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Finally, we made it up to the meeting room where we’d first met her. Inside was an older man—maybe in his early sixties—wearing an expensive suit. He was the kind of man who put a lot of effort into looking younger with plastic surgery or fillers, but it had the opposite effect.
He smiled broadly at Taylor and held his arms open for a hug. Taylor walked into his arms and hugged him back politely. But Neil held onto her for a beat too long for my comfort.
“So good to see you,” Neil said. He turned his attention toward us. “And you must be her security team.”
“We are,” I said, extending my hand to him. “I’m Harrison Davis.”
“Harrison, good to meet you,” he said. Ethan and Cody introduced themselves as well. “I’m afraid this meeting will be quite boring, so you can wait outside.”
I hesitated, but he had a point. We didn’t need to be involved in this conversation. But I didn’t like the idea of her being in there alone with him for some reason.
“We’ve been tasked to be with her at all times when she’s in public, regardless of where she is,” I said. “And we like to stick to protocol. It’ll just be one of us, and as the contract we signed states, everything we overhear is strictly confidential.”
Neil studied me for a moment, not quite frowning but not neutral, either.
“Fine. It’s protocol.” He smiled again, his teeth bright against his tanned skin.
Today was my turn to be Taylor’s primary guard, so I stayed while the others went outside. Neil and Taylor sat down at one side of the table, and I sat down with one seat between me and Taylor. Neil pulled out some documents and spread them in front of her.
“Okay, let’s get started,” he said. He moved over so he was sitting right next to Taylor. Even from where I was sitting, I could tell he was a tad closer than he had to be.
He started talking about Taylor’s various investments and properties. I didn’t know everything he was talking about, but I heard hundreds of millions of dollars thrown around.
“Now that we’ve gotten the boring stuff out of the way, we can talk about some investment ideas I have for you.” Neil reached across the table and grabbed his laptop. “There are a lot of opportunities that could grow your wealth.”
He sounded like he was going to push a pyramid scheme on her. I checked on Taylor, who simply nodded and folded her hands on the table in front of her.
Neil’s tone had been upbeat before, but now he was animated, like he was telling her the cure to all of her ails. Alarm bells went off in my head. I’d had family members who ended up in situations like this, where someone was trying to sell them on something that benefitted the seller more than them. I was sure he was getting paid to get Taylor more money, and that benefitted them both.
So why were my mental alarm bells ringing?
Maybe it was the fact that he gave off creep vibes. He’d probably been around Taylor since she was a child, which made it even worse. At least she only met with him once a month or so.
Their meeting ended, and Taylor gave him another hug. Yet again, he held onto her a beat too long for my comfort. I locked eyes with him as they hugged, and he stepped back, avoiding my gaze. I hadn’t intended to flat out intimidate him like Cody would have, but apparently, I had.
I led Taylor outside, where the others were waiting.
“See you soon, honey,” Neil said as we walked away.
“See you!” Taylor waved and smiled. Did she notice that something was off about that man? Unfortunately, I doubted she did.
We escorted Taylor around for the rest of the day, taking her to her favorite lunch spot, a location for her to take photos for Instagram, and finally, Pilates. While she was inside, I turned to Ethan and Cody.
“Did Neil rub you two the wrong way?” I asked.
“Yep,” Cody said. “Kind of off-putting.”
“And creepy. I didn’t like the way he looked at her,” Ethan said, looking at the door to the Pilates studio. “He didn’t ping any alarms in our background search, but I’ll look again.”
“Sounds like a plan,” I said. My gut feeling was too strong to ignore, and I didn’t want anything to happen because I’d ignored it.
CHAPTER7
Ethan
Iwas getting used to taking Taylor to these influencer events. All of them were more or less the same—very trendy, highly decorated spaces. A lot of food, and a lot of beautiful people. Today was no different. She was attending yet another influencer luncheon, this time in Soho.
But I still wasn’t fully used to Taylor the way Cody and Harrison were. And she obviously wasn’t used to me, either. She was friendly, of course, but she didn’t smile like she did whenever she talked with Harrison, or laugh the way she did when Cody said something quietly funny.
