Her Covert Protector (Rogue Protectors Book 4)

“We’ve been through this a gazillion times.”

Nadia puffed a breath, feeling sweaty, and more than a little bit annoyed at John, but she couldn’t help admiring how his shirt hugged his shoulders, how his tattooed arms bulged out from his sleeves. After the spectacular date two nights ago, she tried to be more tolerant of his pushiness that sometimes got the better of her.

“One more round.”

“What’s the use anyway, when we go in slow motion,” she griped. “That’s not the reality of it.”

His face hardened. “You want to go on this op. I want you to be prepared.”

“Can I just kick my attackers in the balls?”

His eyes crinkled at the corners. “That’s what we’re working up to. Nose, face, throat, and groin. Weakest parts.”

Then without warning, John grabbed her shoulders. Nadia instinctively lifted her right arm, pivoted sideways to the left and brought her arm down, breaking his hold and followed it by ramming her elbow to the side of his face.

“Fuck!” John grunted.

“Oh my God!” Horrified, Nadia instantly checked on him, but he spun around her and captured her from behind.

“Never let your guard down,” he rasped in her ear as she squirmed against him. It was hard to concentrate when John was with her in this way. Images of him fucking her from behind last night flashed through her mind.

“Well, I wouldn’t have if it wasn’t you,” she snapped.

“How do you get out of this?”

I don’t want to. Take me to the floor and fuck me.

But Nadia grabbed his forearms, pulling herself in and shifting her hips to one side. She faked to strike his groin, but John released her.

Straightening up, and swiping the hair that had escaped from her ponytail, she glared at him. “Satisfied?”

His mouth quirked at the corners. “You’re hot when you’re badass like that.”

Her brow arched. “I am feeling hot.” And just as she said that, heat pulsed between her legs. It must be the pregnancy hormones, or it was simply Mr. Garrison. She was eternally horny when he was around, and most especially, when it was just the two of them.

He pulled her into his arms, eyes smoldering. “Oh, yeah, what else?”

“Is this still part of defense training?”

He shoved his crotch against her and she could feel a semi forming at her lower pelvis. “What do you think?”

“We shouldn’t.”

His face came closer …

“Ahem.”

John’s eyes lifted past her shoulder and narrowed.

“Sorry for the interruption.” It was her dad. “Levi is here with his wife …and …”

Nadia frowned, turning around, wondering what had gotten Stephen sounding breathless. “Are you okay, Dad?”

“Theo Cole is here.”

Her eyes bugged out. “Oh my God.”

“Yes!” Her father’s eyes were equally huge.

She wheeled around and faced John. “You know anything about this?”

“Roarke mentioned something last night. Gabby wasn’t too keen about it.” He hitched his shoulders. “Theo made his own decision.”

“This plan is going to rock!” Nadia clapped her hands together.

John nudged her forward. “Yeah, let’s hope we don’t get Theo hurt, or worse, because Gabby will have Roarke’s balls … and mine.”

Nadia didn’t know who to fangirl over first. Theo Cole, Gabby and Declan’s son who played Billy Mayhem on Hodgetown, or Kelly James, Levi’s wife, who was an award-winning makeup and special effects (SFX) artist of Nadia’s favorite fantasy and sci-fi shows of recent years. It wasn’t the first time she’d met them, and she was used to hanging around Theo. But his character on the show had developed over the years, and as he had gotten more popular, she’d seen him less and less. And she was obsessing over the Locke Demon. Gabby and Declan were always complaining that they hardly ever see Theo anymore as the Hodgetown production cast promoted the show on the road.

Dugal and Clyde were entertaining Theo and Kelly. Roarke was standing beside them, eyes keen on his son who was his spitting image. Arthur was his usual self, observing in the background.

Levi was standing on the other side of Kelly. They were not back together yet but were doing their best to co-parent their girls. A complicated backstory led to their separation. Gabby indicated it was because of Levi’s former job as a private military contractor, but the former SEAL was getting his shit together to try and win back his wife.

Theo grinned when he spotted Nadia and John.

“Couldn’t believe what I was hearing when I heard you two hooked up.” The teen star met them halfway across the room, gave Nadia a kiss on the cheek while he and John exchanged a one arm hug. “Heard you guys need our help.” Theo gave them a charming wink.

Kelly approached and exchanged hugs with Nadia. Leaning away, she smiled broadly. “Any woman who manages to get John to StreamCon can call me any time.”

“Ha! You don’t know what you’ve signed up for.” Nadia warned her.

“I wish I wasn’t laid up,” Dugal spoke glumly from the couch. “I’d make a good character.”

Kelly glanced over her shoulder and grinned at the grumbling Scot. “That you would, and you’ve got an interesting face to work with.”

“Did you just insult me, lass?” the Scot asked.

Nadia was used to his feigned outrage.

“She’s blunt,” Levi said. “Get used to it, because you’re going to see her for the next few days.”

“Dugal is a drama king. Don’t mind him,” Nadia said. She was so relieved that he was making big strides in his recovery. There were moments when he got easily tired like her dad, but John said he believed Dugal’s resistance to being laid out for long was helping his recuperation.

Colin walked in from the kitchen and handed his dad a glass of water. “And you should be lying in bed.”

“I’m bored,” he told his son. “It’s more entertaining here.” Colin rolled his eyes and sunk into the armchair.

John cleared his throat. “Let’s take this to the work room I’ve prepared for us.”

Translation … there are too many ears in this room, and it makes me uncomfortable.

This was an LAPD op working closely with the CIA. The fewer people in the know, the better.

The garage of the safe house was huge, it could be described as a garage bay that could fit five SUVs. Right then, it was empty of vehicles. There were four garage doors, and two of them were open. Levi was backing up a white, heavy-duty, commercial truck. When the rear was just inside the mouth of the garage, he cut the engine and jumped down from the vehicle, going around to lift the gates in the back.

“Chairs and the table,” Kelly said. “I need to get a mold of their faces.”

“I get to keep my beard, right?” John asked.

The brunette assessed him. “I’ll trim it down to make a smoother mold. I’ve worked with many actors who were attached to their beards, I’ve become a pro.”

“You are a pro,” Theo said, walking to where Nadia and John stood. “So I heard back from Nick,” the teenager continued. “Mom talked to him this morning, and he was fine with John walking around as the Locke Demon with the other Locke Demons during the Hodgetown panel. ”

Declan grunted. “Was there any concern he was going to say no to Gabby?”

His son shot him an exasperated look. Though Theo and Gabby owned the majority of Revenant Films, Nick Carter was the CEO. He was also Gabby’s ex-husband. Apparently, Declan still hated the guy.

Theo shot his father an exasperated look. “It’s been over a year, dude. Aren’t you two ever going to be in a room and not be at each other’s throats.”

“Don’t count on it.”

Rolling his eyes, Theo addressed John. “You’ll be joining at least one dress rehearsal.”

“Christ. Can’t you just coach me?”

“It’s a team effort,” the teen said. “And we need to give you a rundown of what’s tolerated behavior from the fans and where to draw the line. We’ll have simulations there.” Theo grinned. “The Locke Demon is the most popular character from the show right now aside from me. You may be mobbed.”

“Do not antagonize the Hodgetown fans,” John scoffed. “Got it. Easy-peasy.”

Declan said, “Hmm … that could be a problem.”

“No,” Theo contradicted. “It might work in our favor. The Locke Demon is supposed to be a gray-area character. Garrison is the perfect person for this role. He can be himself. Some ornery behavior is expected.”

Nadia didn’t know whether to laugh or be more worried.

“Hey. Some help here,” Levi hollered from inside the truck.

Declan didn’t make any move to help. “Don’t know, bro. Kelly looks scary seeing how she orders you around.”

The woman in question turned toward them and gave Declan the finger.

Nadia burst out laughing. “A woman after my own heart.”

John looped an arm around her neck and drew her close. “It seems we all have a type.”

“It takes a special kind of woman to be with men like us,” Declan winked at her.

“One with a lot of patience,” Nadia said under her breath.

John was beginning to hate the sound of the compressor powering the airbrush system. He was getting fidgety, especially after sitting for almost two hours in a chair. How do people do this shit? This was nothing like the times he’d had to sit with an agency cover specialist.

Kelly flitted between him, Nadia, and Levi who was a last-minute addition to their monster squad.

In the days leading up to StreamCon, Nadia and Sally Davis were in contact via messaging. Nadia had tried to get the computer hacker to turn herself in to no avail. However, the other day, Sally sent a message that she would, indeed, be at StreamCon and might decide to surrender the Crown-Key in exchange for immunity.

There’d been several theories.

First, Sally was telling the truth and needed those few days to decide to turn herself in. According to her, she still didn’t trust the LAPD to drop the charges in return for the Key.

Second, Dmitry Vovk had her, and she was being coerced into lying to get to Nadia who still had access to the source code. As a precaution, Nadia entered a duress code within the program in case the op went sideways, and she was captured. John gritted his teeth at that thought, which was why he added Levi as extra eyes.

The third speculation was that Sally was leading them on and continued to use the Crown-Key for monetary purposes and had no intention of giving it up.

The buzzing of the compressor turned off, and Kelly appeared in his line of vision. “Don’t move. I’m going to let this dry, but I think you look perfect.”

“Fucking finally.”

“I’m going to check on Nadia,” Kelly told him as she disappeared from view.

“How are you holding up, Demon Boy?” Nadia called from over the divider. The corners of his mouth quirked up, but judging from his reflection in the mirror, his smile looked more evil than amused.

“I look fuckin’ scary.” John stared at the mirror. The Locke Demon had a squarish face. His eyes were sunken, and his large forehead loomed over them. Two horns, one broken in half, rose from his bald head. He was thankful he didn’t need a padded bodysuit. The costume was a combination of black flexible armor, topped with cascading shoulder plates, edged with badass rivets. Mobility wasn’t a problem, and he could hide a gun in his thigh holster masked by the handle of a knife.

“I can’t wait to see!”

“Keep still,” Kelly admonished.

“I’ll probably scare the kids,” John said.

Nadia didn’t respond, but Levi, who was on the other side of her, answered, “You’ll probably be under siege by the Hodgetown fandom. Even my girls love the Locke Demon.”

“Hmm … has daddy been letting Ashley and Whitney watch too much TV?” Kelly said in that ‘you’re so busted’ tone.

The compressor of the air brush machine started again, so instead of admiring his ugly mug, John ran through several scenarios in his head. None of them were to his liking because he was nowhere near Nadia at given times, but the CTTF team would be on hand, scattered throughout the convention center as regular attendees.

He, Nadia, and Levi would be walking around the Revenant Films booth. There would be others wearing the same costumes, but Kelly gave theirs a unique finish so they could be identified from the rest. They also had their assignments during the Hodgetown panel.

Kelly came around the divider to give him one last look. John held his breath as the woman scrutinized her work, praying like hell she was satisfied because trying to yank his hair off when he had no hair to pull was the worst torture.

“Are you ready to see her?” Kelly asked.

“Hell yeah, where’s my demon bride?”

“Hell yeah, where’s my demon bride?”

Suddenly anxious like a bride about to meet her groom, words snagged at her throat.

“Nadia?” John prodded.

“I’m ready.” She glanced at Levi, whose grin through his own MarshMan mask was quite freaky. She exhaled a stale breath and stood, thankful that the soft rubber bodysuit was flexible. Kelly’s costume designer pal did a version of a corset that shaped her torso and pushed up her boobs. Her arms were on full display and she was proud of their muscle tone. Kelly even improved its definition with strategically airbrushed makeup but had to hide her dragon tattoo.

Unlike the Locke Demon, the demoness had hair and she was wearing a bright red wig.

“Let me see you, babe,” John said gently.

Nadia realized she was frozen. She swallowed the knot in her throat and stood. Why was she so nervous? She stepped around the divider, with her eyes pinned to the ground.

Her gaze picked up scuffed boots, and then slowly lifted, taking in muscular legs she knew belonged to John that were in no way special effects. Flexible armor flared onto a bulky chest which might have been padded and molded, but John was no lightweight in any way. The shoulder armor was badass, and finally, finally, she got to his face.

Her eyes warmed as she erased the distance between them, her hand going up to touch John’s demon face. Her beloved Locke Demon was looking at her with such tenderness and her love for the character and the man …

Oh my God, she loved John!

“You’re perfect,” she whispered in wonder.

John smiled, his gaze unwavering. “And you’re sexy-as-fuck gorgeous.” His eyes roamed down her heaving chest and then back up her face. “Damn.” He lowered his voice. “The things I wanna do to you.”

“Oh, wow, talk about smoking up the screen,” Kelly laughed lightly. “Pardon the pun.”

John stared at Nadia a second longer before glancing at their SFX artist. “This paint is smudge proof right?”

Kelly squinted at him in warning. “What are you up to?”

“Can I kiss her?” His focus returned to her. “Because I’ve got a strong damned urge to do so, and I don’t think I can fucking stop myself.”

Without waiting for Kelly’s response, John lowered his head—and their foreheads collided.

“I was gonna say,” Kelly said in an amused tone. “It’s high-quality makeup but you might have issues.”

“Nothing a little adjustment can’t fix.” John tilted his head to the side at the same time lifting Nadia’s chin, and he kissed the fuck out of her. The mouth portion of their masks blended into their real ones which technically allowed kissing.

“Hey!” Someone called from the entrance of the garage. “The convention is rated PG. Just in case you all forgot.”

They broke apart and turned to the newcomers. Declan and Bristow were their escorts to the convention. Gabby was taking Theo and his girlfriend.

“Are you guys ready?” Declan asked. “Or do you guys need a moment? It seems Levi wants to take a page from John’s book.”

“Behave, MarshMan,” Kelly warned her husband. “You guys better head over to the convention center before the doors open.

“Show time, folks,” Levi announced.