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So when he’d made the decision to put his career in the rear view, he’d been excited for the next chapter in his life. Now, all these months later, he felt like something was missing, and not just in his personal life.
When he reached his boss’ office, he lifted his hand and rapped his knuckles on the door twice.
“Come in.” Seth’s voice sounded through the wood.
Before he’d even made it one step inside, he knew that he wasn’t going to like whatever his boss had to say. The same alarms that had gone off when he’d looked into the armed man’s eyes at the luncheon were going off again.
Something’s wrong.
After clicking the door shut Seth nodded towards the chair across from his desk as he handed Billy an iPad. “I have something for you and you’re gonna want to sit down for this.”
Really wrong.
The tiny hairs on the back of his neck stood on end, which only ever happened when there was a disturbance in the force—or at least that’s how he’d described it when he was eight and obsessed with Star Wars. He took the seat that Seth had indicated.
Billy was trying to brace himself for impact as he half-listened to Seth breakdown his next assignment, which sounded like a fairly straight-forward stalker situation. Needing to do something, Billy began flipping through the PowerPoint on the iPad that held all of the pertinent information on the case. He was just starting to think that his Spidey senses were on the fritz when he got to the third page and read the name of the target.
His world stopped spinning as his stomach twisted into knots.
Maxine Rizzo.
The only daughter of Charlie Rizzo, his boxing trainer for twelve years and the closest thing that Billy had ever had to a father figure. The man that had taken him off the streets, literally, and led him to winning two world championships in boxing. Charlie hadn’t just mentored Billy in the ring, he’d opened his home to him more times than he could count. Billy had spent more holidays with the Rizzos than he ever had with his own mom. Not that she noticed when he was around or not, unless she needed money, that is.
There was no question that Charlie was a paternal figure to Billy, but Maxi was the farthest thing from a sister that you could get. No matter how badly Billy wished like hell that was how he felt about her, he didn’t. His feelings for her were nothing close to familial. He’d tried to deny his feelings. Ignore his feelings. And hell, even act on his feelings, but Maxi shut him down. None of that mattered to his heart though. She was the only woman he’d ever trusted. Ever cared about.
And she was in trouble…
