Page 3 of Ryder’s Storm

“Then you should take some well-meant advice,” Ethan said. “Let loose once in a while, or that stick that’s up your butt will become permanent.”

2

Scarlet was in the kitchen, when she heard the chiming of her cell phone. Her father, Brandon King, was calling her on FaceTime. She clicked accept.

“Hey, Dad!”

His handsome face was pixilated for a moment, before it became sharper. “Hey, honey, what are you up to?” His voice was a deep baritone, and he smiled warmly at her. There was something youthful to him, even though he was fifty-five years old, and he had streaks of gray in his dark hair.

“I was working on my thesis all day. Now I’m beat.”

“And your health? Any episodes?”

“I’m fine, Dad. How’s your ankle?”

“It’s healing, no worries.”

“I can’t believe you slipped in the bathroom. How did that even happen?” After all, her father wasn’t an old man or an invalid. In fact, he played tennis regularly, and was in shape.

“I just slipped on something wet. Some shampoo must have dripped from the bottle to the floor. You know how many shampoos and lotions Claudia has. I’ll be more careful next time. So, how are your studies?”

“I’m making good progress. It’s just really busy.”

Scarlet had transferred to San Francisco University the previous fall, and moved into her father’s Victorian in Pacific Heights rather than staying in their mansion in Palo Alto where she’d lived while she’d gotten her degree at Stanford University. Not only did she want to get her PhD at the somewhat smaller private university in San Francisco, she also wanted independence, as well as grant her father and her stepmother, Claudia, some privacy.

Claudia, whom her father had married six years earlier, long after Scarlet’s mother had died of an unexpected heart attack at age forty, was a wonderful woman, even though Scarlet had at first thought that she was far too young for her father. Despite the eighteen-year age gap between them—Claudia was thirty-seven—they seemed to be happy together. Scarlet had expected that they would be overjoyed when she’d announced that she would move to San Francisco. Far from it. Both of them had protested, wanting her to live with them on the Peninsula.

But she’d put her foot down. After all, she was twenty-four and an adult. Still, her father had agreed only grudgingly. And under one condition.

“How’s the new bodyguard working out? Do you like him better than the last?”

Scarlet didn’t even bother to hide her eyeroll. “He’s annoying and clings to me like a bad outfit.”

Her father chuckled softly. “That’s his job. He has to protect you.”

“Really, Dad? Haven’t I proven to you that I can look after myself and don’t need a babysitter? You’re not applying the same rules to Claudia!”

“Because Claudia agreed to have a gun in the house so she can defend herself when I’m away on business,” he countered.

“And I took the self-defense class, just like you asked me to, and I’m even learning karate, so that I can defend myself if I’m attacked. But I don’t want a gun in the house. Statistics say that people are more likely to be killed by their own guns than not.”

“I don’t care about statistics. I care about your safety.”

“I really don’t need a constant shadow. Frankly, it’s humiliating showing up everywhere with a bodyguard in tow. People look at me strangely.”

And it made it hard to really get to know the other students on campus. They all assumed that she was aloof, or something better, and didn’t want to mingle with her peers.

“Honey, you know we had an agreement. Besides, Scanguards is the best security company in the entire country. They have the best people.”

Scarlet huffed. “I’m not saying that the bodyguards Scanguards provides are bad. They’re just not for me. I don’t—”

“Scarlet, please! You’ve already churned through four of their bodyguards. And now the owner’s son has been assigned to you. Trust me, after you alienated each of your previous bodyguards, it’s a wonder they haven’t terminated the contract.”

“I haven’t alienated anyone,” she managed to interject.

Her father grimaced, showing her that he didn’t believe her. “Last month, Samson Woodford called me personally to assure me that you’ll get the very best they have. That’s all I want for you: to be safe. I can’t lose you too. It would break my heart.”

She hated it when her father tugged at her heartstrings by reminding her of their recent loss. She was still grieving too. She’d loved her half-brother, and his death had been a shock for all of them. Scarlet looked at her father, silent for a moment. He wasn’t doing this to control her, he was doing this to protect her, because if he lost her too, it would destroy him. He would never recover from that, not even with Claudia by his side.