Chapter 7 Kolton
Kolton
Security system installed: Check.
Entertainment system and gaming console I probably shouldn’t have touched, set up because I didn’t know what else to do while I waited for my client to come out of her bedroom: Check.
Pissed off said client on my first day on the job because I overreacted when I found out she had snuck out and gone swimming without letting me know: Double check.
Though Monica had assured me I’d done nothing wrong, I couldn’t help but feel I’d majorly fucked things up. I wanted so much for this to go well today, especially considering my blunder when we first met, but this somehow felt worse.
I was just trying to do my job, just trying to help. The tabloids had splashed pictures of Sloane’s bruised face everywhere for the past couple of weeks, and I was incensed that anyone would feel justified doing that to someone simply because they were famous. Was I being a little overprotective?
Maybe.
Did Sloane deserve every ounce of care she could get?
Absofuckinglutely.
And yet, me telling her it wasn’t safe to go out of her apartment without me was met with anger and—I hated to think my actions could cause this—tears.
“She’s going through a tough time right now,” Monica had said before she excused herself to go check on Sloane, and her cryptic words had been haunting me ever since.
A tough time.
I had so many questions, but I didn’t know if it was my place to ask them, or if I should just shut up and keep my head down.
How much of my curiosity was because I wanted to know every last detail about this woman, and how much was for my job?
Why was she here in Chicago?
What happened between her, Beckett, and Brooklyn?
When did Sloane start to consider Olivia Li her best friend?
Why did it feel like she’d taken the words right out of my mouth when she said it was blissful not having a single soul around?
Swimming and I weren’t exactly the best of friends.
There were more times than I cared to admit that Kendra had scared me right out of the water by telling me the fish were going to nibble on things no boy wants a fish nibbling on.
It was nearly as bad as being stuck on the shore with her as she chased after me with earthworms dangling from her fingers.
Gah. I shuddered just thinking about it.
But swimming in a pool? Especially an empty pool?
Pure bliss.
I was pulled from my thoughts as the door to the apartment swung open. Jumping out of the chair I’d tucked into the corner of the living room while I waited for Sloane, I rushed to the entryway, wishing I’d had the foresight to bring my handgun for protection.
What I found when I caught sight of who was here, though, made me glad I’d left it at home.
Monica rushed in from the other room, one hand raised in my direction as she raced to intercept Anita and Skylar Rivera—Sloane’s mother and sister.
“You were supposed to call when you got here,” she said, pulling to a stop in front of Anita.
The older woman waved both hands through the air. “Bah. We forgot, but we’re here now, so it doesn’t matter.”
“Actually,” Monica started, but she didn’t get to finish her sentence before Skylar’s attention locked on me and her eyes narrowed.
“Who are you?”
“That,” Monica said, edging my way with a hand now raised to the Riveras, “is why I wanted you to call first. Anita, Skylar, this is Sloane’s new bodyguard, Kolton Johns. Kolton, this is Sloane’s mom and sister.”
Stepping closer, I offered my hand. “It’s nice to meet you.”
Anita slid her hand into mine, and the warm smile on her face had me feeling comfortable for the first time since I set foot inside this building. Unfortunately, the glare on Skylar’s face wiped that feeling out faster than an atomic bomb.
“It’s so great to finally meet you. Sloane told us so much about you.”
The words “She did?” fell from my tongue, but I wasn’t sure they were heard over Skylar’s sharp retort.
“Mama, stop!”
“What?”
Skylar whispered something in Anita’s ear that had the woman rolling her eyes. She turned back to me, gripping my forearm and squeezing. A little quieter this time, she said, “I’m happy you’re here. Someone needs to watch out for that girl, and Lord knows I can’t keep up.”
“Mama!” Skylar hissed again before stomping off toward the room I’d just come from.
“You’ll have to forgive my daughters,” Anita said when her youngest was gone. “They seem to have a flair for the dramatic.”
Monica gave a light laugh, and it wasn’t until I noticed the sparkle in Anita’s eyes that I felt I could smile.
“They’re all the better for it,” I said, dipping my head as heat rose to my cheeks.
Anita reached up and pinched my cheek. “I’m going to like you.” She turned toward Monica. “Now, about my other daughter.”
Monica’s smile was tight as she glanced at me. “She’s in her bedroom. Right this way.”
The two ladies walked off, leaving me feeling like I shouldn’t be here.
But I couldn’t leave, no matter how awkward it felt hanging around Sloane’s apartment by myself.
I may have installed the security system, but I still needed to show Sloane how it worked so she wouldn’t set off an alarm anytime she stepped foot into the hall.
Not that she should be stepping foot into the hall without me.
But still.
Resigned to solitude until Sloane came out of her room, I headed back to my chair in the corner. Skylar flashed a look at me as I walked into the living room, her brow furrowed as she pulled her hand out from behind the gaming console.
“Did you do this?”
Instead of sitting on the hard wooden chair, I lingered on the edge of the room. “You mean, set up the console?”
“The console, the TV. All of it. Was it you?”
My shoulders rose. “Yes?”
“Do you realize,” she started, and every muscle in my body tensed, “how much time you’ve saved me? I thought for sure I’d have to spend the whole afternoon figuring out how to get this thing set up again, and here it is already done for me before noon.”
Unsure what to say, I stared. Then I felt awkward as fuck doing that, so I turned toward my chair, only to swing back around when the familiar music of one of my favorite video games blared through the sound system.
Skylar plopped down on the couch, zipping through the menus on the screen to make her selections. I found myself inching closer as she played, drawn to the comfort of the familiar game.
When her car ran off the road inches before the finish line, we both let out a groan. She looked over her shoulder at me, one eyebrow raised.
“You play?”
I scoffed. “Only all the flippin’ time.” I cringed. “Sorry, didn’t mean to cuss.”
“You call that cussing?”
Gripping my neck, I shook my head. “No, not really, but it’s still disrespectful. You’re a kid—”
“I’m almost eighteen.”
“As I said.”
She rolled her eyes, then turned back to her game. I watched, envious as she once again zipped through the menus, my hands itching to do the same. This time, when she got to the screen to choose her vehicle, there were two characters spinning on the display.
“You gonna play?” she asked, peeking over her shoulder at me.
My brow pinched. “Are you serious?” The look she gave me made me feel like I was stupid. I glanced toward the doorway to the bedrooms.
“She won’t care.”
I wasn’t sure which she Skylar was referring to, and I wasn’t sure if I believed her. Surely someone would care if I was caught playing video games with the teenager.
She held up the second controller. “She’s probably going to be a while. Might as well make yourself comfortable.”
My heart beat harder in my chest, but when Skylar gave the second controller a shake, I gave in and rounded the couch. She waited while I picked my car and character, then pressed the button to start the race.
She was good, and the years I had on her didn’t seem to matter. We volleyed back and forth, overtaking each other just to get knocked back again. I took her lead, staying silent as we played, the two of us intent on the game as we sped through desert landscapes and cloudy, rainbow-filled skies.
After our third race was over, Skylar quietly chose her character. But instead of pressing the button to play when we were both ready, she turned her head my way.
“I don’t want my sister to get hurt.”
Her words, after such a long stretch of silence, felt like they came out of left field. My head snapped in her direction, and I met her harsh glare. “Me neither. That’s why I’m here. To protect her.”
She shook her head, just a tiny motion, and her face pinched. “That’s not what I’m talking about.”
The screen changed, the countdown for our race began. We both made it past the first corner before she spoke again.
“Sloane’s not good with technology.” Skylar’s voice was quiet, enough so that I felt the need to lean in to hear what she said. “That’s why I’m here.”
“What do you mean?” My eyes darted in her direction, taking in her pursed lips for a second before I was nearly taken out by a rogue turtle shell.
“She’s not going to understand the security system. She needs time and patience and a lot of help, and I don’t need you making her feel like shit about it.”
“I would never,” I told her, my focus straying from the screen. My car went right off the edge of the track, and I waited for my character to be dropped back onto the game. “Why would you think I’d do anything to hurt her?”
“Because it’s happened before.” She fell back against the couch cushions as her character passed the finish line in first place. “People made her feel like she was shit because her strengths lie elsewhere.”
“Who?” I asked, dropping my controller to my lap, ignoring the game and the other racers speeding past me.
Skylar raised her face toward the ceiling, anger boiling under the surface of her skin. “People who should have supported her.” She looked at me out of the corner of her eye. “People who said they loved her and would be there for her and instead made her question herself.”
My stomach dropped and my chest grew tight. My mind raced while Sloane’s little sister watched me trying to figure it out.
People who said they loved her and would be there for her. That made me think they weren’t there for her anymore. They weren’t in the picture. They’d been cut out.
I licked my lips. Tugged my bottom one in my mouth and bit down.
It couldn’t be.
Could it?
“Do you mean—”
“What’s going on in here?”
Both Skylar and I jolted, our attention snapping to the doorway where Sloane had appeared. Anita and Monica stepped into the room behind her seconds later, and I had to stop myself from jumping off the couch and holding my hands up to proclaim my innocence.
“Took you long enough,” Skylar said, tossing the controller on the coffee table before leaning back in her seat. “I was just schooling your new bodyguard.”
Sloane looked at the screen, which was flashing the game stats for everyone to see—Sklyar was in first place. I was dead last. A hint of a smile tilted her full lips. “I see that.”
Skylar pushed off the couch, leaving me to do the same as she rushed over to give her sister a hug. “I thought I’d come with Mom so I can learn how to use this fancy new security system in case I ever need to run away from home.”
“Skylar!” Anita chided, though she had a smile on her face. A smile that looked so much like her daughters’, it took my breath away.
Sloane released her sister, who stood to her full height.
The pop star was the shorter of the two, despite her seven-year advantage.
The sisters looked so similar, but also so different.
Where Sloane was polished beauty, Skylar was a rebel to the core.
Sloane’s long, dark brown hair hung in gentle waves down her back, while Skylar’s slightly shorter hair was held back at the sides by rainbow colored ponytail holders and intricate braids.
Their clothing and makeup styles couldn’t have been more different. Skylar wore baggy jeans and combat boots with a crop top and a hot pink sports bra peeking out of the wide neckline of her shirt. Sloane wore…
Fuck.
My pants got tight with just one look.
She was in a pair of skimpy jean shorts and a tight black tank top that dipped low on her chest, and my imagination went wild thinking about the tanned skin underneath.
But most beautiful of all was the smile Sloane had directed my way. A smile I in no way felt I deserved but was going to memorize and keep with me for those times when the darkness of my nightmares needed a little light.
“Shall we get started?” I asked, reaching for something to say so we could move from our spots and I could try to hide the evidence of what Sloane’s gorgeous body did to me.
Unfortunately, judging by the way her face morphed into a scowl that rivaled anything my sister had ever directed my way, I’d chosen the wrong words.
“Sure,” Skylar responded as she draped her arm around her sister’s shoulders. “Let’s do this.”