Free Guarding Kelsey ((Books We Love Romantic Suspense)) by Kat Attalla Page A

wanted her for her money. Now she'd begun developing an attachment to a man who didn’t want for the same reason. Could her string of bad luck get any worse?
    And to top off her morning, her mother stopped by, unannounced. Elisabeth breezed into the Park Avenue condo as if she owned the place. A former model, Elisabeth Carlyle Parker Worth could marry her way up the social ladder but she'd never obtained the class associated with those born into wealth. Her rudeness towards Detective Martinez bordered on crass. Embarrassed, Kelsey shot an apologetic shrug towards the officer but he seemed unconcerned, even sympathetic of her plight.
    Elisabeth gave her daughter an obligatory kiss in the direction of her cheek. "What is going on here?" she demanded on her way into the living room.
    Kelsey followed her mother into the room and flopped down in a chair. "How have you been Mother?"
    Elisabeth tapped her manicured finger against the glass tabletop . She'd just come from the beauty salon, Kelsey knew, because her mother had a habit of flashing her newly applied nail-tips around like a diamond ring. Elisabeth had a twisted idea of what impressed others. A hundred dollar manicure was her basis of good taste.
    "Would you please explain why there is a police officer at the front door screening your visitors," Elisabeth demanded.
    "It's called protective custody."
    Elisabeth grunted in disgust. "I just knew it! One of those sleazy low lives you've been interviewing has tried to harm you. Give up this ridiculous obsession of yours and take charge of your legacy before you uncle bleeds you dry."
    Kelsey cringed. Only ten a.m. and her day sucked already. She'd been up until almost two in the morning, supposedly working on her paper, although more often than not, she’d been watching her live-in bodyguard watch her. She needed her mother's criticism now like she needed the flu. "Please don’t start today."
    Elisabeth glanced towards the door and back to Kelsey. "Is that the best they could send? Don't they know who you are?"
    "Mother!" Kelsey snapped, incensed. Elisabeth's snobbery even out-classed her bigotry. How ironic. Before a photographer had turned her into a semi-successful fashion model, she’d been a college dropout , working the cosmetics counter of a department store in Pittsburgh.
    Elisabeth started to say something but thought better of it. Apparently, she wanted something. She smiled graciously at Kelsey and dropped her tirade. "So, what have you been doing since my last visit?"
    "Working on my thesis. I spoke to Grandma and Pops this morning. They're really enjoying their vacation," Kelsey said. A feeling of warmth spread through her. Her grandparents were a model of constant and unconditional love in her life. "When was the last time you called?"
    "Honestly, Kelsey. Sending them on a Hawaiian vacation at their ages. It's a waste of good money."
    "If you ever celebrate a fiftieth wedding anniversary I'll send you too. Otherwise, it's my money wasted, so don't worry about it. What about you? What have you been up to?"
    Elisabeth ran a finger along the side of her face to push back an errant strand of platinum blonde hair. Her hand trembled. Why? Her mother was normally so cool and poised. "Michael wants to come live with me. He's not getting along with his father."
    "That will be nice for you," Kelsey mused. Michael was Kelsey’s half-brother, although she’d never met him. Her mother had relinquished custody of him, too, in one of her divorce settlements. And his father, bitter over the divorce, had not allowed her to forge a relationship with the boy. It had taken Kelsey years to understand that deserting her children was her mother’s failing, not hers.
    Elisabeth scowled. "Nice! Where are we going to live, Kelsey? I've been staying at the Kingston Hotel. It's no place for a teenager."
    "Talk to his father. He should pay towards his son's upbringing."
    "How? He claims he lost it all in the stock market, although he