Don’t make big decisions when you’re emotionally invested
DON’T MAKE BIG DECISIONS WHEN YOU’RE EMOTIONALLY INVESTED
Wyatt
Nothing should’ve surprised me anymore, but when Grant Davis—the same Grant Davis who worked with my sister-in-law, Sadie—answered Brynn’s hotel room door instead of Jamie, I could safely say I was surprised.
“Grant?”
He smiled wider. “Hey Wyatt. Come on in,” he said as he stepped back.
I spoke as I looked for Jamie, who should’ve been the only one to answer the door. “What are you doing here?”
“I’m in town for an architecture conference and wanted to see my baby sister.”
I stopped in my tracks and spun to face him. I knew Brynn had an older brother, but somehow it hadn’t clicked that her brother was a man I already knew fairly well from times Sadie had invited him to barbecues at their house.
He looked nothing like Brynn. Where she had green eyes and reddish-brown hair, he had sky-blue eyes and pitch-black hair. Maybe that was why I never put two and two together.
And then everything clicked. “You knew about Carmichael Security from Connor.”
Connor was Grant’s best friend and another bodyguard for Carmichael Security.
He was also married to my niece, Jenna. Grant nodded.
“Yeah, when Brynn told me about the stalker, I immediately recommended to Stella that she reach out to Carmichael for protection. I would’ve insisted Connor guard her, but I know there’s no way he’d take a job that would have him all over the world for the next several months with Jenna due in just a few weeks. ”
He stepped closer and lowered his voice. “I’m glad it’s you, though. I know Raf only hires the best, but it eases some of my worries knowing you personally, and knowing you take your job seriously and won’t let this psycho get to her.”
Years of training were the only reason my face remained neutral when instead I wanted to wince.
If he only knew the thoughts I’d had about his sister last night—and most nights over the last several weeks—he’d be punching me in the face instead of looking at me with gratitude.
They had been anything but professional.
But I was saved from having to respond by Jamie coming out of a side room with a very distraught looking hotel manager.
Brynn came out behind them, fresh-faced and looking infinitely more beautiful without all the makeup on that she wore for her shows.
But then my gaze caught on the way she worried her lip between her teeth and the faintest hint of blue under her eyes as if she hadn’t gotten enough sleep.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
Jamie answered, holding out a folded piece of paper. “Grant arrived at the same time as the room service breakfast order, with a note attached that Grant thought was from the hotel.”
Grant’s smile dropped as his gaze darted between Jamie, Brynn, and the hotel manager. “It wasn’t someone from the hotel?”
Jamie never looked away from my face, even as he answered Grant. “’Fraid not.”
That was all the prompting I needed to unfold the thick paper, not quite card stock, but not standard printer paper either. My heart stopped as my brain processed the typed words on the page.
Careful what you ingest. I’ve heard croissants could give you a heart attack. Enjoy your meal.
Bile rose in my throat, and the usual calm, collected demeanor I typically embodied was nowhere to be found. “Did you pull cameras on the kitchen? Who had access to her order?”
Jamie stepped forward, lowering his voice to keep it between us.
“This isn’t my first rodeo, Cap,” he said, using my old Seal nickname—a shortened version of Captain America.
Then louder for the others, “The hotel manager has already given us full access to the cameras. There are no signs of anyone besides hotel staff. We called down and ordered the usual breakfast spread. The kitchen has the ticket for that order, but then all that was delivered was a tray of croissants and this note. I’m planning to go downstairs and talk to the staff right now with the hotel manager.
I’ve already bagged the croissants and we’ll get them tested for poison. ”
“This guy knows where she is. How is that possible? No one else on her team is staying at this hotel. She’s using a new fake name, and the only people who were supposed to know she was here at all are in this room.”
Jamie’s eyes narrowed. “I understand the severity of the situation. I have the same questions you do, but barking at me won’t get you answers any faster.”
Had I been “barking” at him, as he so eloquently put it? Maybe. But she was supposed to be safe here. It was the only reason I’d taken the night off to get a full night’s sleep.
Then I finally looked at Brynn. She had her arms crossed as she stared out vacantly at the city.
The sun was still rising, and it bathed the skyscrapers with a pink and orange glow.
New York City didn’t seem quite as chaotic as it normally did.
No, instead all the chaos was in this room.
And instead of adding to it, instead of freaking out like other celebrities I’d worked with, she was calm, still, frozen.
When was I going to finally stop comparing her to other celebrities? She wasn’t like them. She wasn’t like anyone. She was just her. Beautiful, brilliant, brave.
This guy had been slowly escalating for months, and in just the six weeks I’d been working with her, I’d not heard her complain once. All she’d done was make sure none of the added security ruined the experience for her fans.
Everyone was worried about Brynn Davis, the pop star—including Brynn herself—but were any of them worried about Brynn?
Had any of them thought about how this was affecting her as a person?
Even in just the time I’d been working with her, I’d noticed how she’d closed in on herself.
She needed a break from the madness that had become her life—and not just the stalker, but the media blitzes, the concerts night after night.
She deserved a chance to breathe away from the chaos.
“After tonight’s show, there’s a two-week break.
We were planning to go back to LA, but if her stalker can find her here, then her house isn’t safe,” I said aloud, my gaze still trapped on Brynn.
She finally looked away from the window and at me.
Her eyes were pinched with fear, longing, loneliness, and something deeper—something I couldn’t name and I wasn’t entirely certain she could either.
“Agreed,” Jamie said with a nod. “We’ll need to find a safe house for her. I can call Raf to see if he’s got something.”
A thought was already brewing in my mind. One of our old Seal buddies had made a ton of money on the stock market and bought a house on Lake Tahoe. He was always telling us we could borrow it anytime we wanted.
I knew for a fact he’d used Raf for the added security, which meant it would be safe for her.
“I’ve got a place. I just need to clear it with Raf.”