Necessary Risk (Bodyguard) (19 page)

“Deny it all you want, but you’ve got it for her. Don’t think I didn’t see you holding hands earlier. Dude, you should’ve seen your face, like holding hands with her was the best thing in the world. Like elementary school, playground-level bliss.” It had been impulsive, and he’d half expected her to snatch her hand away. But she hadn’t, and he’d wanted to keep holding it. He’d even risked Carter seeing them, which was stupid.

“You’re so full of shit. She’s just a client.” A dull ache started at his temples.

Antonio scoffed, “So? I know you got your rules and shit, but man. You’re lit up like a freakin’ Christmas tree around this girl. You know what you should do?”

“What?” Finished packing up, Sean stood, swinging the bag over his shoulder.

“Now that you’ve held hands with her, you should like, pass her a note. ‘I like you. Do you like me? Check yes, no, or maybe.’” Antonio could barely get the words out through his laughter.

“Fuck you.”

Mirthful glee lit up Antonio’s face as he looked over Sean’s shoulder. “Here she comes. You want a piece of paper?”

He flipped Antonio off and then turned around to face Sierra. Before he’d met her, he’d thought the whole “heart skipping a beat” thing was made up. But now he knew better, because it happened every damn time he looked at her.

When their eyes met, her face lit up and she quickened her pace, leaving Carter several paces behind her. “Sean! You were so awesome!” She held up her hand for a high five as she reached him, and he obliged her, fighting the urge to grasp her hand in his as he’d done earlier. “Let’s go out for drinks.”

He shook his head. “No, I don’t think—”

“Oh, come on. We should all go celebrate. My treat.”

“Not a good idea.”

She held up a finger, a pleading look on her face. “One drink. And then we’ll go straight home. I’m just…I’m having fun, not being cooped up.”

She smiled up at him, happy and sweet and bright, and yet again, he knew he was going to cave, just as he had over her coming to the game. “Fine. One drink.”

“You should come too,” she said to Antonio, who nodded.

“Sure. It’ll give us a chance to talk about the case. Why don’t we go to the Clover? It’s a little nicer than Frank’s.” Antonio smiled at Sierra, and the way his eyes raked subtly over her made Sean want to punch him. Hard.

“Watch it, or I’ll tell Frank you said that.”

Antonio laughed and headed toward the parking lot.

Plans made, they headed back toward his SUV, Sierra at his side. He really wanted to take her hand again. The way she’d slipped her small, delicate fingers between his had felt so good. So simple. So right. He began to reach for her, wanting to feel her skin on his again. Wanting to touch her and have her close to him. But Carter was there, and he couldn’t.

By the time they arrived at the Clover, he’d convinced himself that all of this was a colossally bad idea. He shouldn’t be bringing her to a bar. Hell, he shouldn’t have even brought her to his baseball game. But when she smiled at him the way she had, he found he couldn’t say no.

One of the many reasons it was stupid and dangerous to fall for a client.

The four of them settled into a booth, Sean and Sierra on one side, Carter and Antonio on the other. Sean made sure Sierra was on the inside of the booth, practically hidden from view from the rest of the bar by his own body. She nodded her head in time to the CCR tune playing while she studied the list of beers on tap. The Clover was famous for its huge selection of craft beer from breweries across Southern California. He leaned a little bit closer and pointed at the Claremont Carlisle pale ale on the laminated menu.

“This one’s really good, and based on the beer you have at home, I think you might like it.”

She looked up at him, her nose scrunching slightly. “Yeah? I’ll give that one a try, then.”

The waitress came over and took their order, and Sierra slid the tiniest bit closer to him, her leg now flush against his under the table.

He pressed his leg against hers, returning the pressure when she rubbed her thigh along his, encouraging her. And damn, it felt good.

“Hey, Sean, heads up,” said Carter, his voice low. “Six o’clock.”

Sean looked over his shoulder, angling his body in front of Sierra as panic shot through him. But it wasn’t a threat headed their way. Just a major pain in his ass.

“Excuse me.” He pushed up from the table and locked eyes with Colt Priestley, who looked just as surprised to see him. He stood several feet away, a beer in one hand, his other arm wrapped round a redhead with enough cleavage for three women.

“Will you give me a second…sweetheart?” Colt smiled down at the redhead, clearly unable to remember her name, and Sean couldn’t help but roll his eyes. Some things never changed.

The redhead walked her fingers up his arm. “Don’t be long.” He watched her walk away before turning his attention to Sean.

“What are you doing here, Colt?”

He ran a hand over his short light-brown hair and cocked an eyebrow. “Uh, it’s a bar,” he said, as if that were explanation enough. Hell, knowing Colt and his proclivity for booze and women (and not always in that order), it pretty much was. “Listen, I’m glad I ran into you. I’ve been trying to get ahold of you.”

“I know, and you’re wasting your time. You can’t have your job back.”

He cursed quietly under his breath. “I’m sorry about the way everything went down. I fucked up, I know.”

“You did.” The memory of stepping into the fight that Priestley had caused flashed before his eyes. The chaos. The noise. The knife.

Colt sighed heavily and shifted his weight, dragging a hand over his mouth. “I know I don’t deserve one, but I’m asking for a second chance here, man.”

“That
was
your second chance. I refuse to take risks with client safety. The answer’s no.”

His nostrils flared, and Sean could see him struggling with his temper. He took a step closer to Sean. Although he was a few inches shorter, he was nearly as wide, and Sean was pretty sure Colt was too dumb to be scared of anything. “This have anything to do with the fact that your dad was on
my
side?”

Sean choked out a harsh laugh, refusing to take the bait. “You enjoy the rest of your night. We’re done here.”

Colt shook his head angrily. “Whatever.” He stalked away with his slightly bowlegged gait, heading back to his date. Sean walked the few feet back to the booth and sat down. He grabbed his bottle of beer and took a healthy pull. His father had been the one to hire Priestley, but Sean had been against it from the start. Too many red flags. The temper, the reckless behavior, the drinking. But Patrick had fought him on it, overruling Sean. Not trusting his judgment.

And Sean had ended up nearly losing an eye.

“Who was that?” Sierra asked, her brow furrowed. She glanced back and forth between him and Carter. After another long pull on his beer, Sean answered.

“Colt Priestley. He used to work for Virtus.”

“Used to?”

“I fired him.”

“Oh. Um…for what?”

“Long story short, he made a reckless decision, and I ended up getting stabbed in the face.”

Her eyes widened, and she laid her hand on his knee under the table. “
What?
” Her voice was quiet, her shoulders suddenly rigid.

He pointed to the faint scar that ran from the top of his left cheekbone almost to his ear. She reached out tentatively and ran her fingertips over the remains of the scar, her bottom lip caught between her teeth.

“I’d noticed it, but…” She didn’t finish her thought, just kept running her fingers over the scar. Funny how he was the one with the scar, and yet he wanted to comfort her.

“It’s a lot better than it used to be. Pretty cool what they can do with lasers.”

“I hate that you have such a dangerous job.”

He’d been about to put his hand over hers when Antonio cleared his throat, smiling down into his beer. Carter studied a menu as though his life depended on memorizing it.

Shit.

A pink flush crept over her cheeks, and she took her hand back, wrapping it firmly around her beer. “So Carter tells me you almost played pro baseball? Is that true?”

“
Almost
is pretty generous, but yeah, sort of. I went to Cal State Fullerton on a ball scholarship, and I got drafted by the Giants. Mostly played in the minors, but I played a few games for them. It didn’t work out, long term. Dad needed my help with the company, so I moved back.” He took a sip of his beer and changed the subject, focusing on Antonio. “No updates?”

Antonio shook his head slowly. “I wish I had better news, but no. We’re still trying to get anything concrete on Sacrosanct, but those bastards are slippery. Our buddy Judah isn’t talking, and it doesn’t matter what we threaten him with, or whatever deal we throw his way. He won’t roll on anyone else, won’t cop to anything. Everything else we’ve found is either a dead end or so circumstantial that we don’t have a hope in hell of convincing a judge to grant us any kind of search warrant. Plus, we’d have to know where to search. Nothing’s connecting. Yet. But it will.” He smiled reassuringly at Sierra before tipping his beer at Sean. “Your guy Clay come up with anything else?”

“He’s working a few leads, but no new information yet.”

Sierra sighed heavily, trailing her finger through a streak of condensation on the table. “Well, that’s disappointing.”

“I know. Hang in there. We’ll find them.” Antonio nodded confidently. “It’s only a matter of time.”

Chapter 15

S
ean turned onto Sierra’s street, his gaze sweeping back and forth and landing on the black town car idling at her curb.

“You expecting someone?” he asked, catching Sierra’s eyes in the rearview mirror.

She shook her head. “No.”

Instantly on alert, he didn’t say anything, just pulled the SUV into Sierra’s driveway and threw it into park, wondering if he should grab one of the bats from his trunk. Carter pushed out of the SUV, his Glock already in hand and hanging by his side.

The rear passenger door of the town car swung open, and Jack stumbled out. The streetlamps cast eerie shadows over his face, but it was unmistakably him. Sean glanced in the rearview mirror again, needing eyes on Sierra.

“Stay in the—” But Sean didn’t finish his sentence. There was no point, because Sierra had already hopped out of the SUV.

Jack slammed the car door shut, and his gaze swung from Sierra to Carter to Sean, and then back to Sierra.

Sierra took a step forward, her arms crossed. “What are you doing here, Jack?”

He laughed, the sound low and rough. “I came to see you and your new boyfriend,” he said, his words running together. He leaned back against the town car, landing with a solid thunk against the car’s body, his head bobbing.

He was fucking hammered. Great.

Sean stepped in front of Sierra, shielding her from Jack as his mind reeled back to what she’d told him about his drinking. “What do you want, Jack?”

He shook his head and laughed. “
You.
You’re a piece of work, you know that? You think you can steal my girl, just fucking
swoop
in like some kind of fucking hero?” He laughed again. “You think you can have me investigated and that I wouldn’t find out about it?”

Shit.
Clay must not have covered his tracks as well as he’d thought. Or Jack had eyes in places they hadn’t expected. Maybe a combination of the two.

“Let’s get one thing straight here,” said Sierra, her voice sharp and angry as she stepped out from behind Sean. “I am
not
your girl, Jack. I haven’t been for months, so you don’t get to come here and act all possessive. Nobody stole me away. I left you, and if you want to know why, I suggest you go home and take a good hard look in the mirror.”

Jack laughed again, the sound hollow and bitter. Carter took a step forward, and a big guy in a suit stepped out of the front passenger side of the town car.

“Did you come here to make a point?” Sean stepped in front of Sierra again.

“You know, it’s really charming, the way you’re protecting her. But you can treat her like gold, and she’ll still use you, and treat you like shit, and leave you when she’s done with you.”

It was Sierra’s turn to laugh, but there was nothing happy about the sound. It was harsh and sarcastic. “Uh, excuse me, but if anyone was treated like shit, it was me, not you. Asshole.”

“What did you call me?” Jack lurched forward, his eyes glued to Sierra. “Don’t you dare talk to me that way, you stupid bitch.”

Something in Sean snapped, and he closed the distance between himself and Jack in a few long, fast strides. “Leave her out of this. You wanna be mad at someone, be mad at me. Yeah, I had you investigated. And I’d do it again.”

Jack’s bodyguard approached, and so did Carter. Sean stared Jack down, and from what he could see in his peripheral vision, he knew Carter was doing the same with Jack’s bodyguard.