BILLIONAIRE BIKERS: 3 MC Romance Books (49 page)

“Let me give you a quick tour,” the woman said, “so you’ll know where everything is, and then I’ll leave you to your business.”

A huge well-stocked kitchen was the first stop on the tour, and Audra noted a cupboard full of all sorts of snack foods.

“You are to help yourself to whatever you like. I’ll make three meals a day, plus tea in the afternoon, if you like, but you are free to find a snack whenever.”

“Are there some healthy snacks?” Audra asked.

The woman smiled. “Why, yes, Miss Donahue. There will always be fruit and nuts available, and anything else you request.”

“Thank you.” If she had to do this, she was going to have some normalcy in her life—and what she ate was one way to control that.

“We’ve been apprised of your food preferences.”

“Thank you,” she said again.

There was a parlor and a formal living and dining room, as well as a den and reading room. Upstairs were all the bedrooms. At one time there had been eight bedrooms, but the last two on one end of the hall had been opened up into one, and it had been turned into a “man cave.” Audra choked a little and put her hand to her mouth to keep from laughing. All this preserved and restored splendor, and the only modern room in the house was an entertainment room with a pool table, a ping-pong table, and a huge entertainment center with an equally huge TV and audio equipment.

Each bedroom had been remodeled, and now had its own bathroom. The one that the woman indicated was to be Audra’s was the only one with a bathtub.

“I’ll decide the sleeping arrangements and will assess what room will be the most appropriate for Miss Donahue,” Lucas said.

“Yes, sir. We just thought…”

“I understand, and it’s probably fine. I just need to be sure.”

The woman nodded. “That’s it then for the tour. You also have access to the backyard, which is very private and comfortably appointed.”

“Thank you.”

“Dinner will be at 7.”

Again Lucas thanked her, and she left them.

He walked into the room that the woman indicated was to be Audra’s and looked all around. He seemed to be looking for bugs, and then Audra realized he probably was, but not the kind of bugs she had thought of. He examined the windows in their floor to ceiling alcoves. Then, he checked the closet and finally seemed satisfied.

“You may use the window seat because it overlooks the garden; but, you are only to leave the windows open during the day. Period. Do you understand?” he asked Audra.

She nodded her head.

“I will personally do a night room check, no matter whose turn it is to guard you to ensure those windows are closed.”

She nodded again.

“Brighton has the first watch.”

“What about dinner?”

“What about it?”

“I mean, am I like cloistered or something?”

“If you’re asking if you’re confined to your room, of course not. You’re free to move about the house whenever and however you wish. Whoever is on watch is responsible to know your whereabouts and to hover over you as much or as little as necessary. Whenever you wish to go out into the yard, there must be two of us with you, and we have to check the surroundings before you go out.”

She nodded that she understood.
Wow, that will be really convenient,
she thought sarcastically.
Now I’ll have to disturb someone who’s not on duty if I want to go do outside. Fine. I don’t care. Why should I care about inconveniencing them? At least they got paid to do this, probably well-paid, too. On the other hand, I’m being treated like a prisoner when I was only an innocent bystander.

They left her in her room, and Brighton took up his place outside her door in a wooden chair. He smiled at her as she went in, and then tipped his chair back against the wall, balancing on two legs.

She looked around the room. It was pleasant enough. Periwinkle blue and cream were the predominant colors with an accent wall in periwinkle. Plus, the flowers were confined to a border instead of all over the walls. She was pleased that the bed linens were elegant yet made for comfort against skin instead of some frou-frou nylon stuff.

She looked around, noting the furniture in the room. Looking at the chest of drawers, she realized that she had no clothes to put in them. She had nothing other than what she was wearing and the shirt, shorts, nightgown and a set of underwear that she’d had sense enough to pack into her carry-on in case her luggage got lost.

Lost. Her luggage was lost, all right, but not quite the way she had expected.

She walked to the window and looked out. It really was a beautiful, lush garden, and there was various seating throughout it. There was even a small pond at one end, or some kind of water feature with what looked from this distance to be a tiny waterfall.

Her mind turned for the first time in the last couple of hours to the encounter with Lucas on the plane. It almost seemed like a dream, like it couldn’t have happened.

She touched her bottom lip and suddenly felt the warm flush of her skin as she thought of the way he kissed her. She squeezed her eyes closed, as if to squeeze all of the memory of it she could out of her mind.

# # #

“I don’t like this,” Taylor said, standing in the door of Lucas’s room.

“Why?” Lucas asked, as he gave his room the same once-over he had given Audra’s to ensure there were no listening devices.

“You don’t see anything wrong with this setup?”

Lucas shrugged. “Who was going to do the cooking? You? Audra?”

“I’d rather have done it myself than had another party in here. I don’t like it.”

“I couldn’t live on your cooking.”

“You know nothing about my cooking skills. I’m from Georgia, remember? I learned good Southern cooking skills.”

“Yay. Greens and pork belly.”

“Better than being compromised and dead.”

“I can let her go.”

“It’s too late now. She knows. She can tell anyone.”

“Taylor, I didn’t just pick some old woman off the street. She’s an ex-operative. She knows the routine.”

“Ex-operative? Well, why didn’t you say so?”

“I like to hear you talk, Taylor. Love that Southern drawl.”

“Uh-huh,” he said, backing out of the door and going to his own room.

“Wait,” Lucas called. “We need to go over the entertainment room pretty thoroughly first, especially since there’s audio and video equipment in there. You up for that right now?”

Taylor appeared back in the doorway. “Give me five. I’ve got to piss first.”

“It takes you five minutes to piss?”

“It takes me four to get my fly open and this big thing unfolded from my pants.”

Lucas waved him away. Ah, well, he supposed they would need some comic relief.

# # #

Audra paused with a mouthful of
coq au vin
. Chicken in wine—with bacon! She was really into healthy eating, organics, local foods, and all that, but bacon was her one guilty pleasure.

“…so we need to be….” Lucas was in the process of going over some logistics.

“Can we just
not
talk about it over dinner, please? I don’t know what kind of dinner conversation four strangers can have, but please let it be about anything other than my incarceration,” Audra said.

“It’s not your incarceration,” responded Lucas.

“Well, what would you call it? Captivity? Confinement?” Audra said, trying to make her point.

“I call it protection,” Lucas said in response.

“Or all of the above. Now, can we change the subject please?” Audra pleaded.

“So, this French dish,” Taylor said.

“She’s not French,” chimed in Brighton.

“Ha. Ha,” responded Taylor.

“The
coq au vin
?” Audra asked.

“Coke-o-van?” said Taylor, drawling out the words.

“Something like that,” she said.

“I like my chicken fried,” Taylor commented.

“Me, too,” Brighton piped in.

Lucas looked at Audra. “We in the United States Marshals Service are so cultured,” he said.

“I love it!” Audra said. “I’ll have to talk to her about what wine she used.”

“I’m betting it’s local. Likely from Ironstone,” said Lucas.

“Hmm…she said something about a wine cellar during the tour. Do you suppose…?” Audra said, letting her thoughts flow from her lips.

“Well, you can. We can’t drink on duty, and on this detail, we’re always on duty,” Lucas said.

“Seriously?” Audra asked. “I thought you were on 8-hour shifts.”

“We are, but if we are compromised, we have to be ready to fly at any moment. It wouldn’t be cool if somebody was intoxicated,” responded Lucas.

“Maybe just at dinner, then?” she asked.

“Are you of that culture, Miss Donahue?” Lucas asked.

“Hardly,” she said, “but it’s something I aspire to be,” she said, wrinkling her nose in a coquettish smile.

“Well, then, I’ll see if I can arrange that,” he said.

“Thank you,” Audra said, meaning it.

“But,” he said, turning to Taylor and Brighton. “Not for you two. No wine for you fried chicken-eaters.”

Audra stood when she had finished. “I’m going to the library to look at the books, and then I’ll retire to my room for the evening.”

Lucas nodded his head as he wiped his mouth with his napkin. “I’ll accompany you to the library while Deputy Brighton finishes his dinner.”

She opened her mouth to protest but thought better of it.

The library was well-stocked. It had everything from old classics to a wide variety of twentieth century titles from the literary canon. It had esoteric and hermetic texts, both old and new, fiction, non-fiction, bestsellers, and offbeat works. Audra decided perhaps she could get a bit of humanities education here without having to pay for it.

In one alcove, she raised an eyebrow upon seeing shelves full of mysteries and true crime, but on the very bottom shelf she saw a number of non-fiction books on crime, forensics, and profiling. She picked up one of the profiling books and started to thumb through it.

“Now, why would you be interested in that?” he asked.

“Not that it’s any of your business.” She snapped the book shut, but he noticed that she didn’t reshelve it.

“Your criminal doesn’t need any profiling. He’s a cold killer with no remorse and no conscience of any kind. Pure evil.”

“It’s not because of him that I’m interested,” she said.

He stood behind her while she perused the shelves, close enough so that he could smell her hair. He closed his eyes. That was quite a trick, he thought, that she could still smell fresh after all the travel.

She turned around suddenly and caught him so close behind her with his eyes closed that she knew what he was doing.

“That scent,” she said, “is
eau d’toilette.
Literally. Airplane
toilette.

# # #

Back in her room, she showered, wanting the hot water to rinse away the tension of the day. She got her nightgown out of the bag and put it on, lying on the coverlet to read with a throw across her. One thing definitely not original about the house was the air conditioning. She was shivering, especially after the shower.

A scan around the walls told her she had no control over the temperature in her room, so she could only hope they would turn it down once the sun had set.

She had been reading for a couple of hours when a knock came at the door.

“Lucas. Let me in.”

The doorknob began to turn slowly, reminding her again of the incident earlier in the day. She grabbed the throw and tossed it around her shoulders, holding it closed as she opened the door a crack.

The second she cracked it, he pushed his way inside. “I told you I would come every evening to check the windows.”

“I wondered if that was a threat or a promise.”

He examined the windows and turned toward her, looking at her in her nightgown and bare feet.

“You could have been wearing a robe.”

“My robe is in my other luggage.”

“You haven’t looked in the closets or drawers yet?”

“Why would I? I have nothing to put in them.”

He gestured toward the closet door, and she walked over and opened it. There were a number of clothing items, all brand new, with the tags still on them, and all in her size.

“Leaving your luggage behind was part of the plan, Miss Donahue. A new wardrobe is standard in these cases.”

She walked over to the chest and opened one of the top drawers which was filled with lingerie. She picked up a bra and looked at the tag, surprised to find that it, too, was in the correct size.

“How did you know…?” she asked, almost sounding alarmed.

“Because it looked just like this,” he said, holding up his hand in the same position as when he had cupped her breast.