The Player by Rhonda Nelson Read Free Book Online

acting on the Colonel’s orders. That was going to make things much more difficult, Audrey thought, but she’d promised her grandfather that she’d do her best to take care of him.
    For the next week, this guy was hers—the mere thought made her insides quiver—and even with the wacky trumped up so-called hobbies her grandfather had supplied for Jamie, she fully expected to enjoy herself much more than she should.

4
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    Y OU C AN G O O N —Dealing with Erectile Dysfunction.
    Coping with Incontinence.
    Jamie snorted and tossed the books aside, then pulled his cell from the clip at his waist and dialed Garrett directly. “What?” he asked when the Colonel answered the phone. “Was Chicken Soup for the Psychopath’s Soul on backorder?”
    Garrett chuckled, the twisted bastard. “I see you’ve arrived.”
    “I have.”
    “And everything’s in order?”
    “Everything but your sense of humor. Basket-weaving? Watercolors? Ballroom dancing? Just exactly when were you planning to have me guard her?” Jamie asked, completely exasperated. Hobbies, hell. “Because the relaxing schedule I’m looking at leaves very little time for that.”
    “Tsk, tsk,” said the Colonel. “You make it sound like you’re not going to have a good time.”
    Jamie moved his duffel out of the recliner and dropped heavily into it. He flicked a casual glance around the living room and deemed it to his liking. Comfortable furniture, natural gender-neutral decor. A nice view of the lake. Not bad at all. “I didn’t think the purpose of this mission was to ensure that I had a good time. I thought I was here to protect Audrey.”
    “Ah, Audrey, is it?”
    Jamie felt his fingers tighten around the cordless phone. “That’s her name. You didn’t expect me to call her Ms. Kincaid, did you?”
    “No, and I don’t want anyone calling her Mrs. Derrick Willis either, which is the real reason you are there. Take notes. You’re about to receive orders.”
    Jamie blinked, stunned. “What? I thought you said you wanted me to protect her from a personal enemy.”
    “I do—that enemy is Derrick Willis.”
    Jamie leaned forward in his chair. Derrick? How could Derrick be his personal enemy? What the fu—
    “I have it on good authority that he’s asked my granddaughter to marry him and has given heruntil the end of the week to make up her mind,” Garrett said.
    Jamie stilled. So that was the question Derrick-the-ass had been referring to, Jamie realized, suddenly sickened. Though he’d barely had time to rub two thoughts together since he’d gotten here, he had to admit that Audrey choosing a boyfriend like that sonofabitch was a little disheartening. Quite frankly, he would have thought she’d had better taste.
    What was the draw? he wondered. It damned sure wasn’t personality or sex appeal. The guy was provokingly abrasive at best and Jamie had personally seen her cringe when Derrick had tried to hug her. That certainly wouldn’t make a happy marriage. It didn’t make any sense.
    And he sure as hell didn’t see how he was supposed to “protect” her from Derrick.
    “I don’t understand,” Jamie told him, thoroughly confused. “Derrick’s not even here.”
    “I know. He’s on a business trip.”
    What? Jamie wondered. Did he have the place bugged? “How did you know th—”
    “Suffice it to say I have an excellent source in place who also has my granddaughter’s best interests at heart.”
    Ah. Tewanda.
    He was beginning to get the picture—albeit a vastly different one to what had originally been painted—but he still didn’t see how he figured in it. “Sir, with all due respect, I fail to see how I can—”
    Garrett chuckled. “For someone with a genius-level IQ, you certainly aren’t doing a bang-up job of putting things together, Flanagan.”
    He supposed not, Jamie thought, completely baffled. He couldn’t hit a target that wasn’t here. What the hell did Garrett want him to do? Follow Derrick? If so,