The Cinderella Mission (Family Secrets #1)(40)
Author: Catherine Mann

Surprise over the rare peek into Hatch’s personal life stilled Ethan for two clicks of the pendulum on the cuckoo clock before he tugged his thoughts back to the problem at hand. Ethan sifted through those thoughts for the words that would force the issue of removing Kelly from the line of fire.

Hatch held up a hand. “Hold on a moment, son. If you push me and I have to move her to another aspect of this assignment, she’s going to have someone else watching her back. Do you really trust anyone else to do as good a job keeping her alive?”

So much for being the most Machiavellian guy on the block. Hatch had him beat by a mile. “You win.”

“No. Let’s pray Alex Morrow wins.” Hatch grabbed his trench coat from the hook and draped it over his arm. He paused at the door. “Williams?”

“Yes?” Ethan turned to look at his mentor, not daring to hope he’d be given a reprieve for Kelly.

“About your parents…you never needed that file from me.”

Ethan frowned. “Sir?”

“Ask your aunt about your parents.”

“I already have.”

“Ask her again.” Hatch’s hand twisted the knob and opened the door to the rest of the shop…and to a host of new questions. With no answers. And no closer to getting Kelly any further away.

Chapter 11

Kelly swished her feet through the pedicure soak, wishing her worries could dissolve as easily as the scented beads in the bubbling water.

She sat in the spa chair, the mauve and crystal decor a far cry from the Snip and Curl her mother frequented. The bite of chemicals in the air, however, Kelly recognized well.

Adjusting the heat level on her chair, she wriggled to get comfortable. Cellophane wrapped around her hair while thoughts of Ethan wrapped around her mind. She’d been so proud of the way they’d pulled together a comprehensive security plan with other agents and some ingenuity from the Marines.

Instead, she’d missed a basic element. They couldn’t slice away their emotions from the job, and the price Ethan would pay was so much higher than her own if they failed.

The flight back from North Carolina with Hatch the evening before had been blessedly short and filled with discussion of the security measures in place for the ball.

Only two days away.

What would happen afterward?

She sniffled, dragging her wrist under her nose. She wasn’t crying, damn it. All the chemicals from other clients were just stinging her eyes.

Yeah, right. She needed to shut down those emotions and couldn’t seem to find an ounce of the cool distance Ethan had donned since they left the mine. He needed a real partner, not someone playing out a Nancy Drew Nabs a Hardy Boy fantasy.

She glanced beside her to make sure Eugenie hadn’t seen the momentary weakness. The older woman reclined unmoving in her pedicure chair beside Kelly, green cream smeared across her face and a fabric mask over her eyes.

Eugenie had insisted on some serious pampering at Peter’s spa and salon after work, vowing the dank mine air could do irreparable damage to Kelly’s skin and hair. Kelly had almost kissed the woman’s clog-clad feet in gratitude for giving her some much-needed distance from Ethan after a day of terse exchanges at the computer console.

Only two more days and “Cinderella” time would be over. No more dancing lessons. No more torturous seaweed treatments.

No more hot-chocolate chats with Aunt Eugenie.

Aunt?

Eugenie. Eugenie Williams, Kelly reminded herself. Not her aunt, even if she had treated Kelly’s feelings with more insight and sensitivity than even a blood relative.

Kelly scratched a finger along the cellophane twisted around her hair. Even though the thing itched like a son-of-a-gun, she appreciated how Eugenie had kept the changes gradual, giving her a chance to become accustomed to each one so she never felt awkward or exposed. A simple trim and conditioning the first time. This time, she’d opted for layers and a cellophane wrap Eugenie vowed would enhance the color without changing it.

Not bad.

Except she had to spend an hour looking like a creature from outer space to achieve the effect. Kelly crossed her eyes at her own alien image staring back at her from the mirror across the salon.

A door to one of the back rooms swung open, admitting three smocked workers followed by Peter holding two glasses of wine. Smiling and intuitively silent, he placed the crystal wine glasses beside both women, before turning to instruct a stock boy unloading bath beads.

If only life really was this simple.

It would be. For the next few minutes, she would take the Eugenie-road and live in the moment.

Eugenie swirled her feet in the water with a contented sigh. Her hand lifted and fell to rest on top of Kelly’s with unerring accuracy. She squeezed.

Kelly squeezed back. “What?”

“Just an old woman reassuring herself again that you’re all right.”

Kelly patted Eugenie’s hand. “I’m fine. And I would never call you old.”

“Smart girl.” Flipping the mask up, Eugenie sat straighter. “But I’m afraid I’m feeling my age today. Brushes with mortality in the young do that to a person.”

“The park owner sent up an alarm before we even had a chance to suffer from mild frostbite.” The body heat combusting from her and Ethan had more than compensated for any chill.

“My age provides a host of thoughts on what could have happened on your way down.”

Those awful first moments spent wondering if Ethan had been hurt rolled through her mind in a nauseating wave. Their two hours in the mine would have been so very different if she’d been trapped with an injured Ethan.

Or heaven forbid… She shuddered.

Eugenie’s grip tightened on Kelly’s fingers a final time before her hand returned to her lap. “Once a person has lived through a next-of-kin police notification, she never gets over fearing another.”

“I’m so sorry we worried you.” Again, those moments of fear for Ethan kicked through her mind, painfully, lending importance to a man she needed to get over.

“I never expected to lose my brother like that. And his wife. It was too much.” Eugenie drew in a shaky breath and shook her head. “No. I take that back. Losing Ethan, as well, would have been too much.”

Kelly caved. Maybe it was the soothing effect of the footbath, or the lulling strains of classical guitar, or just the lingering remains of her long-term infatuation, but she wanted to know more about Ethan.

And this woman was the best source of information. “Is Ethan like his father?”