Page 28 of Not the Bodyguard's Princess
Andrew hoped his impassive guard face was firmly in place. He refrained from asking stupid questions like why Stu hadn’t done the job himself. “Your crime scene has been compromised by your own men. This is the second time in thirty-six hours Miss Lee has received a threat in an area that should have been secured. You call the police now, or I will.”
Stu pulled out his phone. The call to a detective was brief. “They’re sending someone over.”
Andrew steered Jordan to the cleanest of the empty chairs around a table littered with the remains of an interrupted card game. No one spoke. Andrew didn’t because he didn’t want to ask his questions in front of Stu. Jordan kept her gaze down as she played with Princess, who sat in her lap.
Mr. Blake had alluded to people bringing up her parents’ disappearance from time to time. Every once in a while, a real-life-mystery television show would revisit how the plane carrying Hirst and Ellen Lee had disappeared and how their daughter had been left behind.
A couple of minutes later, Paul entered the room. Jordan tightened her grip on Andrew’s arm.
“Jordan, I need you downstairs now. You are already five minutes late. We can’t wait all day. Storm is getting impatient.”
Sirens wailed outside the window now. Stu cleared his throat. “That’s the police. Jordan will be a few minutes longer.”
“Why?” Paul glared at Jordan.
She leaned back in her chair and scratched the dog’s ears. “Someone left me a rather unpleasant surprise. I think I should talk to the police since we’ve called them, don’t you?” Her voice was calm to the point of boredom. Andrew wondered what character Jordan was channeling for this scene. What an interesting coping mechanism. When the going got tough, Jordan got acting.
Paul’s face reddened. “Fine, just get down there as soon as you can. We are behind schedule,” he said, narrowly avoiding a collision with the police officer in the doorway as he stormed out.
Jordan stood and handed Princess to Andrew before shaking the officer’s hand. The calm, factual Jordan from the hospital room was back. Since no one asked him to leave, Andrew stayed to listen in. As she explained she hadn’t seen anyone. As soon as she’d realized what she was seeing, she’d screamed, and the bodyguards had come running. She didn’t mention that she’d specifically contacted Andrew. It could have been an automatic response if she’d used her panic word for years.
“Who was the first to arrive?” asked the officer.
Jordan looked at Andrew.
“And what did you see?’
“Miss Lee was standing two feet back from the sliding glass door. I pulled her farther into the room. She indicated there was something on the balcony, so I removed her from the area as quickly as possible. Two of the Hearthfire bodyguards came into the suite as we were leaving. A minute or two later, one of them returned with a photo.”
The officer looked at Andrew’s gray button-down shirt, then at Stu’s Hearthfire shirt. “Are you a bodyguard too?”
Stu stepped forward. “Mr. Hastings’s job is to protect Princess, the dog.”
“Like the man who saved Miss Lee at the airport. Interesting. So who’s supposed to protect Miss Lee?”
12
The six-hour Chicago-to-Londontime difference was easy enough to compute on the slow-moving wall clock. Jordan wondered how early she could ask for the session to end. Storm had moved away from the motivation questions when the actor playing her bodyguard said something about punching someone and glared. Paul had to call a ten-minute break, and soon. So far, the only person other than Paul who could tolerate Storm was Kittie. The stand-in read September’s parts as well as other minor females’. Kittie Morse answered each question more creatively and gave Storm a veneered smile that must have cost her parents a pretty penny.
It was now 10:00 p.m. in London. Could they quit already? She needed to tell Grandma about the incident on the patio before Andrew turned in his report and Blake relayed it to London.
Halfway through the next page, Storm stood. “I have dinner reservations. Jordan, will you join me?”
“No, I have an appointment of my own.”
Paul shot Jordan a look. “Can’t you rearrange?”
Jordan used her best Claire Lee impression. “I’m afraid not. They have discharged Blake from the hospital, and he’s leaving in the morning. I promised I would say goodbye. He saved my life.”
Storm appraised the rest of the women in the room. When his gaze landed on Reggie, she shook her head. “Um, uh, my boyfriend told me to stay far away from you.”
Kittie practically jumped up and down trying to get his attention, but Storm shrugged and left the room. Jordan felt for the girl, but right now she needed to get to her phone. She waved and hurried to the door, where she was met by Stu and Rod. Andrew stood at the end of the hall with Princess. Jordan headed for the dog. Her phone was in Princess’s vest, right where she’d left it. Andrew raised an eyebrow as she slipped it out of the vest and into her pocket. “Have you been a good girl?” Jordan scratched the dog’s ears.
“She mostly slept.”
“I assume she needs a walk.” Jordan turned to Stu. “Blake and I used to go to random neighborhoods. He said it was safest as no one could plan ahead. He would walk with me and have someone shadow us in a car. Would that work?”
“How did he choose the neighborhood?”
