Page 1 of Hidden While In Sight

Chapter 1

There was something about being in someone’s home without their permission. Diego paused in the home office, his finger tracing the edge of a picture frame on the desk.

Colin Ashford’s family looked so disgustingly perfect. Ashford himself was slicked up in a suit, his hand on his wife’s shoulder and his asshole lawyer smile in place. The little boy in the picture even wore a fucking suit, and the little girl was in a spotless dress, as if she never played outside.

The wife drew Diego’s attention. She was the only one in the picture without a smile. Her lips were straight and serious while she stared out of the picture as if looking straight into his eyes.

His finger moved over her straight lips in the image. Well, not straight. It was almost as if one side of her mouth sagged a little. He was surprised she wasn’t more beautiful. Ashford had married someone average, maybe a little ugly, with that drooping mouth. Her hair wasn’t quite blonde but leaned more to a light brown. Her outfit was as rich looking as everyone else’s, and her shoulders were perfectly straight, her posture almost stiff. Even her eyes were less than pretty, too tight and small to tell the color in a photo.

Her body was too skinny for Diego’s taste. He liked soft curves and something to grip if he was in the mood to fuck. Often, he was more in the mood to watch.

He turned away from the picture. The house was disgustingly large, larger than someone like Ashford should have been able to afford, which was part of why Diego was there.

Their client wanted dirt on the motherfucker, something the cartel could either blackmail him with or use to tear him down.

Diego figured it’d be quicker to kill Ashford, but he wasn’t the one calling the shots.

Though he’d grown up on the streets, Diego had quickly learned how to use any electronic he could get his hands on. It was a natural gift and gave him a skill to sell besides being lethal. Ramiro—his sometimes boss, sometimes friend, and always pain in the ass—sold his surveillance skills to more and more clients each passing year, and Diego wasn’t sure whether to be irritated or grateful.

He finished setting up another camera. The things had gotten tiny in recent years, making them easier to hide. It was all about angles, so he wouldn’t miss a thing. He finished in the asshole’s home office. His client was probably wrong about Ashford. Diego had searched the office top to bottom, even in the supposedly hidden safe in the wall, and had found nada. A serious guy like Ashford would have used the safe if he had something to hide.

Watching this perfect family was going to be boring as shit.

Diego’s eyes flicked over the office, seeing nothing out of place from when he’d first arrived, and moved on. Hallways were the hardest places to hide a camera, but it amused him to use a replica of that same picture he’d studied in the office. All the pictures that hung on the wall were of the family in boring, staged poses. There were no snapshots of smiling kids or a happy couple up anywhere, only a few professionally done portraits. Ashford’s wife was holding a baby in her arms in two of the others, first the daughter, then an older one with just the son. The wife’s expression was exactly the same in each one, even the few of only the couple. Did the cold bitch never smile?

It wasn’t until the last one, their wedding picture, that he saw her lips tilted up, with no sag at all. It must have been an injury of some sort, he mused while he brushed a finger over her lips again. There it was, a smile, but there was no joy, no teeth, just that lifting of the corners of her lips. It looked fake, and he decided her serious expression was more honest.

He pushed into their bedroom, wondering why the hell she was so unhappy. Every corner of the house held more wealth than he had grown up with. The entire house was spotless, which had to be the work of hired help. No way a wife like that cleaned her own house.

He hid a camera on her vanity. It was spotless, with each makeup container carefully put away. No loose jewelry or accessories cluttered the surface. Something about it annoyed him. He crossed to the bed, lying down on the top comforter, which had been smoothed of wrinkles.

Maybe he was wrong about her not being the one to clean. He doubted hired help would put away makeup.

Diego sighed, staring up at the ceiling. This job was going to be boring as hell for sure.

He pushed up to sit on her side of the bed and pulled out her nightstand drawer—not even a fucking vibrator in the thing. She must have been the grin-and-bear-it type, seeing sex as a marital duty, nothing more. He scowled at the neatly ordered contents, shoving it closed again with more force than was necessary.

The image forming of this woman was starting to irritate him.

He crossed to the dresser, where her panty drawer made him grin. All right, she had more fun in the bedroom than he’d given her credit for. The woman’s underwear was downright filthy, crotchless options mixed in with thongs, all silky and lacy. He chuckled as he rifled through, checking for anything hidden. All he found was a picture.

There the woman was, a younger version of herself in a cap and gown and absolutely grinning at the camera. Her teeth were slightly crooked, but the joy in her expression was breathtaking.

The woman had dimples in her cheeks when she smiled like that. Diego had always had a thing for dimples. Fine. He’d been an asshole to call her average. He memorized the picture, taking in the man and woman with their arms around her. They were beaming as well. Must be her parents. He tucked the picture back where it’d been. The fact that it was hidden instead of displayed nudged against his idea of her coldness.

Diego was used to studying people. That picture made the wife not quite add up. He didn’t like it.

He’d only just been given the assignment. Now that the cameras and listening devices were up, the full view of the Ashford’s life would unfold. He’d find out everything he needed to fully understand the family—and the best path to take to break them.

Chapter 2

Diego stood with his arms crossed over his chest as he studied the wall of monitors, thinking yet again how ridiculous it was for houses to have so many rooms. Who in their right mind needed a sitting room, a family room, a living room, and a den? Especially when for the past two days they were almost always empty? Well, except for the den. The wife liked to sit in there for hours on end.

The house he was squatting in had the same number of rooms, but they all stood empty. The monitoring equipment took up more space in what appeared to be a large rec room than the air mattress he’d tossed on the floor.

He tapped the screen, where the picture-perfect family was having dinner at their fancy dining room table. Even the smaller child was silent as she scarfed down her food, pausing only for instruction from the nanny, or au pair or whatever, on the proper use of one of the forks. What bullshit.

His phone vibrated in his pocket, and he didn’t bother muting the monitors as he answered it. No one was saying anything anyway.

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