Bare Facts by Katherine Garbera

life, which was borderline extraordinary. Her cell phone beeped and she pulled it out, read an e-mail, and then quickly typed a response on the keypad.
    “Justine is ready for us at the plane. I alerted her that we might have a tail. She’s getting into position to protect our back until you are safely on the plane.”
    “That’s fine. Henry’s not going to be able to drive out in this car.”
    “I’ll have Anna take care of him.”
    Henry stopped the car and got out to open the door. Daniel signaled him to wait. “Your people will have to keep him safe for a few days.”
    “We will,” she said.
    “I’ve rethought keeping you with me, Charity.”
    “Not again.”
    “It’ll be safer for you if you stay here with Henry.”
    “You’re not paying me to stay safe. You’re paying me to protect you.”
    “Since I’m the one paying, I get to choose,” he said, capturing her wrist when she would have started to get out of the car.
    “If I answered to you,” she said. “But Sam is my boss and he assigned me as your bodyguard.”
    Henry opened the door and she swiveled on the seat, turning her legs to exit. “You’re a very caring man—to watch out for your staff the way you do.”
    She climbed out before he could answer. Caring wasn’t something that was in his makeup, but if she wanted to believe that about him, he wasn’t going to argue. He knew enough about women to know that they were more comfortable with emotion.
    He wanted Henry safe for two reasons: one, the man had been a good driver over the last few years; and two, he wasn’t sure that Henry wouldn’t talk if he were captured. He’d probably give them Charity’s address, and he wanted that information kept out of Sekijima’s hands.
    “Henry, someone from the Liberty Investigations team will take you to a safe location until the men who were after me are caught,” Daniel said.
    “I’m fine, sir. I know how to watch my back.”
    “All the same, I’m going to insist you take a few days off—think of it as a vacation.”
    “Yes, sir.”
    He followed Charity across the tarmac, thinking about what she said. He’d revealed more to her than he’d intended, and though she thought that would help in her investigation, he knew that it had increased the danger to her.
     
    As soon as the plane was in the air, Daniel took out his laptop and started working. He’d taken a call as soon as they’d arrived at the airport. Charity wasn’t sure if she was glad that he was unavailable or not.
    She did know she had a list of questions that just kept growing, questions that only he knew the answer to, questions that her gut warned her were going to stay unanswered.
    “Why didn’t you take him to your dojo and work out some of your frustrations on him?” Justine said as she settled into the leather executive chair next to Charity.
    Charity exhaled, trying to find the right words. “He wasn’t agreeable to that.”
    Justine chuckled. “That man is getting under your skin.”
    “I don’t know why,” she admitted. “Did you have a chance to run the Yakuza and the name he supplied us with?”
    “There’s nothing on Sekijima in our databases, but Anna only had time for a prelim search before we took off. She’s back on the computer working her magic again. We’ll have an answer soon enough.”
    “Good. I e-mailed you the plans for his house on that island in the San Juans as well as the high-rise apartment. Can you make a list of everything we’ll need to secure those two locations?”
    “Will do. I think security is going to be tough at both locations. You’re good but that island is vast. Will he wear a vest?”
    “I doubt it. It would be better if we could get a decoy in to take his place. I’m going to add that to my security-plan scenarios.”
    Both women worked on their laptops independently until Justine needed more information from Anna and left to go chat with her.
    Daniel didn’t move from his desk, which took up one wall of