YOU CAN COUNT ON ME

The whoompf of a solid right uppercut landed smack on target, shooting a cracking jolt of pain up Raquel Durant’s arm, along with a gut-level sense of satisfaction and release.
The punching bag didn’t whimper.
“Is that my face you’re pummeling or some mysterious evil-doer?”
Raquel whipped around, wiped some sweat from her eyes with the back of her training glove and grinned at her boss. “Like you’d let me land one, Luce.”
“But you’re mad enough to try.”
How was it that no matter what Raquel did to disguise her feelings, Lucy Sharpe could sniff out the truth? The woman was a human bloodhound, but in the CIA they called that an elicitation expert and Lucy sure had been one of those before she started the Bullet Catchers.
“I’m not mad,” Raquel lied, pulling off her gloves. “I’m frustrated, is all. I’ve been training for three years and I’m ready for field work. I know you need me upstairs doing the admin and research, but I’m goin’ stir crazy.” Lucy opened her mouth, but Raquel stopped her by waving a glove. “Not that I don’t like spending my days in a mansion on the Hudson after the living hell that’s called New Jersey and not that I don’t appreciate that you took a chance on me--”
“Raquel--”
“And don’t think I don’t know how incredible the Bullet Catchers are because those guys are so great and treat me like their favorite little sister, but they--”
“Raquel--”
“Are all out in the field protecting ambassadors and running threat assessments on private islands and advancing security on the Queen Mary 2 and generally kicking high quality ass and I’m on the computer--”
“Raquel--”
“Finding them unlisted phone numbers and entering their flippin’ expense reports.”
She finally took a breath and waited for Lucy’s exotic eyes to shutter with a patronizing nod and a promise that she’d know when the time is right for Raquel, right before she delivered her first demand for Raquel to jump through hoops today. Then Raquel would ask “how high and how many” because Lucy simply engendered loyalty and devotion.
But Lucy didn’t smile, promise or make a demand. Instead, she crossed the gym, her long, lean body gliding snakelike, her long black hair swaying with each step. Raquel watched, still as fascinated by the woman she worked for as the first time they’d met.
“Are you finished?” Lucy asked.
“No,” Raquel admitted, dropping onto a workout bench with a defeated sigh, “but I feel better.”
Lucy sat next to her and looked Raquel square in the eye. “You’re ready.”
Raquel blinked and drew back. “I am?” She coughed and changed her tone. “I mean, I am.”
“I’m giving you Grigori Nyekovic’s assignment because if I didn’t, you’d sneak out of here pretending to take a long Christmas vacation and then show up at his Manhattan apartment as the bodyguard he called and asked for yesterday.”
Raquel shook her head and let out a soft laugh. “How did you know I was thinking about that?”
“Because I saw the flush in your cheeks after you got off the phone with him.”
“That could just have been the sexy Russian accent and all that folklore about his former KGB work.”
Lucy smiled. “If hot guys with dangerous backgrounds melted you, you would have been a puddle at our first staff meeting.”
“True.” She paused for a moment. “How hot?”
“He’s good looking. In that ice blue eyes, golden hair, nothern Russian hunk way.”
Raquel shrugged. That couldn’t possibly affect a real Bullet Catcher. “I’m perfect for the job, Luce,” she insisted. “He needs a bodyguard for his eight-year-old daughter while he’s in New York for the holidays. I mean, how hard can one little girl be?”
She could have sworn Lucy paled, but she stood before Raquel could analyze the look on her face. “If he wanted a babysitter, he’d have called a nanny service. He called for a bodyguard and if you take the assignment, you take it as a full-fledged Bullet Catcher.” She paused and narrowed her slightly slanted eyes at Raquel. “Your life is on the line, not the person you’re guarding. And, as you know, we’ve never lost a principal.”
The weight of the responsibility pushed on her, but Raquel stood, and notched her chin to look up at her six-foot tall boss. “Nor will we.”
“Good. Now go get your stuff. He expects you in midtown today and you’ll stay through New Year’s.”
Raquel resisted the urge to slam the punching bag, this time in joy. “Thanks, Luce. I know Gregg is an old friend of yours and your confidence means the world to me. I won’t let you down and I won’t let him down and I--”
“Raquel.” Lucy held a finger over her lips. “Bullet Catchers don’t talk. We listen.”
“Right. Got it.” She pumped both fists in solidarity and acknowledgement. “We listen.” Jogging to the door, she fought the urge to spin in a full-fledged boogie of happiness. Instead, she squared her shoulders and bounded up the stairs like the tough, trained security specialist she was.
“Raquel?” Lucy called from below.
“Yeah?”
“Keep your eye on that little girl…not her father.”
“Come on, Luce. You know you can count on me.”
Before Lucy could issue one more warning, Raquel slipped through the door and thrust a victorious fist in the air. Finally! Nothing, absolutely nothing, would screw up this opportunity.

*

For the first time in an hour, Grigori set the jewel encrusted treasure back into its cushy velvet box and, without covering it, looked up to study the plasma screen that beamed visitor’s images from the lobby directly to his office wall. So this was Raquel Durant.
Lucy’s choice for Kristina’s bodyguard was utterly inspired.
For the first time since he’d returned from the auction house that morning, his attention remained on something other than the Fabergé egg collection he’d come to New York to acquire.
But then, Raquel Durant was a bit of a treasure herself. From their brief, banter-filled telephone conversations over the past year or so, he’d imagined her a blonde, but dark hair curled past her shoulders and that perfectly suited the subtext of passion he’d always picked up in the melody of her round vowels and snappy consonants. And he’d thought she’d be delicate, perhaps spare in size. Yet even on the two dimensional screen, she moved like a woman made of taut, honed muscle, and the jut of her square chin looked proud, confident and strong. That was, when it stopped moving.
So far, she’d spent the full two and a half minutes it took the guard to check her identification and announce her moving that proud, square jaw and, he couldn’t help noticing, making the guard laugh.
She scanned the area behind the desk and gave Grigori a straight shot of her pretty face as her almond shaped brown eyes took in the framed artwork that hid camera lenses for the over-cautious residents of the building. She looked directly into the camera that captured her image, kicked up a generous mouth in a half-smile and winked.
He damn near winked back.
Yes, Lucy’s choice was inspired. Strong, smart and unafraid. He couldn’t care less that this was Raquel’s first official assignment as a Bullet Catcher and he’d told Lucy that when she called this morning.
He just wanted Kristina to be as safe and happy as he made her when she normally spent the holidays with him in St. Petersburg, and an ambitious young woman determined to succeed in her bodyguard debut would work perfectly. He had to be in New York this Christmas; he had no choice. If that left him spending time with the bubbly Jersey girl during a few quiet evenings at home, then so be it. He could think of worse ways to pass the time while he waited for the deal to go through.
In fact, he impulsively picked up the phone and dialed the nanny service back. When the owner answered, he asked her to cancel the babysitter he’d arranged for that night. He’d be staying home after all. Between the bodyguard and her father, Kristina wouldn’t need another companion.
Satisfied, he returned his attention to the egg, his fingers absently tracing the delicate lines of gold enamel, the diamonds that surrounded the finely painted image. Lost for almost half a century…and finally almost ready to make the return journey home. If all went according to plan.
He heard the soft bell warning him the private elevator would open in less than ten seconds, so he pushed his chair back, momentarily setting aside compelling business for a compelling woman. He was waiting for her when the door opened.
“Mr. Nyekovic?” She thrust a hand toward him. “I’m Raquel Durant.”
“Please call me Gregg.” He held her hand and eased her out of the elevator, noticing that her grip was as sincere as her smile, like she’d put her heart into both. “How’d you know which camera?”
She frowned for a beat, then understood. “I saw the tiny lenses hidden in the flower petals of the painting. I just assumed the top one was the penthouse.” She shrugged, tilting her head to the side in an endearing gesture of self-deprecation. “Lucky guess.”
Not lucky, and they both knew it. “You’d make a good spy,” he said with a smile as he drew her into the entryway. “Here, let me take your coat.”
“Thanks.” She shook off a simple, dark broadcloth pea coat that wouldn’t stand out in the streets of New York. Good choice for a bodyguard, especially because he bet her personal style leaned toward bright colors and hip fashions. But under the coat, a hint of feminine curves were covered in all black.
“I just got off the phone with Lucy,” he told her. “I’m honored to have Kristina as your first assignment.”
“She told you?” She curled one hand on a narrow hip. “It won’t be…” Her focus moved over his shoulder. “An issue. Speaking of spies, I think my principal just spied on me.”
He glanced over his shoulder toward the hall that led to the office and bedrooms. “She comes by it naturally, I’m afraid. And she’s a bit shy. Let’s give her a minute.” He indicated a sitting room off to the side with a sly grin. “We’ll draw her out.”
“Is she used to personal protection?” Raquel asked as she followed his request to take a seat, but didn’t settle too deeply on the chair. She perched on the edge, ready to jump.
“Most of the time she lives in London with my ex-wife,” he said. “Her mother maintains a low profile and a high wall around her home. Kristina is quite safe. I have full custody of her for a few weeks in the summer and over the holidays and try to spend them at my family home in Russia, where she is secluded. In New York?” He shrugged. “I have some business here, and I just feel the need for more security.”
“Did anything in particular happen to make you want to hire a bodyguard for her?”
He shook his head. “Blame my former profession. I just thought it a smart precaution to contact Lucy.” He gave her an approving look. “I’m quite delighted with her choice. I didn’t want a hulking six foot six human Rottweiler following her around the city.”
“You’ve met some of the Bullet Catchers, then.” Her laugh quieted the minute they heard the soft sound of a shoe scuff outside. “I think we got her,” she whispered to him.
He leaned forward, closer to her. “All she needs is a little incentive.”
Raquel nodded. “Have you taken Kristina to the American Girl store yet?” she asked, raising her voice. “I understand they have quite a Christmas display.”
Three, two, one. Kristina appeared in the door and Grigori shot an “I’m impressed” smile to Raquel.
“Look who’s come to see us,” Grigori said gently. He stood and held a hand out, her wide-eyed gaze the same color as his twisting his heart as it always did. “I’d like you to meet Ms. Raquel Durant.”
Kristina looked beyond him to Raquel. “I’d like to go there,” she said, clutching a denim handbag with beaded butterflies under her arm and training those blue eyes on their guest. “To the American Girl store. Now.”
Raquel covered a surprised laugh. “Well, I suppose we could arrange that.” She looked at Grigori. “You’re the boss, Dad.”
“Where is it and what is it?” Grigori asked, also a little surprised by his daughter’s bold request.
“It’s a very large, painfully expensive doll store on Fifth Avenue near Rockefeller Center,” Raquel explained.
Grigori raised his eyebrows. “You have all sorts of hidden expertise,” he said.
“No,” Raquel answered. “I have a nine-year-old niece.”
“You’d like to go to this doll store right now?” he asked Kristina. She nodded, enthusiastic for the first time since he told her they had to spend Christmas in New York instead of St. Petersburg.
Part of him wanted to say no, just to keep her in the house with him while he worked, but the less selfish part knew a little shopping trip might be just the ticket for his daughter to get comfortable with the idea of having a bodyguard.
“All right, then,” he agreed. “Raquel will take you.”
Kristina’s gap-toothed grin was all the reward he needed.
A few minutes later, he guided them both out the front door of the apartment, sucking in a deep lungful of cold city air and getting the faintest whiff of something musky, like vanilla and oak, from Raquel’s hair. No floral scent for the bodyguard, but something more grounded, more enticing.
“Would you like to go with us?” Raquel asked, buttoning her coat.
The offer was tempting, along with her easy smile. But he resisted. “I think it best if you two go together.” He reached for his wallet and pulled out a hundred dollar bill. “And let Kristina get one early Christmas present.”
“Thank you, Daddy,” Kristina said, reaching up to kiss him.
“Have fun, Kristyusha,” he whispered, hugging her close, then ruffling her silky blonde hair.
When the cab pulled away, he stood for a long time watching it disappear into the traffic and chaos of New York, his heart pulled a bit, wishing he had gone with them. The air was crisp and welcoming, with a coating of Christmas over everything. And his time with his daughter was so brief.
But his time with the treasure upstairs was brief, too, before he submitted a formal bid for the work of art.
Slowly, he made his way back into the building and elevator, letting himself in the hushed apartment that seemed empty without Kristina. And, he thought with a wry smile, without the lovely Miss Durant. In fact, he needed to call Lucy Sharpe right now and commend her on her choice of bodyguards. And make perfectly sure it was Miss and not Mrs. Durant. He rounded the desk and sat down, lifting the phone just as his gaze fell on the empty nest of red velvet.
Niet! The egg was gone.