There was nothing she hated more than her job, than the fact that her commander and chief could make her do anything. Larissa stared at the envelop on her lap. Inside was the information on her next target – Top Star Bruce Tak. The action movie star who was the highest paid actor that ever lived. He was handsome, tall and every girl with a pulse loved him.
But Larissa hated him.
I don’t ever watch his movies kind of hate.
“You’ve worked undercover before. Why is this any different?” he commander asked. He stared at her from his high chair. He liked doing that. Larissa always thought that it made him feel powerful and mighty. That he could make the agents under him do anything he wanted.
“This is not a job. You want me to marry this man,” she said shaking her head. No she was not doing it. She didn’t care that he was being threatened and he almost lost his life. It wasn’t her job to protect civilians. That was the job for the police. She was in the CIA.
“Yes, because your job is not only to protect him from these threats, we don’t exactly care about that. We want you to gather information on him,” her commander slid a paper across his massive desk. Larissa reached for it. On the paper was information on Alexei Malkovich, the Russian arms and drug dealer.
“This is about him?”
“Yes. We have intel that he’s been seen with him. And they were talking business.”
“You think Tak, is into guns or drugs?” Larrissa asked in disbelief. She didn’t like the guy but she didn’t think that he was involved with drug dealers. He might be a little eccentric but he didn’t look like the time to try things that would end his career. “He doesn’t look the type,” Larissa said thoughtfully.
“They never do.”
“Yeah,” she said knowing that was true. The most heinous crimes were committed by the homey and nice type of people. It was never clear cut. “So I go in as his wife, to protect him from someone who’s threatening him. That still doesn’t make sense. I can be his bodyguard.”
“He doesn’t need a new bodyguard. And besides the person who’s threatening him is someone close. He just doesn’t know who it is. And he wants this done discreetly. He doesn’t want to spook whoever it is by bringing in a new bodyguard,” he sighed wiping at his face. He stared at her with his ‘I am losing my patience look’ “Larissa, take this. We are lucky for him to even take us up on this scheme. He’s giving us an opportunity to target Malkovich. You go in there and do your job. The why and how of it is none of your business. That is my business.”
He got to his feet and walked to the door. “Now, go and do your job. Check in every week. Bye.”
“What? Do I just show up at his house?” she asked. Even though deep down she knew how ridiculous this was. They should have sent her straight to Malkovich. That would have been a better mission.
“Yes, he has a car waiting for you,” the commander said pointing to the door.
Larissa got to her feet and walked out of the office. She walked out of the building. A black Mercedes Benz was waiting for her on the kerb. She stared at it. If her friends could see her now.
Larissa groaned and walked to the car. She opened the door and got in.
“Good afternoon, Ms,” the driver said and started the car. He looked at her in the rear view mirror. “Mr. Tak had a few instructions. Here.” The driver handed her a brown paper bag. Larissa looked inside. She pulled out a black scarf and shades.
She stared. “What is this for?”
The driver gave her a look, and then faced forward. “He doesn’t want anyone recognising you in case things don’t work out between the two of you.”
The f**k… Larissa thought this was a done deal. Was he still going to decide?
She closed her eyes as she suddenly had a weird feeling about the whole thing. Why does this feel like she’s been duped? Her commander didn’t tell her about this part, where Mr. Tak was still going to decide.
She pulled out her phone and sent her commander a text.
Larissa:
This is not a done deal?
Her phone beeped within seconds as if he had been waiting for her. He probably knew she would complain.
Commander:
We gave him leave to decide. If he doesn’t like you, we promised to send him someone else.
What? Why didn’t he tell her this when she said no to the mission? They could have send in someone else. She couldn’t believe this. Larissa clenched her jaw to keep herself from screaming.
Larissa:
And you are telling me this now?
Commander:
Go do your job and quit complaining. And make sure you win him over. If you don’t, I’ll send you where the sun don’t shine.
Fuck…
Larissa clutched her phone tight until her fingers hurt. She was going to kill him. That’s if she doesn’t kill Mr. Tak first.
“Ms,” the driver said pointing to the scarf and shade. “We are almost there please.”
Of course, she thought with a groan. She wrapped the scarf around her head, and put on the shades. The car came to a scrawl as they neared his house.
“Dammit. Don’t they ever go home,” the driver hissed. Larissa looked outside the car window, and saw the paparazzi camped outside the gate. They rushed the car when they noticed it coming. Flashlight hit the tinted windows creating a bust of light.
“Keep your head down,” the driver said. “He doesn’t want anyone to know about this. He has enough rumours going around.”
Yeah, Larissa thought with a sigh. His latest conquest a French model had a lot to say about him. She called him a womanising asshole who had no respect for women. Larissa kind of believed her. There was no smoke without fire. Or maybe she was just biased. Bruce Tak was nothing but a meathead with muscles that got lucky, because he was handsome. Without his looks he would be the worst actor that ever lived.
Larissa laughed to herself at that thought. She would do better to keep that thought to herself. She didn’t think that the mighty Bruce Tak would appreciate that.
The driver managed to drive through the paparazzi, and round the long drive way. He parked the car inside the garage, and closed the door too.
“If only he was this careful with his other women,” Larissa said as she got out of the car. She unwrapped the sweltering scarf from her face.
“He usually is, but he can’t control each and every person who comes into his life,” a deep voice said behind her. Chills ran up and down her back as she realised what she just said and who heard her.
Oh damn…she thought as he turned around to face him.
Bruce Tak stood there, with his hands stuffed in the pockets of his jeans. He wore a light sweater that did wonders for his toned body. His dark caramel skin had a healthy glow that made her wonder what kind of lotion he used. Or was it his mixed genes. She knew he was a mix of an African mother and an Asian father…not that she checked.
Larissa, tried her best not to fidget under his golden eyed stare.
“Uhhh…shall we. I would like to get this over with. If it’s not going to work out. I have some serious shopping to do,” Larissa said walking towards him.
“What?” he asked in confusion.
“It’s nothing. It just I might need some warm clothes,” she said walking past him.
“You are one rude lady.”
“Yeah, I’ve been told.” Larissa stopped and turned around to face him. She sighed knowing this wasn’t going to work. Damn…she hated the cold.
“I like it,” Bruce said coming to stand next to her. He looked down at her. Larissa looked up at him as he stood over her. She gulped.
She never realised how really tall he was. He was bigger than she thought too. And up close his eyes had flecks of green that made them sparkle.
Larissa shook her head as she suddenly felt like the groupies that followed him around.
“I don’t understand,” she said focusing on their conversation.
“It’s very simple. Our relationship will never get complicated, because I have a feeling by the time you catch whoever is trying to kill me. I will hate the sight of you.”
Larissa’s lips pulled into a smile. Wow, she was glad she didn’t have to pretend to be nice to him since they will be married.
“Great. I am glad we are on the same page,” she said offering her hand to shake.
“Great,” they shook hands, their lips pulled in forced smiles. “This way. I have the papers that I need you to sign. And then we can move on with the wedding.”
Larissa wanted to bolt at the mention of a wedding. She didn’t want to marry Bruce Tak.
“It’s not a real wedding, right?” she asked just to be sure. “I am here to save your ass, only.”
“To us it will be on paper, but to the world out there and whoever is trying to kill me, it’s going to be as real as any marriage gets,” he walking deeper into the house.
“Couldn’t you hire a bodyguard? Marriage is just too extreme,” Larissa dragged her feet as she followed him. God, please save me, she prayed.
“I did that before and he went into hiding for a while. Now, he doing it again. He manages to get to me even with my bodyguards here. I need someone he won’t see coming.”
“A CIA agent disguised as a wife,” Larissa said.
“Yes. That is my best bet, because I am afraid next time he might succeed. The last time was too close for my liking,” Bruce said brushing at his throat. Larissa stared at the skin, and she could see that faint scar, that was probably left by a thin rope.
“He tried to strangle you?” she asked shocked that the person got that close. If he got close enough to strangle him, he was not playing. This was personal. He could have shot him, poisoned him. No. Whoever it was wanted to see him suffer.
Bruce nodded. He opened the door to his office and stepped inside.
“It happened in here. I dosed off, on my desk. And then the next thing I knew I couldn’t breathe.”
Larissa looked around her. The office was big with a lot of bookshelves and books on random surfaces. There weren’t a lot of places that a person could hide. There was a low hanging window on the side, and she spied a shrub that created shadow against the glass. He might have used the window to come in and out. The desk was close enough to the window for him to move in and out fast.
“Did you get a look at him?” she asked.
He shook his head.
“And I couldn’t call for help either, because you know…” Larissa nodded.
“He could have killed you.”
“I know. That’s why I need you,” he said walking around the desk. He sat down and pulled out papers and placed them on the desk.
“How are you going to convince the world that you found a wife all of a sudden?” Larissa asked still thinking the bodyguard idea was a better one.
“Don’t worry about a thing. I will take care of that,” he pushed the papers towards her. “Everything you need to know is in here. You leave the show business to me.”
Right, Larissa thought as she picked up the papers.
What did she get herself into?