AllFreeNovel
Share Us
It doesn’t take long to find what I’m looking for: hats. Tourist t-shirts. Low magnification reading glasses. A stick-on moustache for me, and a long brunette wig for her. Combined, they would be the perfect disguise. Up close, they’ll probably look ridiculous. Especially the moustache and wig. But from a distance, the people searching for us—for Jade—won’t recognise us. We’ll be inconspicuous, blending in with everyone else, simply two random people getting lost in the crowd of shoppers.
“Disguises.” Jade nods approvingly. “I like the way you think. I don’t know how sexy you’ll look with that stupid moustache, though. But the glasses will suit you. They’ll make you look smart.”
“So you’re saying I don’t look smart now?”
Jade just shakes her head and giggles, but it’s obvious she’s relaxing and feeling pretty comfortable with the whole situation. She knows there’s been a car following us, and she knows we’re currently working on evading them. She seems to be treating it like an adventure. I’m proud of her.
We take our purchases up to the counter, pay, and then don our disguises. I blink rapidly a couple of times, trying to get my eyes to adjust to the slightly blurry glasses, and finger my impressive but fake moustache. Jade tucks her blonde hair up under her dark-haired wig and puts on her hat. With our new t-shirts on, I doubt anyone would recognise us. Even people who know us will have to look twice, I think. The strangers from the white car won’t have a clue.
Jade looks at me and grins. “It suits you,” she says.
I wiggle my eyebrows, making the glasses dance on my nose, and move my upper lip, trying to make the moustache jiggle. “Sexier than you thought?”
She nods sagely but a light blush creeps across her face. “Much.”
With our disguises fixed firmly in place and neither of us looking anything like our true selves, Jade relaxes completely and even I’m able to lower my guard a bit. Not completely, but enough that I don’t have to be constantly on high alert. When I first agreed to take on this job, I thought my biggest challenge would be keeping Jade safe from herself. I didn’t know my hardest task would actually be helping her hide from random idiots potentially out to do her harm. In all my years of close protection security, I’ve never before found myself wearing a fake moustache and hiding out in a shopping mall, but I try to follow Jade’s example and treat it like a fun adventure. A bit of a game. It’s a long time since I played a game. I’ve been serious for far too long. Maybe it’s time I lightened up a bit. Maybe this round of ‘evade the pursuer’ will make me feel younger and help me relate to Jade a bit better.
She’s clearly in her element, in the mall. Although she’s never been here before, she wastes no time in sniffing out the high-end stores, where racks of garments have price tags in the high triple figures and designer bags and shoes retail for more than what’s currently in my retirement fund.
“You’ve got a credit card to pay for this, right?” she asks, her arms laden with clothes, plastic hangers dangling.
I nod. Her father didn’t give me a limit on her spending; he was more concerned with me getting her clean than curbing hershopping habit, and I don’t have the heart to refuse her. Besides, I quite like seeing her happy. It’s far better than the pouting (even if it’s cute) and the sassy attitude I’ve been copping. I hand over the card and watch her almost dance up to the sales assistant to pay for her purchases, far happier than I’ve ever seen her.
I’m carrying the shopping bag and we’re nearly at the shop door when I freeze, holding out my arm to stop Jade in her tracks.
“That’s them!” I hiss, but I don’t need to. Jade has already recognised the men from the white sedan and she scowls, sending a death glare in their direction before sidestepping and turning her back on the door, pretending to shop for shirts. Outwardly, she’s as cool as anything, but when I look again, I can see her hands shaking. Whether it’s from anger or fear, I don’t know. Her face is blank. But she’s definitely far more bothered by the strangers following us than she’s letting on.
I move to the other side of the store, but close enough that I can get to Jade in a matter of seconds, if I need to, and pick up a handbag, pretend I’m shopping for a gift for my wife. Red leather. Very expensive. My eyes almost water at the number of zeroes on the tag. Really? People pay this much for a bag? I busy myself with the drawstring closure as the men wander past. I don’t make eye contact, but I’m fully aware that they look in this shop, searching for us—or Jade, anyway—but they clearly don’t recognise her because they keep on walking. Jade looks up at me and then at the door, but I signal her to keep shopping; I want them to be much farther away when we leave here. And there’s always the possibility that they will double back or be watching for two people hurrying out of a shop, making an escape.
Once a full minute has passed, I signal to Jade. Casually, we walk out of the door, Jade’s shopping bag slung over my forearm. Wedon’t walk fast. We dawdle along, like any other shoppers would do, stopping to have a look in windows of stores that catch our eye. But we’re heading for the exit by the most direct route and we’re going to leave this mall as fast as we can. With a bit of luck, our pursuers will spend a little more time searching for us before they give up, and by then, we’ll be on the other side of the city, sipping lattes at a nice little café somewhere, before we have to head to the airport.
Even in the car, out of sight of the mall, we keep our disguises on. Well, we exchange our reading glasses that hurt our eyes for our normal sunglasses, but I keep the moustache and Jade keeps the wig. Even though I have a thing for blondes, brunette suits her. I’m getting used to seeing her with dark hair, and when I suggest she keeps it on, she doesn’t argue.
It’s good, being able to converse with Jade without argument. We’ve fallen into a kind of truce, now. We’re not friends, exactly, but we’re no longer enemies, either. I’m still in charge. But for some reason, she’s decided to cooperate. Even weirder, she seems to be enjoying it. Even though she’s probably in more danger now that she’s on New Zealand soil than she’s been in the recent past, she’s happier. More relaxed. Like she’s given up the pretence of whatever front she thinks she has to keep up, and the ‘real Jade’ is shining through. The Jade that doesn’t feel the need to do battle constantly. It’s like she’s accepted the way things work between us. Like she’s taken on board the advice I gave her earlier: that how good things are between us is up to her and her mouth. She hasn’t opened it to say anything sassy for a while now, and God help me, I’m starting to miss it.
CHAPTER 12
Jade
“Do you think we lost them?” I ask Jaxon hesitantly. I hope we have, but I know better than to assume things like this. Especially where stalkers and paparazzi are concerned. The slimy weasels are masters at turning up where I least expect it, especially after I think I’ve successfully escaped and have started to relax.
He shrugs. “I think so, but we still need to be careful.”
He turns to me and smiles gently. I like it when he smiles at me like that—his whole face lights up, making him look younger. Softer. He looks quite hard when he’s serious. His smile does wicked things to my body, especially now that’s he’s wearing that stupid moustache. It’s not even real hair—it’s one piece of stiff plastic—and it doesn’t move with his face. I don’t know what the people we passed in the mall thought. It really does look ridiculous. I like it, though. The moustache brings out his playful side, and his playful side turns my insides to mush. As much as I hate the way my body responds to him, I’m also getting usedto it. There’s no doubt that Jaxon is an insanely attractive man, and under other circumstances, even though he’s quite a bit older than me, he’s got the type of body that my friends would be drooling over. Tall and lean, with muscles in all the right places, broad shoulders, a narrow waist, long legs, and a tight ass outlined so perfectly in his jeans.
“Bastards,” I mutter, half under my breath. “Why can’t they just leave me the fuck alone? Why am I so exciting?” I half expect Jaxon to tell me off for swearing, but for once, he doesn’t. Instead, he reaches over and pats my knee sympathetically.
“I’m going to keep you safe, Jade. I promise.”
“Yeah, I know,” I tell him, and surprisingly, I mean every word. Idoknow that this man will keep me safe. He makes me feel safe, and fully protected. Not like the last useless bodyguard my father hired. Mr. Useless didn’t even pretend very hard, he just left me vulnerable. But despite his assurances, there’s something in Jaxon’s voice that I don’t like. There’s an underlying tone that has me worried.
“They’re not paparazzi following us, are they?”
Jaxon is silent for a moment; I guess he’s considering how much to tell me. I mean, both he and Richard were adamant that paparazzi aren’t a problem here, so his silence right now isn’t a good sign. That must mean it’s bad. Really bad.
“Tell me!” I demand. “I’m not a child! I have a right to know!” I hate the way my voice gets shrill when I’m pissed off or scared.
“I’m not sure,” he says slowly, not looking at me, keeping his eyes glued to the road. “It would be unusual if it was, put it that way.”
