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Daddy! I need you!I beg silently in my head.
Then, mercifully, the white car moves slowly off, and Jaxon appears in the doorway of the shop, a paper bag dangling from his fist.
“How does that feel, little girl?” Bodyguard Daddy asks as he adjusts my swollen knuckles on the bag of ice he’s covered with one of his t-shirts he fished out of his suitcase. “Is it helping?”
I nod. The relief is almost instant. The cold numbs my hand, soothing the throbbing ache. But it does nothing for the pain in my heart. Nor does it do much to ease the paranoia about the inconspicuous white sedan that’s sitting over on the other side of the carpark, just watching us.
“Here. Take these painkillers,” Bodyguard Daddy orders as he pops two pills out of a packet and drops them into my uninjured hand before passing me a bottle of water. “And when you’ve taken them, I got you some chocolate.”
“Chocolate?” I try to keep the glee from my voice. I don’t want him to know how happy his simple consideration has made me.
He grins sheepishly. “Don’t all ladies like chocolate?”
I swallow the pain pills with a large gulp of the water and meet his gaze.
“Oh, so now I’m a lady? I thought I was a brat. A spoiled, rude one, at that.”
Bodyguard Daddy winks. “I’m being optimistic.”
He’s being sarcastic and condescending more like, but I don’t voice my thoughts. Instead, I grumble at him, mostly because I know that’s what he expects of me, and reach my good hand out, palm up, for the chocolate he promised.
He unwraps a square of chocolate and presses it into my waiting palm, then picks up my injured hand, holding it tenderly, gently touching the swelling. My knuckles are grazed and already showing signs of bruising. His probing fingers press so softly, taking care to check my hand isn’t broken, while I’m distracted by the chocolate that’s melting so deliciously in my mouth.
“That’s got to hurt, little girl,” he says quietly, compassionately. I’m sure that’s a touch of awe I hear in his voice. What—don’t I look like the type of girl who punches things when she gets upset?
“Yes, Dad-oh!” I cut myself off quickly and gasp, horrified. Did I just nearly call him Daddy? I can’t. Oh, god, I can’t… I look down. Jaxon reaches over and takes my chin in his hand, lifting my face up so I’m forced to meet his gaze. His eyes are kind. I expect to see laughter, mocking. But I don’t. All I see is kindness and care.
“You can call me Daddy, little girl. If you want to. I don’t mind.”
CHAPTER 11
Jaxon
I can’t help the warmth that wells up within me with Jade’s almost-slip of the tongue. I can’t hide my smile. Not going to lie—it feels good that she almost called me that. It feels good that she trusts me enough now to let me look after her. But I’m not sure that she feels so happy about it all. She’s blushing deeply and won’t look me in the eye. Even though I’m holding her face so she can’t avoid me completely, she’s refusing to meet my gaze. Heat colours her cheeks and she looks like she’s about to cry, but whether that’s from pain or shame, I’m not sure. She doesn’t say a word. Her sentence stays unfinished.
There’s not even the tiniest dent in the dashboard from Jade’s fist, but her knuckles are red and swollen. They’ll be sore, but they’re not broken—I checked. The ice will help, and the painkillers she’s just swallowed. My more pressing concern is the white sedan sitting over in the far corner of the carpark. Who are the people inside it and what do they want with Jade? I’m pretty sure they’re not just paparazzi. I’m worried they’re following us for more nefarious reasons than simply takingpictures. After all, Jade’s father is worth billions. Literally. And if someone was to take her, hold her hostage, he would stop at nothing to get her back. He would give up his entire fortune.
Now that Jade’s taken care of as best I can, I start up the car and head back toward the motorway, formulating a plan in my head. We’ve got to lose this white car, and the people in it, long before we get to the airport. The last thing we need is to be followed to Dunedin. It will be much better for us if whoever is following us thinks we’re staying in the city.
They don’t even try to pretend they’re not following us. As soon as I move the Mercedes off, the white sedan slips in behind. I study them in the rearview mirror. Two men, dark haired, one with a moustache, one clean shaven. Both medium builds. Light coloured shirts. Nothing about them stands out, particularly, I think, as I commit their faces to memory. I try to leave them behind by running a red light, but they run it too, and I don’t dare do it again, because we cut it pretty close that time. The last thing I want to do is get Jade involved in a crash. That definitely would not go down well with her father. The car rental company probably wouldn’t be too impressed, either.
Jade seems to be oblivious to the car following us, and I’m happy about that. I don’t want her worrying or panicking. Her getting upset isn’t going to help matters, and there’s nothing she can do about it anyway. I want her to rest, relax, keep the ice on her hand, and let the painkillers kick in properly.
Once we’re back out on the motorway, Jade perks up. She looks eagerly out the window at the city stretching before us. From here, although only a small part of the city is visible, she’ll be able to see how big it is. She commented last night that it was tiny, dull, and nothing here. Hopefully what she can see now is reassuring her somewhat. I want her to be happy. Driving overthe motorway overpass, she looks down at the streets below us, bustling with life. It’s busier than I expected it to be for a Sunday afternoon. But then, it’s years since I’ve been in Auckland. Either I’ve forgotten what it’s like, or it’s gotten busier in my absence. I point out the Sky Tower. The harbour and Rangitoto Island way off in the distance. I don’t point out the white sedan that’s still on our tail. I speed up a bit and weave through the cars, but there’s simply not enough traffic on the road to lose them, though there is too much for me to break the speed limit by more than the smallest amount. I’m not panicking, not yet. I don’t even know what they want. But I will definitely feel more comfortable when they’re not the first thing I see when I look in the rear vision mirror.
I decide to forget the whole rollerblading along the waterfront idea. Jade’s hand is probably too sore to risk her falling over and injuring it further, and besides, out in the open like that we’re far too easy prey. I don’t know how many people will be at the beach today, but a more crowded place like the mall will be better. Far easier to keep Jade safe. We need to be able to blend in and disappear.
I glance quickly across at Jade. She looks so small and vulnerable. She’s pouting adorably, and a pang goes straight to my heart. I feel sorry for her—things aren’t going great for her so far. She’s tugging at my heartstrings in ways she definitely shouldn’t be. It’s not just my protective instincts that she draws out, but manly attraction that has no place being there. I’ve been hired to do a job. And that job definitely does not involve losing my heart to a wild, untamed brat I’ve been tasked with keeping safe.
When I turn off the motorway, the white sedan is still directly behind us. For a brief second, I consider calling the cops. Butwhat, exactly, am I going to tell them? That’s there’s a car driving behind us on a public road, and no, they haven’t done anything threatening, and no, they’re not driving dangerously? I don’t want to mention Jade’s name—too many members of the public spend their days listening to their police scanners for that to be a good idea. It will only take one wrong person to overhear that radio conversation before it will be all over social media, and then my job will become so much harder. We don’t really have paparazzi here, but we do have idiots. Plenty of them.
Once we’re off the motorway, there’s a few sets of traffic lights and then we turn into the underground parking garage beneath the mall. The white sedan tails us the whole time.
“You ready to do some shopping?” I ask as I pull into a vacant spot. I deliberately choose one that’s surrounded by vehicles. There are no other empty spaces nearby. There’s nowhere here for the white sedan to park. They’ll have to drive around until they find something. It will buy us some time—but not much.
I wait until the car drives off and the second it turns the corner to go up the other lane and is briefly out of sight, we make our move. With my hand on the small of Jade’s back, I guide her quickly into the mall building and onto the lift.
When we exit the lift, the men from the white sedan are nowhere in sight, but I’m not taking any chances. Still resting my hand on Jade’s back, I lead her into the nearest shop. It’s a department-type store, one of those shops that has everything you could want and then some, all for really cheap. The kind of shop that drags down the quality of the entire mall. The kind of shop I’m sure Jade’s never set foot in, in her entire life. The sneer on her face right now makes it obvious what she thinks of my choice of shopping places, but I have a plan, and I’m pretty sure this shop will sell what we need. Plus, if the men looking for Jade arealready in the mall, they’re never going to look for us in here. Why would a Hollywood heiress be in the $2 shop amongst the cheap plastic knick-knacks?
