The Protectors Book 3_The Bodyguard Read online

  The Protectors Book 3

  The Bodyguard

  Jordan Silver

  Copyright © 2017 by Jordan Silver

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Created with Vellum

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Epilogue

  1

  “Look this way Tara. Over here Tara.” She turned this way and that like a puppet on a string as flashbulbs went crazy with each turn. The dress she wore didn't leave much to the imagination, but I guess that's all part of the image.

  She wore an engaging smile but I could see the strain on her face and the barely hidden tension in her body. She moved almost as if she were following a script, like someone who counted the steps while learning a new dance. I’m guessing she wasn’t too fond of this part of her job.

  I walked a few paces back as usual and let her do her thing, my eyes peeled to the crowd, my senses on full alert. This was the most dangerous aspect of the job, her out in the open like this with so many unknowns in the vicinity; at least it had been until a day or two ago.

  That my friend is when I lost my damn mind; when the man I’d always thought myself to be, morphed into this stranger whose skin I now find myself walking around in. Days later I still can’t make sense of this shit, but it is what it is. I’m nothing if not flexible.

  I’m not in the habit of being taken by surprise though. My life is too structured for that. But I have to say that for the first time since early childhood, something has been able to get under my skin, and I’m fucked if I like it. A man’s life shouldn’t be changed when he least expects it for fuck sake.

  I feel listless and out of control, like something else is at the helm. For a man like me, a former marine accustomed to discipline and order, this bullshit is fucking with my head. I’m not even going to get into the number it’s doing on my heart.

  I never give that shit a second thought, except when it comes to its health. So you can imagine when the shit sparked for no fucking reason, like someone took an electric shock to it, the fuckery damn near stopped me in my tracks.

  I knew down to the fucking minute it happened, and why. And had I been a damn female, I would’ve written the shit down somewhere for posterity’s sake. It’s one of those things they tend to want to remember, down to the date and time. Somehow I don’t think I’ll be forgetting, memo or not.

  Since I’m not a girl and wasn’t built that way, I stored the shit to memory and let that be enough. I had no worries about forgetting. Who can forget the minute their whole life changed for fuck sake? The shit that’s plaguing me now is, do I let myself get suckered in, or should I fight the good fight and put an end to this shit before it goes too far?

  The shit has been on my mind for the last day and a half, taking over all aspects of my life. ‘She’ has taken over my well structured world and turned it to shit. A little slip of a girl who never speaks above a whisper, and who’s so far outside the norm of my ideal that it’s hard to fathom why the hell this is even happening.

  I didn’t give anything away though as I kept a professional distance while she gave this crowd of vultures what they wanted. When the strain was starting to show in the slight tremble of the hand she had on her hip, something only I could see because I was so intensely focused on her, I moved in and got her out of there.

  She didn’t argue, not even when I kept my hand in the small of her back as I led her away from the glaring lights to the safety of the car. I had my own gutful of tension but for entirely different reasons, at least I thought they were. But for all I know she could be suffering the same fate as I.

  I’ve been on her for a couple weeks now. Her handlers had been the ones to hire me; well not me exactly, they’d contacted my firm, but all my guys were already out on other jobs so I took the bait. Fucking fate I guess, and even I know that no matter how bad a motherfucker is, he can’t fuck with fate.

  It was the first time since I’d started the company that we’d been stretched so thin. We were in high demand all of a sudden because of a job we’d handled six months earlier. Up until then we mostly flew under the radar. Our fees were high enough that we didn’t need more than a few jobs a year to keep the business afloat.

  But after that job when we went into a foreign country to bring back the socialite daughter of a mogul, who’d been taken for ransom by rebels in the fucking Gobi desert, shit blew up and we were still trying to figure out what the fuck.

  We’d fucked some shit up and left a few bodies to prove we were there and got the girl back with her family safe and sound, not a scratch and ready for the next dumb thing on her ‘get fucked up’ list. Fucking trust fund kids are a pain in the ass. No wonder tigers eat their young.

  Anyway, she couldn’t keep her damn mouth shut and told that shit to anyone who would listen, which in hindsight wasn’t such a bad thing for the company. Once word got around that we didn’t give a fuck, as long as we got the job done, we’ve hardly had a day of peace.

  It was good for the bottom line no doubt, but sometimes the nut-job on the other end of the line needs to be left where the fuck they are. No joke, there are some fucked up individuals out there who instead of rescuing, I’m more tempted to put two in the chest and one to the head.

  Those motherfuckers I don’t go after. I got ethics and shit. If you fucked your country over for a payday, I ain’t saving your ass; rot. I don’t get to choose who deserves to live; well, we’ll leave that shit alone. But I do have a say in who the fuck I waste my time saving.

  I’d started the company three years ago after twelve years as a mercenary. I started out in the army, but they had too many fucking rules to suit me. They knew it and I knew it, so they put me where I could do my best and still serve my country. Behind the scenes, in the darkest cesspools of the earth, busting shit up.

  So on that fateful day, I took the call. And since I was the only one free at the time, had to bite the bullet and take the job. Though fuck knows I’d rather shoot myself in the foot than shadow some airheaded Hollywood starlet who was probably going to give me hell at every turn. Been there done that! And have the skid marks on my ass to prove it.

  When I'm on a job it's my rules all the way from beginning to end. I don’t fuck with my safety so if the person I’m covering can’t follow the few simple rules I set in place, they’re probably in more danger from me than whatever the hell it is they’re needing protection from.

  These starlet types don't know shit about following orders. Some of them stay high as shit twenty-four seven, which fucks with their perception, and no one knows it but you. As their keeper you’ve got to keep an eye on that shit, keep their dumb asses alive and out of the tabloids. So I really wasn’t looking forward to dealing with this one. Especially after I read up on her and saw how famous she was.

  She’s like the new darling of America or some shit, whatever. I barely spared her a glance while reading her portfolio. I had no interest in her looks I was more interested in wh
at kind of help she needed. Already regretting my decision to take the job.

  Apparently she had a stalker or some shit, one of those nuts that saw her face on the screen and decided that she was talking to him. It must’ve gotten really bad for them to call in the big guns, which is what I found out once I got on the job.

  I have to be honest; because of my disdain for her ilk, I really didn’t pay too much attention to her the first time we met. She was just another warm body that I was there to protect, nothing more. I take my job seriously and would skin any one of my guys who step over the line.

  When we’re on a job it’s professionalism all the way. Plus I had a good ten years on her and as we all know, nothing lasts in this damn town. Who the fuck has time for that? Not that I won’t break one off if I get the itch, but her ilk is just not my type. They live their lives in a fishbowl; I do better in the shadows.

  Anyway, she seemed normal enough on first acquaintance. That first day I’d dealt more with her manager than her, while she sat on the couch in his office reading what I guess was a script. All I saw was a nest of messy hair piled on top of her head and reading glasses perched on her nose. She was wearing baggy sweats and a tank. Shit made no sense, you’re either hot or cold, what the fuck.

  I’d left the office still in doubt as to whether or not I really wanted to do this shit, but my boys were all still tied up and none of them seemed too thrilled at the prospect of taking over for me. That’s a testament to our past dealings with her type. After the last one I needed fucking combat pay.

  It didn’t take me long to realize that she was different though. There were no tantrums or impossible demands like I’d expected. She kept her head down and did as she was told without question. From what I’ve seen so far she isn’t much of a partier, or girl about town the way the write-ups had intimated, far from it.

  She was usually in bed by eight at night, which made my job easier, since the crazies seemed to keep most of their physical shit for after dark. In the first few days I was holding my breath, waiting for her to start chafing at the restraints I’d placed on her, but nothing; not a peep.

  Most people seem to think that once they have security in place they no longer have to be careful. They leave their lives and wellbeing to us. I’m the fucking security and I think that’s some dumb shit. You can never be too careful. She had sense it seemed, because she did everything to keep herself as inconspicuous as possible.

  I’d read the letters and shit that the nut who was after her had sent, had seen the escalation from the first letter to the last. Total fucking fruitcake, but he wasn’t my first. Personally, if she was my woman I’d have hunted him down and peeled the skin off his ass with a rusty knife, but hey, that’s just me.

  This skell’s whole deal was instilling fear. That’s the quickest way to take over someone’s life, have them so afraid they’d jump at their own shadow. My job wasn’t just to give her a sense of security though. They’d brought me in to take him out. That’s my specialty. Well their exact words were take him in, whatever.

  If she was afraid she hid it well. In fact, the only way I knew anything was going on with her was by her manager giving me the rundown. Otherwise I might’ve thought the shit wasn’t as serious as I’d been led to believe.

  She was one cool customer I’ll give her that. He on the other hand was pulling his hair out with worry. He was hyper as fuck, and she was the one usually calming him down and reassuring him that she was okay. I would’ve thought they had something going on until I saw one of these interactions.

  There were no sexual undertones whatsoever. He just really liked her as a person I guess. That and she made him a fuck ton of money. I know because I ran his ass too. I never take shit for granted when going in; everyone’s a suspect until I decide otherwise.

  So there I was thinking I’d lucked out this time. She was the easiest case I’d ever worked. The days were usually pretty tame, she went to the set at the ass crack of dawn and spent most of the day there doing her thing, while I sat off to the side and kept an eye out, while keeping tabs on my boys back home and the jobs they were working.

  She was very polite and cordial, not at all like what I would’ve expected from someone in her position. More than that, she knew how the fuck to follow instructions without giving me a headache, or like the last one of her ilk, having to threaten to leave her ass to the wolves. Yeah, I did that shit.

  I’d seen enough fuckery while hanging around the underbelly of the world to know what was out there. But this girl, this Tara Allendale, she was different. She seemed to have a head on her shoulders and gave more of a fuck about her life than where the next party was gonna be, or the next score. I haven’t seen her take so much as an aspirin.

  I never had it so easy. I was actually congratulating myself for lucking out and thinking of the stories I’d have to tell my boys who were all catching their ass on their current jobs. She was so easy if I wasn’t as good as I am I would’ve taken a nap and woken up hours later to find her just where I’d left her. Fuck yeah, easy money.

  And maybe that’s why I let my guard down. Why I left myself wide open. I didn’t watch my six because I didn’t think I needed to. I didn’t sense the danger or even know that shit was in the vicinity.

  I had no idea who I was looking for but I knew the signs of crazy when I saw it, and so far we were in the clear. While watching over her I already had shit running in the background trying to hunt this fucker down. And since she was so easy, it freed me up to do my job well. But that’s not where the danger came from. Not even fucking close.

  2

  We were cruising along very well, and I was thinking that as soon as my boy Drake was done with his job in a couple days, I’d tap him to take over from me. I knew once I told him how easy this shit was his lazy ass would jump on it, and I could get the hell outta this town that I hate with every fiber of my soul.

  And then it started. She switched shit up on me out of the blue and I didn’t see it coming. We’d left the studio for the day and I was looking forward to getting back and putting my foot up.

  If I had any interest in movies I probably would be having a better time, but sitting around on the outskirts all day everyday watching people repeat the same shit five or six times until they got it right was mind numbing.

  My head was already on the beer and burrito I was gonna have for dinner when she changed shit up and set this shit in motion. “I want Hunter to drive.” I turned my head and gave her a once over when I heard that, before looking away again.

  Her management team had already made those decisions and I'd learned from years of experience not to get involved in domestic shit. They had their job and I had mine.

  We’d already been doing things this way for a couple weeks now and there was no need for change as far as I knew, but I kept my mouth shut and let them work it out. It didn’t make a difference to me one way or another.

  I wasn’t quite sure why she’d requested me by name though, it’s not like we’d ever exchanged words or anything other than that first day, but what did I care. She was the one paying in the end so she was the one I answered to when it was all said and done.

  They had two security teams on her for some fucked up reason, which once again I didn’t care about. One of the other team members usually drove her around and I handled the rest.

  I guess her handlers didn’t think I could do both, and I didn’t bother telling them that I was trained in evasive driving and all that happy shit. If they wanted to spend their money unnecessarily, who was I to stop them?

  The manager had made it clear in the beginning I was there to catch this guy, while the others looked after her, but I’d told him how I worked. I would do both. Wasn’t shit gonna happen to her on my watch.

  I’d been on the job a good two weeks and didn’t even know she remembered my name. At night after she was done for the day I followed the other car back to the hotel and headed to my room.

  She’d usually di
sappear into her room for the night and I’d stay up watching the monitors I had set up until midnight before hitting the sack myself with her right next door.

  We barely interacted with each other believe it or not, nothing more than good morning and goodnight. Like I said, she was one cool customer.

  In the end I’d ended up driving her that day. We were heading to a rented beach house that the studio had decided to move her into for the duration for extra security. The asshole had found out where she was staying at the hotel and had sent flowers the day before.

  She hadn’t said two words to me, just sat back there and looked out the window when she wasn’t flipping through some magazine or another. I didn’t ask why she’d made the switch. I figured she’d tell me when she was ready.

  I wouldn’t say it was an uncomfortable silence; I like silence. Most people make me want to put one in their throat within two minutes because they’re full of shit. So her quiet was just fine by me.

  I guess it’s because I was in such close proximity with no one else around and nothing else to focus on, but I really looked at her for the first time. She had a wholesome look to her. Like one of those Midwest types you read about that came to Hollywood and actually caught a break.

  As a matter of fact, that’s exactly her story. She was raised on a farm in the middle of bumfuck U.S. of A. somewhere in Wyoming. She’d won some local beauty pageants in her teens and I guess the next obvious step was the bright lights of Hollywood.

  Now that I allowed myself to look I couldn’t deny that she had ‘it’ whatever the hell ‘it’ is. If ‘it’ meant facial beauty and a bombshell body then yeah. Or maybe ‘it’ had more to do with her peaches and cream complexion and the way her jewel-toned eyes brightened her face.