Page 15 of Grave Peril

Chapter 5

It wouldn’t do to get his throat slit, so Rip didn’t move a muscle. His attacker had approached from behind, so he didn’t have a visual. Then a female whispered in his ear, “Who are you? What do you want?”

“I want to help you.” Rip waited. “This would be easier if you’d take that knife away from my throat.”

“I don’t need help.” She spoke from her position behind him, and her breath grazed his ear. “And I don’t know you, anyway.”

Rip gave her a minute.

“You don’t look like a fed,” she said.

“No, I’m not a fed.”

“You look more like a gang member, minus the tattoos.”

“No again,” Rip said calmly. “Try Navy SEAL turned bodyguard.”

She hesitated, then removed the knife. “You’d better not be lying to me.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it.”

Lela Cabelo stepped in front of him, keeping her distance. She looked into his eyes to judge his sincerity. The hand holding a piece of silverware dropped to her side, but she didn’t relax. “You better be telling the truth, because next time I’ll be armed with more than a butter knife.”

Lela was gorgeous when she was angry. Her brown eyes were ablaze. Her thick, dark hair flowed wildly around her lovely face. Her full lips and flushed skin added to her allure. Rip refocused. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”

“Well, you should have announced yourself, then. Instead, you went into the church as if looking for someone. Then you stalked around the schoolhouse.”

She’d been watching him. Rip was impressed. “I wasn’t sure you were here. It was just a hunch.”

“So who the hell are you?”

Rip motioned toward the playground. “Can we move out there? I’ll tell you everything, but I dislike feeling like I’m being interrogated.”

Lela moved aside and let him walk into the yard. He leaned against the stairs to the slide and bent one knee to rest his foot on the bottom step.

He kept his eyes on Lela as she stepped off the patio, took a seat on the concrete bench, then placed the knife beside her. He wasn’t sure that she wouldn’t make another move against him. It wasn’t that he couldn’t handle that, but he didn’t want to hurt her in the process.

Lela sat with her hands in her lap, but looked wary.

“I’m Ripley McConnell. Just call me Rip. I work for Stealth Security in Los Angeles as a bodyguard for VIPs,” Rip said. “I can show you my ID.”

“Anyone can dummy up an ID.” Lela glared at him. “I’m going to check out your story, you know.”

“I would hope so.”

“You didn’t answer my second question: what do you want?” Lela crossed her arms and held his gaze.

“I just want to keep you alive a little longer.”

“I’ve done pretty well on my own.”

“Yes, you have,” Rip said. It had been quite a feat to escape the cartel and still be alive the next day.

“I don’t need your help.”

Rip pondered that for a second. “Probably not. But even SEALs work in teams.”

Lela didn’t have a quick comeback.

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