Secret Protector. Ann Peterson Voss

don’t know. She could walk up to me right now, and I wouldn’t recognize her.” She started to move the handheld back toward her purse.

      “No, make the call. Please. Even if we can’t tell him what she looked like, he needs to know what’s going on.” Gray would also have to fill Devin in on the situation. He doubted either brother would be surprised at the attack. They’d been worried about it, bracing for it. It had been him who was caught flat-footed.

      Natalie finished leaving a message on Ash’s voice mail by the time they reached the front entrance of Kendall Communications and ducked inside. A little late for lunch hour, the building felt still. The airy atrium smelled of delicious food and floor wax. Only a few diners remained in the café, probably shoppers enjoying a quiet afternoon in the public restaurant. He glanced up at the twenty-foot trees overhead. The place felt like a quiet garden cove, not the busy building it was, most employees in their offices organizing for their afternoon schedules, he supposed. They made it through the lobby and to the elevator bank. Almost the moment they arrived, a door opened.

      The elevator car was empty. At least that worked out in their favor. He preferred alone, especially since he didn’t know where any danger might be coming from. He ushered her inside and took what seemed like his first deep breath since he’d seen her flying into the street.

      Soft music drifted in the air. Natalie hit the button that would take them to her sixteenth-floor office and looked up at him. Her face was still pale, but she had pulled herself together remarkably well for a civilian untrained in dealing with life-and-death stress. “It’s amazing how you handled that.”

      “Amazing? Not really.” She held out her scraped palms. Her fingers trembled visibly.

      He reached out his own hands and gently folded hers in his. “I’m sorry I didn’t notice that woman. I should have.”