Total pages in book: 62
Estimated words: 58615 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 293(@200wpm)___ 234(@250wpm)___ 195(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 58615 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 293(@200wpm)___ 234(@250wpm)___ 195(@300wpm)
He slams straight into the brick wall of Zac, who grabs him by the lapels of his jacket and within seconds has him down on the ground, his arm twisted up his back as he presses his knee into his spine, restricting him from moving. “You picked the wrong house, motherfucker,” Zac growls.
The guy looks drunk, his eyes heavy as he tries to survey the room from his position on the floor. “She left her purse,” he slurs, trying to adjust his body by wriggling to no avail.
“Rick?” Rachel snaps, rubbing her hand down Seb’s chest. “I thought it was Joey.”
Pulling away from Ford, I march across the room, fire igniting my bones and aiding my confidence. Reaching them, I grab her hand from Seb’s chest and walk her over to the dining room table before pulling out a chair. “Take a seat. I’ll make you a coffee to help sober you up,” I offer with a tight smile.
“I had no idea about this. I thought it was Joey, Seb, I swear.” She yanks her arm from me and narrows her drunken gaze on me.
“I know her,” Rick grunts from the floor and then groans when Zac increases the pressure on his back, moving his knee toward the guy’s neck. “I’ve seen you on TV,” he continues. He’s looking at me, not Rachel.
“No, you haven’t. Now shut the fuck up before I shut you up permanently,” Zac growls.
My guys all communicate with their eyes, talking to each other without saying a word, and before the not Joey guy named Rick can say anything else, he’s being hauled to his feet and ushered outside.
“Leo, stay with Clo,” Seb orders. “Ford, take Rachel to her trailer while we drop this guy at the gate.”
“Can Leo take me?” Rachel asks, making me squint my eyes at her and cross my arms under my chest.
“Why?” I snap, irritated that she showed up and has my guys cleaning up her mess. And now she wants to dictate who will be seeing her out?
“What’s it to you?” she snipes.
My eyes cut to Leo, who looks like someone just castrated him.
“I’m not going anywhere,” he assures me.
“Well, it looks like unfortunately, Rachel, you don’t always get what you want,” I say with a saccharine smile, cutting my eyes to Ford, who is grinning at me like a fool. “Get your shoes on, we’re taking Rachel to her trailer.”
One week later…
They’re buying favor. I shake my head as I look over the intel a contact was able to retrieve.
The money went to someone already in the White House. Jack is buying backers for his presidency campaign. In all the time I worked for the man, I would have never pegged him for being a corrupt motherfucker, but politics are toxic. I should have known better.
“So, we have enough to call him out on?” Ford fumes as he reads over my shoulder.
“We still need to link him to the driver, the money, something. Clo’s going to need to see real evidence before we do anything.”
“Why don’t we just confront him while the bugs are in the house and hope he says something that will nail him? If she hears it from the horse’s mouth…” he trails off.
Damn, that’s not a bad idea.
“What if he doesn’t say anything? Denies it all and demands we return his daughter?” Leo speaks our worst fear. There’s no way we’d send her back to him while he’s a suspect in all this, but we don’t want this to turn into something else entirely.
“So, we do nothing like we’ve been doing this whole fucking time?” Ford scoffs.
Frustration chips away at us all one by one.
“I want Clo to be here because she chooses to be,” I utter, frowning, “not because we’re paid to watch her. We can tell her she’s more than a client until we’re blue in the face, but deep down, I can feel it in her words and her actions that it’s in the back of her mind that we’re still her security team. Paid by her father to keep her safe.”
“She knows we’re more than that. Our world starts and stops with that girl,” Leo says, coming across the room to place a hand on my shoulder. “She knows we love her and this will all be over soon. We can start living our life how it should be.”
“And how is that?” I ask, lifting a brow at him.
“Together for real. No temporary sleepovers, no fucking Rachels living at the end of the road. A place we all call home,” Leo states, spilling his guts. “We’re a five now.”
“I want to skip to that part.” Ford sighs. “I’m sick of worrying about what fucking Jack is up to.”
Aren’t we fucking all.
“Let’s give it one more week,” I tell them. “If we don’t get something by then, we clear out the bugs, present the findings we have so far, and hope he gets talkative.”