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Keep reading for the first four chapters ofJust HerBodyguard.
Chapter 1
Hudson
“Save it.That shit is your gig, not mine.” I’m staring at my older brother wondering when he lost his damnmind.
“You’ll be doing me a huge favor,” Dallaspleads.
“You want me to wash your panties? Sure. You need me to get rid of your old-school nudie mags so Lucy doesn’t find out you were a little perv back in the day? I got you.Thoseare favors. What you’re asking me is more than that, and you fucking knowit.”
“Come on. You’reoverreacting.”
I shake my head. “I didn’t withstand two tours overseas to come home and play bitch to some spoiled Hollywood princess.” I busted my ass in Marine training. I’ve slept in the shittiest conditions you could think of and witnessed shit I’d give my left nut to un-see. There’s no way following around some fancy-ass, high-maintenance chick is going to be my next job. My voice hardens. “Hell, I’ve only been home three hours after a nine-month deployment and this is the first conversation we have? You offering me some bullshit job you know I’d nevertake?”
“You’ll be her bodyguard, not herbitch.”
“Either way, I respectivelydecline.”
“She’s not as bad as youthink.”
Isnort.
“Do it for me.Please.You know I’m going through hell right now. It’ll give me one less problem to worryabout.”
I hold up my hand to interrupt him. “Nu-uh, don’t you dare try to pull thatshit.”
“Whatshit?”
“The empathy hook you’re trying to sink into me that’ll make me look like a heartless bastard if I don’t let you reel me in.” I have sympathy for him. I’d trade places with him and take over the pain he’s been stabbed with in a goddamn heartbeat if Icould.
“Is it working?” He chuckles at my irritation. “Look, I’ve been her security guard for the past five years. She wasn’t only a damn good employer but also a friend who didn’t have to help with Lucy’s medical bills or give me paid leave to be with my family. I want to give back and make sure she’s protected, and last I heard was that they hadn’t found anyone qualified enough to take my place. That’s why I suggestedyou.”
“How about you un-suggestme?”
He drags his hand through his shaggy brown hair. “What’s your plan then, huh? The pay is better than anything you’ll find here in Blue Beech. Make some fast cash, come home, and put a down payment on a house. You can quit as soon as they hire someone else. You have myword.”
I sit there, silently thinking, and he stretches forward to punch me in the arm. It barely feels like a bee-sting.
“You know I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t important to me,” hecontinues.
I lean back in the chair at his kitchen table and focus on him. Dark circles are riding underneath his sunken eyes. Stress lines that didn’t exist when I left months ago stretch along his mouth. He’s hurting, hovering near the edge of giving up. He’d once been the life of the party, but now all that’s left of him is the fear of losing the woman he loves too early. As a brother, I have to pull my shit together, put my pride and apprehension aside, and dothis.
They caught his wife’s breast cancer too late. It had already spread to other organs, and the doctors aren’t sure how much time she has left. It can be a year … or six months. Telling someone you don’t know how long they have to live, especially when they know it’s going to happen, is a total mind fuck to everyone involved. It’s like playing a game of Russian Roulette that you know you’re going tolose.
Lucy is only thirty-one, and her diagnosis was a shock to everyone. My brother wanted to be there for her, so he quit his job as head bodyguard for Stella Mendes and camehome.
“Fine,” I draw out. “I’ll do it.” I pause, holding up a finger. “But only on onecondition.”
He raises a brow, waiting for me to goon.
“This is only temporary. Two months. That’s my cut-off, and I’m not kidding, so they need to get their asses on finding areplacement.”
He blows out a ragged breath. “Thank you.” He squares his shoulders back. “Your flight leaves in the morning,FYI.”
“What the hell? You’ve already booked myflight?”
Henods.
