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Tinsley's mouth dropped open, and she assessed Mr. Grady Steele with new eyes. No one had ever treated Palmer in such a way.
Her soon-to-be fiancé got in the car, pressing close to her. He muttered low. “We’ll see what JD has to say about this.”
“I’ll talk to him,” she replied. “Daddy will get rid of him before the sun sets.”
Palmer put his hand on her leg, and she noticed Grady’s eyes drop to it.
She pushed it off, and Grady’s gaze lifted to meet hers.
Was he judging her? How dare he? Her chin came up again.
The ride into downtown didn’t take long. Palmer was on his phone from the moment the car pulled out until it rolled to a stop at the curb in front of the Corinthian Building, where his father’s company had offices. Tinsley spent the time texting Kiley, her bestie.
Reggie, their driver, exited the vehicle and opened the door for Palmer, who barely gave Tinsley a peck on the cheek before he climbed out. His eyes caught the new bodyguard watching them, and as if to make some kind of caveman point and mark his territory, Palmer turned back to her and gave her a much more passionate kiss.
Tinsley had never been one for overt public displays of affection, so she squirmed a bit, feeling extremely uncomfortable with the bodyguard watching. Finally, Palmer pulled back, grinned—not at her—but at the new bodyguard.
“I’ll call you later,” he told her. Then he was gone, and Reggie was pulling away from the curb.
Her eyes connected with her new bodyguard. “Don’t ever speak to Mr. Pace that way again. Is that understood, Mr. Steele?”
“I’m just doing my job. Your previous security team may have allowed you to put them in the tail car, but that’s not how I work. We’ll be doing things my way from now on, Miss Wyatt.”
She arched a brow. “Not if you want to keep your job, Mr. Steele.”
“Call me Grady. And just so we’re clear, I don’t work for you either, Miss Wyatt.”
The nerve of this man. “We’ll see about that. I plan to have a chat with my father as soon as we return.”
“Be my guest. He and I have already had a nicechatthis morning. The current men in his employ are woefully inexperienced. They’re undisciplined and far from prepared. They’re barely more skilled than a mall security guard. Plus, you’ve got them acting like trained dogs.”
Her eyes widened. “Trained dogs? Howdareyou.”
A few minutes later, Reggie slowed to make the turn off the highway, stopping at the gate to the Wyatt estate to enter the code. Tinsley watched the twin wrought-iron gates emblazoned with the large gilt W swing open. The drive from the road was long and lined with River Birch trees. Their leaves fluttered in the breeze.
Finally, the home came into view. Her father had built it in a traditional southern plantation style, complete with a circular drive and a large fountain in the center. All just to please her mother, who was from Georgia. It was absurdly out of place in the Texas landscape.
The car had barely come to a stop when Grady reached for the door handle and climbed out, then held his hand out to her, his eyes scanning the landscape, not in an appreciative way, more like he was looking for threats or doing a risk assessment.
Tinsley rolled her eyes and marched past him as the security car with the other three bodyguards came to a stop behind the limo.
It was bad enough she had to cut her Paris trip short to come home for mother’s famous Ice Ball. But to be subjected to this ridiculous excess was just too much. She’d see what Daddy had to say about this.
CHAPTER THREE
Tinsley strode inside her parent’s huge home and went straight to the double doors that led into her father’s study.
He was on the phone, but that wouldn’t stop her from barging in, except something she overheard stopped her in her tracks.
“Forty percent? How did you manage that, you goddamn crook? I will not be threatened. You will never get your hands on the controlling interest. Never. Do you understand?”
There was a long silence and then something made of glass smashed. Tinsley peered through the crack in the door and saw the shattered pieces on the floor by the wall. “Goddamn it. I told you I’d smooth it over. We still have a deal. No. You don’t need to do that. I’ll make sure. Of course she’ll say yes.”
She watched him move to the window and peer out.
“Tinsley’s home. I’ve got to go.”
Tinsley pushed through the door, her eyes dropping to the broken fragments. “Daddy, what happened? Who were you talking to?”
