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“Rogan told me,” he replied. “He said that’s why it took so long convincing you to take the job. Because you kept ordering room service.”
My poker face fell into place. “Yeah, it definitely took a long time because of that.”
“You share this with someone?” Brady asked. “Wait. I remember. Maurice, the one who likes—”
“Don’t say it,” I warned. “I’ve spent most of the day trying to forget all the things I said after youdrugged me.”
“Consensually,” Brady pointed out. “You agreed to it. We all heard you.” He winced. “But, yeah. That was fucked up. Sorry about that. Not our usual M.O.”
“It’s all right.”
“You gotta look at it from our perspective,” Brady said. “Thing is, you don’t have much of a record here. Been living in Hollywood for three years and you’ve only had, what, seven auditions? Kinda fishy, you ask me.”
I retrieved my suitcase from the closet and opened it on the bed. “It’s not easy to make it in this town.”
“Lady, I get that, butseven?In three years? We know people in this town. Even the lowest, most awful actors do at least an audition a week. So what gives?”
I started folding clothes into my suitcase. “I’m just waiting for the right role, I guess.”
Brady shook his head. “You gotta work your way up, first. Shovel some shit before you find gold.”
“You sound like my acting coach.” I shrugged. “I don’t know. All the roles I’ve auditioned for feel beneath me. Maybe I just need to be challenged.”
Brady chuckled. “You sound like Asher. He said the same thing.” He sat on the edge of Maurice’s bed and waved a dismissive hand. “Forget I asked. I was just tryin’ to apologize for the kidnapping. We don’t usually do that kind of thing.”
“Rogan said you’re in some kind of competition? With the other security companies?”
“You can say that again. It took usyearsto get to where we are in the personal security business. Blood, sweat, tears—all of those clichés people say. Well, Heimdall Security didn’t like that. They didn’t like itat all. Been trying to sabotage us at every step.”
I grabbed a handful of panties from the drawer and quickly moved them to the suitcase before Brady could see. “And they would really send some sort of spy to your suite to make you look bad?”
“If there’s one thing I’ve learned,” Brady said emphatically, “it’s that people will doanythingwhen money is involved. And personal security is big business in this town.”
I closed my suitcase and zipped it up. “Thanks for the ride. Hopefully traffic back to the hotel is better now.”
“It’s no problem,” Brady said, grabbing my suitcase for me and carrying it to the door. “I’d rather be drivin’ Miss Heather than dealing with the kids.”
I rolled my eyes and locked the apartment behind me. “Kids are a big deal. It’s not like adopting a cat.”
“Yeah, I know,” he said in a softer tone. “The way we had them… It’s complicated. Raising them ain’t been easy. They drove my sister Patty crazy, and she’s a tough woman.”
He stopped on the next stair landing and turned to put a hand on my shoulder. His touch was strangely gentle for a man his size. “I guess I’m tryin’ to say, we’re glad to have you here. To get them under control.”
Brady was every bit as sexy as Rogan, I realized. A little goofier, but in a charming, easy-going way. I found myself liking him.
I smiled. “And I’m glad you’re paying me an insane amount of money to do it.”
“Money?” Brady scoffed. “You mean you’re not doin’ it out of the kindness of your heart?”
“Not even a little bit!”
We laughed, but as we went downstairs, I thought to myself,I’m also doing it to stay close to Rogan.
When we got outside, Maurice was walking up the street toward us. I saw his face contort into several different emotions:
First he was happy to see me.
Then he was excited to see that I was with a man.
