Chapter 5 #2
He shoved Kit toward the back room. Inside, he pointed at the TV. “Watch something. I’ll join you in a moment. Don’t try to escape or I’ll hunt you down.”
Kit scowled. “I’m not a rabbit.”
That made Red blink. Then he shoved him again. “TV.”
“Remember you can’t kill him,” Quinn Ryder drawled from the doorway.
“Oooh, it’s the handsome Daddy,” Kit cooed.
Red clenched his jaw. Kit shouldn’t be looking at other Daddies.
“Taken,” Quinn said simply.
Kit winked at him. “It’s not a problem for me.”
“It is for me.”
Kit shrugged. “Your loss.”
‘I’m a bodyguard,” Red said, ignoring Kit. “I don’t kill my clients, even when they deserve it.”
That made Kit swing around to look at him. His lips twitched. He clearly loved getting a reaction from Red. “Yeah, no killing your clients, Red.”
“Is he being a pain?” Quinn asked.
“Hey, I’m standing right here,” Kit groused. Both men ignored him.
“I’m used to it,” Red said shortly.
“I’m sure you are.” Quinn sounded amused. “Padraig said you wanted to talk to me.”
Red blinked. He’d thrown that out there as he was cooking. What did he want to discuss with Quinn? Ah. “My paperwork.”
Quinn cursed. “Did I forget that? Dominic will have my head. Sorry, it’s been a hell of a week. Either Craig or I will ride over later and get that sorted.”
“Is everything all right with your boy?”
It wasn’t any of Red’s business, but there was an edge to Quinn’s voice that he recognized.
“Cade is struggling,” Quinn admitted with a long exhale. “It’s been a long tour away from me. I should fly over but it’s so busy here.”
“If he’s struggling, he needs you,” Red said, conscious of Kit staring at him intently. “Can’t Booker handle things for a few days?”
Quinn snorted. “Did he talk to you?”
“He didn’t need to,” Red said quietly. “Go take care of your boy.”
Quinn ran his hands through his hair. “Not until I tie up loose ends. You’re one of them,” he said pointedly. “The other is my cat.”
Great. Now he was being made to feel guilty for keeping a Daddy from his struggling boy. It didn’t help that Kit was boring a hole in the side of his cheek.
What did the boy want from him? How many times did he have to say he’d stepped back from that world? Red was done with being a Daddy. He could be Kit’s bodyguard, but that was it.
“I thought boys always came first,” Kit said.
Red scowled at him, but Quinn grimaced. “They do. I’ve spent hours talking Cade off the ledge.”
“Don’t be rude to Daddy Quinn,” Red snapped at Kit.
Kit shrugged. “I’m the client, remember? Not a boy. Not your boy. You don’t get to scold me for saying as I see it in my home. Mr. Ryder works for me.”
“Well, I work for your brother, but you have a point,” Quinn agreed. “But until we find you a Daddy, you’re stuck with Red.”
Red scowled at both of them. “He doesn’t have to be stuck with me. I didn’t want the job. You forced me into it.”
The breath caught in Kit’s throat, and he looked visibly upset. “You didn’t…want me?”
Quinn rolled his eyes. “Way to go, Red. I’m gonna set up my laptop and book a plane ticket while you dig yourself out of this.” He disappeared out of the door.
Red forced himself to look at Kit, seeing his pinched expression. Dammit, he was gonna have to dig hard and fast. He licked his lips. “My boy, Davie, you remember him. We were together for years and he left me for my best friend.”
Kit flinched. “Ouch.”
“Yeah, ouch. Then he became my boss. My boy, not my ex-best friend.”
“A double whammy.”
“Right again. I can’t go through that again, Kit. I just want a job where I take care of people and go home at the end of the day.”
“Then why are you here?”
Red didn’t miss the note of accusation in his tone. He hesitated before he answered. “Because you’re in danger.”
“And I’m the club president’s kid brother.”
“I’ve known you most of your life, Kit. I didn’t want this job, but I won’t let anyone hurt you. I mean it.”
“Anyone from CDR can protect me. It doesn’t have to be you.” Kit was all bravado, but underneath, there was a thread of something more, something Red didn’t quite understand.
“Until they find someone else, all you’ve got is me. But you obey my rules.”
Now it was Kit’s turn to roll his eyes. “Yeah, yeah, whatever, Daddy.”
Red gave him a flat stare. “I ain’t your—”
Kit through up his hands. “Joke, joke, geez. Can’t a guy make a joke, even when someone is threatening him. It might be the last joke I ever make.”
Red flinched. “That ain’t funny, kid.”
“It’s the truth, isn’t it?” Kit swung around on the couch and crossed his legs. “I’m not the kind of guy to make believe. I may look like this but underneath,” he waved at himself, “is a hard core of steel.”
“I believe that,” Red said. “You were like that even as a kid.”
“I was?” Kit sounded surprised.
“You sashayed through the barroom in satin and sequins like you were on a Broadway show, but if anyone mocked you, you were on them like flies on rice.”
Kit grimaced. “Nice. But yeah, I was. I wasn’t gonna let Tony or the seconds fight my battles. You taught me mixed martial arts.”
“Some.” Red was surprised Kit remembered that. “Then you went to classes and kicked my ass.”
“I did do that, didn’t I?” Kit sounded proud. He should be. “No one went after me after I put you on the ground.”
“That’s not in your notes,” Quinn said, reappearing in the doorway.
Kit seemed reluctant to drag his eyes away from Red’s. “It was a long time ago. I don’t know what I remember now.”
“We’ll practice,” Red said.
Kit’s expression changed to something mischievous. “Oooh, sweaty against your naked body? It’s my ideal fantasy.”
“I won’t be naked, and you’ll be the one on the floor,” Red said dryly.
Kit waved his hand. “In your dreams.”
Red wasn’t touching that one with a bargepole. He turned to look at Quinn. “When’s your flight?”
“In two hours. Cade lost his shit so badly, Liam Quick from QuickFire pulled strings and now his boyfriend’s private jet is inbound to fetch me. They hadn’t gotten around to telling me.” Quinn grimaced. “I feel like a package to be collected.”
“Quick has a boyfriend with a private jet?”
“Zach Fyre. Long story for another time. Let’s sort the paperwork out so Dominic doesn’t kill me.
Kit looked impressed. And even Red knew who Zach Fyre was. He needed to remember CDR was connected to powerful people.
“You need to bring your boy home,” Red said.
“You know that. I know that. Hell, everyone knows it. But Daysance is hot property and they don’t want to lose their dominance in the charts.”
“You’ll lose your boy first.”
Quinn scowled at him. “You don’t need to tell me that.”
He clearly wanted to get out of there, so Red ordered Kit to watch TV while he became an employee of CDR via Biker Daddy Bodyguards.
“I want it written in my contract I am not a Daddy,” he insisted.
He swore he heard twin snorts from the couch and from his new boss, but Quinn just typed it in and then Red signed the contract.
Quinn packed everything away and stood, rolling his shoulders.
“I’m not happy about leaving you like this when you’ve just started, but you’re right.
My boy comes first. Now I need to make nice with my cat.
Craig is in charge and Mo is on standby if you need him.
I’ve sent you their numbers. Craig will check in with you every day and Doug will manage the teams. He’s grumpy but he’ll always have your back.
If you get a call from Josh Cooper, don’t ignore him, even if he is a pain.
He’s tracking intel for us on the club Monroe has upset. There are…concerns.”
“The Josh Cooper?” Red asked cautiously.
Another powerful person with connections in too many places.
“The one and only,” Quinn said drily.
Kit popped up like a jack-in-a-box. “Who’s Josh Cooper?”
“Like you, on steroids,” Red said and Quinn laughed.
“That’s an accurate description of him. Have you met him?”
Red shook his head. “No, just by reputation.”
Kit clapped his hands. “I have got to meet him.”
“Never in a million years,” Quinn said.
“Never gonna happen,” Red agreed.
Kit and Josh in the same room. Hell no! Red had heard the rumors about Josh. That was enough. He needed to keep his boy well away.
Client.
Not boy.
Remember that.