Page 51 of High-Priority Asset

If one wasn’t already underway.

THE CELL PHONE woke Isabel. After tossing and turning for hours, fretting over Dutch’s meeting with her uncle, she’d finally managed to fall asleep.

She glanced at the caller ID, hoping it was Dutch with good news.

Uncle Emilio. And it was two in the morning.

“Tío,” she said, surprise brushing away the dredges of sleep. “Is everything all right?”

“Yes, my dear. I met Dutch. I wanted to let you know that I like him.”

“You do?” The instant the words left her mouth she regretted sounding so shocked.

“I give my approval and won’t interfere.”

Isabel pressed her hand to her forehead. Was she dreaming? She must be delirious from lack of sleep. “That’s wonderful.”

What was the catch? Uncle Emilio wouldn’t make it this easy unless there was one.

“But I have one condition,” he said.

Here it comes. Isabel was half-tempted to hang up the phone. She was grown and independently wealthy thanks to the money her father had left her. She’d trade it all, the lavish lifestyle and the trappings that came with it, the eight figures sitting in her bank account, for a normal life, where she was safe and not subjected to the tight reins of her uncle. To live without anything hanging over her.

Sometimes freedom seemed more necessary than maintaining familial ties. But she loved her uncle Emilio and her cousin Miguel. They were the only family she had left. She had been raised to respect her elders, to seek their praise and validation. Also, dealing with the nightmare of Chad Ellis was quite enough. She didn’t want to add her uncle to her list of problems.

“Why am I not surprised there are strings?” she asked.

“Watch your tone with me,” he snapped in that stern way of his. “Dutch told me about his Special Forces background, something you neglected to mention. I offered him a job, but he was hesitant to take it.”

“A job doing what?”

“Protecting you.”

Isabel bolted upright in the bed unsure she’d heard him correctly. McQueen shifted on top of the covers near her feet.

“When he discusses the matter with you,” he said, “I want you to take away his reservations.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Do this and you get the relationship you want with a man I approve of and I’ll know that you’re safe. If I can ensure that you’re protected and it happens to be by someone who makes you happy, then we both win. Yes?”

Her first instinct was to rail against the idea. It took extreme effort for her not to scream into the phone. She didn’t want Dutch taking her uncle’s money, beholden to do his bidding. The audacity to even propose such a thing to her boyfriend was unreal.

Churning it over in her head, she began to see the flip side. If she agreed, then she’d get to have Dutch around more often and keep her uncle off her back. She wanted both.

“Don’t ask him to spy on me,” she said. “It would muddy the waters between us.”

“Your young man already told me in no uncertain terms that he would do no such thing.”

Dutch stood up to her uncle.

She smiled, her cheeks heating, a dizzying sense of warmth seeping through her down to the bone. “I can’t promise anything,” she said. “He’s his own man and will make his own decision, but I’ll talk to him and let him know that I’m not opposed to the idea.”

“Excellent. I’m running a background check on him, just a formality of course. I feel certain he will be able to handle any threat to you. Despite what you might believe, your happiness is important to me. Good night, mi hija. I love you.”

“I love you, too.” Isabel hung up, wondering what exactly had happened at the club for Dutch to have made such a profound impression on her uncle.

Going back to sleep was impossible. Part of her was ecstatic and eager to see Dutch, but there was a niggle of worry in the back of her mind that wouldn’t let her rest.