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He hadn’t known about them. No one had known about them but Chandler Mackay, and Chandler had done nothing to ensure their protection should anything happen to him.
“They’ll still get hurt. ” That was part of what he couldn’t bear. “If not physically, then otherwise. They’re too trusting, Mercedes, and too innocent. If we don’t watch out for them—”
“Then they might get their feelings hurt or their hearts broken?” she suggested as she turned and began cleaning the stove. “We can’t keep them from getting hurt, Dawg. It’s life. You know that as well as I do. ”
No, he damned well didn’t know that.
They were innocent, gentle, and deserved far more than he knew they had waiting for them if no one was close enough to protect them.
“You do know it, Dawg,” she stated as she turned back to him, watching him as though she could read the silent denial raging through him. “You don’t like it. You don’t want to admit it, but you know it. ”
He refused to accept it.
“I won’t let them get hurt, Mercedes. I promised you that when you brought them home to me. I told you I’d look out for them. ”
He had promised them he would look out for them, and he was breaking that promise.
She shook her head slowly. “There’s only so much you can do, Dawg. ” The compassion in her expression tightened his chest as he suddenly wished he had brought Christa with him for this confrontation. Maybe she could have talked some sense into Mercedes. On the other hand, she would have probably agreed with her.
“Dawg, give her this time, she needs it,” Mercedes said softly. “More than you know, she needs it. ”
She needed it.
But what happened if it was the chance an enemy needed to strike out at her?
What was he supposed to do then?
FOUR
Piper loved New York City.
The pace, the energy, the sense of excitement that seemed to permeate every corner of the city sank into her senses. Her heart beat faster. Blood rushed quick and furious through her veins, and the ordered chaos, the shopping throngs and ever-present sea of faces channeled a chaotic pace inside her own body and filled her with elation.
The first time Dawg and his wife, Christa, had brought her to the city had been to introduce her to the many and varied bolts of fabrics and exquisite costume jewelry and fake gems available in the small, out of the way shops and fabric stores there. Rhinestones, glittering crystals, clear sapphire – and emerald-colored stones—the choices seemed almost unlimited.
Now, five years later, she still found the little shops and stores impossible to leave once she began searching for the items she needed for each design—those already sketched and those that built in her imagination as she found hidden bolts of unique or discontinued fabrics, bows, ribbons, and glittering stones.
It was the first place she’d headed the minute she had rented her car that morning after arriving at the hotel.
The black four-door sedan was actually much smaller than she preferred for a four-door, but the latest trend in economy and fuel efficiency had also inspired a new generation of car designs that she simply wasn’t as fond of.
Driving in New York City wasn’t always safe, but it was rarely dull. Piper found her senses tuning in to the traffic, the bystanders, the lights and sounds of the streets as she drove outside the city toward the mountains that Eldon Vessante’s assistant had directed her to. The interview would take place at Vessante’s estate, rather than the hotel, and though she hadn’t anticipated the drive, she found it relaxed her, at least. Her nerves were less than settled at the thought of the upcoming meeting.
As she drove out of the city and entered the less congested interstate, she could feel her excitement building.
The change in time and location of the meeting was unexpected, especially considering the fact that his assistant had seemed less pleasant than she had when Piper had spoken to her the first time.
Following the onboard navigation, she found herself turning from the highway and moving onto a two-lane road that climbed slowly into the surrounding mountains. Another turn and she passed the sign for Vessante Way, the designer’s estate the assistant, S. Chaniss, had told her they were meeting at.
Piper was feeling more confused than excited as she pulled into the curving driveway in front of the three-story estate and gazed up at the stone steps leading to the massive double front doors.
There were no attendants present. No one was rushing to park her car, and only a small, bright red little sports car ahead of her was present.
Stepping from the rental car, she pulled free the wide portfolio she’d brought with her and gazed around the heavily forested area for long seconds before moving slowly to the steps.
As she reached the top, the doors swung slowly inward to reveal a towering butler.
Standing at six and a half feet at the very least, his brown gaze icy, his expression implacable, he gave every indication of being ex-military, and as hard as granite.
