Free The Socialite and the Bodyguard by Dana Marton Page A

practically threw the pink bag and leash at her.
    “Well, I like it.” She paid for the shirt and signed an autograph for the vendor before they moved on.
    Kayla handed him the plastic bag. White with pink dogs on it. Tsini gave a high-pitched bark that sounded suspiciously like laughter.
    “Don’t forget who’s watching your back,” Nash warned the dog. He could have sworn she was grinning. Did dogs do that? Man, he was so far out of his element here… “Oh, hi, you’re here this year. It’s so great to see you again.” An older woman came up to Kayla with a warm smile. “Tsini’s been doing better and better hasn’t she? I think this year she’s going for a win.”
    Nash fell a few steps back to give them the illusion of privacy, watching every move the woman made, his right hand free to go for his gun at a moment’s notice. After the woman moved on, a tall, buff guy chatted Kayla up, his eyes all over her body. She was all smiles, didn’t seem to mind. Nash certainly did.
    She talked to dozens of people as they moved around the room. That was what everybody was doing. This was, after all, a networking event. The buzz of conversations filled the large arena. He kept a careful eye on each person who approached her, and those who watched her from afar. He always stayed within reach, ready.
    Picking the serious players out of a crowd wasn’t that difficult. Men like him always watched, were always ready for action. They could be relaxed on the surface, but their muscles were wound, waiting to deflect or deliver an attack. When they had to carry something, they carried it in their left hand. Their right was always empty. Basically, he looked for his own mirror image out there in the crowd—someone whose level of alertness was a notch above everybody else’s. But for the next hour or so, he found no one suspicious, nothing extraordinary.
    Then Kayla wanted to go up to her room for a bite. He had insisted that she take her meals in her suite. For once she’d relented, if only because she wasn’t keen on people staring at her while she ate, and constantly interrupting her meal for autographs. They had the elevator all to themselves on the way up. Tsini lay at her feet.
    “So how are you surviving your first day at the dog show?” she asked in a tone that told him she knew very well he hated the damn thing. She probably enjoyed every moment of his misery.
    “All in all, I think I’d prefer armed combat.”
    She grinned, her face lighting up with humor, her strawberry-glossed lips stretching wide. “I bet.”
    He needed to focus on something other than those lips. “You don’t always come. Why are you here this year?”
    The smile slid off her face. “I didn’t want Tsini to come without me. I know we kind of think that those notes and the coat are about me, but if she’s in any danger, I’m not going to let her go across the country without me being there.” She shrugged. “Some work came in, too. Everyone’s here in one place. It’s convenient. Fisk and Ivan can make their deals.”
    “You trust both of them?”
    “Yes.” She didn’t hesitate as much as a tenth of a second.
    He followed her out of the elevator and down the hall, held his hand out for her room key.
    She gave it with a roll of her eyes. “We’re in a conference hotel with thousands of people around. Nobody is going to be stupid enough to try to hurt me here.”
    Maybe she was right and maybe she wasn’t. Her parents and brother had been killed when they’d been alone, no witnesses. But Nash wasn’t about to take any chances. He scanned the rooms. “Where’s Greg?”
    “Probably went down to look for us. I’ll call his cell.” She dialed. “Hey, I just came up with Nash. We’re going to order some food. Want to eat with us? Okay. Have fun.”
“All clear.” Nash told her when he was finished checking the room.
    “He’s in the casino. He won’t be long. He doesn’t like places with a lot of people.” Kayla