The Socialite and the Bodyguard by Dana Marton Page B

leads the company now?”
“He’s one of the VPs.”
    “And he handles Greg’s trust fund.” That had come up at one point in his research. “Did you ever say anything about your suspicions to Greg?”
    “No. There’s no point. It would just upset him.”
    “But you think all this is somehow connected to the company.” He’d spent hours considering that and always came to the conclusion that Landon Enterprises and the hundreds of millions of dollars it represented was the most likely motive.
    He couldn’t figure out, however, what someone might get out of killing the family. The stockholders owned the company, although both Greg and Kayla—and, he assumed, their uncle—owned considerable stock. There was no power struggle as far as he could tell, no bad blood between the CEO and any of the VPs.
    “So the motive is to cover up a past crime, embezzlement.” It was all too possible.
    “Or it could have nothing to do with the missing money. Maybe a business competitor figures that if Landon Enterprises gets decapitated and falls apart, they can snap up the market share,” Kayla said in a way that showed that she’d given this considerable thought.
    “None of your competitors were in your apartment the night before last. And no Landon Enterprises employees were either, other than you and Greg.”
    “But someone could have bribed one of my staff.”
    He could see in her tight face that saying those words cost her. This was the first time she’d admitted that one of them had probably betrayed her. The blue-ribbon spark was gone from her eyes. She looked so sad, he couldn’t take it.
“Hey—” He leaned toward her and tucked a stray lock of blond hair behind her ear, and nearly drowned in her ocean-blue eyes. “Whatever it takes, I’m going to get you out of this mess.” And keep my hands off you.
    They were sitting so damn close that their lips were separated by inches.
    She was everything he couldn’t have. And he was a hairline away from not giving a damn. All he would have to do was dip his head. In another second, as she looked at him with those wide blue eyes, he might have.
    But someone banged on the elevator shaft door below them, startling him back to sanity.
    “You in there?” Mike’s voice filtered through. “Everything okay?”
    Nash stood, rolling his shoulders, never happier for an interruption in his life. Mike had just saved him from making a colossal mistake. He owed the man.
    “When are they going to get this thing moving?” The sooner the better. No room to escape the scent of her perfume in here. No matter how far he tried to pull away from her, she was always within reach. He needed to clear his head.
    “They’re working on it. Something’s wrong with the computer.”
    “Are all the elevators out?”
    “Just this one.”
    That gave him pause. He didn’t believe in coinci dence. He looked at the door. Mike was here. Between the two of them they could…
“I’m going to force the inner door open and hold it. You do the same with the outer door. If there’s enough room, Kayla can slip out.”
    He didn’t trust the elevator all of a sudden. And maybe he was right, because out of the blue, the damn thing jostled.
    He pried the tips of his fingers into the crack and strained his muscles pulling. He could hear Mike swearing outside. Progress was slow, inch by inch. Kayla stepped out of her heels, getting ready. Then Mike began to gain some headway at last, as well. When they both had a gap about a foot wide, Kayla slipped out, landing on the floor with a thump. The bottom of the elevator was at least three feet above floor level outside.
    “Now you,” she said immediately, before even putting her shoes back on.
    The elevator jerked and dropped a foot.
    She yelped, rushing to give Mike a hand. “Hurry.”
    Nash nearly lost his hold on the door as the damn thing shook. “If I let go of the door, it’ll close on me. I can’t.” She was safe. Maybe the elevator