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The uneasiness between us stings. There isn’t a person in this town that thought we’d be standing here like strangers. Everyone thought we would be married, and I would be a Navy wife. A sigh escapes my mouth. “I didn’t request you, and if you don’t want the job, I understand.”
He does an about face, and for the first time, I see a chink in his armor. With a strained voice, he utters, “If anything happened to you, I would never forgive myself.” His lips tighten, and there’s a slight tremor in his jaw.
I nod, then look away. “Thank you.”
“I’ll be back after I discuss matters with the distillery security team.”
I’m not ready for him to leave. Eight years apart but still, I want his comfort. “Beau, I’m worried. I was only supposed to be in charge for a week. How am I going to run this place?”
He scoffs. “With reckless abandon, I presume.” He strides away without a second thought or further explanation.
When he’s out of sight, I shut the door firmly behind him and lean back against the sturdy surface. Between Beau walking back into my life after what seemed an eternity and my dad disappearing, it's as if my heart is delicately woven together, held together by a single thread. The slightest tug could unravel everything.
How can I keep it together long enough to make my dad proud and to have both men in my life?
ChapterFour
BEAU
Success comes from practice. Practice keeping your cool. Practice keeping a straight face. Practicing swimming five and half miles. I hadn’t had time to practice seeing her. The way she stood tall and faced me like a woman, even though she sliced my heart with a machete—figuratively, of course. That’s how awful it felt that night. And despite my countless thoughts of encountering her again, I found myself utterly unprepared to lay eyes on her again.
I almost failed when I walked into her office. The light falling over the room cast a shadow on the backside of her body, like when you can barely see the other side of the moon. She was drenched in mystery, and I was shrouded in the past.
The pace of the blood running through my veins spiked. If I were taking a lie detector test, I would immediately be under suspicion. The sound of her voice was polished with a hint of something I can’t put my finger on—yet.
I have to focus on my job: keeping her safe. But any good bodyguard or security team needs to know the threats, and right now, I have no idea what the threats may be or where they may come from.
The security team at Barron’s consists of men that know how to use a gun but otherwise are just everyday people. Sean shows me around, but not much has changed in the eight years since my last visit. After giving me the passwords and codes to all the systems and cameras, he asks, “Do you think Mr. Barron just wanted an extended vacation? Or do you suspect foul play?”
I tap out a few codes and send all of this to my work security systems. “Not sure. My job isn’t to investigate, it’s to protect her, but to do that, I need to know what has happened up until now.”
The only way I can do that is if I have access to her twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. I need to know if there were any threats to Mr. Barron that may affect her, but I only tell Sean what he needs to know.
There hasn’t been a day that I haven’t thought of two things: the overseas mission that went awry and Vanessa Barron. And today, my radar is on heightened alert, knowing I shouldn’t have taken this job. The number one rule in security is no personal relationships with theprincipal—the person you’re in charge of protecting.
“Beau. Didn’t think I would ever see your face here again,” a girl from high school says as I walk through the cubicles on the second floor.
Me either.
Waving my hand, I give her a curt smile because I can’t remember her name and continue to the staircase. Scanning the concrete walls, there are no cameras in this location.
When I reach the executive floor, immediately I notice there is no defined space. Vanessa has an office, but it’s right next to the stairwell. There’s not a lot of chatter on this floor compared to the others. I stop at the Marketing Director’s cubicle. The placard readsCorman Kestel. I haven’t heard his name around town, so I write his name in my notepad.
After circling the room and familiarizing myself with the names and positions of the executives, I knock on Vanessa’s open office door. Stepping inside, I write another note.
Leaves the door wide open.
Her office is mostly designer decorated. Zero touches of the girl I once loved. It’s filled with awards forBest Batch of The Yearfrom both liquor and social magazines, as well as newspapers and trade publications. I pull open her desk drawers and realize none of them are locked.
I’m drawn to the window, although I’m not sure why. I run my fingers around the black window sill. They don’t open. No locks or latches. Then, I see Vanessa below. She throws her head back, and I know she’s laughing because she pulls on her ear. She’s done it since I can remember.
In sixth grade, we were in an assembly, where all we got to do was play basketball or volleyball on the court and the rest of the students sat on the bleachers and talked amongst themselves. Vanessa and Wynter were sitting together one row in front of me, slightly to my left. It was the first time I noticed Vanessa as something more than a tomboy.
Her hair was long and curly, and I watched as she threw her head back, giggling as she touched her ear. And the grin on her face when she caught me staring colored my skin tomato red. But that was the first day Vanessa Barron smiled at me as someone more than a friend. And I smiled right back through a mouth of metal.
“Hey, are you hungry?” she asks as she waltzes back into her office and catches me lost in thought. “Most executives are having lunch with the Chamber of Commerce, but I can have food sent up.”
My smile fades because now I’m back in the present. The one that doesn’t include Vanessa and me as a couple but rather a client and bodyguard. “I’m not hungry.”
