Free Bare Facts by Katherine Garbera

concentrated on getting into the car.
    “What’s your plan when we get to the airport?” she asked. “Parade around until someone else takes a shot at you?”
    “If I thought that would work, I’d try it,” he said with a grim smile. “That way we could finish this now.”
    “You want it finished?”
    He arched one eyebrow at her.
    “Then give me the name of your enemy.”
    He held the door open for her and she tossed her bag into the backseat of the car.
    “Tell me, Daniel. It’s the only way to get him. Quickly and efficiently.”

Chapter Seven
    True guilt is guilt at the obligation one owes to oneself to be oneself. False guilt is guilt felt at not being what other people feel one ought to be or assume that one is.
    —Ronald David Laing
    L aing was definitely onto something with his thoughts on guilt, and Charity couldn’t help but believe that was at the heart of what drove Daniel. His silence about the name of his enemy made her believe strongly that there was more to the threat.
    “His name is Sekijima. But you won’t find him in any of your government databases. Trust me on this.”
    “Why is he coming after you?”
    “Revenge,” Daniel said. “Get in the car. Even though you have the security fence, I don’t like being out in the open.”
    She slid in the backseat and Daniel followed quickly behind her. She didn’t know Henry and couldn’t trust the man, so she knew they’d have to wait to continue this discussion when they weren’t in his presence. The scent of Daniel’s aftershave was strong and lingered in the air.
    “Take us to the executive airport, Henry,” Daniel said as soon as he was seated.
    “Yes, sir.”
    “Tell me more about your parents’ death,” he said, as they left the compound and entered the residential area. Henry drove with skill through the traffic. His change of topic told her that he didn’t trust the driver, either. But that didn’t surprise her—Daniel really didn’t trust anyone.
    Charity kept one eye on the cars around them. “Why do you want to know?”
    “You said our past shapes who we are,” he said gently.
    That’s right, she had. “I was very shallow back then.”
    “You were young. Twenty is just not old enough for maturity.”
    “Well, I never felt that way. I mean, I’d been traveling and socializing for over five years in the super-model crowd. I was an only child and my parents were very indulgent.”
    “You were their princess?” he asked.
    She felt a twinge of shame at how spoiled she’d been and how she had taken that for granted. She’d wanted for nothing growing up. Materially her parents provided more than one child could ever play with. And emotionally, they’d doted on her and she’d returned that love. Until she’d reached her teenaged years.
    “Definitely. My father had insisted that I get an education and I had attended a boarding school in Switzerland before I started modeling. He wanted me to continue but I talked him out of it.”
    When word had reached her of his death, she’d been haunted by guilt and her own arrogance. She’d expected to have a lifetime to find her way back to her parents, to live up to their expectations, but everything had changed in a moment.
    She’d left Paris, where she’d been working and living, and traveled to Kobe, where her parents had been killed. The local police didn’t have any leads on who was responsible for her parents’ deaths, and she’d stayed there, working for almost two years training under an aikido master and asking questions. Becoming so much a part of the town and the people there that eventually she’d found the answers she’d sought.
    And once she’d had a name, she’d honed her skills until she was able to go after the man who’d killed her parents—and bring her own retribution to him.
    It was after his death that Sam had found her. He’d completed her training and offered her a chance to work for justice, not as a vigilante. She’d accepted and