2. Declan
2
DECLAN
D ark aviators sat on my face, blocking out the sun. My eyes danced over the mostly naked partygoers in the pool sitting behind the Hollywood mansion of some nepo B-lister before returning to the perimeter.
It was hotter than Hades, made worse by the black suit and white dress shirt I wore. Sweat rolled down my spine, soaking the undershirt tucked into my belted suit pants. I looked damn good in the custom-tailored suit that seemed to be a requirement for all personal protection agents. But in the heat of the California sun, it fucking sucked, and looking the part just made you stick out even more.
A squeal drew my gaze, and I clenched my teeth. The wannabe starlet assigned to the team was higher than a kite and sucking face with some guy we hadn’t vetted. To be honest, we hadn’t vetted any of these assholes before our arrival. Thanks to Miss Fucking Priss.
When I noticed all the unknowns at the party, I tried pulling her out of the situation, but the pampered princess stamped her childish, petulant foot and stormed off, pulling off clothes as she went.
I hated starlets.
Only thing worse than a starlet was a politician. Both of them were pouty little bitches who needed their asses busted and their ears cleaned out so they could listen to fucking reason.
And this girl was both.
She was a wannabe starlet only famous for the size of her daddy’s bank account. Her daddy was a tech genius turned wannabe politician trying to ride his granddad’s coattails. Now, that man had been a damn fine man of the people. His grandson, not so much. And all that made our starlet doubly awful as fuck.
“Declan, we need to pull her. The paps are set up on the north side. They probably already have photos.”
I shook my head. Heidi would see the head shake from her position, but the others wouldn’t, so I said, “That’s going to be a nightmare.”
“Nightmare or no, she’s gotta get out of here and pronto,” Heidi’s brother, Lincoln, said.
I agree, but I don’t fucking have to like it.
“That’s why you’re the boss man on this one, cuz,” Heidi said.
I sighed. The filter between my mouth and brain had gone offline, and the words I thought I only said in my head had made it out of my mouth.
Heidi, Lincoln, and I were cousins—all members of the Holt family and on staff with Holt Security, a division of Holt Enterprises. Our family was the largest, wealthiest family in Texas, and Holt Enterprises was the largest privately owned company in the world. It served as an umbrella corporation that held the family’s oil company, cattle ranch, a private military contractor, and now, the security company Heidi, Linc, and I worked for that our cousin Walker started. His dad, my uncle Matthew, finally convinced his son, Walker, to merge his security firm with the PMC. According to Uncle Matthew, it made good business sense.
Fuck if I knew if it did or not, but Walker must’ve agreed. I was a peon. A grunt. Cannon fodder, if you will. And I was good with that. I had no desire to be any more in charge than I already was. If I were being honest, even being the head of the team watching little Miss Sparkly Tits—why anyone would slather themselves in fucking glitter, I didn’t know—was too much. I preferred being handed my assignment and following someone else’s lead.
“Declan…”
“I’m going.”
I moved toward the pool, dreading what I would have to do next.
“Ms. Cagot?” I said her name, and she ignored me.
“Mara!” I yelled.
“What do you want, Men in Black? Don’t you have some aliens to chase?”
Her fellow fucktards burst out laughing at her antics, and I swore under my breath. Gritting my teeth, I reached down, grasped Mara Cagot under the arms, and pulled her out of the pool and off the guy’s lap she’d been fucking.
In a pool.
In broad daylight.
While snorting coke off the dude’s shoulder.
As fifty people watched.
And the paparazzi most likely took pictures with their telephoto lenses.
Screeching and flailing commenced. She was like a toddler throwing a fucking tantrum. Luckily, Lincoln was there with his suit coat, and Heidi came forward to grab Mara’s cell phone from the table, where she dropped it before jumping into the pool.
“You motherfucker! Get your hands off me! I’m calling the cops!”
Lincoln and I ignored her, walking her wiggling, screaming, bratty ass into the house by her elbows, her feet barely touching the floor. Once in the house, I looked at Heidi and said, “Find her something to wear so Lincoln can have his coat back.”
“Yeah, no thanks. She can keep it,” Lincoln said
“Fuck you, you fucking bastard.”
“Not even with someone else’s cock.”
I sighed. “Linc, please.”
“Just wanted to make my position clear. I don’t do sloppy seconds unless I’ve helped make the mess.”
“Dude! Enough!”
I wasn’t a fucking prude. I fucked wherever and whenever, but there was a time and place when discretion was the better part of valor.
Heidi came back into the room with a robe and Mara’s shoes. Where she found them, I had no clue because Mara kicked them off her feet on her way to the pool earlier, and they’d flown in opposite directions.
“Thanks. Grab the SUV, and we’ll meet you outside.”
Nodding to Lincoln, we lowered Mara to the floor and traded the suit coat for the robe, fighting her every step of the way. We would all need to see a doctor for a hearing test because of all her screaming.
I grabbed her by the shoulders, gave her a tiny shake to get her attention, and said, “We’re leaving. There are paparazzi swarming the hillside with telephoto lenses. Do you really want that splashed all over the front page of every gossip rag, newscast, and entertainment show for the foreseeable future?”
“You can go fuck yourself. I didn’t hire you, and I don’t want or need you fucking up my fun.”
Locking my jaw down to keep from popping off at the bitchy little diva, I waited until I could respond without yelling. “No. You didn’t hire us. Your daddy and the campaign did. He was tired of constantly fielding questions about your outlandish behavior. But… if you don’t want us around, that’s fine. Fire us, and we’ll be on our way.”
She smirked, crossed her arms, canted her hips, and like a snotty-assed teenager, she tossed her head. Water flew from her dripping wet hair, splattering us as she said, “You’re fired. Now, fuck off.”
She stomped back outside, dropping the robe as I watched her go.
“Jesus fuck, she’s a cunt,” Linc said.
I nodded. I hated using that term for anyone, but Mara Cagot was a walking calamity with zero impulse control and a wild, stubborn streak a mile wide and deeper than the Mariana Trench. The campaign staff were told that protecting someone who didn’t want to be protected was next to impossible. They’d assured me it would be fine, that Mara would be cooperative and on her best behavior.
I was still waiting to see a nanosecond of said best behavior.
I smacked Linc on the back, nudging him toward the door. “Let’s go. I want a shower and a drink, not necessarily in that order.”
“I’ll see you a shower and a drink and raise you a long, hard fuck with a dude who knows how to treat a guy right.”
“Hmm… yeah. Let’s add that to the to-do list too.”
We walked out of the house and hopped into the waiting SUV. Heidi drove us back to the house Uncle Matthew still owned from when he’d been stationed at Coronado. I loved the place. It was the family’s SoCal base of operations. He’d gotten it for a song forty years ago, and as the houses around it went up for sale, he snatched them up, recreating a mini Holt compound like we had at the ranch in Texas.
My phone rang just as we pulled into the garage. The ass-chewing I had coming had arrived. I swiped the phone as we walked through the mudroom door and into the kitchen.
“Walker,” I said.
“What in the holy fuck is going on out there? That girl’s picture is everywhere. And in one of them, I can clearly see your ass standing in the background.”
“That girl was a fucking menace. A literal goddamn nightmare. She wanted to be guarded as much as a fucking mob boss wants a pair of cement boots.”
“That doesn’t fucking change the fact that they hired Holt to protect her, and you failed to do so.”
“You know what, cuz? Kiss my ass. If you think you can do a better job at reining in the cocaine-snorting princess, fly your ass out here and do it your-damn-self. I’m taking the weekend off.”
I hung up the phone, pissed that cell phones robbed you of the pleasure slamming the receiver gave you. My phone clattered across the counter where I tossed it. It wasn’t the same, but it would have to do.
“Makes you wish you were at Nana and Pappy’s so you could slam down the receiver on their old wall phone, don’t it?” Linc asked.
Eye-balling the whiskey on the top shelf, I nodded, then muttered, “Fuck it,” before grabbing the Jameson from the shelf and pouring a couple of fingers of whiskey in a glass.
“Wow, I knew you were in a mood, but I didn’t realize you were in that kind of mood.”
“Fuck off.”
I strode through the house. Clothes flew as I moved toward the primary bedroom, not caring if Heidi and Linc caught sight of my naked ass or not. The fabric grated on my nerves, and it fucking had to go. It wouldn’t be the first time I stripped in a less-than-private place, and it damn sure wouldn’t be the last. I hated being restrained, and a fucking suit felt like a noose.
Glitter sparkled in the air as I stripped off the dress shirt, tossing it to the side. Fucking glitter. Who the hell wore fucking glitter?
Amber fire rained down my throat to my belly when I drained the last of the whiskey from the glass. As much as I wanted to chuck it at the wall, I refrained, setting it on the nightstand next to the bed. Light filtered through the sheer curtains covering the floor-to-ceiling windows in the bedroom, glinting off the golden flecks stuck to the backs of my hands.
A growl gathered in my throat, and I shoved through the bathroom door.
I needed a fucking shower.
And a good, hard fuck.