Back To The Start Box Set: Five Full-Length Novels

by Aly Martinez

  “Sorry. A deal is a deal.” I made a show of lifting the pastry in the air like a precious jewel and then presenting it to Devon with a bow while whispering, “He who helps me shall receive the coveted chocolate croissant.”

  Devon didn’t waste a second before taking a huge bite and flashing Johnson a closed-mouth, chewing grin.

  I giggled as Johnson scowled at both of us, but his hand dropped to my lower back as he leaned past me to grab a bagel.

  “Where ya been hiding?” he asked. “I was about to bust your door down. We seriously need to talk.”

  I swung my gaze around the room and then whispered, “I’ve been…working.”

  A sparkle of understanding hit his eyes. “Oh yeah?”

  I nodded enthusiastically.

  His hard face softened, and a smile that warmed me from the inside out pulled at his lips. “Finally.” He lifted the bagel to his mouth and clamped it between his teeth as he went back for two of the muffins.

  “Any chance you can enlighten us on what exactly that work is?” Braydon asked.

  Johnson removed his bagel from his mouth and replied, “Computer hacker.”

  “Bullshit,” Devon groaned.

  Lark, Braydon, and Alex all mumbled a similar sentiment.

  I ignored them. Tipping my head back to catch Johnson’s attention, I asked, “Everything okay this morning?”

  He stopped chewing and arched a thick, black eyebrow. “Why do you ask?”

  “Because Devon is currently eating your specially requested chocolate croissant for the very first time in over two years.”

  He settled the muffins on a napkin and folded the edges over so he could carry them in one hand. “I’ve been helping Leo prep the new guy. Speaking of, I gotta get going.” He started to back away. “Hey, I’m home this weekend. You and me need to have a talk. Wanna grab a drink tonight?”

  “Sounds like a plan,” Devon answered.

  “I’m free,” Braydon added.

  Alex sighed. “All right. If everyone is going, I’m in.”

  Johnson glared at them. “I was talking to Rhion.”

  “You know, I could get a sitter. Maybe come out after the girls go to bed,” Lark announced, ignoring Johnson.

  “Guys’ night out!” I exclaimed before turning my best doe eyes on Johnson. “And me!”

  It could be said that Johnson wasn’t exactly the most social person. Group activities were as high on his list of desires as an unmedicated root canal.

  However, he knew I’d been struggling recently and he lacked the ability to tell me no.

  He lifted his eyes to the ceiling, muttering, “For fuck’s sake. Yeah. Fine. Whatever.” He waved his handful of muffins in the air and pointed them at the guys. “Work out the details with these assholes and let me know.”

  I smiled in victory. “Thanks, sweetie.”

  “Don’t thank me yet. First round’s on you.”

  I nodded—like a million times. “I can do that.”

  Shaking his head, he turned around and started out of the room, calling over his shoulder, “Don’t forget to pick up your paycheck from the slaughterhouse.”

  My lips stretched so wide that I feared my smile would swallow my face.

  The guys broke out into a symphony of disgust and disbelief.

  “Thanks for the reminder! Have a good day, and stay safe. Remember to look both ways before you cross the street, and don’t talk to strangers.”

  He offered a salute with his bagel before disappearing out the door.

  Chapter Four

  Jude

  I watched from the passenger seat as Leo scrolled through his phone, stopping every once in a while to type out a message. The engine on the black Escalade was running, but he’d not even put it in reverse in the over fifteen minutes we’d been sitting there.

  And that didn’t include the twenty minutes I’d been waiting in the parking garage before he had come down.

  “Anything I can help with?” I asked.

  He kept his eyes on his phone. “Nah. Just killing time answering some e-mails.”

  Killing time? We were supposed to be on our way to my first assignment. It wasn’t much. One of Leo’s bigwig clients’ kids was having a sixteenth birthday party and I’d been chosen for the elite position of working security. I could only imagine that meant making sure the nerds didn’t sneak in, the goths weren’t too goth, and none of the wannabe socialites spiked the punch. But, after the week I’d had, I would have tripped over my own dick while racing to volunteer for the job just to get out of that godforsaken office.

  “Gotcha,” I replied, scrubbing my palms over my slacks and going back to staring at the cracks on the cement wall of the parking garage.

  It was official. I hated this job. And, to make matters worse, I still hadn’t found an apartment that wasn’t a hellhole in my price range. You would think that, coming from LA, I’d have been used to being robbed on rent. Oh, but Chicago was a different kind of criminal. Even a place in the burbs was insane.

  As the days ticked on, I regretted more and more the decision to come back to Illinois. I couldn’t sleep. My Butterfly had been haunting me more in the last week than she had in years. Every time I closed my eyes, I watched her fall. And, thanks to Johnson’s stunt with my phone, at first, I couldn’t even call Valerie—the only one who knew about the nightmares. Luckily, midweek, I’d been able to get a new personal phone and recover her number by using the digital voodoo known as The Cloud. Talking to her helped in some ways, but in other ways, it made it worse. I never should have left her in LA.

  Right as I decided to shoot her a text, Leo caught my attention.

  “Finally,” he muttered, dropping his phone into the cup holder and then yanking the truck into reverse.

  Thank. Fuck, I thought. Well, that was until I caught sight of a pair of black gauges in the side mirror.

  “Here,” Johnson said, climbing into the backseat and then shoving a fist full of muffins between the two front seats.

  Oh hell no. This is not fucking happening.

  Leo eagerly took one.

  But I shook my head. “Thanks, but I’m good.”

  “Take the goddamn muffin,” Johnson pressed.

  Propping my hand on the back of Leo’s driver seat, I turned all the way around, giving Johnson my full attention. “I said I’m good.”

  He cocked his head to the side, his hard jaw turning to granite. “You got a fucking problem, Levitt?”

  I did. I so fucking did.

  Johnson had been riding my ass since our run-in on Monday. It wasn’t like I’d never worked with a prick before though. Hell, in LA, there were more pricks than not. I’d become quite skilled at ignoring the office bullshit. However, not even I was skilled enough to ignore the boss.

  Yep. My boss. Such was my shitty luck.

  As it turned out, Aidan Johnson was not only Leo’s best friend, but also his number two at Guardian Protection. From what I’d gathered, Leo handled the clients while Johnson managed the men.

  Needless to say, this made his fucking with me exponentially easier.

  On Tuesday, I’d shown up at a quarter to seven only to realize I’d never been issued a security card. I stood in the garage for a full hour, pressing the buzzer on the elevator to no avail, before one of the other guys showed up. Fun fact I’d also not been told: Work starts at eight. Seven is only on Mondays for the weekly meeting. When I finally walked through the front door, it was approximately two minutes past eight, and Johnson then chewed my ass for being late on the second day.

  I refused to leave that day without a card for the elevator and the front door. Conveniently, Johnson stayed locked in his office all afternoon. It was seven p.m. before he got his shit together and gave me one.

  I shouldn’t have been surprised when I showed up on Wednesday and the damn thing didn’t work. Yet, somehow, I still was. When I finally gotten through the front door—a mere sixty seconds before the clock struck eight—I was informed
that my new-hire paperwork had been misplaced. I sat in Leo’s office for two goddamn hours, filling out a second set. No sooner than I was on the last page, Johnson sauntered in with a file folder in his hand, stating he’d found it. Sure, this could have been some clerical error, but the wink Johnson tossed my way as he let me know he’d rearranged the guys in order to cover my assignment for the day—my first assignment—said otherwise. It all worked out though. At least according to him, because I got to spend the rest of the day in his office, watching actual VHS tapes about sexual harassment and professionalism.

  Then, on Thursday, my new access card miraculously worked after I’d gotten there at six thirty to ensure I got inside on time. When he rolled in at well past nine, he let me know that he’d “forgotten” to tell me that I was being trained in the security room that night—at eleven p.m. So, basically, I’d hauled my ass up there for no reason other than for him to fuck with me. I happily went home and then dragged myself back up there at eleven only to find out there was a full-time staff in the security room and the guys who worked in the field—like myself—were barely allowed to step foot in there, much less “train” on how to work the equipment.

  So yeah, when I’d shown up this morning, I’d been exhausted and sick of his bullshit. And, boss or not, I was done taking it.

  Holding his gaze, I seethed, “Sorry. I missed the page in the employee handbook where not eating a fucking muffin was a problem.”

  He regarded me impassively as he stated, “Page twelve. Paragraph three.”

  I gritted my teeth. “You know what? Fuck you.”

  “Jesus Christ, what the hell is with you two?” Leo chimed in. “It’s a goddamn muffin, not arsenic. I’ll eat it.”

  “Why are you here?” I asked.

  He shrugged. “Making sure you don’t fuck this up.”

  My blood boiled. “It’s a kid’s birthday party. I’m relatively sure I can handle it.”

  He grinned arrogantly. “See, I’m not sure I agree.”

  “What is your fucking problem with me?” I kept my gaze locked on Johnson but turned my words to Leo. “No disrespect, Leo. I appreciate the opportunity. But I’m done with the games. You want to ride along and introduce me to your client? Great.” I jerked my chin toward Johnson. “But I don’t need a babysitter. Either you need to have a word with your partner here or I’m going to have to seek employment elsewhere.”

  Johnson clapped his hands. “Fan-fucking-tastic idea.”

  “Whoa. Whoa. Whoa,” Leo said, slamming the truck back into park. “What the hell is going on here?”

  Johnson opened his mouth, but I got there first. “In short, I’m quitting or you’re kicking this piece of shit out of the car.”

  Leo’s head snapped back, an impressed grin twitching at his lips. “Oh, really?”

  I shoved my door open and returned his glare. “Really. I wanted to be here. To work for the best—with the best. But I’ve been here a week and, with the exception of having to replace my phone, spending an entire afternoon watching bad ’80s sexual harassment videos, and getting my chain yanked around about my schedule, I’ve done not one thing productive. I appreciate the opportunity. I do. But, if this is how you operate, maybe I’m not a good fit for Guardian.”

  Leo blinked at me for several seconds. Then, using his thumb and his forefinger, he wiped around the corners of his mouth before lifting his gaze to the rearview mirror. “Sexual harassment videos?”

  Johnson smirked. “Found ’em on Ebay. Cheap as shit. Overnight shipping was a bitch though. The hardest part was finding a VCR. That damn thing cost me a fucking mint.” His grin faded as he leaned back in the seat and folded his thick arms over his chest. “Besides, I think it would be good for all the guys to watch ’em.”

  This. Motherfucker.

  Leo continued to stare at him in the mirror. “The only female employee we got is my wife. Someone sexually harasses her, they end up jobless and, more than likely, lifeless. I think we’re safe.”

  “Can’t ever be too safe,” Johnson replied sardonically.

  Leo’s eyes narrowed on his friend. “You gonna tell me what this is really about?”

  “Nope,” he replied curtly.

  “Right.” Leo snatched the truck into reverse. “Shut the door, son.”

  I shook my head. “I’m not doing this.”

  “Yeah, you are.” He threw his arm around the back of my seat and angled to see out the back glass as he gunned it out of the parking spot.

  I was barely able to get the door closed before it took off the side mirror of Braydon’s BMW parked next to us. (I definitely needed to ask for that raise.)

  “Fuck, man,” I growled.

  “So here’s how this is going down. You two are gonna patch this shit up.”

  “I’m—” I started, but that’s as far as I made it.

  “I’ve known Johnson for a lot of years. He can be a short-tempered bastard, but there isn’t a man in my office who would think twice about taking a bullet for him.” He kept his gaze pointed out the windshield as he pulled into traffic. “You know why that is, Levitt?”

  Because apparently Guardian Protection is the only place the mentally insane can find employment?

  He didn’t wait for me to respond. “Because they know he’d take a bullet for them. No questions asked.”

  My eyes nearly rolled out of my head as Johnson reached forward and patted Leo’s shoulder.

  Being a mall cop had never sounded more appealing than it did in that moment. And, if I quit this job, that might be exactly what I’d have had to do for a while. I doubted that would come close to covering my monthly bills. But, then again, I wouldn’t have had to pay an attorney to defend me on assault charges.

  “That’s great news,” I smarted. “But that doesn’t change the fact that I am not one of those men. I appreciate the opportunity to work for you, but this childish bullshit is not what I signed on for.”

  “You’re right.” he answered immediately. “Which is why Johnson will be working in Indianapolis for the next few weeks while you settle in.”

  “The fuck you say!” Johnson boomed.

  Leo once again found his eyes in the rearview mirror. “Yeah, I do fucking say.”

  My surprised gaze jumped to Leo. Holy. Shit. Did that just swing my way?

  He kept talking to Johnson. “If you got a reason to hate him, it’s probably a good one. However, the fact that you are not willing to share this information means you know damn well it’s not enough for me to fire him. So I’ll repeat: You’ll be working with Slate and Erica in Indy until you can let this go. I’ve got a business to run, and providing you with maxi pads is not in the budget. Sort your shit. Do your fucking job. And stop fucking with Levitt while he does his. Yeah?”

  Victory sang in my veins, and the fact that it still came with a paycheck made it even sweeter.

  Surprisingly enough, Johnson didn’t say anything else.

  He did, however, burst into laughter, adding to my suspicions about the mental status of the Guardian staff.

  Those suspicions were confirmed when Leo joined him.

  What the hell did I get myself into?

  * * *

  The moment we arrived at the hotel hosting the party, Johnson disappeared through the lobby. I didn’t pretend to care. I did, however, watch my six until I was sure he was out of the area.

  Leo spent the morning introducing me to his client, a professional basketball player with absolutely no concept of reality. It wasn’t my job to judge him though, or I’d have been in the unemployment line years ago. It was my responsibility to find out the specifics of what he needed and then get down to business to fulfill those needs.

  That night, those needs were to stand guard at the door to make sure no one got in or out without permission.

  In the last few years, I’d taken a knife to the gut for a client, apprehended a stalker, stopped a home invasion, and a myriad of other admirable duties.

  And now�
�

  I was a glorified bouncer at a sweet-sixteen party.

  And to think, I’d actually thought this position could have been a step up in my career.

  As the night wore on, it was clear my job was also to be the only responsible adult at the entire fucking party while the others huddled around the open bar. By the time it was all said and done, I’d broken up four different fights—only three of those had been between kids—and thrown out two kids for smoking and countless kids for drinking. To top it all off, on two separate occasions, I’d had the stomach-churning pleasure of walking in on a couple having sex in the bathroom. One couple was way too young, the other way too fucking old. I had gone from feeling like a pedophile to a necrophiliac in the span of an hour.

  The party had started at six and was supposed to run into the night, but shortly past eight, the hotel shut it down. As I walked out and hailed a cab, I swore that, first thing in the morning, I was scheduling a vasectomy.

  I scrolled through my phone on the way back to my hotel and found a few new messages I’d missed throughout the day.

  One from my mom, who was asking for my Thanksgiving plans. Considering that it was September, the only plan I had was eating turkey and watching football.

  The next was from my ex-wife, April. I didn’t bother to read that one.

  I skipped right to the next.

  Valerie: Be careful at the new job tonight. I love you and miss you.

  I scoffed. If she only knew the level of danger I was facing. It was only six in LA. She’d be at softball practice. I smiled to myself as I typed.

  Me: Love you too, beautiful. I’ll call you in a little bit. And don’t worry. I’ll see you in a few weeks.

  I made a mental note to talk to Leo—not Johnson—about what I could expect from my schedule over the next few weeks. Maybe I could volunteer for some overnights in order to get a four-day weekend to visit her.