Barefoot With a Bodyguard by Roxanne St. Claire

going to jump her for the money. She kept walking.
    “Robyn!” The voice made her sway slightly and turn to see a blond head peek out from around the corner. Holy shit, it was him.
    “Cole?”
    “Shh!” He put his finger on his lips and looked left and right. “Meet me at the 7-Eleven down the street,” he whispered, his breathy voice sounding urgent and even scared.
    “Cole?” She put one hand on her stomach, another on her mouth, stifling a scream of joy. It was him!
    “Miss Bickler?”
    She spun all the way around to see Vlitnik standing ten feet behind her. “Yes?”
    “We’ll be watching you.”
    But… Cole . She almost opened her mouth to say something, but the look in Vlitnik’s eyes stopped her. She couldn’t risk that thousand dollars.
    “’Kay.” She kept walking, stealing one more glance back toward the hall, but Cole was gone. It didn’t matter. She finally knew where Cole was, and he wanted to meet her. That’s all that mattered.
    She hustled out the door, doing exactly as she’d been told, practically running the two blocks to the 7-Eleven. She threw herself inside, looked around, got a strange look from the guy behind the counter.
    She rushed up and down the aisles, but there was no sign of Cole.
    She stood outside under the awning and waited. For half an hour. An hour. Two. Then she went back to her car, hid the money under the seat, drove past Vlitnik’s house, rode around the neighborhood, and tried the 7-Eleven again.
    But it was like she’d imagined him. Maybe she had. That’s how bad she wanted to see Cole Morrow again.

Chapter Six

    Kate finished a half-hour-long shower, stepped into denim cutoffs, pulled a T-shirt over her head, and shook out her damp hair. There was nothing she could do, at least not short-term.
    She needed some lunch, a cold drink, and then she’d hit the books until well into the evening.
    If Ivan the Terrible wanted to sit and stare at her, she’d turn the other way, put on her noise-canceling headphones, and ignore him.
    She opened the door, fully expecting him to be on the love seat, staring at the door, ready to pounce. Instead, a large woman in a housekeeper’s uniform was humming with earphones in, turning down the bed.
    “Well, it’s about time.” The woman popped the buds out and tsked disapprovingly. “You could have bathed an entire orphanage in the time you’ve had that water running. Have you never thought of that?”
    “Uh, no. I never have.”
    “What were you doing in there so long?”
    Really? Now the maid had a say in how Kate lived her life? “You must be Poppy.”
    “I am. And you’re Tilly.” She angled her head and gave Kate a long look of appraisal, up and down and back again. “I can see why Nino backed off the Mathilda business, though he was very excited when Mr. Gabriel agreed to the name. I told him it was the most foolish name I ever heard, but Mr. Gabriel can’t seem to see straight when it comes to his grandfather.”
    Kate nodded, not at all sure how to respond to the company politics of this mysterious stealth firm that suddenly controlled her life. “And you’ll be our housekeeper?”
    A bushy black eyebrow rose. “That’s my cover.”
    “Oh, dear God, isn’t anyone around here who they say they are?”
    Poppy put two hands on rather wide hips, her dark features fixed in a stern expression. “I’m going to give you a pass on that, under the circumstances. Plus, I don’t usually count ‘God’ as a full-on curse, at least if it’s not followed by the D-word.”
    Kate stared at her, frowning, feeling a little more like Alice in Wonderland than Kate in Paradise. “A pass. What are you talking about?”
    “I may be working for Mr. Gabriel now, getting a little extra money on the side as one of his ‘spies’ and the only member of the entire housekeeping staff, including Miss Mandy, who owns the company that runs Casa Blanca housekeeping, who is being trusted with information about Mr. Gabriel’s