Chapter 1
CHAPTER 1
FORD
Present Day - Aged 28
Manhattan
My sister, Felicity, strums the final notes to the latest piece she’s working on, her hopeful eyes raising from her guitar to find mine through the screen connecting us.
“Wh—what do you think, Fordy?” She sounds so hesitant, completely unaware that she possesses a gift I’ve rarely seen in person aside from the exceptionally talented North family.
My friend, Caden, his son Jesse, and father, Sutton, are some of the most musically gifted people I’m privileged enough to know. And I have no doubt our Lissie is just as talented as each of them.
And so, I tip my head to one side as a genuine smile overtakes my face, putting a mirroring one on her own. “I think you’re destined for greatness, Lissie.”
The familiar words from that day so long ago twist the knife that perpetually resides in my gut, the one I buried there myself, and my smile falters for a beat before I get a handle on my emotions.
Don’t go there, Holloway.
“Hey you!” Mom’s smiling face appears on the screen, centering me, followed by Faith and Finley. As usual, Fallon, the eldest of my four younger sisters, is nowhere to be seen. I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve seen her since I left Texas, not that I can blame her. I wouldn’t want to see me either. “You’re looking very smart for a Monday evening. Where you off to, baby?”
I open my mouth to answer, but a smirking Faith cuts me off. “Hot date, by the looks of it, Momma.” She tosses me a devilish wink, and I shake my head with a grin.
“Nah, ’fraid not, Pest.” She sticks out her tongue at my long-time nickname for her, and I chuckle. “I was out of town for the weekend, so I’m catching up with the guys tonight.”
Mom heaves a wistful sigh, and I know immediately where this conversation is headed. “Oh, Fordy, it’s well past time to settle down. I was so hoping for a wedding, baby.”
I roll my eyes as my sisters barely manage to disguise their amused snorting as coughing fits. Mom, bless her, continues obliviously—either that or she’s pointedly ignoring everyone, which wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest.
“Maybe even a couple of grandbabies to love on, but since all of that seems like too much to ask for, I’d settle on a hot date?—”
“Oh, would you look at that?” The car grinds to a slow stop, indicating we’ve reached Rogue, my destination for the evening. “Gotta dash, Momma. We’ll talk soon.”
The sound of my sisters’ howling laughter is the last thing I hear before I end the call, and as I exit the vehicle, nodding to my driver, Lloyd, I can’t help but smile. My mom is nothing if not persistent.
The damn woman has been hankering for me to move back to Texas since I left on the heels of my dad’s arrest over five years ago. I haven’t so much as visited my home state, the memories of his betrayal too painful to confront. Besides, I need to be close to her .
My chest aches as I shake my head roughly, dispelling the visions of blonde hair and sweet kisses. Stolen touches and a bone-deep longing I still feel all the way to my soul.
And despite knowing I did the right thing all those years ago, I can’t help but wonder what we could have had if things might have been different.
With a wistful sigh, my feet take me across the cobblestone street, where I slip in the side entrance of Rogue, the newly revamped kink exploratory club to the elite of Manhattan.
I make my way through the staff quarters and into the main bar, Rapture . After shooting a grin at Jo Fratelli, head of security since my departure from the role three years ago when I’d launched my own security firm, Sentinel, I slip into the almost empty reserved area where I find my friends conversing lowly over their tumblers of whisky.
My old boss and billionaire owner of Rogue, Vaughn Burton, is as suave as ever in his black-on-black impeccably tailored business suit. His jet-black hair is slicked back, and his almost-as-dark eyes are as impenetrable as the day he saved me five years ago.
My mind is whirring when I take a sharp left and stride into Rogue, but my feet falter on the expansive red carpet beneath them.
It’s this or Texas, Holloway.
The thought gives my body the impetus I need, knowing that if I can’t be with her, I can at least be near her, and before I can change my mind, my stomach hits the bar.
A familiar dark-haired man twists about to meet my eyes, and he arches a surprised eyebrow when he recognizes me. “Ford Holloway, if I’m not mistaken…” He shrugs nonchalantly. “And I’m rarely, if ever, that .”
Without waiting for my response, he looks back at the screen in front of him. “If you’re here on that asshole Caden North’s behalf, you can fuck right ? —”
“I need a job.”
His hands freeze mid-typing as he slowly turns his head back toward me. “Don’t you own a multi-million dollar cattle ranch in Texas?”
Haltingly, I shake my head, my forehead creasing as I force the words from my throat. “I have no doubt you’re aware that all of my father’s assets have been frozen since his arrest. The trial is coming up later this month, and I can’t go back home…”
A deep frown crosses my brow as I trail off, and my next words escape before I can stop them. “I don’t know who I am without ? —”
My Emmy.
I press my lips closed at the last second as I finish that sentence in my mind. The knowledge of having broken her as much as I’ve broken myself sends a pang of agony clear through me.
Seemingly oblivious to my internal turmoil, Burton regards me for a long beat, assessing me with shrewd eyes, and I’m entirely sure he’s about to find me lacking, when he nods at the seat beside him.
“How much do you know about security?”
And just like that, Vaughn Burton took in yet another stray. The man has a penchant for it, as showcased by the men on either side of him.
Alex DeMarco, COO of DeMarco Holdings, one of the globe’s largest entertainment companies, and Grayson Hunter, his right-hand man, lean close to Vaughn. Grayson is just rising and saying his goodbyes when I slide in opposite.
“What’s the latest drama, fellas? Y’all looking shady as shit over here.”
“Good evening to you too, Tex.” I chuckle at his nickname for me, as Gray sighs in exasperation with a shake of his head. “Parker just called to say that Gracie locked the nanny in the attic…but what else is new in the Hunter household.” And without another word, he marches out of the reserved area like a man on a mission.
I can’t help but laugh as I turn to face Vaughn and Alex. “That girl will be the death of him.”
Grayson’s wife, Talia, had been killed in a car crash almost four years ago, leaving behind twins Parker and Gracie and a husband who’d never quite recovered. For all his pretenses, I can see his pain as palpably as I can feel my own.
Both men nod in agreement before Vaughn pushes a tumbler closer. He fills it with whisky from a nearby decanter, regarding me with unfathomable eyes while taking a healthy sip from his own glass.
“Where was your trip this time?”
“California.” My friend sends me a narrowed, somewhat suspicious gaze, but when I don’t elaborate, he shrugs, shifting his eyes between myself and Alex.
“You’ll know about Vesper, DeMarco Holdings’ newest studio, right, Holloway?
When I nod profusely, grateful for the redirection, he continues. “One of the productions that finished filming months ago needed to do some last-minute retakes. While prepping for it this morning, a fan, presumably , was able to break into the dressing room of one of the actors.”
I’m shaking my head as I take my first sip of Macallan, when Alex picks up where Vaughn left off.
“Thankfully, the talent wasn’t on set at the time, and they only left a note expressing their adoration, but fuck me, it’s made everyone wary, especially since the same actor recently had to relocate due to a break-in where the perpetrator stole some personal items and has yet to be caught. A similar note was found there, too, though forensics deduced there’s not cause to believe both incidences are linked.”
Despite his words, something doesn’t sit well with me as I hold Alex’s gaze. “Once is chance. Twice is coincidence. If there are any further issues, I’d be thinking there’s a pattern, DeMarco. You’d want to look into that before it escalates.”
He flashes me a lopsided grin, and I huff, belatedly realizing that I’ve walked straight into his trap. “Isn’t it a good thing that my wonderful friend, Ford, runs an elite bodyguard business?—”
“Sentinel is not a bodyguard business, for Christ’s sake. It’s personal security?—”
“Basically, bodyguards for hire. Po-tay-to, po-tah-to.”
I roll my eyes, taking another sip of my whisky as I wait for the inevitable favor.
“I know you don’t do field work these days, except upon very rare occasions, but I’m wondering if you could possibly allow me to hire one of your most trusted… personal security guards —” He breaks off, watching for my approval to his rectification, which I give with a small tip of my chin.
“I could be making something out of nothing?—”
I cut him off, putting him out of his misery. “Damon is my best. Tell me where to send him, and he’s yours for the foreseeable.”
Alex’s face brightens as he lets out a deep sigh of relief. “You know there are few people I trust in this damn world, Holloway, but somehow you’ve become one of them.”
I snort, remembering the early days of our acquaintance, when his wife Reyna was the driving force behind our tentative friendship. Then, somehow, in the years since, Alex has become more than a friend.
His family is my family, and being so far from home, that has meant more to me than he’ll ever know.
“Will the role require travel, DeMarco?” Vaughn’s voice interrupts my thoughts, and before Alex can answer his question, he shifts his gaze to mine. “Damon doesn’t do travel gigs, correct?”
I tut loudly, frowning as I try to think of who else I can afford to send on a job like this for an unspecified amount of time, but Alex saves me the hassle.
“Their permanent residence is in Manhattan, and they’re set to remain here for the next several months.” He smiles broadly. “It’s not public knowledge yet, but they’re starring in the screen adaptation of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s award-winning novel, Night For Days . Production begins in London in the late summer.”
I huff a laugh into my glass as the reason for Alex’s delight begins to make sense. Hawthorne is his brother-in-law, married to Alex’s sister, Mila, an award-winning author in her own right.
“I’m sure we can get a handle on whatever is going on before then. We’ll play it by ear in the meantime.”
“This is awesome.” Alex rises from his seat, fishing his cell out of his pants pocket with a delighted grin. He quickly dials a number, barely able to contain his excitement when the person on the other end answers.
“Beck, hey!” He tosses me a shit-eating wink before continuing. “My guy has agreed to handle security.”
He nods in silent answer to whatever the mysterious Beck is saying, chuckling before he replies. “She’s in the very best of hands now, I can assure you.”
Then he hangs up before taking his seat once more. “Job done. Beckham Reynolds is on board.”
My body stiffens at the mention of Emmy’s longtime agent, and my temple throbs as Alex continues.
“I don’t want to even think of the repercussions within the company if America’s Sweetheart were to cut ties with Vesper?—”
“Reynolds…America’s Sweetheart…” Horror fills me when I cut him off suddenly. “You don’t mean…” My tongue goes dry, my stomach lurches dangerously, and I trail off to gulp down the rest of my Macallan, desperately hoping I’m mistaken.
It couldn’t be. It can’t be. It’s not in her schedule. Her last movie finished shooting months ago… Fuck !
Retakes, you idiot!
His grin broadens, and he puffs out his chest in pride, clearly unaware of my absolute panic.
“It’s not every day that Sentinel gets the opportunity to protect the one and only Emerson Hart.”