The Alpha Bodyguards Books #1-3

Chapter Five

H e grabbed my arm. “ Y ou’re not opening that door.”

For a split second, I thought he meant he wasn’t going to make me see my agent, Jerry. I turned to look up at him to tell him it was fine, I’d have to face the music sooner or later, but he set me against the wall in the hallway.

“Wait,” he ordered.

Goose bumps raced across my flesh as I watched his huge, muscular body move down the hall toward his bedroom. The memory of his intense stare and his hand on me as he fed me made me shiver. No man had ever looked at me like that. Not even in a movie. I didn’t even know a single actor who could’ve pulled that kind of intensity off. Which was a giant warning that I was in over my head, but I was too busy fantasizing about the most dominant, most masculine, most infuriating man I’d ever met, and dangerously forgetting every reason why I swore off men.

I was trying to convince myself that just because he’d offered to send Jerry away didn’t make him trustworthy when he came back down the hallway dressed. Black polo, black cargos, black combat boots, he was shoving a black gun in a holster on his waist, and he looked almost hotter than when he was parading around in nothing but his underwear.

Forcing a screen-worthy smile as my traitorous stomach fluttered, I straightened my shoulders and looked at the insignia on his shirt. “Are all the bodyguards at Luna and Associates ridiculously ripped?” My previous bodyguard, Tyler, was a few inches shorter than Tank and had about thirty pounds less of muscle, but he’d still been ripped by Hollywood standards—by any standards, actually .

Tyler had also been movie star handsome. I’d told him he should be an actor, but he’d only laughed. I couldn’t picture Tank laughing. I couldn’t even picture him in a full smile. That was the other huge difference between him and Tyler. Tyler had actually been nice, polite even. Tank wasn’t polite. And striding toward me, he didn’t even look cordial. He looked pissed off and battle ready, and I wouldn’t wish him on my worst enemy.

“Give me a timeframe,” he clipped, moving past me in a wave of masculine scent I wanted to bottle and sniff every night for the rest of my life.

“Timeframe for what?” There was something wrong with me, because all I could think about was that he was even hotter pissed off.

He stopped at the door as Jerry pounded on it again. “How long you want your agent here?”

“Funny.” I laughed without humor.

I’d made Jerry. He’d gotten me my first break, but I’d earned every contract after that because I’d worked my ass off and done everything right. Jerry was set for life from the money he’d made off me and the subsequent A-listers who’d flocked to him hoping to get a piece of the magic he claimed he’d created for me. He was rich beyond his dreams because I’d been too stupid and too young to negotiate a better contract with him, but he acted like every breath I took was because of a privilege he’d provided.

I was over it.

I’d been over it. I’d been planning for the past year to fire Jerry after this movie. I was sure he suspected what was coming, because his asshole-ness had upped to a new level and he’d been riding me hard about signing the deal for the next movie, but I’d outright ignored him.

Looking completely unamused, Tank stood by the door with his hand on his hip. “There was nothing funny about the question.”

“More like ironic,” I explained. “Jerry’s a class-A asshole, and he’ll stay as long as it takes for him to rip me a new one for whatever I did last night, then lecture me how he made me, and try to strong-arm me into signing the next deal, which I won’t do. So, however long that takes.” I waved my arm toward the door. “Let Mr. My-Shit-Doesn’t-Stink in and you can witness it all for yourself.” Apparently being drugged with who knew what the night before caused me to lose all professionalism around my new bodyguard, because I’d just aired more dirty laundry in ten seconds than I had in ten years. “Or if you’re really smart, you’ll quote me and sell that to TMZ for a mint.”

My new tank of a bodyguard frowned and opened the door.

In a perpetual state of pissed off and bulldog fueled by life-threatening amounts of caffeine, Jerry pushed his way through the door with barely a glance at Tank.

Aiming for me, his pointer finger already out, his suit rumpled from probably an overnight flight, Jerry let loose before both feet had crossed the threshold. “What the hell do you think you’re doing, MacKen—”

The last part of my last name died on his lips as Tank grabbed his hand and twisted, putting him in an arm bar.

Jerry’s face twisted with shock as he was incapacitated by my new favorite bodyguard.

“My place, my rules,” Tank warned with lethal calm. “Speak to her in a civil manner or not at all.”

I smiled. Grinned, actually. “Hi, Jerry.”

Jerry’s shock turned to rage in zero point two seconds. “Do you know who I am?” he yelled at Tank.

“You berate, harangue, or intimidate her, you’re no one. You speak to her like a fucking human being, you’re her agent. Make a choice.” He didn’t raise his voice, but Tank’s message was still one hundred percent clear. Fuck with me, you’ll get fucked by him.

I went all squishy inside.

Jerry’s face turned beet red as he growled out an answer. “Fine.”

“Tone,” Tank warned.

“I said, fine ,” Jerry snapped.

The elevator across the hall from Tank’s still open front door dinged and the doors slid apart .

Tank moved.

Swinging Jerry around, still holding him in an arm bar, Tank drew his gun as my publicist, her assistant, and Colton fucking Payne looked at us.

“Oh,” Janette, my ever-calm, always understated publicist whispered.

Colton smirked. “Is this a bad time?” Pushing his way past Janette and her assistant, Corrine, he gave me a snide look as he walked right in to Tank’s place. “Because we can come back when you’re…” He dragged his gaze lecherously down my body. “Dressed.”

My hatred focused on Colton, I didn’t see Tank move.

A giant muscled arm shot out and the barrel of Tank’s gun pressed into Colton’s temple.

Colton instantly threw his hands up. “Hey, hey, hey, dude. Relax .”

This time, Tank’s tone did change. It turned lethal as hell. “You’ve got one fucking chance to answer my question.” Still holding Jerry’s arm twisted behind his back, Tank’s nostrils flared. “What did you drug her with last night?”

Janette and Corrine collectively gasped.

Colton went white as hell. “I didn’t—”

“Safety’s off,” Tank warned. “Give me one reason not to pull the trigger, intruder .”

“Okay, all right!” Colton’s voice pitched high as fuck. “I did it, okay? But it was harmless, just a little acid. No harm, no foul. Just a trip, man. She needed to relax. She wanted it. It’s cool, it’s cool.”

“She what ?” Tank growled, pressing the gun even harder against Colton’s head.

Colton’s arms went straight up as he locked his elbows. “Okay, okay! Maybe she didn’t ask for it, I get it, I get it.”

Anger surged. “You fucking piece of shit, Colton. I never do drugs. I told you that the first hundred times you tried to push your pharmacy of shit on me.” I swung my glare to Jerry. “I told you he needs a fucking intervention before he kills someone! ”

His face pinched in pain, his arm about to snap behind his back from Tank’s pressure, Jerry didn’t say shit.

“What a fucking joke both of you are.” I was disgusted with all of them. Except the man holding the gun.

His aim never wavering, Tank lowered his voice. “You do that again, to her, to any woman, you’re answering to me, Payne. Understand?”

“I’m cool, it’s cool. I get it. We’re good, man. All good.” Colton tried to nod.

“Correction, we’re not good. We never will be. Remember that.” Tank glared at him for two heartbeats, then he holstered his weapon in a move so natural to him, so clearly a part of his everyday life, it made every action movie I’d ever worked on seem like the cheapest of imitations.

Releasing Jerry’s arm, Tank swung his intense stare toward me. “Who stays?”

Janette, ever the optimist, raised her hand. “Um, I think I need to. And my assistant, Corrine. We need to, um….” She trailed off as she looked between Colton and me, before looking back at Tank. “With your permission, we’d like to come in and discuss strategy.”

Tank didn’t take his eyes off me. “It’s Audrina’s call.”

At the mention of my full name, four pairs of eyes turned from Tank to me.

“What?” I asked sarcastically. “No one realized the great Dreena MacKenzie has an actual real name?” Un-fucking-believable. Turning toward the living room, I gave them all what they wanted. “They can stay.”

The sooner I got this over with, the sooner I could call my lawyer.

I was done.

So fucking done.