t know.  She and my father died when I was three.  The official cause of death was a car accident, but in truth, they were killed.  My father was, or had been before he met my mother, a part of a European drug syndicate.  He and my mother met when she was undercover in the syndicate.  He turned his back on his criminal past to be with my mother.  And she, quit the CIA.  But, someone from his past hunted them down and murdered them.  I was just a baby and, boy scout that the murderer was, he couldn’t bring himself to kill me.  Instead he sold me to another syndicate that funded a school where orphaned children were trained to be spies and assassins.”

He pushed her back from him just enough that he could look down into her face.  “The European boarding school you went to was an assassin training camp?”

Cindy gave a weak smile.  “The Bauer School for the Gifted.  I was so far advanced when I went to school here in the states because we were taught everything.  We were in class or studying ten hours a day, and doing physical training four hours a day.  Half an hour each for meals, half an hour for grooming, and a strict eight hours of lights out each night.”

He pulled her close again, his arms wrapping protectively around her.  “I notice you said lights out, not sleep.”

“Night time was when the older girls like to prey on the rest of us.  You learned to sleep with one eye open,” she said, surprised at how matter of fact she sounded.

“That is—there are no words.  Wait,” he said, as if he just realized something.  “You said Bauer.  Is that the same Bauers that…”

Cindy nodded, her cheek brushing against his chest.  “Yes.  Ingrid Bauer was the headmistress and Kimber and Audra, her adoptive daughters, were students.”

“But why were you there so long?  Why didn’t Faye get you out?”

“She did, as soon as she found me.  When my parents were killed, Faye was deep undercover.  She didn’t even find out for around eight months.  By then all traces of me were gone.  She hunted down the man that killed my parents, then took down the syndicate bit by bit until she found out about the school.  It took her more than a decade.”

“That is real dedication.  She must really love you.”

Cindy knew what he was doing.  Showing her how wrong her dreams were.  But she already knew that.  That was the problem with irrational fears, they were irrational.  “She does.  And I love her.  We had a bit of trouble at the very beginning.  She didn’t know how to be a parent and I didn’t know how to be a child.  But we managed.”

He pulled her back again and smiled down at her.  “Feeling better?”

She couldn’t help but return his smile.  “I do, thank you.”  She shifted, trying to move off of him.  “I’m really okay now.  You can go to bed.  It was just a silly dream.”

He shifted her off of him, but didn’t take his arms from around her.  “There is no shame in being frightened or lonely.  I don’t think it was silly at all.  I think it is unwarranted that you fear being alone, because Faye obviously adores you.  Yet, considering your childhood, I can see why that would be your worst fear.”  He slid down next to her, pulling her so that her head rested in the crook of his shoulder.  “I’m not going anywhere.”

She knew she should protest, but being in his arms felt so nice, so right.  Of course she wanted more than just a snuggle.  She wanted to scream at him that she was Ella then kiss him like he had kissed her on the terrace of his suite, but she didn’t dare do either.  Instead she snuggled down into him, letting his warmth seep into her, relaxing her, until her eyes drifted down and she fell into a deep sleep where she dreamed of dancing in a grand ballroom with Sebastian.