Chapter 1
BEAU
I threw the pen on my desk, dropping my head into my hands with a sigh. The guys and I had just finished another successful case, but why didn’t I feel the usual rush of adrenaline? Was I getting too old for this?
A knock at the door interrupted my spiral. Looking up, I found my right-hand man in the doorway holding a huge, pink, glittery envelope.
“Hey, man, what do you have there?” I ask Josh, motioning him into my office.
Josh had worked for my company, Shadow Force Tactical, since I founded it in 2012, following my honorable discharge from the special forces. He was the first soldier I hired to get the private investigator service up and running.
“Miles’ Little girl, Olivia, sent us a letter in the mail. Figured you wanted to be the first to open it.”
What Josh meant was he didn’t want to be the one having glitter exploding all over his desk, which would inevitably happen the moment someone started opening the envelope. I held out my hand, immediately grimacing as glitter fluttered onto my desk.
This was going to be a shitshow as soon as I slid my finger under the flap. After kicking my trash can closer to me, I held the envelope over it and slowly began peeling away at the top.
There was a snicker behind me as Josh held back his laughter at my disgust. There was one thing I hated more than predators in life, and that was glitter. It was the bane of my existence.
Finally, I freed the letter from the death trap the glitter envelope held it in and dropped the rest in the trash before sliding the offending glitter-filled can away. I flipped the yellow paper over and began to read.
Dear Mr. Private Daddies,
My name is Olivia soon-to-be Montgomery, but I think you already know that. My therapist, Auntie C, said it would be a good idea to write to your company expressing my gratitude for all the help you did to bring me home to Daddy.
I will never know how to repay you for the time, money, and expertise that you gave…
but I know I can start with this: thank you.
Those two words could never hold the weight of happiness, gratefulness, and relief that I felt hearing my Daddy’s voice.
I was told later that without your help, I might have never been found and would have probably died at the hands of my abusive ex-husband.
I wanted to do something special for each of you who were present the day of my rescue, so my Daddy helped me print out the perfect picture for you.
I’ve put your names on each one, and I hope that this shows you just the smallest amount of thankfulness my Daddy and I have.
Love,
Olivia soon-to-be Montgomery
I riffled through the rest of the pages she’d included, looking for the picture she colored for me. As soon as I found the coloring page, I huffed out a laugh. Olivia had picked out a picture of Superman and colored him to look like me in my tactical gear.
I could only imagine how scary we all looked, busting into the warehouse where she was being held captive. It had thrilled me to know that she was able to turn that day into something happy.
“Whatever it was seems to have lifted your spirits a little. Care to share with the class?”
I’d forgotten Josh was still in my office, reclined back on the couch in the corner like he owned the place. “She wrote us a group letter, thanking each of us who were there the day of her rescue. There’s a picture in here she colored for us. Yours has your name on it.”
I stood and walked to the corkboard that hung on the wall in my office, passing the handful of pictures to Josh on my way.
When I found a pushpin, I carefully placed her picture among the rest that were scattered on the board.
I loved when the clients we helped sent us things in the mail as a thank you, but my favorites were always from the Little boys and girls we saved.
Shadow Force Tactical started as a PI company, but it had evolved into personal security as well when the job needed it. I ran a tight ship of eight men, all of whom served in some form of military service, most of them being special forces, just like I had been.
With a step back, I glanced at the board.
Knowing that every picture represented someone we’d helped brought a smile to my face.
When I was discharged from the special forces, I didn’t know what my life would be like.
At eighteen, serving my country was all I ever focused on.
When that ended abruptly following an ambush, I thought my life was over.
During one drunken night sitting at the bar, I had decided that I was tired of going down the path that I had been on. I cleaned up my act and started SFT and found purpose again.
It had been a long and hard road, and I still battled my demons daily. When those urges came again and the nightmares started up, I looked at this board, remembering those who wouldn’t be here if not for my team.
“You’ve got that look again, man. Are you sure everything is good?” Josh asked, standing beside me. Fucker moved silently, which made him a great tracker but also a pain in my ass.
“Shit, warn a guy before you just pop up beside him. I’m fine, just thinking about the things that I’m missing.”
Josh would know exactly what I was talking about. While it wasn’t a requirement for the men on my team to be Daddies, every single one of them was. That was something else they had in common; yet just like me, none of them had a Little to call their own.
“Come out with us tonight, find a hook-up to take your mind off things.”
I grunted at his statement. The last thing I wanted to do was sit in a bar surrounded by drunk people listening to thumping music.
“Nah, man, I’m good. We can have a poker night this weekend at my house, though. Fire up the grill and just shoot the shit, decompress from this last case,” I said, hoping to ease the refusal that he had just been given.
Josh nodded, pulling out his phone. I was sure he was texting the rest of the guys. None of them was going to turn down a poker night at my house. Sure enough, my watch buzzed, alerting me that he had texted the group chat.
Josh clapped me on the back before heading out the door. Finally, alone again, I let out a deep breath and collapsed onto the couch. With my eyes closed, I decided to catch a few hours of sleep before going back to the stack of never-ending papers on my desk.
After pulling into my driveway several hours later, I turned the ignition off before sliding out of the truck. I noticed that the house across the street had taken down the for-sale sign that had been in the yard for the past several months.
Honestly, I was surprised that the city hadn’t condemned the place months ago. There was no way that it was up to code, but that wasn’t my problem.
The sucker who bought it had better not come knocking on my door when something inevitably went wrong because it was bound to happen. Shaking my head, I grabbed my mail and headed inside, throwing a TV dinner in the microwave before dropping onto the couch for another lonely night at home.
Maybe Josh was right. I probably just needed to find someone to ease the tension in my body. Someone who was only here for a good time, not a long time. Maybe I needed to reapply for membership at the club and find a Little to play with for the night, that sounded better than the alternative.
Clearing my mind, I turned the TV off, made sure the house was secure, and headed to bed, knowing the thoughts would still be here tomorrow.