LITMIR.BIZ

       CHAPTER SEVEN

      HANNAH was in the middle of eating breakfast when the ’phone rang, and she answered it on the third ring.

      ‘Buenos días.’ Miguel’s faintly accented voice curled round her nerve-ends and tugged at something she was loath to analyse. ‘You slept well?’

      No, and I missed you like hell. ‘Thank you.’

      ‘That’s not an answer,’ he reproved. Would it help her to know he’d lain awake until almost dawn?

      ‘It’s all I’m prepared to give.’

      ‘Be as angry as hell, querida,’ he warned silkily. ‘It won’t make any difference.’

      ‘That’s an ambiguous statement. I imagine there’s a purpose for your call?’

      He didn’t know whether to laugh or repress the need to wring her neck. ‘Remind me to beat you.’

      ‘Lay one hand on me, and I’ll…’

      ‘Lost for words?’

      ‘Too many choices,’ Hannah reiterated with crushing cynicism.

      At the risk of having her hang up on him, he relayed pertinent details of the man he’d hired to take care of her.

      ‘Rodney Spears is thirty-two, ex-police, average height, bulky frame, fair hair, blue eyes. He’s driving a late model dark blue Holden sedan.’ He gave the registration number. ‘He’ll be at the house in ten minutes to introduce himself.’

      The bodyguard. Hannah clenched the receiver, and threw the cat stretched out on the tiles nearby such a dark look the poor animal leapt to its feet and ran from the room.

      ‘Next you’ll tell me he’s an expert in unarmed combat and a sharp marksman.’

      Miguel didn’t answer, which in her mind was an admission by avoidance. ‘Apart from the initial introduction this morning, he’ll remain unobtrusively in the background. You won’t notice him. Nor will anyone else.’

      ‘This is beginning to sound like a scene from a cheap detective movie,’ she alluded cynically.

      ‘Indulge me.’

      ‘How long is this subterfuge to continue?’

      ‘For as long as it takes.’

      ‘Do I entertain him for breakfast and dinner?’

      Miguel’s faint laughter sent goose bumps scudding down her spine. ‘He has the days, querida. I get to take care of you at night.’

      ‘My guardian angel,’ Hannah remarked in droll tones.

      ‘You could thank me.’

      ‘I’m more likely to hit you,’ she retaliated fiercely.

      ‘Do you have any plans for tonight?’

      ‘Dinner with my parents.’

      ‘Why don’t you stay with them overnight?’

      This was too much. He was too much! ‘I’m way past the age of requiring a babysitter.’ She took in a deep breath in an effort to control her anger. ‘Aren’t you taking this protection thing just a bit too far?’

      ‘No,’ Miguel declared with hard inflexibility. ‘Do as I ask. Please.’

      ‘I’ll think about it.’

      He wanted to reach down the line and shake her. Stubborn independence didn’t come close! Yet it was those very qualities he admired in her. But not when he was several thousand miles away.

      ‘I don’t want to see you upset or hurt.’ His voice deepened slightly. ‘Comprende?’

      ‘Okay, you’ve made your point,’ she conceded, and heard him expel a faint sigh.

      ‘Gracias.’

      Sofia escorted a man fitting the bodyguard’s description into the breakfast room, and Hannah lowered her voice.

      ‘The cavalry has arrived.’

      ‘I’ll call you later.’

      He did, and she was able to report Luc hadn’t telephoned or shown up at the café.

      The day had gone well, with new stock snapped up by various clients. Renee called to say there would be a change of plan and they’d eat at a restaurant.

      ‘I’ll go home and change first, then meet you there. Six-thirty?’

      Should she alert Rodney Spears? Just as she thought about dialling his mobile, he rang through to confirm her evening plans, and carefully noted the changes.

      Hannah checked her rear-vision mirror as she pulled out from the car park, and glimpsed a dark blue sedan follow at a discreet distance.

      Then she lost him in the flow of traffic, and she didn’t catch sight of the sedan until an hour later when she left the house en route to the restaurant.

      It was, she reflected silently, totally unnecessary for him to shadow her every move. When did the man eat, for heaven’s sake? Hamburgers and fries at a drive-through? And he had to sleep some time, surely?

      Miguel was probably paying him a small fortune, but that didn’t stop her from offering Rodney a one-hundred-dollar bill to eat in the restaurant.

      ‘Look on it as a bonus,’ she advised when he offered a protest. ‘I’ll go ahead and ensure you get a table.’

      She did, and she’d only been seated a few minutes when Renee and Carlo entered the foyer.

      ‘Darling, have you been waiting long?’ Renee greeted anxiously. ‘We got held up in traffic.’

      It was a pleasant evening. The food was superb, each course presented with flair and artistry. Hannah sipped a half-glass of wine throughout the meal, and together they caught up on each other’s news.

      ‘How is Cindy?’ Renee broached as she forked a few morsels of salad, then speared a sliver of chicken.

      ‘She was discharged this morning.’

      Renee looked at her daughter carefully. ‘One imagines Luc’s appearance at the Leukaemia Charity Ball was deliberate, rather than a chance circumstance?’

      ‘I have no idea,’ Hannah indicated with a slight shrug. ‘Nor do I care.’

      ‘It doesn’t bother you that he’s in town?’

      ‘Why should it? He’s a bad memory I’d prefer to forget.’

      ‘He hasn’t attempted to contact you?’

      ‘What is this?’ she queried lightly. ‘The third degree?’

      ‘You would tell us if he proves to be a nuisance?’ her father countered insistently.

      ‘He won’t get the opportunity.’ Her omnipotent husband was taking care of it. She spared a glance towards the bodyguard’s table, and saw that he was just finishing up.

      She could confide in her parents, but what was the point in worrying them unnecessarily? She opted not to suggest she follow them home and stay overnight. She hadn’t done so before on any of the other occasions Miguel had been away. If she suggested it now, their suspicions would be aroused. And what was the point? In her opinion, Miguel’s precautions were way over the top. Besides, the house and grounds were secure with a state-of-the-art security system.

      When the waiter

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