Guarding Her Assets Read online

  GUARDING HER ASSETS

  CHOLE MORGAN

  CONTENTS

  Description

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Epilogue

  Want More?

  About the Author

  Copyright

  Description

  Danger is my comfort zone.

  But it’s not hers.

  Somebody wants her dead.

  Mysterious packages threaten her life, and I have to fight to stay focused.

  Her curves are a distraction, and she trusts me to get the bad guy.

  She needs me to fight for her.

  That’s my cue.

  My vow to keep her safe is as strong as my will to make her mine.

  And to put the threat in the ground.

  Lucky for her, I always win.

  Whatever it costs me.

  Chapter 1

  Andrew

  I gnawed on the inside of my cheek as I stared down at the paperwork for my team’s new assignment. Fuck. It was shit like this I couldn’t stand. Sure, working in DC came with its fair share of jobs in politics. But I hated the stuff. I stayed away from them as much as I could.

  But a woman being threatened was something I wouldn’t tolerate.

  “That’s a pretty hard scowl you’ve got on your face.”

  My eyes slowly rose as I watched Stash come into my office.

  The man’s blond hair and baby blue eyes always threw everyone. He looked like a hefty dose of baby-boy innocence, until they saw how accurate he was with the guns on his hips. The man could shoot and reload faster than any man I’d ever seen, and it was skills like that I valued at my side. He worked for the US Capitol Police but was frequently attached to me whenever I had to take the political jobs just to make my personal-asset company look good in the eyes of the government.

  I didn’t like the way he ignored the books, though. Rules were everything in my world, and Stash skirted them. At best.

  I slid him the paperwork towards him as he flopped down into the chair in front of my desk. He reached over and picked them up, his eyes scanning the outline for the job.

  “The new congresswoman? The hell’s she already gotten herself into?” he asked.

  “She’s being threatened,” I said.

  “But she’s not even wet behind the ears. She’s only been in her seat, what? Sixty-five days?”

  “Sixty-seven.”

  “Dawn Fielding,” he murmured.

  She was the newest addition to the House of Representatives. After the man that came before her died a couple of months ago, her state held reelections to fill the seat. She won by a landslide, and already her file was on my desk. While her supporters seemed to worship her, what with her name plastered all over the news lately, she wasn’t without her fair share of people who didn’t like her.

  For starters, the two men who lost to her.

  “Wow, these are some serious threats,” Stash said.

  “And one of them even has a picture of her. She’s being stalked,” I said.

  “Yeah. I saw that.”

  “They’ve made threats against her life.”

  “Yep. Saw that, too.”

  “Scum of the earth, if you ask me,” I murmured.

  “Tell me how you really feel,” he said, chuckling.

  “How I really feel is this. I hate politics. I’m stuck working in the city of politics. And I can’t stand it when a woman is being targeted. Ever. Even if the reason is good. She’s a woman. Who the fuck does that kind of shit?”

  “The kind of people you track down all the time?” he asked.

  I glared at him, and he laughed.

  “Relax, man. I mean, I don’t want to piss you off or anything, but I’d be giving anything away in my life to be the one guarding that woman. She’s hot,” Stash said.

  I rolled my eyes. “Gimme that paperwork back.”

  I snatched it out of his hand as he handed it back to me, laughter still falling from his lips.

  “Come on, stop being such a stick in the mud. She is pretty. You gotta give her that,” he said.

  “What I’m going to give her is protection. A safe life while she navigates the bullshit terrain of politics,” I said.

  “I take it I need to be on the lookout for orders once you get the lay of the land?”

  “Always.”

  I escorted Stash out of my office, then left my company’s headquarters. I headed to Capitol Hill, where Rep. Fielding’s office was. My first step was recon. Making sure I understood the inner workings of how to get in touch with her. How to get to her office. Who all I passed by and who in the building seemed shady. I already knew where the cameras were, what the schedule for their security was.

  I’d protected enough of these people to have that layout already memorized.

  “Excuse me, can I help you?”

  I was stopped by a slim woman with a high-pitched voice sitting at a desk.

  “I need to see Representative Fielding,” I said.

  “Do you have a meeting?” the young woman asked.

  I slid my badge off my hip along with my credentials and slapped them onto her desk.

  “Sure I do,” I said flatly.

  The woman gave me a nervous once-over before she picked up my things. She scanned me through the system, like I’d had to do many times to get into the building itself. Satisfied, she got up and showed me directly into Ms. Fielding’s office.

  And when my eyes landed on her curvy body, my mouth went dry.

  She stood there at her window beyond her desk, her hands clasped behind her back. Her shoulders were strong. Her waist dipped in deeply. Her ass and hips flared in ways that made my palms sweat, and her long legs made me lick my lips.

  My tongue sizzled with delight, and I felt my mind fall blank.

  “Yes, mhm. We need to increase the money for the school lunch programs. These are our children. They should be eating a little better than Grade A prison food.”

  I saw the small Bluetooth device in her ear, but not much else. Her sultry voice washed over me. The richness of her tone slammed into my gut. I gripped my hands into fists at my sides, struggling to contain myself.

  It was like I’d hit a damn wall.

  Her fiery, curly red hair was piled high on her head, pinned up to perfection while keeping that wild nature about it. Her skin was fair, glistening in the sunlight streaming through the window. I swallowed a few times, my mind rushing to all sorts of salacious thoughts. My tongue between those thighs. My lips in the nape of her curved neck. My hands massaging those broad shoulders while she moaned and hummed in that velveteen voice of hers.

  “Thank you. I really appreciate your support,” she said.

  Her voice ripped me from my trance, and I watched her press down onto the device in her ear. And when she turned around, her bright green eyes destroyed any concentration I was able to save for myself.

  She had a smattering of freckles across her nose and cheeks that made me want to smile.

  “Can I help you?” she asked.

  The electricity surging through my body was too much. I’d gone completely dumb, and I couldn’t get my mouth to move. I started for her desk, giving myself a few steps to gather my thoughts. But the closer I approached, the thicker the tension b
ecame.

  Especially when her eyes slowly slid down my frame.

  “Representative Fielding, I’m—”

  She held up her hand. “Please, call me Dawn.”

  I forgot how to speak for a second before I cleared my throat.

  “Dawn. My name is Andrew Mills. You can call me Ace, if you prefer. I’ve been charged with leading a security force to protect you because of the threats you’ve been receiving to your work email,” I said.

  She waved her hand in the air. “It’s probably just some disgruntled constituent who didn’t want me to win. You’d be shocked as to the amount of threats congressmen and women get in a day.”

  “Do any of them have third-party pictures attached to those emails?” I asked.

  Her eyes found mine, and I knew I had her attention.

  “No. They don’t,” she said.

  I saw her considering me. Studying me. Her eyes fell down my body again before they came back up to hook onto mine. I felt like I was drowning in those emerald pools. I had to talk myself through my breathing. Even before she said anything, I knew I’d guard her with my life. It was the oddest thing. The weirdest connection I’d ever experienced.

  But so long as Dawn was walking around with these kind of threats on her back, I’d be there to protect her.

  No matter what it cost me.

  Chapter 2

  Dawn

  I could hardly catch my breath with the man standing in my office. He was tall and broad, with tanned skin etched with muscles that bled through that tight black shirt of his. His dark brown hair glistened with auburn highlights, and his light brown eyes sparkled with yellow flakes of the sun. He had a rugged stature and a stoic stare. But that plump lower lip of his called to my teeth.

  I wanted to nibble on it.

  He was a distraction I didn’t need. Especially with only being a couple of months into my new job. But he was also the kind of man that didn’t take no for an answer. His immovable stance told me that. He stood there, looming, like a tree in the middle of a desert. A man who had thrived in harsh circumstances and knew his way around people who didn’t agree with him.

  Those hands of his, though.

  They looked like they knew their way around a woman.

  “What do you need?” I asked.

  He blinked. “A copy of your schedule.”

  I grinned. “Not used to it being this easy?”

  “There’s usually a disagreement, yes.”

  “Well, the last thing I need is to be wasting my energy on fights I know I’m going to lose.”

  “I’ll also need your phone.”

  “My what?” I asked.

  “Your personal cell phone. I’ll need it. Unlocked, please,” he said.

  Well, at least he was polite about it.

  I pulled my personal cell out of my desk drawer, making sure it was unlocked. I tossed it to him before I pulled my Bluetooth device out of my ear, tossing it onto my desk. I hunched over my computer and typed away at my keyboard, pulling up my electronic calendar.

  “What’s your email?” I asked.

  “What?” Ace asked.

  I snickered. “Your email. It’s going to be easier if we can simply sync our calendars. That way, you see it on your phone and you’ll know where I’ll be. Updates will happen automatically. Things like that.”

  He handed me my phone back before he rattled off his email.

  I got him hooked up to my schedule, then reached for my phone. I unlocked it and looked at the screen, seeing where he had sent himself a text from my phone. Wonderful. In the span of five minutes, the hulking mass of chiseled granite had my personal number, my schedule, and my capacity to breathe in his presence.

  What else would he take from me?

  “You don’t have better things to do than wait up at night for my phone call?” I asked, smiling.

  I held my phone up to punctuate the joke, but he didn’t laugh. If anything, his eyes grew more stern. Darker than they were before. His gaze was intense, and I felt it pinning me to my window as I stood at my desk.

  “You’re the only thing I’ll be doing for nights to come, Dawn. No matter the jokes you make,” Ace said.

  Electricity shot through my gut. I felt my knees grow weak at his words. I knew what he meant. I knew what he was getting at. But that rumbling voice of his. He talked from his diaphragm, and it roiled my rib cage. I felt steam coming off my arms. The heat of his words were punctuated by his gaze before it dropped down my body.

  He made no effort to cover up how his eyes lingered before he met my stare again.

  “If you need anything else, my aide outside will get it for you. Her name is Kennedy, and I’ll let her know you’ll be a prominent presence around here for a while. At any rate, I need to run to a committee session. I hope you weren’t expecting a welcome wagon or anything. I didn’t make muffins,” I said.

  And yet again, I got absolutely no laughter. Not even a damn chuckle.

  “I’ll see you later. And don’t take any unnecessary risks,” Ace said.

  You might be the biggest risk I could ever take, Officer Mills.

  I gathered my things and strolled by him, making sure to leave my personal cell phone behind. They weren’t permitted in these kinds of meetings, and the last thing I needed was his great big distraction following me around. I walked by Kennedy’s desk, quickly informing her of our new guest. I told her to get the man anything he requested, and to not ask questions.

  Kennedy nodded quickly, and off I went to the meeting.

  I drew my mind away from how sexy Ace was and focused it on the task at hand. My prime platform focus: education funding. My home state was struggling. North Dakota was absolutely floundering with its education system. The entire country was, but North Dakota had been barely scraping by for years. I had many things I wanted to present to the floor. College affordability. Pushing for increased funding for low-income students. Making school lunches healthier all around.

  But the committee chairman, George White, was all too keen on cutting me off.

  “I think a small recess would do us some good. Representative Fielding, thank you for your words,” he said.

  “I’ll be back once our recess is done, Representative White,” I said curtly.

  “You mean you aren’t finished?” he asked.

  “Not by a long shot.”

  The committee meeting disbanded, and I made my way out of the room. If he thought a recess for the day was going to shut me up, he had another thing coming. I found him outside the room, talking with a bunch of the other white-haired, white-skinned men who were so completely out of touch it was sickening.

  “I was the one who called on this committee in the first place. You had no right to cut me off,” I said.

  George quirked his eyebrow at me before turning his back to his friends.

  “I’m the chair of the committee. I have plenty of rights,” he said.

  “You know I’m right on this, George. For too long, our education system has been struggling. I’ve got outlined plans that over half of your own committee supports. And the only control you have is to not hear me out at all. Because once it hits the floor for a vote, you lose. And you know that.”

  “I’m not sure how you believe things work here, Ms. Fielding. But let me educate you. You’re nothing but a young upstart who is gravely out of her depth. You have much learning to do at only twenty-six years of age. Everything in this world has an ebb and flow. Everything has give-and-take.”

  “And you think we should continue taking from our children? Is that what you really think? Is that how you really feel, with four kids of your own, George?” I asked.

  His eyes narrowed. “You have no idea of the rules in the game you’re playing. I’d take a second and reevaluate your next words before you cross into territory you don’t even know exists.”

  “I’ll see you after the recess. And if you don’t want to hear me out, I’m sure there are many other committees just li
ke yours that will hear me out,” I said.

  “All of whom will route back to me.”

  “Are you sure about that?” I asked, grinning.

  Before he could get another word in edgewise, I turned around and left him in my heel-clicking dust. All I wanted to do was go home to a hot bath and put behind this disastrous meeting. I dismissed Kennedy for the day and locked up my office. I headed back to my condo in my car, already feeling the hot bubbles popping against my skin.

  But when I approached my condo door, I saw Officer Mills and some other man standing outside the doorway.

  “And who might you be?” I asked.

  I turned my back to Ace and studied the man I hadn’t yet met.

  “Officer Stash, ma’am,” he said.

  “Uh-huh. Capitol Hill Police?” I asked.

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Dawn is fine. Listen, none of this is necessary.”

  “With all due respect, that isn’t your territory,” Ace said.

  I slowly turned around to face him as a scoff fell from my lips.

  “Who is Officer Kinsey?” I asked.

  “My second-in-command for jobs such as this one,” Ace said.

  “Uh-huh. And if I go inside, are there going to be people I don’t know in there?” I asked.

  I looked between the two men before I tossed my condo door open. It was unlocked. Completely open to the world. And inside stood two more men whom I didn’t know in the middle of my fucking living room.

  “You guys don’t lock doors when you’re protecting someone?” I asked.

  Officer Kinsey snickered, but Ace’s face didn’t even flinch.

  “Are you even going to tell me why there are two men I don’t know in my apartment and how you managed to get in, in the first place?” I asked curtly.

  “You’ve been granted around-the-clock security. Someone will be stationed on you twenty-four seven until the threat is neutralized,” Ace said.

  “Neutralized. And until then, my door’s just going to hang wide open with a bunch of men in black hanging around?” I asked.

  Officer Kinsey chuckled softly, and I saw Ace shoot him a look.

  “Don’t get mad at him because you don’t have a sense of humor,” I said.