Secret Seduction (6 page)

“Actually,” said Elle who’d broken a few rules in her affair with Dante. “That was probably part of the charm. Right, Vanessa?”

Julie sighed. “Not to me. I love being romanced too much for a one-night fling. With those you don’t get any flowers or chocolates or tickets to a Longhorns game.”

“Sometimes,” Vanessa said, “all you want is someone to help you wash away your troubles.”

Elle sat up straighter and narrowed her eyes. “Is there something you’re not telling us, Vanessa?”

She met her friends’ interested gazes. How could she tell these two women about her secret past? A past she was so ashamed of that even fourteen years later she couldn’t bring herself to talk about it to the two people who meant the most to her in the entire world.

Knowing it was the only way she was going to get out of this conversation, Vanessa forced a grin. “You guys, please don’t read anything into this. It’s cut-and-dried. I just needed to get laid.”

“AMANDA BET ME that you would come,” Texas State Senator Robert Garcia said as he turned the steaks on his backyard grill. He was a little over six feet and narrow of face. His thick salt-and-pepper hair was combed back off his forehead. He flashed the megawatt smile that had helped him get elected.

“Now I’m going to have to let her buy new draperies for the living room.”

“That’s what you get for gambling,” Tanner said to his uncle-in-law and took a sip from the beer bottle the senator had pressed into his hand. Was Robert still his uncle-in-law, now that Maria was gone? he wondered.

“Seriously, this is the first time you’ve been to our house since—” Robert snapped off his sentence.

Since Maria died.

The words hung unuttered in the air.

“I had a reason for coming,” Tanner said. “Besides the barbecue.”

Robert closed the grill, hung the tongs from a hook and turned to look at him. “Oh?”

“This job you asked me to do for you.” Tanner put his palms to the back of his head. “I can’t do it.”

“Of course you can. It’s all set. Everything’s been arranged.”

“I’m not talking about the head of security position at Confidential Rejuvenations. I’m talking about being Vanessa Rodriquez’s bodyguard,” he said.

Robert cast a surreptitious look over Tanner’s shoulder. His wife and some of their guests were standing on the other side of the patio admiring the new garden landscaping. Robert leaned in closer and lowered his voice. “What do you mean you can’t do it?”

Tanner drew in a deep breath. How did you tell your late wife’s uncle that you’d slept with the woman he’d hired you to watch? “I just don’t think I’m the best man for the job. I can recommend someone else.”

“Are you kidding? You’re the best bodyguard in the business. You were guarding the governor until—” Robert stopped again.

Until Maria had been killed in a convenience store robbery while Tanner had been out of town on a security detail.

He still hadn’t forgiven himself for not being there when she’d needed him. “This just doesn’t feel right.”

“What do you mean?” Robert kept looking over Tanner’s shoulder, keeping an eye out for his wife. He was definitely keeping something from her.

“Level with me,” Tanner said. “Why are you putting a bodyguard on Dr. Rodriquez?”

“I told you. Carlo Vega was released from prison yesterday. The man is a cold-blooded criminal. I fear he’s going to come after her for putting him away.”

“And she testified against him?”

“Correct.”

“She witnessed him murder a man in a fit of rage, right?”

“Yes. Vega went up on second degree manslaughter.”

“How did all this come about?”

“Look, is this really important? All that matters is that Vanessa stays safe from Vega.”

“You’re sure he’s going to come after her?”

“He threatened her fourteen years ago and now he’s out of prison.”

“That’s just it.” Tanner clenched his jaw. “Why do you care about Vanessa Rodriquez so much that you’d foot the bill for her personal bodyguard?”

“It’s none of your concern.”

Tanner placed a palm to the back of his neck. Maria had loved and admired her uncle Robert. As far as Tanner knew, he was a good man, but something about this whole thing didn’t add up. He swung his gaze around to take in Amanda, the senator’s wife. She was a slender woman, still quite lovely in middle age. Her skin was well pampered. She possessed almond-shaped brown eyes and a short cap of curls highlighted with stylish streaks of red and gold.

“Are you having an affair with her? Is that it? Is Vanessa Rodriquez your lover?” The thought made him sick to his stomach, but he had to ask the question.

“No.” Robert growled. “God, no. Why would you even think that? I love my Amanda. I would never cheat on her.”

Relief coursed through Tanner at the senator’s denial. It was bad enough that Tanner had slept with the woman he was supposed to be guarding, but to know that she was also Robert’s mistress…well that would have been too much for him to handle. “So why the interest in her?”

Robert swallowed. “Let’s walk.”

“Where are you going, honey?” Amanda called out to them.

“To show Tanner the koi pond.” Robert raised a hand. “Could you keep an eye on the steaks?”

“Will do.” She smiled gaily.

They walked toward the back of the senator’s five-acre lot, flush with native trees—pecan, red oak, elm and cedar. The pathway was made of quaint cobblestone, and around the perimeter of the place stood six-foot-high privacy hedges.

“Vanessa is from my hometown,” Robert said when they were out of earshot from the house. “From my old neighborhood. I knew her family, her mother, but Vanessa doesn’t remember me. She wasn’t even born when I left El Paso.”

“Why don’t you want Vanessa to know you hired me to guard her?” Tanner asked.

“Because after what happened with Carlo Vega, I paid for Vanessa’s way to medical school. I felt sorry for the poor kid. She needed a break and I could give it to her, so I did. No one knows about it. Not Amanda, not Vanessa. Only you.”

“Why the secrecy?”

“It’s not an altruistic act if people find out about it, now is it?” Robert asked.

They came to a halt beside the elaborate goldfish pond. It was a fair argument, and Tanner wasn’t sure he believed that explanation, but he let it go. “Whatever your reasons are for wanting to protect Vanessa from this Vega character, I don’t think I’m the right man for the job.”

“Now who’s hiding secrets?”

Startled, Tanner met the senator’s gaze. “What do you mean?”

“It’s not like you to renege on an agreement.”

“I’m not reneging. The truth is I think I might have blown my cover.”

The senator put his hands behind his back and leaned against the trunk of an impressive old oak tree. “What makes you say that?”

“She went to a bar last night. I followed her, but I stood out in the place. She spotted me. She came over. We danced.”

And we did a lot more than that.

“But that’s good,” Robert said.

“How do you figure?” To avoid the senator’s probing glance, Tanner bent to pick up one of the flat red river rocks landscaping the area and skipped it across the pond. It skimmed four times before sinking below the surface.

“She trusted you enough to dance with you. I think that’s a good sign. Vanessa’s pretty cautious.”

Shows how much you know her. From what he’d seen of the sexy Dr. Rodriquez, cautious was not an adjective that popped to mind.

“The fact that you were able to get close to her gives you an edge in guarding her,” the senator said.

You have no idea how close.

Tanner inhaled deeply. “I’m going to be honest with you Robert. I can’t guard Dr. Rodriquez because I’m physically attracted to her.”

Robert made a noise of surprise. “But that’s good, healthy even.”

“You think so? Because I sure don’t.” Tanner chuffed in a breath.

The senator laid a hand on his shoulder. “Maria would want you to move on. You’ve been grieving hard for four years. It’s time to let go. Letting go doesn’t mean you didn’t love her.”

“Yeah, but the first time I’m attracted to anyone since I lost Maria and it’s with someone I’m protecting.”

“It just means you’re not dead below the waist.” Robert tightened his grip on Tanner’s shoulder. “And just because you’re attracted to Vanessa doesn’t mean you have to act on your feelings.”

This is the time. Tell him you already did.

But for some reason, Tanner simply couldn’t force himself to say the words. Part of it was a misguided attempt at chivalry. Part of it was because he felt ashamed of what he’d done. But another reason had to do with the senator himself. Tanner felt there was still more to the story than Robert was telling him, and as long as the senator was holding out on him, he felt uncomfortable with full disclosure.

“And Vanessa’s safety is not the only reason I need you,” Robert continued. “Confidential Rejuvenations is in turmoil. That ugly business with Mark Lawson aside, something odd is going on in that hospital and I need someone on the inside that I can trust.”

Like everyone in Austin, Tanner had heard about the scandal. Confidential Rejuvenations had been front-page news for weeks after Mark Lawson’s murder, and for a chic boutique hospital with a reputation for closely guarding its clientele’s privacy, the fallout had been disturbing. Particularly for Robert, who was a former board member and who had bought a controlling share in the hospital.

“What do you mean?” Tanner asked.

“I think someone is trying to sabotage the hospital. Even before it was discovered that Lawson was mixed up with that gangster, there were strange happenings. I think someone is out to do permanent damage to the hospital’s reputation.”

Their conversation lulled.

In the hushed moment, the sound of a twig snapping was almost deafening.

They both raised their heads and turned to see Robert’s twenty-two-year-old adopted daughter, Chloe, standing in the clearing. The young woman had just finished up her nursing degree from the University of Texas and she worked as a scrub nurse at Confidential Rejuvenations.

Tanner had the strangest feeling that Chloe had been there for a long time, eavesdropping on their conversation. He remembered Maria saying her younger cousin had been a strange girl. Quiet but sneaky. Now he knew what his late wife had meant. Tanner found himself wondering what Chloe would think if she knew her father had sent Vanessa Rodriquez to medical school.

“Dad,” Chloe said. “Mom says the steaks are ready.”

“We’ll be right there.”

She turned and walked back to the house.

“So anyway,” Robert said, “don’t let this attraction to Vanessa throw you. You’re finally getting back to yourself and that’s a good thing. I know you can guard her without letting your emotions cross the line. Keep her close to you. I have a really bad feeling about Carlo Vega. After he was convicted, he swore he’d kill Vanessa whenever he got out.”

That, Tanner realized, was the real reason he didn’t tell Robert the whole truth about what had happened last night. When it came down to it, Vanessa needed him, and since he hadn’t been able to protect his wife, he was damned determined not to screw this up.

Guarding Vanessa was his chance at salvation.

She loved working with the circulating nurse, Lisa Patrone, and the anesthesiologist, Dr. Brad Mertz. She and Brad had even dated a couple of times, but although they liked, admired and respected each other, the lack of sexual chemistry had kept them from becoming anything more than friends. How come it always seemed the guys who were perfect for her just didn’t seem to elicit sparks and the guys who were all wrong for her charged her up like gangbusters? Vanessa shook her head. Mother Nature was an odd creature when it came to sexual attraction.

Lisa was in her midforties, married to a firefighter, with her first grandchild on the way. She’d been at Confidential Rejuvenations for her entire career. She had a passion for haunting garage sales for a bargain and she was always gifting her co-workers with tokens of her affection. She also made one mean guacamole salad, but refused to share her recipe.

The only newbie in the operating suite was Senator Garcia’s daughter, Chloe, and even though the girl was rather withdrawn and still in her externship phase, she was turning out to be quite a talented scrub nurse. Like all good scrub nurses, she could anticipate Vanessa’s needs and have the appropriate instrument ready right when she needed it.

“Are you going to the special doctors’ staff meeting Covey and Butler called?” Brad asked as the four of them moved the still-unconscious patient from the OR table to the recovery room gurney.

“I was hoping to skip it,” Vanessa admitted, “but we finished up ahead of schedule and now I don’t have a good excuse.”

“I’ll save you a seat.” Brad winked at her over the top of his mask. “Near the door in case it runs so long we want to sneak out.”

“Good plan. Butler can get long-winded.”

“No kidding. He went on for twenty minutes at Mark Lawson’s funeral.”

Vanessa followed Lisa and Chloe as they wheeled the patient into the postanesthesia care unit that adjoined the operating room. Vanessa wrote orders on the patient’s chart, double-checked her surgical handiwork, then headed out in time to make the 10:00 a.m. assembly.

Pulling off her surgical cap, Vanessa let her hair tumble about her shoulders as she walked into the conference room to find most of her coworkers already seated. Elle’s fiancé, Dante Nash waved and she waved back before slipping down beside Brad as Butler and Covey entered the room.

She tried to settle her scattered mind and pay attention to the proceedings, but she kept thinking about her mysterious midnight lover. Surgery was the only place where she’d been able to compartmentalize and shut out the memory of what she’d done on Friday night.

Why had she slept with Tanner?

You know why. Deep inside you’re a very bad girl and all the university degrees in the world can’t hide who you really are.

She was damaged goods and that’s all there was to it. She could climb as high as she wanted in her career, but she could never escape who she was or where she came from or the things she’d done to survive.

Jarrod Butler and Covey made their way to the podium on the small dais in the comfortable conference room where they held the monthly Morbidity and Mortality meetings to review the mistakes they might have made in caring for patients and to improve their performance as physicians.

Like everything else at Confidential Rejuvenations, the room screamed money. From the solid walnut podium, to the state-of-the-art audiovisual equipment to the plush leather swivel chairs they sat in. It was a far cry from Vanessa’s squalid upbringing. She had come a long way indeed. Even after all these years, she still had trouble believing this was her new life.

She was so lucky to have landed a residency at the hospital. It was a much-coveted position and she was eternally grateful. She loved working at Confidential Rejuvenations even if at times she felt a bit out of place on the hallowed grounds.

Every day when she drove up the flagstone driveway, she appreciated the lush green lawns and bountiful privacy hedges that were perfectly clipped. Ivy-twined trellises shaded genteel park benches testifying to the exemplary gardening skills of the groundskeepers. On many occasions after work, Vanessa took a walk along the flagstone path to an elaborate hand-carved gazebo positioned on a bluff above the Colorado River’s sensuous curve. There she would sit and breathe and give thanks for how blessed she was to have escaped her past.

As the senior member, Dr. Butler approached the lectern first. He spoke about the steps the hospital was planning to repair Confidential Rejuvenations’ damaged reputation—new advertising campaigns, the hiring of a professional spin doctor, beefing up the in-house security staff.

Then Dr. Covey took over the discussion, announcing a new co-owner. State Senator Robert Garcia, had stepped forward and bought out Mark Lawson’s share in Confidential Rejuvenations. Everyone knew who Robert Garcia was. A few years earlier he’d sat on the hospital board. Vanessa was familiar with him mostly because of his daughter, Chloe. When the timid nurse spoke in the OR, it was usually to talk about her father.

Vanessa heard the conference room door whisper open behind her, but she didn’t turn around to see who’d entered. Her mind was still hung up on her Friday night escapade.

“And lastly,” Dr. Covey said, “we want to introduce you to the new head of security recommended to us by Senator Robert Garcia. We’re expecting big things of him. He has an impressive list of credentials, including serving as Governor Perry’s bodyguard for three years.” Covey waved a hand to the back of the room. “Please help me welcome Tanner Doyle. Come on up here, Tanner.”

Tanner?

Her body tensed at the uncommon name and her breathing grew shallow. She folded her hands in her lap and resisted the temptation to get up and run from the room. No, no, it couldn’t be him.

But sure enough, stalking up to the podium was the big blond man she’d picked up at Emilio’s.

The hairs on her forearms lifted, Vanessa didn’t believe in coincidences. What was he doing here?

To polite applause, Tanner took his place at the lectern as if he was the rightful heir to a throne. In the light of day, dressed in a navy-blue pinstriped business suit, he looked even more handsome than he had in the dim lighting of Emilio’s.

Pausing, Tanner adjusted the microphone to accommodate his height. “Thank you for the welcome,” he said, his velvet-rich voice pouring over her.

Vanessa struggled to ignore the prickle of awareness tripping down her spine. That voice had whispered sweet nothings to her in the dark of an anonymous hotel room. Now the voice, the face, had a full name, a real identity.

He was no longer a figment of her imagination. He was too real and she suddenly felt as if she were a mouse trapped in a tight corner by a tabby cat with lightning-fast reflexes.

Tanner glanced out into the audience and his gaze zeroed in on her. She did her best to remain detached, impassive, but she had no idea if she was pulling it off or not.

“I spent the weekend with Dr. Butler and Dr. Covey going over Confidential Rejuvenations’ security needs.” He gestured toward the two men.

Oh, you liar. You spent half the weekend going over my needs.

“I’ve been briefed about the—” he hesitated, searching for the right words “—incidents that have occurred here over the past few months, and I’m going to need your help in making this hospital as safe as it can possibly be for both our patients and the staff.”

He paused to make eye contact with the assembly. He had a commanding presence, she’d give him that. Vanessa gritted her teeth, knotted her hands in her lap.

Brad leaned over, touched her shoulder. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” Vanessa assured him with a smile and forced herself to unclench her hands and her jaw.

“Scary business,” Brad murmured.

“Yes,” she said, but she wasn’t talking about the hospital sabotage.

“To that end,” Tanner continued, “I will be interviewing each one of you separately to get your take on the events and to elicit your opinion on how best we can meet your security needs while you’re on the grounds of Confidential Rejuvenations.”

Great. Terrific. Just what she wanted. A one-on-one with the man she’d shagged in a moment of weakness.

“What is this?” Vanessa heard one of the doctors behind her mumble. “Are we suspects?”

“Not surprising, after what Mark Lawson pulled,” another doctor whispered in response.

Dr. Butler raised a hand, quelling the hushed discussion going on behind her. “I know you’ll all give Tanner your complete cooperation. Patient and staff safety is our utmost concern during this trying time. Mr. Doyle wants to start the interviews right away. I have your schedules in front of me and I see that, Dr. Rodriquez, you have an opening in your schedule.”

Vanessa was caught off guard and didn’t have a ready excuse. “I was planning on using my downtime to catch up on my surgical notes.”

“It can wait,” Dr. Butler said. “The sooner Tanner can interview the staff, the sooner he can implement his new security measures.”

Vanessa sighed. Dammit.

She could feel the heat of Tanner’s gaze, cool and assessing, on her face. She’d cooperate because Dr. Butler told her to, but she still couldn’t shake her suspicion there was a hidden agenda behind the scenes.

After all, what were the odds that the sexy stranger she’d picked up on Friday night would end up being a coworker by Monday morning?

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?” Vanessa demanded, eying Tanner suspiciously.

Tanner smiled. “My job.”

She looked gorgeous, if somewhat uptight, in a high-necked lavender blouse with prim gray tweed suit and matching pumps. The outfit was all for show, part of the glossy straitlaced image she’d perfected, but he knew firsthand this woman was anything but. Who was she trying to fool most? Other people? Or herself?

They were standing in her office. Like any good security expert, Tanner took in every detail of the room. From the pricey mahogany desk to the overstuffed chair upholstered in Corinthian leather to the heavy tapestry at the windows overlooking the rolling green lawns of Confidential Rejuvenations.

The hospital itself possessed a presence. It was almost as if the place had a personality of its own. Regal yet soothing. Seething with secrets and yet somehow coy, with the expensive modern art paintings displayed in the hallways and the spa treatment facility that rivaled any resort hotel’s.

How much of this room was Vanessa? How much simply the persona of the boutique hospital?

He noted nothing was out of place. On the desk, the papers in her in-box were stacked as orderly as those in the out-box. The pens were arranged in order of their color in the holder—blue, black, green, red. The paper shredder at the side of the desk was empty, as was the trash can across from it.

Vanessa Rodriquez was a neat freak.

Diplomas hung on the walls paneled with real cherry-wood. She’d done her undergraduate work at Trinity University in San Antonio, graduated summa cum laude and gotten her medical degree from the University of Texas.

Robert had told Tanner she had an IQ of 156. Not for the first time, he wondered how and why the senator knew so many details about the testy Dr. Rodriquez. He wanted to believe the man wasn’t having an affair with her, but he still wasn’t convinced.

In the far corner a ficus tree sat in a painted red clay pot and several other green plants hung in front of the window—a dumb cane, an English ivy, an aloe vera cactus. One wall housed a built-in bookcase loaded with medical tomes and even more plants.

The only personal item in the place was the hand-beaded necklace that looked like something a child had made dangling from the desk lamp. The necklace was out of place with the rest of the room, not fitting either the elegant doctor or the expensive surroundings.

Was the necklace a talisman of some kind? Had someone made it for Vanessa? A sister perhaps? A niece? Or maybe one of her patients?

The woman was a fascinating enigma, and the fact that Robert wouldn’t share the exact details of how Vanessa had got involved with Carlo Vega intrigued Tanner all the more. Curiosity had sent him to the newspaper morgue to research the trial, but he’d found little press coverage of the El Paso case in the Austin newspapers, and no mention of Vanessa’s name in the newspaper accounts. There had been a seventeen-year-old girl named Trudy Valdez, who’d been the main witness against Vega, but she’d been a dancer in one of Vega’s strip clubs.

How had Vanessa figured into the murder trial? Was Robert lying about the whole thing? But why would he do that? Tanner wondered if he was being played for a fool.

Vanessa watched him assess the room, hands cocked on her hips. “I don’t believe in coincidences, Mr. Doyle.”

“You can call me Tanner.” It might be perverse, but he was getting a kick out of irritating her.

“No,” she said. “This is a professional relationship. I will call you Mr. Doyle and you can call me Dr. Rodriquez.”

She was pulling rank, setting him straight. He bit down on the provocative and completely inappropriate response on the tip of his tongue. She hadn’t been so formal when she’d cried out his name in the middle of the night.