Free Unmasked (Godmother Security Book 1) by June Stevens, DJ Westerfield Page A

I’ll see you in a couple of hours.”
    “Okay.” Cindy said, then tapped the com unit off.  She turned and realized Della was still sitting at her desk.  She’d heard everything, including Cindy admit she’d been at the charity ball.
    Wordlessly Della lifted her hand to her mouth, mimed zipping her lips, locking and tossing away the key. 
    Cindy smiled and Della smiled back, giving her a wink.  Cindy liked the older woman, and was going to miss her once the assignment was over.  Speaking of the assignment…
    Cindy turned on her heel and strode back into Sebastian’s office.
    “You can’t have lunch with that woman.”
    “For your information, I never had any intention of doing so, I was simply being polite.  You might try it sometime.  I will have Eric call and make my apologies, and send her a check to cover her charity’s expenses for six months.  But, please tell me why it is that you feel you can tell me what I can and can’t do.”
    “That woman plans to kill you,” Cindy said conversationally.  When Sebastian’s jaw dropped open she couldn’t resist adding, “On a more positive note, the charity is fake, so you’ll save a little money.”
     
     
     
     
     
     

CHAPTER TEN
The Bauers
     
    While Faye and Cindy had the information they needed, they couldn’t call a halt to the search for Ella without outing Cindy.  The two women had already decided that the ruse had gone on for so long at this point that it was best to continue on.  There were two more appointments that afternoon, all of which were uneventful.  Then Frank took Sebastian home and Cindy went home to her own apartment, despite Faye’s protests.  
    Though she’d told Faye she wasn’t afraid, that night she had nightmares for the first time in ten years. The thing was, she’d told Faye the truth.  She wasn’t afraid of the Bauer sisters.  Her nightmares weren’t about them, and they never had been.  From the first night she slept under the same roof as Faye her nightmares had always been about being sent back to that school.  Sometimes she’d been ripped, kicking and screaming, from Faye’s arms, and at other times Faye had pushed her into the school telling her she didn’t want her and never had.  The incessant bullying of the older kids, especially the Bauer sisters, and cruel neglect of the Headmistress, Mother Bauer, were tolerable. 
    What Cindy feared most was being alone again--not belonging to anyone.  She hadn’t known it was something she was missing until the day, when she was fifteen, that Faye Littleton showed up to shut down the school.  While the other girls were lined up and put into vans to be taken off to who knew where, Faye took Cindy aside and told her that she was her aunt and Godmother, and would take care of her.  Then she had hugged Cindy and told her she loved her.  Cindy couldn’t remember ever being hugged before or hearing those words.  It was the first time in her life she felt like she belonged. 
    In her dreams that night she was fifteen again, lying in the dark on her narrow cot in the dormitory sad and alone, and afraid to go to sleep, knowing she would likely be woken up by one of the other girls punching her for some slight they thought she’d dealt them.  She woke in a cold sweat in the middle of the night, and it took her a few minutes to remember she was an adult now, in her own bed, in her own apartment. She was safe.
    The next day Cindy was in no mood to go through the ‘Ella’ charade again, and was relieved when the search was put on hold due to Prince Industries business.  Sebastian, his father, and his father’s lawyers spent the entire day in meetings to finalize the paperwork for the handing over of the corporate reins that was to take place the next day.  Della and the elder Prince’s secretary sat in on the meetings, so Cindy’s recording services as personal assistant weren’t needed.  Instead she sat outside the conference room using her