Chapter 2 #2
Leo eyed me closely as he stated, “Derrick Flanigan and Marty Sowers.”
“Shit,” I muttered, rubbing the back of my neck.
“You know ‘em?”
“I knew Derrick in passing, but Marty was at Arrow Security when I first started. He taught me a lot before I branched off to work for Lev—” I closed my mouth, not willing to utter her name.
Leo didn’t need more than that one syllable to understand my abrupt silence. He nodded, “Right. About that.”
He rose from his seat and walked around his desk, parking his ass on the corner. “I need you to—”
“No,” I rumbled.
He cocked a warning eyebrow. “You suddenly a mind reader?”
“Nope. But if it has anything to do with…that person, then I know enough.”
Johnson let out a low whistle, causing Leo to glance over his shoulder at him. “Did you hear me ask a question?”
Johnson shook his head. “I wasn’t even aware you had question marks in your vocabulary.”
Leo hummed. “Right. Didn’t think so. As I was saying. I need you to head out to LA and—”
“No,” I stated firmly, squaring my shoulders for the war that I had all but declared with that one syllable.
Rising to his full height, he stood only inches away from me, looming ominously.
“Men are dead, and you are still so up in your feelings over a woman who rejected you that you can’t even step foot in a city?
Boo fucking hoo, Grant. This job doesn’t stop because you got a bruised ego.
Man, the fuck up and get your ass to LA or march it to the unemployment line. ”
I clenched my teeth. I didn’t have a career outside of Guardian. He knew that because he’d saved my ass after I’d fucked up…
In LA.
Over a woman.
I couldn’t go back.
“That’s not it,” I lied.
“Bullshit.” Leo jerked his chin toward the TV behind me. I turned just as a grainy surveillance video flickered to life on the big screen.
A woman burst into the frame, barefoot, clutching a child to her chest as she sprinted through a dimly lit living room. Her eyes were wide and frantic. The panic that doesn’t come from what-ifs but rather from the knowledge that the monster is hot on your heels.
I narrowed my eyes. “Is that…Lofton Beck?”
“The one and only. Marty had been her primary for years. She’d had a break-in recently, so he had her in a rental across town and had Derrick join them as a secondary.”
Bile burned up my throat as I watched her slip in a pool of blood as she stepped over a body, though I couldn’t tell which of the men it was. “They catch the fucker?”
“No,” Leo replied. “He killed two men and took nothing. He’ll be back.”
“Shit,” I breathed. “Stalker?”
“That’s what I’m leaning toward. I don’t have all the details yet. What I do know is Arrow doesn’t have a replacement for Marty, so we got the call.”
“Wait. Why us? There’s gotta be someone closer. Let me call around. I still have some contacts out there.”
“There’s no time. She needs private protection immediately.
LAPD is good at chasing down criminals, and I’m sure they’ll catch this guy in no time.
But I’m not keen on trusting them with a situation this complex.
They currently have her holed up in a penthouse.
Two men posted on the elevator with hotel security running the rest.”
“That’s not exactly nothing.”
“No. But it’s sure as hell not enough. Not for someone patient. Not for someone who already slipped through the cracks once.”
“They’ve got manpower and resources,” I pressed. “I’m sure I have time to make some calls.”
Leo stepped around me, his perpetual scowl easing a fraction.
“Manpower doesn’t equal competence. And resources don’t mean urgency.
Hotel security has no idea what they are doing other than clocking in and out every eight hours.
Too many cooks in the kitchen and communication dies completely.
All it takes is one guy assuming someone else checked the door.
You know this, and in any other town, any other client, you’d be the first one on the plane. If you can’t handle it—”
“I can handle it,” I replied on sheer instinct. Not wanting to do something and being questioned on whether you could were two totally different things. One had to do with preference. The other ego. Testosterone was a hell of a drug like that.
I held his gaze, my breath stalling in my chest.
Dammit.
Fucking fucking dammit.
Cornered, with nowhere to go but the airport, my breath left me on a suffering sigh. “How long?”
“Month, maybe two. Just until we find someone permanent.”
“Right.” I scrubbed a hand over my face. “I’ll need to pack and shut down my place.”
Johnson spoke up from across the room. “Plane leaves in two hours.”
I started to protest the timeline when he gave me a more dire battle. “Apollo, you’re coming with us.”
My head snapped up. “The hell he is!”
The kid behind the computer parroted my sentiment with a string of expletives. “What for? I’m no bodyguard.”
“No,” Johnson replied. “And this isn’t a simple bodyguard situation either.
This woman needs a full security detail until the cops can catch this asshole.
If I recall correctly, you were pretty damn good at the illegal stalking thing when it came to your sister.
Make yourself useful and see if you can get ahead of this piece of shit. Save us all some time.”
“I can do that from here. It’s called the Internet. Real revolutionary shit.”
“Yeah, but the idea of you being halfway across the country so I don’t have to see your ugly mug every day is too appealing to pass up.”
Apollo scowled.
Leo chuckled.
And I was out of options and arguments, so I sucked it up, went home, packed a bag, and boarded a plane straight to hell.
The moment I stepped off the plane, the stench of decay hit me like a sucker punch. It wasn’t the aroma of smoke or garbage. No, the winds in LA carried something far more vile: the putrid scent of rotting humanity, all in the pursuit of more.
More money.
More fame.
More power.
The city itself was fine. Once upon a time, I’d made it my home.
Good people existed there. Friendly faces at the local grocery store.
A neighbor always willing to help. Families playing in the park.
But those weren’t the people who needed my services.
I was stuck with the crowd who draped themselves in designer clothes as if they could hide secrets beneath them.
“Wipe that look off your face,” Johnson rumbled from behind the wheel of a black Cadillac Escalade.
I peered out the window, watching the palm trees pass by.
Silver lining: At least it wasn’t San Francisco. That was one dot on the map I’d never revisit.
“Shit luck. I only got one face,” I replied.
“You’re gonna have two when Leo splits your skull in half if you don’t quit pouting and pull your shit together.”
In the side mirror, I caught sight of Leo and Apollo in the SUV behind us. I’d chosen to ride with Johnson, more desperate than ever for his stoic silence. But, of course, that was the one day he caught a case of the Chatty Cathy.
“This your first time back?” he asked.
“First and last.”
“Jude and Rhion have a place here. It’s crazy nice, right on the beach. Big-ass rooftop pool and everything.”
“Stalkers rarely allow days off for sunbathing. My to-do list here is short. Get in, do my damn job, and then get the fuck out with a fat paycheck and a notch on the old résumé for the day when I’ve finally had enough of Guardian’s bullshit.”
He grinned. “Or we’ve finally had enough of yours.”
That was probably more likely if I was being honest.
“Right,” I muttered.
Johnson slowed, veering onto a side road behind a hotel. He stopped in front of a security gate, and a young rent-a-cop came strolling out of the guard station. His oversized uniform wore him more than the other way around.
Johnson rolled down his window and propped his tattooed bicep on the door. “Guardian Protection. We’re here to see Ms. Beck.” He dug into his wallet and pulled out a laminated card, thrusting it toward him.
The guard lifted his chin as he peered down at the proffered—hell, I didn’t even know what it was—then said, “Sorry, boys. This entrance is closed. You’ll have to head back to the front and speak with an officer.”
Strike one: He didn’t deny she was there.
Johnson tucked away the plastic card just as quickly as he had produced it. “We already spoke to Captain Smith. LAPD told us to park back here in case we need to make a quick exit.”
I narrowed my eyes, wondering who the hell Captain Smith was and why I hadn’t been involved in that conversation.
The round-faced guard flicked his gaze past Johnson, giving me a once over, before leaning in for a quick glance in the back seat.
Strike two: At a menacing five-foot-seven, he couldn’t have seen more than the rear headrests. We could have been hiding an entire arsenal on the floorboards.
Leo laid on the horn from behind us, and wouldn’t you know it, Sentry-of-the-year nearly jumped out of his oversized uniform.
“Hurry up, Barney Fife, we got places to be!” Leo shouted.
I was reasonably sure the kid had no idea who Barney Fife was, but his brow furrowed all the same. “Excuse me?”
Johnson chuckled, clearly amused.
Leo kept going. “You heard me. Move it, asshole! Let the real men work.”
Johnson hit me with a pointed grin. “You still think the LAPD and hotel security can handle this?”
I watched in horror as the guard, thoroughly affronted, rested his hand on the Taser at his hip and used his best big-boy voice to yell back, “You got a problem?”
And he did it all while prowling toward Leo’s SUV.
Leaving us alone.
The gate unguarded.
And blood roaring in my ears.
Strikes three, four, and infinity.
“Fuck,” I boomed, slamming my fist down on the dashboard. “If that woman is still alive, it’s going to be a damn miracle.”
“See, now, that face suits you better.”
“Fuck off,” I muttered, swinging open the car door.
Leo was embroiled in a heated exchange, reading the kid the riot act about the life and death consequences of abandoning his post.
“Where you going?” Johnson called, humor thick in his voice.
“To make sure we still have a client.” I snapped my fingers. “Give me that card you flashed so I can get upstairs.”
He let out a rich laugh. “I laminated the Guardian logo onto my library card. Probably won’t do you much good. But you’re welcome to try.”
If heads could explode, that would have been when mine detonated. The incompetence was quite literally astounding. And in that moment, as I ducked under the gate, headed toward the hotel, I remembered all the other reasons I hated LA.