The Alpha Bodyguards Books #1-3

Chapter Two

W ithout another word, L una walked into the study of the condo.

I followed.

“Shut the door,” he quietly ordered, pulling his phone out.

I made sure the heavy door was closed before I spoke. “Boss, she’s full of—”

Luna held his hand up as he spoke into his phone. “What do you have for me, Tank?” His gaze drifted to the million-dollar view of Miami Beach. “Yeah… okay. Keep looking, call me back if you find anything else in the next ten minutes, otherwise, start a file.” Luna hung up and looked at me. “She’s full of shit.”

“Agreed.” Gorgeous, but lying her ass off. “What’d Tank find?”

“Not much beyond what I found in the three minutes I had to look her up between her calling me and saying she was in the garage.”

Wait. What? “Here?”

Luna nodded like he was pissed the fuck off. “Yeah. I no sooner wake up, and my cell’s ringing with a blocked number. I figured it was you, or one of the guys on a burner with a problem, so I answered.” He walked to the windows. “She identified herself, first using her middle name and her mother’s maiden name. When I didn’t say anything, she used her full name and position. She said she was downstairs and she needed to discuss an urgent, private matter. I took a couple minutes to look her up and found a picture to make sure I wasn’t dealing with an impostor, then I went downstairs. When she wasn’t in the lobby, I found her in the garage standing at the elevator.”

Fuck. “How did she know where you live? No one knows that. ”

Luna rubbed a hand over his face then looked at me. “No clue.”

“You ask her?”

“ Mierda ,” he swore in Spanish. “She look like she’s gonna tell the truth about anything?”

“No.” I dropped to a chair on the opposite side of the desk. She was too formal. Her movements were stiff, her eye contact drifted when she’d mentioned the jewelry, and she’d gotten indignant when Luna had told her we needed to discuss it. She was definitely lying about something. “Tell me what you know.”

“She’s twenty-five. She lives in Miami Beach, has since she came here seven years ago. The king….” Luna shook his head. “Shit, that sounds surreal saying that.” He smirked. “The king, her padre, knocked up an American but didn’t marry her, then the princess was born. A few years later, he married and had a son with a woman from his country. As the firstborn offspring of the king, Sophia should’ve been in line to take over the throne, but her being born out of wedlock was a scandal twenty-some years ago. The king’s never denied she’s his daughter, but Sophia’s made it clear, both publicly and by living in another country, that she wants nothing to do with running a small, rich-as-fuck island country. Her half brother stepped in and announced his willingness to be next successor.”

“I’ve never even heard of this country.” If you could call it that.

“I have, but it was never on my radar. Not until a half hour ago.” Luna dropped to the chair behind the desk.

“So what’d she say before I got here?”

Luna shrugged. “Not much. She said she had a gallery opening followed by a party and she needed an armed escort who would fit in with the attendees because she didn’t want to alarm anyone by having an ostentatious , her word, not mine, guard at her side.” Luna leveled me with a look. “Then she said she wanted you.”

“She said my name?” I’d never seen her before in my life.

“Not exactly.” Luna eyed me. “She said she wanted the man in the rowing video who carried the naked actress across the sand. ”

“Jesus fucking Christ,” I groaned.

Luna didn’t look happy. “That shit’s gonna follow you for a while, amigo.”

Goddamn it. “No kidding.” Inhaling, I sat up straighter. “Okay, so back to this art thing. Do you know anything about it? Is this a part of the art festival shit that takes over Miami Beach and screws with traffic?”

“Yep.” Luna kicked his feet up on the desk. “Initially, I thought there was something going on with the festival that she needed extra security for, but I couldn’t figure out what. My second guess was something to do with her country. Maybe some kind of bullshit with the stepmother or her son, but she’s lived here so long and made public statements about not wanting to be queen, so that scenario doesn’t add up either.” Luna shrugged. “She lives here under her middle name—not that it’d be hard to figure out, but maybe there’s something to that. Who knows, maybe it is about the damn jewelry.”

I looked out at the view. “Would someone knowing her real name here be a threat?”

“She’s saying no.” Luna rubbed a hand over his face. “But in my opinion? Yeah. She’s a K and R waiting to happen. Her country’s loaded as fuck. Those casinos pull in bank like Vegas, and her family owns them. She’s ripe for a kidnapping-and-ransom scenario.”

“Did you ask her about it?”

“No, I was busy fixating on the annual income the country boasts and wondering how she could be so fucking stupid to come here without her security detail.”

Christ. “Do I want to know how much money we’re talking about?” Big money meant big risk.

Luna studied me. “Do you want the job?”

I hesitated, it was only for a second, but it was enough for him to pick up on it. “Yeah.”

He pushed back in his chair and stood. “You’re not taking it. ”

I didn’t get up. “Because I hesitated, or because of how much she’s worth.”

“Both.” His hands went to his hips, but that was all he said.

“So, how much is she worth?”

“The casinos pull in a hundred million… a week.”

One hundred million. In a week . “Jesus. For a country I’ve never fucking heard of.”

“Naximos is a playground for every billionaire with a gambling problem. So yeah, that makes her a target here, despite what she says.”

I couldn’t even wrap my head around that kind of money. “No wonder she smells so fucking good,” I muttered.

“ Dios mio ,” Luna swore. “You’re already thinking of fucking her.”

“No way.” I knew my limits. “I don’t play in that ballpark.” My mom would have a coronary if I brought home a princess, then do something to no doubt embarrass the fuck out of me. “But out of curiosity, how much is she paying for this job?”

“I quoted her triple the going hourly rate. Same as always, you’d get your usual hourly fee and pocket the overage.”

Fuck me. Luna charged a hundred and fifty an hour for us, but paid us seventy-five. For high-profile clients, he charged between double and triple the going rate, depending on risk, but then let us pocket the overage. At triple rate, I’d be making three seventy-five an hour. Not bad for a kid who grew up on food stamps.

And a nice chunk of change toward getting my mom a house. “How long will the assignment take?”

“Triple the usual minimum charge, but I doubt she’ll need you after that.”

Luna and Associated had a minimum charge of one day, ten hours, for any client. At triple that’d be thirty hours for the princess assignment, whether she needed it or not. And I’d walk away with over eleven grand.

I couldn’t say no. That was the down payment on the new place for my mom. “I’ll take the assignment. ”

Luna stared at me a moment. “We’re going in blind.”

“I know.”

“That kind of payroll doesn’t come without risk.”

I knew that too. “Got it.”

“Someone’s after her, or someone at that party is a threat to her,” Luna warned. “And that could be the tip of the iceberg.”

I understood what he was saying. If Luna had found out how much her country and her family was raking in, then other people knew it as well. “I’m sure she’ll have her usual security there, and I can ask Collins to back me up.” I’d throw him a couple hundred for a few hours on call during the event.

“Don’t assume shit.” Luna shook his head. “That’ll always be your first and last mistake.”

“You’ve been saying that daily since I first started working for you. I got it.” I shoved my chair back and stood. “I got this.”

“I keep saying it because you keep forgetting it.” He glanced at my shoulder. “You have the scar to prove it.”

I slapped him on the shoulder. “I didn’t get shot because I was making assumptions that day.” For once, that clusterfuck hadn’t been my fault. “Talk to your buddy Neil Christensen about leading a woman into a gunfight with a pissed-off MC.”

“Water under the bridge.”

“Agreed.” Luna had felt so guilty, he’d paid me hazard pay like the Marines. My shoulder was fine, and I got a sweet condo out of the deal.

Studying me, Luna exhaled. “You sure you want to do this?”

“One hundred percent in.”

He nodded once. “Then we’re putting conditions on it. You don’t go in solo, and anything goes south, you’re out.”

“Fair enough.”

“Who do you want as backup?”

I didn’t have to think about it. “Tank and Collins.”

“Choose a third. ”

“You’re sending three men to an art show with me?”

“No, Tank will probably have his hands full.”

I smirked. The Hollywood actress who liked to trip her ass off. “Yeah, with the other princess.”

Luna didn’t laugh. “Who do you want?”

“New guy, Sawyer. He’ll blend right in with a bunch of pretentious rich fucks who buy art that looks like a kindergartner painted it.”

This time Luna did chuckle. “No shit, huh?”