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I heard a small huff from next to me that sounded disturbingly close to a cut off chuckle and turned to see Turner fighting another smile. “Shut up,” I growled, not recognizing the irritation in my own tone.
“I didn’t say anything!” Turner’s voice was filled with fake innocence.
I turned my attention back toward the traffic around us and had to admit that Lake Harrington had distracted me from the unending dread that too many cars around caused. Unfortunately, next to the irritation she brought up in me, I would have opted for the panic attack.
__
LAKE
Icrossed my arms and settled into my seat in business class, absently watching as others passed by to board the plane that would take me home and away from the disappointment that was my father. While this Mullins asshole had secured the seat next to me, I’d watched Evan Turner continue past us and toward economy, making me wonder if I could demand they switch seats.
I knew it would have gone over as well as a kick in the face and found myself attempting to study him through nothing more than a side gaze. His broad shoulders seemed to make the spacious seats seem suffocating as his entire presence filled up the space. I’d been trapped in the damn near impossible beauty of his hazel eyes when he’d opened the door for me at the airport and felt like I was still catching my breath from the way his penetrating look had stolen the air from my lungs almost an hour before. Not to mention the way his deep voice had felt like a shock to my system when he’d finally spoken to me in the car. A shock followed closely by chills as his deep gravelly voice, even in his irritation, had felt like a caress, stroking down my body and leaving goosebumps in its wake. Decker Mullins was all male and I couldn’t stop my mind from wondering how cut he was under that suit.
“What?” he asked, breaking the spell I’d been under while studying him.
“Huh?”
“You’re staring at me.” His words were directed at me, but he was still keeping an eye on every passenger that boarded the plane and made their way past us down the aisle. When the last had boarded, he turned his gorgeous eyes back on me in a look that made me feel stripped to the bone. “Why?”
“I wasn’t staring,” I said with an indignant huff, leaning back in the seat and grabbing the nearest object to distract myself. A damn manual for flight safety was what I found myself looking at. “I was looking for danger from any angle.” My voice had dropped in an attempt to mimic his words from earlier as I pretended to be interested in the cartoons showing how to slide down an inflatable rescue device to deplane. That’s when another realization hit me that would have been obvious before even stepping on the plane if I hadn’t been so distracted by hazel eyes and a suit I wanted to see under. I let out a sigh and looked around the plane. “How did I end up on a 737 anyway? I distinctly remember booking business class on a 787.” It sounded elitist, but I was particular about my aircrafts.
“We switched flights to accommodate Turner and I. What’s the difference?” Mullins raised an eyebrow at me, clear annoyance at his answer.
“The difference is the comfort of the damn seats as well as a partition between the passengers.” I raised an eyebrow back at him silently telling him I’d have preferred more space between us than the thick armrest we currently shared.
“If you have an issue, take it up with the man who threatened your life. Besides,” he gave me a slow up and down that felt almost like a caress making me shift slightly in my seat, “a little discomfort might do you some good.” His words were intended to be cutting to my privilege, but in that deep gravel of a voice it sounded like he was offering up much more interesting ways of being uncomfortable. Like being crammed into the bathroom, joining the mile-high club. I couldn’t stop my imagination from wandering, wondering what his shoulders would feel like under my fingers as I gripped onto him as he drove deep—
My pornographic thoughts were shattered when the flight attendant began her safety tutorial through the speakers. I crossed my legs, covertly squeezing my thighs together to relieve the surprising ache that had formed between them at even the thought of my new bodyguard touching me. I turned my attention toward the window to my right and silently scolded myself for even letting my mind travel there. I didn’t even like men like Decker Mullins, silent and brooding. The walking embodiment of stoicism that grated on my nerves actually. I liked a guy that could go with the flow and had no issues matching me round for round on the dance floor as I worked off the tension of my life. Spontaneous guys who could jet off to meet me anywhere and were always down for a good time, not a long time. I had no room for attempting to make a relationship work after all. Decker Mullins didn’t look like he’d know what to do in a club unless he was the damn bouncer.
I found myself wondering if I’d be able to goanywherewith this supposed threat out there. Not that I cared much. My father had received threats from individuals and groups when he was a senator, and it was always just some asshole who liked to blow smoke behind a computer. It was all fun for them when it was anonymous, but the second they were found out, the threats held no water. This all sounded like more of the same, only this time my father had outdone himself with the security. “What did these threats even say?” I asked, turning back to Mullins, not caring that my question seemed out of left field.
I watched as the Lieutenant stiffened next to me before giving a brief shrug. “Nothing you need to read. Sick people have a warped sense of humor.” His tone held that finality again andagain,I couldn’t help the ripple of irritation that moved through me.
“Why won’t you just tell me? It’s probably nothing as bad as trolls on the internet say about me.” I wasn’t stupid when it came to my online presence and knew I’d made myself a target for many gossip sites where anonymous commenters liked to discuss everything about me from my conceited personality to any shot that made me look like a “fat cunt”. I’d developed a thick skin from my various boarding schools and could take just about any comment hurled my way. What could have been worse than a father who wouldn’t even sit in the same room as his daughter without a camera crew to document it?
Mullins shook his head, eyes still watching the movements of the people around them. “Part of my job as your security is to keep certain bits of information from touching you as well as people. Trust me, you’re better off just letting it go and focusing on yourself.” I could almost hear him finish with “it’s what you do best”, but he said nothing else and the subject was effectively closed from that point. If I wanted to know what was lurking in those notes, I’d have to go to the source. But since the source was a man who was more than happy to stash me in a safe house and forget about me, I doubted he would be much help either. Ellen could have been a source for me if I hadn’t been sure she’d refuse to help me in some grandmotherly attempt to keep me cosseted and safe.
I let my back hit the seat with an irritated huff and stared at the seat in front of me. I could have fought harder or argued with the stubborn man to my left, but there was a hollowness swirling inside my chest, distracting me from my usual urge to push. The hollowness wasn’t a new feeling for me; it had just been years since it had rocked me off my axis. Shock. My brain was still trying to catch up to the new reality I’d been thrust into. Last night I had been blissfully ignorant in my condo, making plans for Hong Kong, and filling my coming summer with enough activities to keep myself occupied. Less than twenty-four hours later, I was being escorted home to pack for God knew where. Every bit of independence I’d clawed out for myself was now in the hands of Tall, Dark, and Dickish sitting next to me. My irritation wasn’t just about losing my independence, though. I had parts of my life so hidden from my father’s eyes and selfish grip, and now his hired guns would be aware. They’d probably report back and out all my hard work, making the last few years of secrecy and hard work pointless.
Using my cell phone for emotional comfort in the face of my hard won life ending, I read through the missed messages and smiled to myself, reading the back and forth in my group text thread with Monica and Bailey. They had been arguing about clashing outfits, then the conversation had turned to Hong Kong and all the clubs they’d already been invited to due to their influence on the club scene. I felt a pang of regret in my chest and wondered, not for the first time, if I was using them for their ability to get me into clubs without a wait. Sometimes I felt as if they were the gatekeepers to the one thing that helped me unwind in the world. I mostly found myself irritated at the shallow banter between the two women and longed to bring Scout along for our trips. Monica and Bailey had never come out and said they didn’t like her, but I felt the tension between the queens of V.I.P. and the Governor’s daughter who looked like a librarian compared to their barely there outfits. So I kept those two parts of my world separate and had done a great job of it even if it kept me in the wrong spotlight too.
Deciding to fill the girls in on the speed bump in my life that was armed security, I started to tap out a message explaining the attempt to keep me from traveling and how it may take a few days to drop my new ball and chain, when a large hand shot into my line of vision and in a blink my phone was missing from my hand. The surprised yelp that escaped my lips didn’t go unnoticed by the passengers settling in around us, but my focus was on one Decker Mullins aggressively thumbing a message out onmyphone.
“What the fuck are you doing?” I demanded, not even attempting to keep my voice down as I tried to snatch my phone back. Decker continued to type while expertly dodging my attempts to get ahold of the device. I noticed the curious glances from the people around us, and I used the last of my patience to keep my voice quieter and calmer as I spoke my next words through my gritted teeth. “Give me my phone back and I may let you keep your job, Lieutenant.”
“You don’t sign my paychecks so good luck with that, Princess.” He continued to type for a few seconds more before pocketing my phone and settling back into his seat.
“Give me my phone, now.” I bit out, feeling my face heat with rage. If I murdered this man with my bare hands, I knew no jury would convict. He was that irritating.
“No.” He cut his eyes to me for a moment before huffing out a sigh of his own. “Look, I get that you had plans to run all over Hong Kong with Bailey Voss and Monica De Carlo and do whatever it is that trust fund kids do in summer there, but those plans got canceled the second some sick mother—” he stopped himself and looked around before shaking his head and continuing in a more hushed tone. “Before some psycho decided to target you and your father. I’ll get you to the Hamptons because we’ve already had your father’s house cleared and secured, but that’s it. No friends, no parties, and no frenemies that you pretend to like because it’s expected despite the fact that they’re insipid bitches who spend more time talking shit about you than actually talkingtoyou.”
As a flush of embarrassment trickled through me, I did nothing but blink at the man who had just delivered a verbal smackdown like I’d never received before. Not in person anyway. I’d figured he had some top secret in depth file about my life and therefore the information on my friends, but no one had ever spelled out how shallow my friendship with the two women had always been. I hadn’t known that they’d been talking shit about me, and sadly I found that I wasn’t surprised. I didn’t associate with the trust fund crowd because of their glowing personalities. It had always been less about genuine friendship and more about what they could do for each other. Much as our parents brokered deals at fancy restaurants or in boardrooms with each other, every child of the elite brokered deals at parties, clubs and highly publicized events. It was a world I’d been born into and a jagged cliff I danced along. The only reason he was dropping his bomb of truth was because he wanted that control. The power to destroy perception and mold it in his own fashion. Piss me off, shatter my delicate feelings, and make me bend to avoid anything that made his job harder. In that sense, Decker Mullins was just as manipulative as the two women he’d just bitched about.
“You know nothing about my life, Mr. Mullins,” I ground out through that same clenched jaw. “You have a few names gathered from sources on the internet. Don’t act as if that’s a heavily detailed rundown of my life or the friends I choose to keep in it.”
“Don’t be simple, Ms. Harrington, I’ve already been informed that it’s an act. Your fake friends have done nothing but talk about you behind your back since the three of you left Barcelona.” He glanced at my open mouth and gave a small twitch of a smile. “Part of our job is not only doing background checks on our clients, but also those who are close to them. We have every message, email, text, phone call, and anything else that we feel may help our jobs. Those two are complete bitches and you should find better friends,actualfriends.”
I had an actual friend. Scout was more like a sister than just a friend, and since Mr. I-Know-Everything hadn’t mentioned her at all, I was pretty sure all of her hacks and beta tests on programs she’d subjected me to over the years had proved as undetectable as she’d hoped. Heavily encrypted phone calls and messages were all the rage when your best friend was a computer genius and loved to break the rules in her own ways.
