Her Hidden Falls Bodyguard Billionaire Cowboy - Taylor Hart Page 0,18

tell him anything except that he was needed on a top-secret assignment. Wasn’t everything top secret when dealing with the FBI?

It was fine, though. Whatever it was, he would do it. He’d worked long and hard over the years to develop mental calm and strength. It had started before his father had gone to jail and his mother developed cancer, before his brothers had been left to raise him. Sean had always been what his mother had termed an “old soul.” He could handle whatever came his way; he always handled everything.

The door opened, and Agent Anderson, the director, moved around the desk. He offered Sean a nod.

Sean nodded back. “Sir.”

Agent Anderson opened the file in front of him. After a minute of intense reading, he shut the file and met Sean’s gaze. “Agent Hardman, what we are about to ask you to do is … unconventional.”

Sean’s mind whirled with possibilities. “I don’t understand, sir.”

Agent Anderson steepled his fingers. The man was in his late sixties, and from what Sean had gathered, he had been through way more than what one man should go through. His blue eyes were like ice; his stare could freeze a man. His skin was pure leather with deeply etched wrinkles. He looked exactly how Sean imagined a war-torn general would look, or maybe Abraham Lincoln. “I’ll tell it to you straight. We have a trial forthcoming that we need our star witness to testify in.”

“Okay.” Sean swallowed, not understanding but wanting to be compliant.

“The woman, named Zoey Fletcher, witnessed Rafael Cortez, of the Cortez mafia family, murder an FBI agent in cold blood outside of his condo in Philadelphia five years ago.”

Sean tried to keep up, categorizing the facts in his mind.

“At the time, Ms. Fletcher was a barista at her brother’s coffee shop during her first year of college. She reported the man to the local police. She was concerned about some associates he’d been meeting with in the coffee shop. These reports led to local police taking a deeper look at the situation. They discovered that Rafael Cortez was the leader of a newer human trafficking cell in Philadelphia.”

Sean’s hackles rose. As far as he was concerned, anyone involved in trafficking other human beings deserved to have his throat slit.

The director shook his head. “Local police decided to let Mr. Cortez have a long leash so they could investigate further.” He tsked his tongue. “Unfortunately, Ms. Fletcher tried to be a do-gooder. She followed him one night after leaving the coffee shop and inadvertently witnessed the murder of an undercover agent. When she called to report that crime, she was almost apprehended by Rafael, but she got away.”

His mind raced. “Okay.”

“Well, Ms. Fletcher was placed in WITSEC. She and her brother went into the program and awaited the trial for Rafael Cortez, but a mistake was made. Somehow, Ms. Fletcher’s location was leaked to the Cortez family and …” Agent Anderson hesitated briefly, licking his lips like he was psyching himself up for whatever he was going to say next.

“Sir?” Sean just wanted to get on with this story and figure out why it would affect his first assignment.

“And Ms. Fletcher was okay, but her brother wasn’t. Her brother was killed, gutted by someone in their apartment.”

Sean was speechless. He couldn’t imagine the pain that woman must have endured.

“Ms. Fletcher ran.”

“Away from WITSEC?” Sean asked.

The director nodded. “She’s been missing for three years.”

“Wow.” Sean wondered what his role would be with this Ms. Fletcher.

“She left WITSEC, went off the grid. In fact …” A soft smile pulled his lips. “We’ve only recently found the woman. It was a shock to us as much as anyone that she’s been able to live her life so freely. The woman has some mad skills on the dark web, I’ll tell you that.”

Sean still wasn’t sure what to say.

The director met his gaze. “The woman has been living in Hidden Falls. According to surveillance, you’re a known associate of hers.”

Baffled, Sean shook his head. “I … Sir, excuse me, but if you knew the size of the town, you’d understand that I could be considered a known associate with almost everyone who lives there.”

Impossibly, the director’s gaze became even steelier. “Angela Orion.”

A sucker punch, a blindsiding kick in the head by a bull. Sean felt the world tip on its axis. He wasn’t just a known associate; she was the woman he’d been pining after for the past three months. “What?”

The director leaned in. “Did you