Page 22 of Her New Bodyguard: Colton

COLTON

As I toasted English muffins to make scrambled egg mini pizzas for breakfast, I realized that Julia had already changed me. And not just because I was flipping through my uncle's little recipe book for the first time.

I couldn't let my precious girl feel like she was being chased or threatened. Our relationship had to be exciting on its own merits. Not because I was her bodyguard and we were on the run. Not because her father was in danger.

Taking another swig of coffee, I heard Julia begin to stir in the bedroom.

Last night had been incredible. There was no way I was going to let some lowlife criminals endanger this perfect bond between us. There was certainly no way I was going to let the company I worked for be a source of stress for us either.

Pouring a mug of coffee, I held it up as soon as Julia walked into the kitchen. She looked absolutely adorable with her hair tied up in a high ponytail, wearing one of the old gray t-shirts from my uncle's dresser.

"Milk?" I asked. "Sugar?"

"Just milk, thanks."

I added a splash, then handed her the mug. She took one sip, then set it aside to snuggle into my arms.

"Last night was magical, baby," I said, stroking her back, her hair, everywhere I could touch her. "I'm really sorry that I'm going to have to work today."

"I understand," she said, looking up at me with those soft eyes. "Work comes first. Don't worry about me. Either let me know what I can do to help, or I'll stay out of your way."

My arms tightened around her as I kissed the top of her head. "A low maintenance chick. You really are my dream girl."

Laughing, she pushed me away, sniffing the air. "Stir the eggs, they're about to burn."

She helped me put breakfast together, and we sat down to eat. "We're going to have to go into town for more information today," I said.

"Okay." I loved that she was always so agreeable. "Are we going to some secret hidden communications bunker with a high speed Internet connection?"

"No," I said, lowering my voice to a sinister whisper. "We're going to a repository of knowledge and history, run by brilliant women who control all information."

Julia giggled. "Cool. I love the library."

Two hours later, we pulled up in front of a tiny rural library that Julia pronounced adorable.

Once we were settled in at one of their public computers, I did a quick search for anything new on Avalon Bank or the Barrow Agency. I didn't expect anything would have hit the news, but if it had, I needed to know immediately.

I couldn't find anything, so I sent an anonymous message from a special website Warren had coded. It could be accessed through any online device to send a simple text message. But the messages would only go through to him if they were prefaced with each employee's code that we had memorized.

"That is seriously cool," Julia grinned as I explained it. "I don't like that you have such a dangerous job, but I have to say, technical things like this feel like I'm in a spy movie."

"I'll be careful not to tell you too many details so I don't ruin your movie watching experiences."

I sent Warren a message that C & J were safe, knowing that he would understand, and pass it along to her father.

Julia had averted her eyes when I began punching in my access code and casually flipped through a gardening magazine that someone had left on the table. I appreciated that.

One of the things I had learned working security all of these years was that until proven otherwise, you had to assume that everyone was the enemy.

The Barrow Agency used to be exempt from that belief. But now everything was a giant question mark.

Everything unknown is suspect,my mind repeated, as my fingers drummed on the desk.

"Julia, does your father know anyone in Portugal?"

She turned toward me and rolled her eyes. "One of his old university buddies has a house there. Some financial whiz, apparently."

"Interesting."

---