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“How did I…” The confusion was quickly replaced by nervous embarrassment as he rose. I literally collapsed at his feet, and he carried me back to the car. My eyes darted to him, skipping up his torso as I imagined myself cradled to his toned chest, and something in me clenched.Shit.
“Just drive,” I breathed. “I’m okay.”
Marc shook his head at my stubbornness but didn’t say anything until he was back behind the wheel. He sat for a long time, stiff and expressionless, and I held my breath in his silence.
“Give me your cell.”
My eyes darted to him. “My cell?”
“Just fucking do it.” He held out his hand, expecting me to hand it to him.
“No!”
He let out a growl but snatched the hand back. “I need to call your father. The number he gave me doesn’t work. You gotta have the correct number, so hand it to me.” Again, he reached out, and my eyes traveled from his palm following the veins up his strong arm. He snapped his fingers, shaking me out of the trance. “Today!”
I had no choice but to give him my phone, already unlocked with my father’s number on the display.
He dialed and waited as a robotic voice announced the number could not be reached.
Cursing under his breath, he tossed the iPhone back into my lap. I took it and redialed, staring at my father’s picture while that uneasy feeling grew stronger. He’d never turn his phone off. Not when he knew I was in danger. Icy cold fear gripped my spine.
“We need to go back,” I said. “Something’s wrong.”
Marc steered the car onto the road, but instead of going back, he drove in the opposite direction. I watched his grim face with a sinking feeling in my gut. He knew as well as I did that going home wasn’t an option. And if something happened to my father… I was next.
I knew Kaylie was trouble. I never knew how much. If keeping her alive wasn’t part of the job, I would have killed her myself. Instead, I was stuck with her, the personification of everything I hated. She was a reminder of everything I lost. I never wanted to get involved in something dangerous, yet here I was. And now it was too late to get out.
Whatever was wrong with the damn girl, it was more than she let on. She wanted to go back, and how I wanted to take the easy way out. Dump her on her father’s doorstep and run before it was too late.
Shooting her a look, I worried it already was. Why did she have to look so damn delicious? Why did she have to be so stubbornly brave despite her world crumbling around her?
She didn’t say a word as the car killed mile after mile. As much as I appreciated the silence, it also bothered me. The bickering and arguing I was used to and long ago immune to. I had Johnny to thank for that. But the silent shoulder made me want to punch something in frustration.
She pulled her legs up, and I clenched my jaw, reminding myself she was not mine to touch. No matter how fucking tempting she was with her bare legs just an arm-length away. Curling up on the seat as much as it allowed, she leaned against the window. I listened to her soft breaths as she fell asleep and let my mind drift.
“Why me?” I asked into the phone. “How did you find me?”
Alan Remington. The man was a name not lost on me. He was officially known for his cancer program at the Cedars Sinai Hospital. I should know, given I donated monthly to the cause. A thing my father started in honor of his wife’s passing when I was ten. I lost a mom too, but he was too busy grieving to notice.
The not so official claims were his involvement in darker things. Criminal things. And the job offered was not my typical gig. I was not in the market for new clients, so the call not only caught me off guard, it rang a series of alarms in my mind.
“I have contacts,” was his simple answer, and I scoffed. If that was all he could offer, then fuck him and his job. Before I cut the call, he went on. “You don’t want to turn this down.”
“Why the fuck not?”
Alan chuckled. “Ten grand for delivering my daughter to Maine, by car. Alive.”
“What’s the catch?”
“There’s no catch.”
“Why me?” I repeated. “I’m a celebrity bodyguard. My job is to keep fans out of my client’s faces. I don’t do dangerous shit. Find someone else.” The ‘alive’ part was all I needed to hear. This was a bad idea. An extremely fucking bad idea.
“I know what you’re capable of. You’re exactly what Kaylie needs.”
Before I could ask, he silenced me. “I know everything. About Julie. And your little brush with the law. Just because you were never convicted doesn’t mean you didn’t do it.”
His words hit me like a sledgehammer to the chest.
