Page 23 of Her New Bodyguard: Colton

Looking around the small library, the only other people in the room were two middle-aged women behind the desk, and two elderly men sitting at a large table with stacks of newspapers.

"Hold on one second."

I went to find an atlas so I could stare at a map of Portugal. I'd never been, but had been to southern Spain during one of Warren's training trips, and the terrain was similar, to some degree. Having something to focus on usually helped me think.

As I sat back down, Julia was at the computer, calling up a photo. "This is the guy. Beside Dad," she said. "Darren Smith."

Holy shit.

He looked almost exactly like Warren, although quite a bit slimmer, with a wider nose.

"What's wrong?" Julia asked.

"That has to be Warren's brother," I muttered.

"Your boss?"

"Yes."

Julia stared at me for several blinks. "Your company is the one threatening my father's bank?"

"I – I don't think so. Warren would never do such a thing. His reputation means everything to him."

Staring at the photo of Darren Smith, I took in every detail. His savage-looking neck tattoo. The gun holster, almost hidden but not quite. The way Tristan Carlisle was standing at a slight distance, as if he didn't quite trust his so-called friend. Everything about it seemed awkward.

Almost as if they were business colleagues putting on their party faces.

"Wait – what website is this?" I asked.

"It's Dad's online photo album. He keeps an archive handy so that he can show off our perfect family lifestyle to potential clients." The bitterness in her voice was clear.

"And you have his login info?" I asked incredulously.

She laughed. "Every single password of his is the same. It's wordpass, then 77, since he was born on July 7th."

I flipped through the rest of the photos, and was almost at the end when I came across a photo that turned my blood to ice. Casually glancing at Julia, she wasn't looking.

I printed a few photos from the album, then closed the browser and cleared the cache. Julia looked on edge, so I tried to think of something to cheer her up.

"Your little friend when you were four. Bippy. Were there others?"

"Yes," she smiled. "A giraffe and a skunk, who were named Fiffy and Stunk."

I chuckled. "I'm pretty sure those animals all come from different continents. It's a shame there weren't several platypuses." I screwed up my face like I was thinking hard. "Platypi?"

Julia laughed. "If only I had my phone to look that up."

I rolled my eyes dramatically. "Look where we are, baby." I went to pay for the prints, and asked the librarian, "Is it platypi or platypuses?"

"I believe it's platypuses, but let me confirm." She tapped at her computer, then smiled. "Platypuses."

"Thank you very much."

As soon as we were outside, Julia laughed loudly. "I can't believe you asked her that."

"All information is important," I shrugged.

Julia looked more relaxed after that distraction. We walked to a bench under some trees beside the library, and sat down together as I reached for her hand.

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