Free The Guardian (The Wolfe Series) by Donna Oltrogge

name really was, wasn’t buying it.  She could tell by the suffusion of color that was staining his neck and creeping slowly up toward his hairline.  “I need to get home.  The publisher wants to meet us for dinner tonight to discuss the terms.”
                  “And what of our plans?” Luzaro said, a note of steel hardening his voice.
                  Laurie turned the full force of her brilliant emerald gaze on Luc and said, “A rain check?  Please?  I’ve been working so hard for this.  It could be the break I’ve been waiting for.” 
    She could see that Luc was softening, heck she almost believed the cock and bull story herself. Besides the overwhelming fear she suddenly felt she felt sad, sad that she had started to trust Luc and that he wasn’t who she had thought he was.  She had so rarely allowed herself to get close to a man and now look what had happened, now she was going to be afraid to trust anyone. 
                  Luzaro patted her hand like he would that of a small child and said, “We must hurry home then.  I wouldn’t want you to miss such an important opportunity.”  Inside he was seething but counseled himself to have patience and wait for the day when she would be totally under his control and his to do with as he chose.
                  Enrique growled in disgust and got behind the steering wheel, shutting the door as he motioned for the other bodyguard to get in on the passenger side.  The bodyguard had barely shut the passenger side door before Enrique slammed the car into drive and floored the Escalade, sending a giant plume of dust and gravel into the air.  The bodyguard looked at Enrique and shook his head in disgust before turning his attention back to the road.
                  Even though Laurie now feared Luc, she was actually even more afraid of Enrique Perez.  Somewhere deep down inside she had always known what kind of man he was and felt trapped as they sped away from the equestrian stable.  She felt bile rise in her throat as Enrique turned in the opposite direction of her home and drove into a remote, marshy area, finally stopping the car at the side of the rode.  Laurie turned and looked out the back window but didn’t see the other Escalade. 
                  “What’s going on?” Luzaro shouted as Laurie turned back in time to see Enrique point a gun at the bodyguard sitting beside him and pull the trigger.  The boom of the handgun in such close quarters was deafening and Laurie covered her ears, her scream mingling with the acrid smell of gun powder.  She watched as though in slow motion as the man’s head hit the car window, blood and chunks of brain matter dripping down the passenger side window as he slumped in the front seat.
                  “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Luzaro shouted again, this time shielding Laurie’s body with his own when Enrique turned toward the back seat and pointed the gun at Laurie’s head.
                  For a fraction of a second Enrique considered killing both Luzaro and the woman but thought better of it when he saw the second Escalade pull up behind them.  “Eliminating a mole and a potential witness,” Enrique said without emotion.  He pointed his gun toward the now dead bodyguard and said, “That piece of filth was a DEA agent.  Enough said?”
                  Luzaro could have cared less about the dead agent.  He knew what Enrique was capable of.  Laurie was lucky to be alive and he knew she wouldn’t have been if he hadn’t acted so quickly.
                  “She’ll not tell anyone.  I’ll make sure of that.”  Luzaro dug his phone out of his pocket and punched in a telephone number.  “Jose, I want my plane ready to go in twenty minutes, we’re on our way.” 
                  Laurie sat frozen in fear, her eyes awash in emerald tears as