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Value was a really small town. Sydney loved it.
If her life had gone in a different direction, maybe she’d have moved to Value with the man she loved, and their children, and just built a normal, quiet kind of life.
The kind that used to seem so bland and boring.
“There she is.” Sydney saw Pen’s niece coming out of the building, her slightly taller brother at her side. Everett took off—toward his father, who had just pulled in. Everett had a dental appointment in Barrattville. Keller loved choir practice and hadn’t wanted to miss. So there Sydney and Aunt Pen were to get her, while her mom was still at work forty miles away. Nikkie Jean would meet them at the concert hall. She was the head of the parent volunteers, after all. “I don’t think she sees my car.”
“Probably not. You’re missing your limo and your hot, sexy bodyguard and his lurking pal, the driver.”
“They are in the car behind me. The limo is hard to get around in here with all the school busses.” Gerard had been assigned to her over a year ago—and had been the one guard that had sort of just stuck. Now, he kept watch over Sydney like a hawk. Most of the time she didn’t mind—he was seriously sexy, after all.
She’d admit it, she’d had a serious crush on Gerard at first. Until she’d gotten irritated that he wouldn’t let her do anything without him that first month. He’d told her that as he’d willingly die for her in an instant if he had to—the least she could do was let him know when she was going to the damned grocery store to get tampons, chocolate, junk food, and soda like a normal PMS-ing woman, whether Sydney liked it or not.
And she needed to get her damned priorities straight.
It had rather put things into perspective, what a bodyguard had to do. She’d requested only bodyguards without families after that. Gerard had grown up in foster care. All he had was the people he worked with, he’d told her once.
Said she was like family. That mattered, too.
Just the idea that someone could die to protect her—it still humbled her every time she thought about it. She’d only been without him once in the last year or so.
Gerard would never have let what happened to her in January happen if he had been there.
She’d been stupid. That other guard had been lazy. He’d been fired shortly after that. She’d found the man she’d given her virginity to instead.
Sydney had thought she was inlove. Just instantly in love, like some of her sisters had been. Boy, had she been a total fool.
“I’ll get her,” Sydney said, opening her car door as a dark-brown van with yellow lettering on the side pulled in beside her.
This wasn’t how it worked at pickup. The school had a system that kept parents from bottlenecking. That didn’t look like a parent’s van she’d seen before either.
Gerard had been teaching her how to watch around herself. To be aware. To know what cars belonged where.
There were two men in that van. Rough looking men. Intense.
They were between her and her guards now.
Her instincts told her…this was wrong.
Gerard said to trust your sense of self-preservation.
It was better to run and look like a fool, than to not run and be a dead fool. “Pen, go to Keller right now. And get her to Caine.”
“What? Why?”
“Just go.” Sydney just knew. And with the other cars around her—hers was trapped. But those men weren’t. They could go right down the left lane and be out on the road before anyone could stop them. They’d cut her off from her guards—and Pen’s. If they pulled Pen from the car, they’d drag her off before anyone could stop it. And that one guy had a baseball bat. He could break the windowfast.Unlock the door.And pull Pen right out.“Now! Do it now!”
She hopped out and ran around her car, just as Pen climbed out. Sydney grabbed her, pushed Pen in front of her. She kept herself between the men coming for them and Pen.
Pen reached Keller. Grabbed her close.
One of the men was there. He had dark hair. He was about Sydney’s height, but stalky. Strong. He was between Sydney and Keller now. He was reaching, but she couldn’t see if he was reaching for Pen or the little girl.
Sydney didn’t hesitate.
She kicked out, just like she’d been trained by Gerard. And connected with his thigh. “Keller, run to your dad right now!”
The little girl didn’t hesitate. Keller took off.
