Page 49 of Auctioned to the Billionaire Bodyguard

“Seriously?” She threw her hands in the air. “I beat him at something physical, and I can’t even tell anyone?”

“If you become a St. James Security agent with me, everyone will know you went through a really tough training regimen.”

She got a gleam in her eye. “I’m totally going to do it.”

Reynolds looked concerned. “I don’t know… it’s dangerous.”

“But Byron will be with me. We’ll be partners, right?”

“Well, now, I’m not so sure about that part. I have a lot of talking to do with my dad about the structure of the headquarters. We’ll talk about it for sure, though,” I said, when I saw she was looking disappointed. “You just think about whether this is something you really want to do. You’re a really good real estate agent.”

Nadine had a serious look on her face, and I could tell she was really contemplating it. Reynolds could, too, and it was obviously freaking him out, though he was trying to be supportive.

“You know,” he said when we got loaded back in the ATV, “I’m pretty sure my suit was holding me back on that wall. I mean, I know I took the jacket off, but the pants and shirt…”

“Yeah, my dress wasn’t awkward at all,” Nadine said and winked at me.

Reynolds smiled for a minute then looked at her sharply when he realized she was being sarcastic. His phone buzzed in his suit pocket. “Hey, Leo, what’s up?”

“Put him on speaker,” Nadine said.

Reynolds did.

“Where the hell have y’all been? I’ve been calling for, like, two hours!” Leo was clearly stressed.

We exchanged looks. “What’s going on, Leo?” I asked.

He sighed as if relieved to have finally gotten us. “A couple of really big things. First off, Skeeter isn’t dead.”

We all exclaimed and freaked out for a while until he cut through the noise.

“Listen to me!” He waited for us to get quiet. “He’s sent threatening texts to Jess.”

“Oh God.” Nadine went totally pale.

“Jess came to Carmen and begged to go into the auction that istonight.”

“What?” I bellowed. There was no way in hell she was going in that goddamn auction.

“Yeah, well, nice of you to be upset now after you already broke her heart,” Leo snarked.

“What the hell are you talking about?” I asked.

“She heard you talking to Carmen. She knows you’re in love with her and want to be with her.”

“No! Shit, she must not have heard the whole conversation. I ended it by telling Carmen I would always love her but not in the same way I love Jess.”

“Oh, yeah. She totally missed that. I did, too.”

“You were listening, too?” I asked.

“That’s not the important part. Anyway, Carmen has let her go on thinking that y’all are together now. Jess wants to go into the auction to get some money, let her mom get through withtreatment, and then she wants the both of them to get out of town.”

“No!” Nadine’s hands balled into fists. “I just found out I had a sister. I’m not losing her now.”

“Well, you better get back here for the auction. Enzo is going to bid on her, supposedly it will be fake, but, well, you know Enzo. But hewillbe able to protect her from Skeeter. Nobody’s dumb enough to take her from Enzo Salazar.”

“Except me,” I said grimly. “That’s not happening. He will not win her in that auction. We’ll be flying out as soon as I can get a plane.”