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With Special Agent McKinnon directing her, Mara drove to Keira and Cody Walker’s house in the small city of Golden, Colorado, west of Denver. When he’d casually invited her at breakfast, she’d jumped at the chance to meet someone close to him, despite the way he’d been treating her ever since their trip to Mount Evans. She already knew from Alec and Liam that Keira had been Special Agent McKinnon’s partner for three years, and the two DSS agents had been full of praise for their younger sister. Mara wanted to see how he acted around other women—was it the same with every woman he came into contact with, or was it just her?
“Turn here,” Special Agent McKinnon told her. “This is it.” Mara pulled into the driveway, drove through the open gate and up the lane, then parked. She stared for a moment, admiring the way the house seemed to blend into its surroundings. Not for the Walkers the cookie cutter look of some of the newer subdivisions they’d driven through. Theirs was an older-looking house, but distinctive and meticulously maintained, set on a fenced acre of land.
“It is nice,” Mara said before getting out of the car. “It has character.”
“Yeah. Their house is special—and a lot like them. It’s also highly defensible.”
“Defensible?” Mara was surprised by the word. Special Agent McKinnon looked as if he wished he hadn’t mentioned that, so Mara hurried on. “They are your friends, yes? Alec and Liam said—” She stopped short, realizing that Special Agent McKinnon might not appreciate being the topic of conversation between her two other bodyguards and her.
But all he said was, “Yeah. It’s a little complicated because Walker is also my boss. But they’re good friends. And their daughter is my goddaughter.” He smiled to himself, and for the first time Mara realized he was a man who could be emotionally vulnerable. “They even named her after me. Can you believe it? Alyssa Tracy Walker.” There it was again—that curious combination of pride and humility. But Mara didn’t have time to consider what it might mean because Special Agent McKinnon said, “Come on, Keira’s expecting us.”
They rang the doorbell, which was almost immediately answered by a lovely woman with red-gold curls, warm brown eyes and a dusting of freckles. “Trace!” she said with a welcoming smile. She looked toward Mara and started to speak, but Special Agent McKinnon interrupted her.
“Keira, I’d like you to meet Her Serene Highness, Princess Mara Theodora of Zakhar. Princess, this is Keira Walker, my former partner.”
Keira held her hand out to Mara. “Very pleased to meet you finally,” she said with a warm smile. “Alec and Liam have told me a lot about you.” She shot a look at her former partner that Mara didn’t understand before she added, “And it’s Dr. Marianescu, right? I was so impressed when my brothers told me. There aren’t enough women going into math, science and technology careers, even after all this time. And it had to be especially difficult for you, under the circumstances. What I mean is—”
“Can you continue this after we get inside?” Special Agent McKinnon asked drily.
Keira laughed, stepped back, and pushed the door wide. “Sorry about that,” she apologized. “Trace knows that once I get started on this subject I can go on for hours.”
As they walked in an angry wail came from upstairs. “Oh, dear,” Keira said ruefully. “Alyssa’s awake already. I was hoping she’d sleep a little longer. Excuse me for a minute, but please make yourselves at home.” She started for the stairway, but before she’d taken four steps a tall, rangy man with blond hair and blue eyes walked down the stairs and into the living room, cuddling a one-year-old baby girl in the crook of his arm.
“I’ve got her,” he told his wife unnecessarily, smiling at the baby in his arms. He raised that smile to Mara and held out his hand. “You must be the princess.”
“Yes,” Keira said, “but that’s just an inherited title. She’s also Dr. Marianescu, and that title she earned.”
Mara beamed at Keira, whose words indicated she understood. “Yes, but will you not call me Mara?” she asked both Keira and her husband as she shook his hand. “Alec and Liam call me Dr. Marianescu, but that is because they are pretending to be my students when they guard me at school.”
“Of course,” Keira answered promptly. “Mara, this is my husband, Cody. And that bundle of inexhaustible energy is our daughter, Alyssa.”
Mara looked at the little girl, whose copper-colored curls and angelic face seemed to combine the best of her mother and father. She wasn’t crying anymore, and when she saw the tall dark-haired man at Mara’s side she gurgled excitedly and clapped her hands together. “Dace!” she babbled, holding out her arms to him. “Dace!”
