Her Enemy Protector by Cindy Dees Page B

up his hands. “Don’t ask me. I’m only the driver.”
    Cari leaned forward and spoke to the thug hanging in Folly’s window. “Rico, I’m tired. Let us in.”
    Thankfully, the guard waved them through. Four men toting machine guns jogged beside their car as they drove slowly to the house. Joe eyed the escort cautiously. Wow. Eduardo must be apoplectic for these guys to be jumping like this. One of the thugs opened his car door and Joe stepped outside. No surprise, the guy called Rico slammed him against the side of the car and frisked him thoroughly and roughly. Asshole.
    Carina was ushered out of the car much more politely, but Joe noticed her guard had a bruising grip on her arm. He caught Cari’s wince before she masked it. “Get your hands off my wife,” he growled at the guard over the trunk of the car.
    That froze them all in their tracks. The looks on the guards’ faces would have been hilarious if Joe hadn’t been so busy being shocked over how genuinely mad he was that the guy was manhandling Cari. As it was, he had to take a couple of deep breaths and forcibly tell himself to cool it.
    He stepped around the car and put a protective arm around her shoulders. “Get my suitcase out of the trunk,” Joe snapped to the guard who’d frisked him. “And don’t break anything when you search it.”
    He led Cari toward the house and made a point of not bothering to check over his shoulder to see if the guard had done as he ordered. He was aware, though, that Folly had prudently stayed inside the car.
    Freddie and Neddie came charging outside just as he and Cari reached the front steps. The two giants screeched to ungainly halts, scowling ferociously at him. They were dying to get their hands on him, but with his arm securely around Cari, they’d have to wait. Frustration danced on their hamlike features.
    “You in big trouble, boy,” Freddie growled in broken English.
    Joe shrugged. “I brought her home, didn’t I?” He might have added that it was more than Freddie had managed to do tonight, except there was no need to antagonize Ferrare’s people more than he had to. He was going to have to get along with these goons if he planned to stay alive here for any length of time.
    Behind them, Joe heard the car start and then pull away. Thank God the colonel was out of there safely. Oh, and there went his last escape route. He was committed now.
    Cari piped up, “Relax, you two. We just wanted to get married in peace, for goodness’ sake.”
    Freddie and Neddie’s jaws sagged.
    “C’mon,” Cari continued brightly, “you can help us break the news to Daddy.”
    Not surprisingly, the two men declined to follow them into the house. Joe threw Cari a speculative glance. She’d pushed exactly the right button to get rid of her watchdogs. He revised his estimate yet again of just how smart a cookie she was. At a glance, she came across as more concerned with the latest fashions and having a good time than anything serious. Except she kept showing these subtle flashes of calculated brilliance that called her airheaded-party-girl act into serious doubt. Now, if only she could handle her father as smoothly as she’d just played her bodyguards.
    “Do you know the layout of the place?” Cari murmured under her breath.
    “Most of it,” he replied under his breath. They were headed for what he believed was Ferrare’s office now, in fact. For years, Charlie Squad had been trying to penetrate that inner sanctum of Ferrare’s crime empire. And to think, he was about to stroll into the place itself. Well, maybe walk in gingerly. It was still hard to grasp.
    They were stopped at the door to Eduardo’s office by a gray-haired man with the roving gaze of a trained security expert. This guy was no beefy flunky. He looked hard and fit. Carried himself as if he were ready for anything to come his way. A legitimate warrior. Probably one of Eduardo’s personal bodyguards. Someone to reckon with. Don’t react