CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
SEVEN
However sweet things were between us when we went to bed, I woke up with a storm brewing in my mind in the morning. It didn’t matter that I’d claimed Jordan for my own again, or that she’d fallen asleep in my arms. It didn’t matter that I’d almost told her I love you.
Everything was still a mess, no matter how sweet it felt.
I was keeping a secret from the brothers about what was happening between us. I was keeping multiple secrets from Jordan: my business details, Olivia, how long I’d continue being her guard. Assigning Liam or Chico to her protection officer wasn’t enough to clean up the mess. I needed to come clean to her brothers, as well.
It could very well ruin my career—or at least my employment within the Fairchild family. I just prayed that once they found out, my indiscretion with Jordan wouldn’t become a stain that followed me for the rest of my professional life.
That didn’t even touch what I viewed to be the biggest risk in front of me: bringing Jordan into the folds of my heart forever. Can you live through it if something happens to her? I didn’t have an answer. I just knew I was in too deep.
And then we had the storm cloud of Eli to contend with. I moved through my morning workout with a cancerous knot in my gut. Jordan was scheduled for a shift at the coffee shop, so we headed that way by seven a.m., bleary eyed and on edge. I could feel it in her, too, though I wasn’t sure she had half the hang-ups that I did about what was growing between us.
Once we got to Black Brewtiful, I paused outside the main doors with Jordan. She shivered in her leather coat, pulling it tighter around her in the chilly morning air. Another reminder, beyond the red and gold leaves plastered to the shop windows, that fall was peaking and winter was right around the corner.
“I’ll stay with you for a little bit,” I told her, squeezing her arms. “But Chico will come and stay for the rest of your shift, so I can get in touch with Trojan’s contact.”
She nodded eagerly. “Awesome. I love it. And I promise I won’t scare off Chico this time.”
There was a warm but painful wrench in my chest. I wanted her for my own. I really did. But I didn’t know how to make that become a reality without losing my balls, my business, or Jordan herself. Every path forward seemed to include too many traumatic obstacles. The storm cloud was endlessly brewing.
Something needed to change, immediately. But I couldn’t figure out what.
She pushed onto her toes, searching for a kiss, and I was too soft to reject it. I cupped the side of her face, kissing those velvety lips of hers once, then twice, then three times. Part of me wanted to stay there for an hour, locked in the goodbye kiss, but she pulled away, giggling.
“Time to go clock in,” she reminded me.
I pushed at her hip. “Go do it.”
I followed her inside a moment later. I took my usual place in the back corner—perfect for keeping an eye on both her and the front doors. A call to Trojan was up first. He was expecting it after I’d texted him earlier that morning.
“You’re lucky I’m not in California right now,” he muttered in lieu of a greeting.
“You would have to answer at four a.m. even if you were,” I told him. Jordan arrived at my table with a grin a moment later, dropping off a steaming Earl Grey tea. I winked at her before she returned to the front counter.
“Because I’d never risk missing some other completely batshit crazy idea you have,” he scoffed.
“Listen, I haven’t even told you my newest idea,” I reminded him, unable to contain my grin, “so don’t get too cocky. It could be perfectly level-headed for all you know.”
“Something tells me it’s not.”
I paused. “You might be right.”
“Jesus Christ. Let’s hear it.”
I looked around the small alcove where I was seated. A few other patrons sat at tables nearby, focused on laptops and steaming mugs of coffee. I was probably safe here. But I’d need to tone things down, just in case.
“We met someone recently who has some interesting information.” I cleared my throat. “Related to her brothers.”
“Okay…good guy or bad guy?” he prompted.
“Bad.”
“Hm. What type of information?”
“The sort that could destroy the SEC case against them,” I said softly. “And expose it as completely corrupt.”
Trojan heaved a sigh, staying quiet for a moment. “Okay. And I’m assuming when you texted me earlier about connections, you had Federico in mind.”
“Yep.” My heart rate picked up. Federico had been working for the FBI as recently as three months ago. He was a walking true crime documentary, and that was only based on the shit he was allowedto talk about. I didn’t know him half as well as Trojan did, but if anybody had a shot at pointing us in the right direction, it was this dude.
“Let me reach out. The best you could hope for is a phone call.”
“That would make my day.”
Trojan and I chatted for a few more minutes, catching up on my business progress and his general whereabouts—Paris, out on a new assignment with a celebrity he couldn’t name per contract stipulations but could assure me I’d seen in plenty of movies over the past five years.
Before we hung up, he asked, “You still bangin’ the client or what?”
I sighed heavily.
“Jesus. Well, you can’t say I didn’t at least try to knock some sense into you.”
“I don’t need your shit,” I told him.
“Yeah, well, just trying to help. Pretty sure that’s why you keep me around.”
“I’m trying to get smart.” My gaze drifted across the coffee shop, landing on Jordan, mid-laugh with a client. The sight of her sparkling made a smile come to my face. “I plan to step down soon. But that won’t solve everything. Her brothers made it clear that any funny business with their sister would terminate my contract. So I have to figure out how to handle that.”
“And then what?” he challenged. “Get married? Go have kids?”
“Also things I need to figure out.”
He laughed. “Okay. I gotta go.”
“Love you,” I said in my sweetest voice. Trojan hung up grumbling while I cackled to myself. I did love that fucker—a lot.
I busied myself with some administrative tasks while I awaited the hoped-for phone call. I reached out to Chico, got him set up for Jordan’s protection today, then got ahold of Liam to set up his first assignments. He’d start with basic stuff, just to test the waters, like accompanying Cora to her former residence to pick up some personal items, and a planned outing with Willow and Mercedes.
Within a couple of hours, I got a text from Trojan. Federico would talk to me on my secure line in the Fairchild building at noon. I checked my watch—an hour to go.
Once Chico was on site and I’d briefed him about the plan, I caught Jordan’s attention on my way out. She looked a little sad to see me go, but she waved brightly regardless. I took the subway to the Fairchild charity headquarters building, where my office was located. Except I was the only one to enjoy the oddities of the day on this leg of my trip, which involved an old man with too many tiny birds in a cage, and a group of strangers who discovered a bottle of wine underneath their seat and decided to open it and share it straight from the bottle—all before noon. The next item on my to-do list was to find another personal driver to add to the roster—but that was after things were settled with Jordan’s ongoing protection.
My heart wanted to remain her close protection officer, out of fear that something would happen while I wasn’t there, like what happened with Olivia. But I wanted to grow my business, too. Like I’d planned since before I’d ever met her.
What if she kept living with you? Then you guys could stay together. Placate the brothers. Grow the business.
But we’d be together in secret, and that wasn’t sustainable either.
All I could think about was the brothers’ warning to me when Jordan first moved in. The way I’d promised them that I’d never engaged in inappropriate contact with any of my clients or their siblings, and never intended to. All of that had flown out the window. Damian had promised to end my contract if any funny business emerged—well I was certain Jordan and I were in the midst of the funniest business possible right now.
I couldn’t imagine the conversation where I admitted to Axel and Damian I’d been fucking their little sister for weeks. Didn’t even want to imagine it. They hadn’t been in touch for years, but I knew that didn’t exempt them from feeling that brotherly protective urge. They’d dedicated an entire business—and an entire building—to Jordan and Kaylee. I absolutely believed they’d fire me and beat my ass into the ground if they found out the man they’d hired to protect her ended up fucking her. Even if she’d asked—no, begged—for it.
And worse yet, I wouldn’t think they were wrong if they beat my ass to the ground.
I deserved it. I knew better. And I was battling this shame every step of the way.
But then what happens when you go all the way? Fall in love? Ask her to marry you?
I couldn’t see past that inevitable tangle. I’d never gotten a future with Olivia—what made me think I’d have one with Jordan?
I was fucking terrified of what Jordan represented—to my heart, to my future, to my stability. I wanted to end things as much as I wanted to run off into the sunset with her and get married.
Inside the office building, I got to work preparing for Federico’s call. At noon on the dot, the landline rang. I picked it up and tucked it under my shoulder.
“This is Seven,” I said.
“Trojan said you needed some intel.” Federico’s voice was heavy, immediately serious. I imagined he was like this all the time, even during Christmas parties. But the FBI and Homeland Security guys were a different breed. Not always in a good way, but at least Federico had Trojan to vouch for him.
“I do.” I gave him a detailed rundown of the situation involving Eli—the history with the brothers, the current charges, and the things that Eli admitted in our presence that had the potential to upend the case.
Federico let out a low hum once I finished explaining the situation. He took a deep breath. “I know that man personally.”
I blinked. “Eli?”
“I met him and his family once during a covert mission. It was linked to a political campaign that I was staking out. He is very well connected, but it’s mostly due to his parents. On his own, I don’t think he could pull this off. If what you’re alleging is true, he’s likely acting alongside someone.”
Alleging. I appreciated his neutrality.
“It’s becoming more and more apparent that he has a pretty far-reaching network.” I paused, thinking back to the odd introduction that happened during the party between Jordan and someone named Allan. “He was hunted down by a man named Allan during the house party. He seemed important.”
Federico paused, and I heard the clacking of keys through the phone. A moment later he offered, “Allan Margulis?”
All I heard was the last name. Cora Margulis. My stomach sank to the core of the earth. “Probably.”
“I’ll make a note. Listen, you have a real shot at collecting evidence, based on who these people are and what you’re hearing already. But it’s not going to be simple. It’s going to be risky, and you need to keep a tight lid on this if you decide to do it.”
“We have to do it,” I said. “I already know Jordan will want to do whatever it takes, if it means she can help her brothers.”
“The first step is to tell absolutely no one. You need an intel team, and that’s it. This mission cannot leak. If there’s any interference in the evidence gathering aspect, the entire thing could be thrown out by a court. It’s easy to toss evidence when the intel being gathered is by someone related to the defendant. Trust me on this one. If you want this to succeed, the brothers cannot in any way know that you are gathering information. In fact, I’d get comfortable right now with the idea that this has a higher likelihood of failure than success.”
“Got it.”
“If they’re being prosecuted by the SEC and their trial is set to start later this fall, then you’ll need to act quick. Your most likely route is to convince the Office of the Inspector General that there’s been sufficient corruption and misconduct to warrant a mistrial. They’d likely throw out the case. But that’s only if they accept your evidence.”
I drew a slow breath, nodding. “Understood.”
Federico went on to suggest some methods for clandestine recording—top of the line devices that only he knew how to source, along with some ideas about how to coordinate all of this in a short amount of time. By the end of our call, I felt like a full-blown operative—mostly because Federico said he’d be express shipping me a selection of devices that had proven to work well with small dresses in loud situations. Suddenly, I was a part of the operative network, and now I needed to assemble the intel team.
My head spun by the time we ended our call. I sat for a while massaging the bridge of my nose, going over the immense amount of information I’d just received. This would become a full-blown operation…right when I was planning to assign someone else to her full-time protection.
What the fuck are you supposed to do now?
One thing was certain: I didn’t like all the deceit that awaited me in the near future. Keeping a budding relationship with Jordan from the Fairchilds was one thing. Maintaining that secretiveness amid this covert spy mission? Way too much. Something had to give.
I didn’t know how to resolve this moral conflict without removing myself entirely. Making someone else in my business her primary protection officer was never going to be a solution, since the fact remained that I’d fucked her and fallen for her while she was on my client roster.
I needed to resign. Immediately.
It wasn’t an ideal time, but we’d figure out the next steps with a clear conscience and the truth out in the open air.
My palms sweated as I called Damian. Here goes nothing. I tried to practice what I’d say while the phone rang. Nothing came to mind except I’m sorry and you’re really not gonna like what I’m about to say.
“Hey, Seven.” Damian’s greeting jostled me out of my thoughts. “How’s it going?”
I let out a low breath, thinking over all the insanity of the last few days. “Pretty normal, I guess. Took Jordan to her shift this morning, now working on a few things.” I paused, wondering how to segue into what I’d really called about.
“You guys haven’t noticed anything strange lately, have you?”
“Strange?”
Damian sighed. “I don’t mean to derail whatever you were calling about. It’s just that Axel and Trace and I were talking today about how we’ve been noticing more…attention on us. Since the trial is right around the corner.”
“Hm.” I frowned, clicking into assessment mode. “Have there been any physical incidents? Threats? Do you feel like you’re being tailed?”
“The amount of commentary on our case is increasing again. News outlets are running the story more; we’re getting lots of requests to appear on TV, give statements, things like that. We’re getting more hate mail than usual. I know Jordan hasn’t been visually identified as our little sister yet—but I’m worried the extra scrutiny in advance of the trial could lead to something we don’t like.”
“You’re absolutely right,” I said. “People are going to be digging. We’ve done a good job of keeping her separate from you in public but that doesn’t mean the wrong people won’t be eager to find out whatever they can.”
“That was our thought too.” He sighed heavily. “I don’t know what to expect with this trial. I feel like it’s going to be a shit show. Things are ramping up before it’s even started—so what will it be like when it starts?”
Guilt flooded me. And here I’d been thinking about resigning. Leaving them high and dry when shit was about to blow up. I pinched at the bridge of my nose, weighing my options while the seconds ticked by.
“I’ll ramp up security,” I told him at last. “We’ve got Chico on hand, and Liam is onboarding. I’ll make sure Jordan stays out of the public eye as much as possible. And all planned excursions for you and your brothers will be accompanied.”
“Good. Yeah. That sounds like a plan,” Damian said, the relief thick in his voice.
“Forward me all the hate mail you’ve been getting,” I instructed. “Along with any threats. I’ll use those to assess if we need to modify the plan at any point along the way.”
“Thank you, Seven. I know we made the right decision going with you.”
I rubbed at my forehead once the call ended. I wasn’t sure if I fully agreed with Damian. There was so much he didn’t know right now, and the guilt from those omissions was just as raw for me. But one thing was clear: I couldn’t abandon the Fairchilds in their time of need.
But continuing with the Fairchilds as my employer meant I needed to end things with Jordan.
If I wanted to keep this job, keep her safe, and do right by her brothers, I needed to execute a clean break. And if she wanted to move forward with this evidence-gathering mission, I’d help her craft a plan. As a colleague. Not as her confidante and lover.
The plan already tasted sour. But I couldn’t afford to fuck this up. My love affair with Jordan was not the priority here—the safety of the entire family was most important. Making it through this spontaneous covert mission alive was most important.
She and I could figure out our tangled love story later. Right now, I needed to re-focus in the worst way.
Who else could be at her side when she went back into the lion’s den to collect evidence from Eli? I sure as fuck wouldn’t be sending Chico or Liam in there with her. No, nobody would protect her well enough. The only person I’d trust even slightly would be Trojan, and he…well…
My gaze drifted back to my cell phone.
He was already used to me calling him with some crazy-ass ideas. What was one more?
If there was anybody I’d pick for my intel squad, it would be him. I just needed to figure out a way to convince him to say yes.