Vulnerable: (McIntyre Security Bodyguard Series - Book 1) (2 page)

Shane nodded, saying nothing. On the outside he appeared calm, but on the inside he was roiling. The thought of anyone hurting a child was more than he could tolerate. The idea of someone hurting this girl – it made him want to break something. 

“Kline’s going to be released early on parole next week,” Tyler said. “I have no idea if he’s still a threat to Beth or not, but I can’t take any chances. I need you to protect my sister and help me put Kline back in prison. Will you do it?”

Shane nodded as he closed the folder on Kline. “I’ll put together a plan, and we can meet tomorrow to go over it.”

Tyler took a deep breath and visibly relaxed for the first time since entering Shane’s office. “Thank you, Shane.” His eyes looked bleak. “The thought of Kline hurting Beth again is more than I can bear.”

Shane looked at Tyler, his expression hard. “I won’t let this guy get within a mile of your sister.” He had three sisters of his own, and he knew damn well how he’d feel if one of them was in danger.

“About the cost,” Tyler said, shifting uncomfortably in his chair.

Shane shook his head. He had a pretty good idea how much money Tyler earned as a detective. “Don’t worry about the cost, Tyler. We’ll work it out.”

“I’m going to pay – ”

“Tyler, it’s not an issue,” Shane said. “Now, how’s Beth handling the news of Kline’s impending release?”

Tyler tucked the empty portfolio under his arm and stood. “She doesn’t know,” he said. “And she’s not going to.”

Shane held his tongue as Tyler left his office. Of course Beth needed to be told about Kline’s release, but that could wait. There’d be plenty of time to argue with Tyler about it later. Right now, he had work to do.

He texted the operatives he wanted in his conference room at 8 am sharp the next morning. Then he picked up the dossier on Beth Jamison and flipped it open to gaze at her photo once more.

* * *

The next morning, Shane sat at one end of the conference table, Tyler at the other. It was a good thing they were at opposite ends of the table, because if Shane could have reached Tyler, he would have throttled him.

“You have to tell her, Tyler,” Shane said for the umpteenth time, glaring at the man. “We can’t adequately protect someone who doesn’t know she needs protecting.” Shane felt for the guy, he really did. But to keep Beth in the dark about Kline’s release was foolish, not to mention outright dangerous.

“No,” Tyler said, a muscle twitching in his tightly clenched jaw.

“Tyler – ”

“No, Shane! Beth suffers from severe anxiety because of what this monster did to her. I don’t want her to know he’s about to become a free man. End of discussion.”

Shane sighed as he made a concerted effort to rein in his temper. Keeping Beth Jamison in the dark went against his professional instincts, but he didn’t want to waste time sitting here arguing. He wanted to get the teams out in the field to do their initial reconnaissance.

Shane diverted his attention to the striking redhead sitting next to Tyler. “What’s your opinion, Ms. Hunter? You know Beth better than anyone.”

Tyler had introduced Gabrielle Hunter as Beth’s housemate and best friend. The two girls had met in college, and they’d been best friends ever since. So far, Gabrielle had been silent on the topic.

“Leave Gabrielle out of this, Shane,” Tyler said. “She’s here because I want her in the loop. She’s my extra set of eyes on Beth. That’s all.”

Shane glanced at Tyler, then back at Gabrielle. “Ms. Hunter, how do you think Beth would take the news about Kline’s impending release?”

Gabrielle peered hesitantly at Tyler, then looked at Shane. “She wouldn’t take it well,” she said. “She’s absolutely terrified of Howard Kline.”

Shane sat back in his chair and considered his options. Arguing with Tyler wasn’t going to accomplish anything – the man would only dig his heels in deeper. And Shane wanted to get his people out in the field now. “We’ll take the issue up again later,” he said, looking directly at Tyler. “For now, I’ll abide by your request.”

“It’s not a request, Shane,” Tyler said, his voice hard. “She’s my responsibility, and I make the decisions where Beth is concerned. If you can’t accept that, I’ll find someone else who can.”

Shane shook his head. “That won’t be necessary.”

He glanced around the table at the operatives in attendance, who were  watching the Shane/Tyler throw-down with great interest. “Miguel will head up Beth’s covert protection team. AJ will supervise the electronic surveillance on Howard Kline.” Shane looked at his brother Jake, who was seated to his right. “Jake will head up the team keeping visual surveillance on Kline.”

Shane consulted the report in his hands. “Beth and Gabrielle share a townhouse in Hyde Park?”

“Yes,” Tyler said. “I own the building. I installed a top-of-the-line security system, so it should be pretty secure.”

Shane looked at Tyler. “You won’t mind if Jake checks out the security system?”

Tyler looked like he did mind, and he took his time contemplating the request. Finally, he relented. “Fine. Gabrielle can let him in to look at it when Beth’s at work.”

“That won’t be necessary,” Shane said, glancing at his brother.

“What, he’s just going to break into the house?” Tyler said, not bothering to hide his irritation.

Jake McIntyre ran a hand through his dark hair. “It’s not much of an evaluation, Detective, if I don’t see how easy it is to beat.”

Shane nodded at Jake. “Do it.”

Then Shane looked down the table at Tyler. “One last thing,” he said. “I have a connection to the administration at Kingston Medical School. I can get someone placed inside the library so we can keep a visual on Beth while she’s at work. Since it’s a public building, I’d feel better if we had someone on the inside.”

“No,” Tyler said. “I don’t want anyone in the library. Beth works in a secured room, and no one can get in there without being buzzed in. She’s safe enough at work. Besides, it would be too conspicuous to have someone in there with her.”

“I was thinking of Lia,” Shane said, nominating his youngest sister. “They’re about the same age. Lia would be the perfect shadow, and Beth would never know.”

“Hell no!” Tyler said, slamming his fist on the tabletop. “I’ve met your sister, Shane. I don’t want that psychotic delinquent within a hundred yards of Beth! The goal is to
protect
my sister, not corrupt her.”

Shane didn’t take offense at Tyler’s characterization of Lia. Lia was indeed a wild child – there was no point in denying that – although she was neither psychotic nor delinquent. Lia was one of Shane’s best undercover operatives. And she was exactly what Beth needed.

“All right,” Shane said. “We’ll play it your way.”

For now.

Chapter 2

two weeks later...

The moment Beth walked into Clancy’s Bookshop on Friday evening, a week’s worth of stress simply melted away. This was her happy place. Being surrounded by books was like a balm to her frazzled soul. While most of her friends were out clubbing, she was happiest alone with a good book.

After work, she’d gone home and grabbed a quick dinner. Gabrielle had left her a plate of lasagna to warm up, a salad, and – best of all – a dish of chocolate mousse. Then she’d hopped a cab downtown to spend the evening in her favorite place.

The store was packed as usual for a Friday night. She worked her way over to the New Releases table to check out the hardbacks. She scanned the shiny new covers and even picked up a couple of them to read the inside jacket copy. Then she moved on to the racks of newly released paperbacks.

After making a circuit of the first floor, meandering through the magazines and newspapers, Beth reached her favorite part of the store – the Romance section. She’d always been a diehard romance fan, ever since reading her first romance novel as a teen. She loved the intense passion, but mostly she loved the happily-ever-afters. They made up for her own abysmal track record in the romance department.

When it came to intimacy, she was a complete disaster. Guys didn’t take kindly to their girlfriends crying in bed – or even worse, screaming at them to stop. It was a mood killer every time. She was destined to end up alone because she had more issues than any one man could handle.

At least she had her book boyfriends and her vibrator. They never let her down. But more importantly, she never let them down.

After browsing the display of new romances, she picked up a couple of paranormals that looked promising. She was always in the mood for some hot alpha heroes. Then she drifted over to her guilty pleasure – the erotica aisle. She skimmed the new releases, and an anthology of spanking stories caught her eye. She pulled that one off the shelf and tucked it with the others in the crook of her arm.

* * *

Shane knew he was in trouble the minute he laid eyes on Beth Jamison. Her photograph had rocked him, but seeing her in the flesh had sealed the deal. She was just as stunning in person as he’d feared.

As he watched her from across the room, he had to admit he’d never wanted a woman more. Just looking at her now made his body feel hot and his skin too tight. His dick twitched in his trousers, and he had to shift his stance to accommodate his growing erection.
Fuck!

He wasn’t even supposed to be here in the first place. He’d been working late at the office when Miguel had called to tell him that Miles Bennett – who’d been scheduled to watch Beth that night – had been taken to the ER with a severe case of food poisoning. Shane had jumped at the chance to take Miles’s shift just so he could get a look at this girl with his own eyes.

He had absolutely no business sniffing around Tyler’s little sister, and he damn well knew it, but he couldn’t get the image of her out of his head. Every time he looked at her photograph, he felt the ground shake. That had never happened to him before, and now he needed to see her in person, if just to get her out of his head once and for all. Innocent little blonds simply weren’t his type.

Just a half-hour earlier, he’d been sitting in his office with Jake going over the latest surveillance report on Howard Kline. Jake’s team had been tailing Kline for the past five days and had next to nothing on the guy. After being released from prison, Kline had moved in with his elderly, disabled mother in a low-income neighborhood on the south side. Since then, he almost never left the house, other than to meet with his parole officer and his court-appointed therapist. Other than that, he’d been living in complete seclusion with his mother. That alone was a red flag.

You’d expect a guy just getting out of prison after 18 years to go out and live a little – grab a beer, go to a movie, get laid. But not this guy. He was living the life of a recluse. In some ways, that was a good thing. If he was holed up at home, he wasn’t out on the streets looking for Beth Jamison. The downside was Jake and his team hadn’t been able to get a good feel for him. And that was a problem, because they needed to know what this guy was thinking.

When the call had come in that Miles was out of commission for the night, Shane had jumped at the chance to take his place.

“I’ll be there in fifteen minutes,” Shane had told Miguel.

“Why you?” Jake had said as soon as Shane ended the call.

Shane had stood, grabbing his phone and keys. “Why not me?”

“Because you’re the CEO of this outfit, and you don’t do field work,” Jake had said.

“Well, I’m doing field work tonight.”

Jake had shaken his head in disgust. “You’re an idiot. This has bad news written all over it.”

And now here he was on a Friday night in a bookstore of all places, feigning interest in a shelf of architectural books two aisles away from where Beth Jamison stood perusing romance novels.

He shifted his position to get a better view. He’d seen her photo, but that was just a head shot. Now he saw the whole package.
Damn
. She was just as exquisite in person as he’d feared.

He already knew her stats. She was five-eight, 125 pounds. She was taller than average and rather on the slender side. This evening she was wearing a peach dress and a lacey white sweater. Her long legs were bare, and she wore a pair of flat brown sandals. She didn’t have much in the way of curves, but her long blond hair, parted in the middle, framed a lovely face. She looked so... delicate. No wonder this girl needed protection. She didn’t look like she could fight her way out of a wet paper bag. The thought that someone might want to hurt this girl made his chest tighten.

Shane watched her, mesmerized. On the outside, she looked very serene – calm and cool – but he knew appearances could be deceiving. According to her emotional profile, she was anything but serene. Tyler had described her as excruciatingly shy and timid. She was uncomfortable around strangers, and she suffered from severe anxiety and asthma.

And she had nightmares, apparently a lot of them. Gabrielle Hunter had described those in great detail, including the ear-splitting screams in the dead of night, along with the panic attacks that often followed.

Kline had really done a number on this poor kid.

Beth was on the move now, and Shane changed positions again to keep her in his sights. His job suddenly got a whole lot more interesting when she turned a corner and moved into the erotica section.
Holy shit
. He hadn’t seen that coming.

He watched as she scanned the erotica shelves and selected a book, adding it to the small pile in her arms. When she headed toward the back of the store, he followed, more intrigued by the second.

When Beth took a seat in one of four oversized armchairs positioned around a low table covered with discarded books and magazines, he moved into position. She set her stack of paperbacks on the table in front of her and tucked her purse beside her in the chair. When she picked up one of her books and started reading, Shane tried to catch the title – his curiosity thoroughly aroused – but he couldn’t see it from his current vantage point.