Chapter 2
“No, I won’t take the assignment. Absolutely not.” Dustin McQuaid rose from his chair in the San Diego high-rise office of Killian and Associates Protection Agency.
Across the sleek glass table, his boss, Rowan Killian, pushed back and stood. “The client is insistent on having you.”
“Insistent or not, I don’t guard women.” Dustin jabbed his pen against the blank legal pad on the table. With a loud click, the pen retracted.
“That’s all I’d prefer to guard.” Isaac grinned from the chair beside Dustin, his Converse-clad feet propped on the table, one shoelace untied and a piece of gum stuck to the bottom of the other sole.
“It’s my rule,” Dustin insisted.
“Dumb rule, dude.” With a long ponytail and a tie-died T-shirt, Isaac blew at his gum, forming a big bubble, then letting it pop. The gum had lost its color, likely a piece Isaac had been chewing all morning. The guy probably had a world record for chewing stale gum the longest.
“What?” Isaac lifted a brow. “It is dumb.”
Dustin leveled his glare at Rowan. “Why is he here?”
Rowan shrugged. “I’ve assigned him to this client with you.”
“I’m not taking the assignment.”
“You don’t know about the client yet.”
“She’s a woman. That’s all I need to know. And the answer is no.”
“You’ll be in Colorado, your stomping ground.”
“Still a no.”
“Time to make an exception to your rule.”
“I never make exceptions to my rule, and you know it.”
Rowan took a quick gulp of his glass of ice water, the faint lipstick imprint from the last user still on the rim, bothering Dustin since the moment he’d first walked in the room.
Rowan rolled his neck against the starched confines of the collar of his white dress shirt.
The slate-colored tie complemented the charcoal suit, which made the middle-aged man look more like a high-powered litigator than the owner of a security agency.
Dustin had come straight from the gym, cutting short his two-hour workout because Killian had said the matter was urgent.
Dustin had taken a quick shower, and his clipped military-style hair had already dried.
But he hadn’t had time to return to his apartment and change out of his joggers and crewneck.
Now he wished he hadn’t come at all. It was turning out to be a waste of time. “You told me I was going to Japan next.”
“I changed my mind.”
“Why?”
“Because the client asked for you specifically.”
“Why?”
“He wanted our best.”
“I thought the client was a she.”
“Her cousin is a he, and he’s the one insisting on hiring you.”
“Tell him Bryant and Granger are the best too.”
Isaac held out both arms. “C’mon, dude. What about me? I’m one of the best.”
Dustin didn’t respond. Even if Isaac irritated him to no end, he couldn’t fault the guy’s skills.
He was the best IT specialist they had—actually, the only one.
He was tough and stronger than he looked and was also a jujitsu expert.
Nobody ever suspected he was a protection agent, because he didn’t fit the stereotype of men like Dustin, who were buff, tough, and rough.
Dustin had inherited the McQuaid muscular, square build with broad shoulders and lots of brawn. He also had the family’s dark hair and dark-brown eyes. At six feet even, he wasn’t as tall as his brothers, but he had the same blunt cheekbones, hard jaw line, and wide chin.
The McQuaid men were a good-looking bunch. They always had been, and Dustin was no exception. He wasn’t being arrogant about it. He was just stating a fact.
Dustin clicked the pen again, this time extending the tip. “Sorry. But this is a no-go for me.”
He popped the pen a last time, then tossed it on the notebook before turning away from the table and starting toward the interior glass door.
“I’m not giving you a choice.” Rowan’s statement was sharp and left no more room for debate.
The words “Then I quit” pressed for release. But Dustin had developed an extraordinary amount of self-control over the years as an elite Army Ranger, and he forced himself to swallow his objection.
Instead, he turned and peered out the floor-to-ceiling glass windows that overlooked San Diego, analyzing everything just as he always did: the helicopter blinded by the morning sunshine and flying too low; the roof door on the opposite office building that was cracked open by two inches; the tinted window on the fourth floor that didn’t hide the couple who was making out.
It took only a few seconds to catalog the details and assess for danger.
Then his mind went to work on a solution to this newest problem with Rowan.
Quitting was out of the question right now.
He still needed to save about six more months of income before he’d have enough to start up the security app he’d been developing.
Maybe longer, because he’d been taking more time off to visit his dad, who had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer about a year ago.
His dad was doing all right now. He’d completed all his rounds of chemotherapy. He’d had a good check-up the last time he went to Mayo Clinic. And he seemed to be hanging in there, even if he didn’t have the same energy or stamina he used to.
However, the long-term prognosis for people with pancreatic cancer wasn’t great. Even though Dad had made it a year, there were no guarantees for the next year. And Dustin didn’t want to have regrets.
The truth was, he hadn’t really wanted to take the job in Japan, because then he’d be out of the country at least four weeks—four weeks where he wouldn’t be able to visit Dad at all.
Maybe staying stateside and being in the field in Colorado would be a good move, especially if he could negotiate getting regular time off.
Dustin crossed his arms and spread his feet. “I’m not saying I’ll take the job, but if I do, I want two days in a row off every week.”
“Done.” Rowan waved a hand as if that were the least of his concerns.
Isaac stopped chewing his gum. “Hey, then I want two days in a row off—”
“Not gonna happen,” Rowan said sternly.
Isaac gave a one-shouldered shrug that said he’d tried but hadn’t expected to get his way.
Dustin hesitated. He hadn’t protected a woman since Rae Phoenix three years ago. The movie star had been dealing with an abusive ex-boyfriend and had needed the extra protection. Dustin had allowed himself to become too caught up with her.
Of course, he hadn’t crossed the no-involvement-with-clients boundary.
But he had been distracted by her beauty and charisma and hadn’t been paying close enough attention to the surroundings one evening when she’d gone out to a club.
Her ex had ended up getting ahold of Rae. He hadn’t hurt her, but he could have.
Dustin blamed himself for the incident. He should have been laser-focused on doing his job. Instead, he’d let his self-control slip. He’d resolved he wouldn’t let that happen again.
He started to shake his head.
“She’s got a serious boyfriend.” Rowan spoke quickly, as though he’d been able to read the thoughts running through Dustin’s head.
Dustin had never made a practice of looking at or going after women who were already taken. But still, he didn’t want the case.
“And . . .” Rowan paused, his tone turning excited.
Dustin waited.
Rowan glanced down at the open folder in front of him, which contained all the specs on the potential client. “They’re giving the company a bonus if you complete the assignment and neutralize the stalker.”
“So that’s why this is so important to—”
“I’ll give you half of that bonus.”
Dustin met his boss’s gaze levelly. “How much?”
“Half a million.”
Isaac dropped his feet to the floor and whistled.
Dustin wanted to whistle too. Half a million was a lot. It would be enough that he could finally launch his app.
“How much of a bonus do I get?” Isaac asked.
“None.” Rowan didn’t break eye contact with Dustin, his expression daring Dustin to turn down the offer now.
How could he?
“Ten percent,” Isaac said.
“Three,” Rowan responded, eyes still locked with Dustin.
“Five.”
“Fine.”
Isaac tossed his pen at Dustin. The projectile glanced off his bicep before dropping to the floor. “Take the dang job, dude.”
“If you don’t, you’re fired.” Rowan lowered his gaze to his water glass.
Rowan was bluffing on the firing. That’s why he wasn’t meeting Dustin’s gaze anymore. Because he knew Dustin would see the bluff and call him on it.
The fact was, Rowan had done everything within his power to make this assignment one that Dustin couldn’t turn down.
And why should he turn it down? He stood to gain a lot more than he could lose. It was time to make an exception just this once and only once. “Okay.”
“Good.” The tension released from Rowan’s shoulders. “You and Isaac will fly out today on a 1:25 flight.”
“We start today?”
“They requested you come as soon as possible.” Rowan closed the folder in front of him, then slid it across the table. “Here are all the details we have so far.”
Isaac started to reach for it, but Dustin returned to the table and swiped it up before the young man could.
Dustin flipped the folder open and scanned the top sheet—a standard intake form. At the sight of the client’s name, Silver St. James, he froze, and his mind filled with images and memories of her.
Silver St. James had been the obsession of his life every summer that she’d come to visit Healing Springs Ranch with her relatives. He’d loved spending time with her. She’d been like sunshine and summer and sweetness all rolled up into a pretty girl who was fun to be around.
It had been hard not to fall for her. Oh yeah, he’d fallen really hard.
In his immaturity at seventeen or eighteen years old, he’d even thought he loved her and wanted to marry her.
He’d learned the hard way, though, that she didn’t feel the same way when she’d ignored the letters he’d written to her his senior year of high school.
He’d taken her silence as rejection, and it had hurt a lot.
When she’d come the following summer, he’d just graduated, enlisted in the Army, and taken on more responsibility at the ranch. He’d decided he was done fraternizing with the kids of their visitors.
Even so, that week she was at the ranch, he’d only obsessed over her all the more and had ended up kissing her. The depth of his feelings for her had been so out of control that when she’d suggested they start dating, he’d told her no, that he wasn’t interested because he was going into the Army.
That had been true. He’d had the Ranger option as part of his contract. He’d been planning to go to RASP after he finished basic training. With the intensity of the training and the length of time involved, he’d known starting a relationship would be nearly impossible.
Regardless, he’d been cold and abrupt with his response, and he’d hurt her when he’d rejected her offer. She’d disappeared during the final two days of her stay at the ranch and then had left with her cousins without a word—not even a goodbye.
He didn’t blame her. He realized in hindsight that he could have handled the situation much better.
Not that he would have tried to have a long-distance relationship with her.
No, he wouldn’t change that. Stringing her along wouldn’t have been fair.
Not with how dedicated he’d been to the Army and Rangers for six years.
Of course, he’d thought about her request from time to time during those first years in the Army when he’d been lonely or missing his family. But he hadn’t reached out to her, hadn’t had any contact with her since that night of the kiss. How many years ago had that been? A lot.
So why was she insisting on having him as her bodyguard now?
He snapped the folder closed and thrust it toward Rowan. “Sorry. Changed my mind. Can’t do it.”
“Too late. You already agreed.”
“It’s a conflict of interest.”
“How so?”
“I was friends with her when we were kids.”
Isaac released a scoffing sound. “Really, dude? You’re turning down a lucrative assignment because of that?”
Rowan’s eyes rounded a fraction, enough for Dustin to know this was news. “That’s why she’s insisted on having you. Because she knows you and trusts you.”
“No, she doesn’t want me, not after the way things ended between us.”
“Was she a past girlfriend?” This question came from Isaac, who had propped his feet back on the glass table.
“We liked each other. That’s all.”
“If that’s all, then you’re still going.” Rowan crossed his arms and refused to take the folder back.
Dustin flipped it back open and finished scanning the information. Her father had recently passed away. An angry stalker was making claims that Upton St. James had ruined him, and he wanted compensation. Now the stalker was threatening to destroy Silver if she didn’t cooperate.
Dustin’s gut cinched up suddenly, like someone had zip-tied him and pulled the loop too tight.
He finished scanning the intake and wasn’t surprised to find Franklin Monroe’s name as the person who’d made the request for an EPA.
Silver’s cousin was the same age as Dustin and had always been a pleasant guy to be around.
Apparently, Franklin was now taking some responsibility for Silver, or at least helping her in the matter of her stalker.
Had Franklin been the one to push for Dustin? Maybe in searching for EPAs, he’d come across Dustin’s profile, citing him as one of the top agents in the country. With Dustin being from Colorado and knowing Silver, maybe Franklin had thought that would help.
Would it? Or would Dustin only get distracted by her?
“She has a boyfriend?” The question popped out before he could stop it.
“Guy by the name of Parker England.”
Silver was unavailable. Even if she were unattached, she would never want to be with him, not after the way things had ended between them. She would probably ignore him as much as possible. That would make protecting her and finding her stalker easier.
He’d do his job and keep his emotions out of it. That’s all there was to it.
Rowan pushed in his chair and began to cross to the door. “You’ll take the assignment, Dustin. They obviously trust you to do the job. So go and do it and get us that bonus.”
With that, Rowan exited the conference room.
“Never thought I’d see the day”—Isaac grinned—“when the tough Dustin McQuaid broke his cool and agreed to protect a woman.”
“Zip it.” Dustin started toward the door.
“It’s obvious you still like her.”
Dustin almost stumbled as he came to an abrupt halt. His muscles tightened in protest and frustration. He drew in a steadying breath, then turned slowly. He leveled his most deadly glare on Isaac. “If you ever say that again, I’ll make you wish you hadn’t.”
Isaac’s grin only widened. He held up his hands, as if in surrender. “Whoa, dude. I think I just made my point.”
Dustin growled under his breath, spun back around, and stalked out of the room. He didn’t still like Silver St. James. Isaac was ludicrous for even saying so. In fact, Dustin would prove to the guy just how wrong he was.