“So what say you?” Holly asked, positioning herself at the start of the course.
He scratched his head. “How about I watch you, like you suggested?”
“Great!” Holly said with a grin as she gingerly stepped on the first segment.
Jaxon allowed his eyes to feast on Holly. God, she really was hot, and he better close his mouth in case she noticed him drooling. Good thing he could pretend he was merely following her progress.
What if… just what if… she was only after some fun? That was entirely possible. According to some reports, Holly was a bit of a playgirl, enjoying dalliances with some of the most successful and eligible men in the world.
Not that he thought any less of her. Holly was a kind-hearted, sweet, generous and considerate person, and not wanting to settle down was a choice she was entitled to make.
So… what if they hooked-up?
He shook his head. No, he should get that thought right out of his mind. It had the potential to ruin friendships, including his with Xavier if things went pear-shaped.
Besides, and most critical of all, Holly wasn’t an Indie Rebel. Dating her would never work, whatever the circumstance.
Holly let out a little cry, appearing to lose her balance on the rope walk. He rushed to her, even though the heavily cushioned floor would have kept her from getting hurt.
But she recovered, pumping her fists in the air she successfully completed the segment.
Jaxon applauded her success. “Now, conquer that pull-up ladder!”
Holly took a deep breath, shaking her arms and legs briefly, before making a leap to grab the horizontal bar. Then she did an air-jump and brought the bar past the first barrier. She also got past the next barrier, and the next, albeit starting to struggle. She was breathing hard as she dangled.
“Good work, keep going.” He clapped harder.
“I think I’m going to slip.”
“Hold tight. You can do this.”
Holly tried a couple of times to move forward, but she wasn’t pushing up high enough to get the bar past the obstruction. Then she let out a little squeal and dropped to the floor.
To Jaxon’s horror, Holly’s blonde wig slipped off, snagged by the bracelet she wore on her right wrist.
Holly gasped, diving flat to the cushioned ground to hide her face.
He went to her aid, looking around. Fortunately, they were the only ones in the Obstacle X room, as it was still booked for his personal one-on-one training with Xavier.
But a glass window on one side exposed them to the others working out on the main gym floor. If any of those people glanced their way, Jaxon was sure they’d instantly recognise the famous Holly Stirling.
He positioned himself between Holly and the window and dropped to his knees.
“It’s caught in this charm,” Holly said in frustration as she tried to detangle her hair piece from her bracelet.
“Let me do it.”
Holly lay on her back and held up her wrist to him.
He hunched over so Holly wouldn’t have to hold the wig up too obviously, and started to loosen the offending strands from around the diamond-encrusted sun-shaped charm.
“Thanks,” Holly said, smiling at him. “If people find out my disguise, I won’t be able to come in here without being followed.”
“Without being mobbed, you mean,” he said, frowning in concentration at his task. He didn’t want to ruin her bracelet by yanking against the sun charm too hard.
“Look at those two,” Holly said with a sigh, nodding in the direction of Xavier’s office. “They’re so oblivious to what’s going on here.”
“Well, it’s the window behind me that I’m worried about.” Jaxon glanced back. Two ladies on treadmills were already looking their way, brows furrowed. He ignored them, hoping they wouldn’t think help was needed.
Holly detangled the last of the strands, and the wig was free. She shifted to sit on her legs. “Now I have to put this back on without attracting attention.”
“Just make sure you stay low. Some people are already watching.” He moved closer to her, ensuring his torso shielded her face from prying eyes.
Holly started giggling.
“What?”
“You’re sitting up straight and I’m hunched down here facing your front. If someone’s looking, they’ll be wondering what we’re doing.”
His lips twitched. “Maybe you shouldn’t be crouching too low.”
“But they’ll see my face. Now, don’t move.” Holly ducked down farther to don the wig, her head getting closer to his lap.
He inhaled sharply, heat rushing to his groin.
Damn. This position was too hot, even if what Holly was doing was entirely innocent.
He glanced at Xavier. His friend wouldn’t be happy to see him and Holly in a certain pose on his gym floor that could be mistaken for something else. But neither Xavier nor Eve was looking their way, with the couple lost in their own world as they spoke with their wedding planner.
Jaxon checked the women on the treadmills. They were now whispering to each other and frowning at him.
Shit.
“You better hurry in case someone reports us for public indecency.” He was grateful, though, that the snoopy ladies provided a distraction for his dick. It was threatening to get embarrassingly hard.
Holly’s shoulders shook with laughter as she adjusted her wig.
“I’m glad you find this funny,” he said dryly, looking back at the women outside to help himself cool right down. “Your brother will kill me if someone complains to him about us.”
“I’ll stick up for you. I’ll tell him you’re my knight in shining armour.” Holly sat up, smoothing the blonde locks with her hands. “Is this good?”
He carefully pulled out a couple of strands that had gotten caught under the netting and stroked her hair in place.
“Thanks,” Holly breathed, her lovely brown eyes suddenly wide, her lips parted, and her face tilting up.
His breath hitched and his heart drummed fast. God, she really was beautiful—blonde or brunette. And he knew exactly what she was trying to say without words.
But…he shouldn’t accept the invitation for a kiss he was dying to have.
With much reluctance, he got to his feet and offered his hand. Guilt hit him at the flash of embarrassment on Holly’s face.
Holly was quick to put on a smile, though, and she turned around so she wasn’t facing the window. “Those girls are still looking at us,” she murmured.
“Short as my gym shorts are, I hope they now see that they’re still firmly in place.”
Holly sighed. “I hope Xave and Eve won’t mind if I barge in there while they’re still on a phone call. I just don’t want people coming around here to talk to us—or tell us off.”
“Well, you’re one of the bridesmaids…”
“True.” Holly knocked softly on the window of Xavier’s office and gestured for permission to go in.
Eve nodded with a grin.
Jaxon went to his gym bag to grab his towel. He was sitting on a bench, drinking from his water bottle, when his phone rang. “Aidan.”
“Hey. Is Xavier with you?”
“He’s just on the phone with a wedding planner. Eve said they won’t be long.”
“Good. I need to talk to you first.”
“Okay.”
“One of our IR agents who’s also a police detective said that Anna Sanders was reported missing by her boyfriend last night.”
Jaxon frowned. “Anna Sanders, the singer?”
“Yes. She’s a good friend of the Stirlings, I believe. Apparently, the boyfriend got home and she just wasn’t there.”
Jaxon inhaled deeply. Anna’s loved ones would be beside themselves. He knew how that felt. “Any chance she just left her boyfriend?”
“Not likely, especially when the police also got an anonymous note the day before Anna disappeared. It said that top Australian female celebrities will start disappearing one
by one unless they woke up to their sins. They didn’t know what it meant until they got the call from Anna’s boyfriend.”
“Any idea who sent it?”
“The cops have no clue, and we’re just about to start our investigations.”
“Holly could be a target. And she doesn’t have a bodyguard at the moment. I think she’s still to interview the new one Smith Security wants to assign to her.”
“Yes. I’m texting you his picture right now, and…we think he’s your brother.”
Jaxon’s heartbeat spiked. “You found Bryce?”
“Well, technically we didn’t find him. Xavier asked me to run a check on this person Smith Security hired to be Holly’s new bodyguard. I’m just as surprised that it’s him.”
Jaxon quickly checked Aidan’s message, and his heart pounded harder as goosebumps formed all over his body. No wonder Aidan had identified Bryce immediately. Bryce only looked slightly older than the twenty-year-old guy in the ten-year-old photo that the Indie Rebels had managed to dig up when they had checked out Jaxon’s family history.
“I can’t believe this,” he murmured, joy seeping in from this unexpected development. “So where has he been all this time?”
“For the last five years, until two weeks ago, he worked for a company responsible for providing security to a group of privately owned islands on the Whitsundays. His job included keeping uninvited people away and playing bodyguard to the VIP guests when they travelled outside of the islands. He came back to Sydney two weeks ago, presumably because he was hired by Smith Security. Do you know that he changed his surname?”
“No. To what?”
“He’s now called Bryce Green, although he didn’t lodge it officially.”
“When did he start using it?”
“Not sure, but he’s been Bryce Green for at least five years. He must be using a fake ID to get away with it.”
Jaxon rubbed his face. What the hell had Bryce been up to? “And now he’s here to work with Holly?”
“Yes. If our sources are accurate, he only quit his previous job when Smith Security confirmed that he’d be working with Holly Stirling. Frankly, with this kidnapping threat, the timing’s too coincidental. We have to treat him as a suspicious individual at this point, especially with that change of name.”
Jaxon inhaled deeply. The insinuation about his brother bothered him. “It’s entirely possible that Bryce could also have been set-up and blackmailed by that bastard stepfather of ours. If that’s the case, him changing his name is not surprising.”
“That’s true. But what would you do as an Indie Rebel, when several women’s safety is at risk?”
Jaxon shut his eyes. “I’d continue to investigate.”
“So this is your new assignment. Specifically, we need to figure out if Bryce is part of whoever’s behind Anna’s kidnapping and the threats to other female celebrities. Needless to say, this also gives you a chance to work on your stepfather’s case—see if you can get something out of Bryce that can be pinned on Joseph Bridge.”
“Yes,” Jaxon said with determination. He’d been waiting for this opportunity for a long time. He was sick and tired of Joseph dangling the threat of an attempted murder charge over his head—a crime Jaxon had not committed but could not disprove. Joseph held manipulated evidence against him.
“You’ll need to meet your brother again as soon as possible,” Aidan said in a quiet voice. “Are you up for this assignment?”
“Yes.” He couldn’t wait to start.
Aidan paused. “Blood is thicker than water, but we need you to be an Indie Rebel first and Bryce’s brother second.”
“I understand. You can count on me.”
“Good. Your meeting with Bryce will have to look like an accident since we can’t afford to let anyone know the Indie Rebels are working on this, including Holly. So let’s work something out with Xavier. You guys call me back as soon as he’s free.”
Jaxon frowned, an uneasy feeling settling in his stomach. “Are you saying we’re making Holly bait?”
“Not exactly. You, Xavier and Eve can work together to make sure she’s safe. But if she decides to employ Bryce as her bodyguard, we can’t stop her. We don’t want to raise anyone’s suspicions, especially Bryce’s, until we’ve rounded up the kidnappers. Remember that Anna Sanders is already missing. Her loved ones want to get her back alive. So it’s up to you to figure out if Bryce has any ulterior motives for being Holly’s bodyguard. The sooner, the better.”
“Okay. Regarding Holly, aren’t we looking at bringing her into the IR fold so she can be bound by our secrecy rules?”
“We can work on this case without Holly needing to know about us, so it’s not necessary for her to become an IR.”
“Of course.” Jaxon already knew that, so why had he asked?
You want Holly to be an IR.
He shook his head at himself. Instead of hoping for a future with Holly, he should be concentrating on Bryce. What would he do if he found out that Bryce was indeed a member of some criminal syndicate?
He took a deep, steadying breath. In his heart of hearts, he believed that Bryce wouldn’t have gotten involved with underworld characters unless he’d been forced to. So if his brother had been sucked into the world of criminals, he’d find a way to get him out.
But until then, he hoped and prayed that his brother wasn’t here to hurt Holly.
Chapter 2
Holly kept her head low, ensuring no one glancing through the windows of Xavier’s office could take a good look at her.
“Everything okay?” Eve whispered as Xavier asked the wedding planner another question.
She gave her future sister-in-law a bright smile. “Yeah.”
What else could she say? Why should anyone care that she—one of the most fortunate women on the planet with her successful career and legions of fans—was getting her heart broken again right that minute?
She pretended to play with her phone to avoid glancing up, lest Eve and Xavier notice her moistening eyes.
Her popularity had exposed her to countless opportunities and possibilities, and she was humbled that so many people around the world enjoyed her songs and adored her as a performer. She wasn’t taking for granted the benefits she continued to receive.
But when it came to matters of the heart, her superstardom was a curse.
Since winning the popular TV talent show that had made her a global superstar five years ago, she’d had a terrible time with relationships. Some men were intimidated by her fame, and most simply couldn’t handle or refused to be caught in the spotlight that was relentlessly trained on her.
So she’d tried dating only those in the entertainment industry. She’d thought it would be easier, but it was so much worse, with double the attention thrown their way. Luckily, her last two celebrity exes had been concerned enough about bad publicity that they’d secretly admitted to her that they’d cheated before anyone could find out.
She snickered silently. Yeah, she’d been lucky that those betrayals hadn’t made the news, and that she’d dodged a bullet with those guys. However, she’d started to develop a reputation. Sections of the media had been painting her as a playgirl, basing their claim on the fact that they’d never known her to have a serious relationship with anyone.
It was true she’d never been with any guy long-term, but it wasn’t for the reason they stated. She was just terribly unlucky in love.
Eve laughed at something her wedding planner said, and Holly smiled wistfully.
Now there was one lucky gal. Holly knew that her brother was with Eve for the right reason. Eve’s career as co-host of a top-rated public affairs program didn’t define their relationship.
And Holly had wished for so long for what those two had—true, unconditional love. She was more than ready to give her whole heart to the right person. And frankly, she’d been hoping it could be Jaxon.
But he’d pulled away.
She’d laid everything on the line
to show him she was definitely and utterly interested, and he’d rejected her.
She’d thought she’d simply been too subtle in the past with her flirtations. So today, she’d turned it right up, hoping he’d finally bite.
But, nope. He plainly and simply didn’t want her.
How embarrassing.
And, damn it, it hurt.
She’d done everything she could, bar throwing herself at him and kissing him square on the lips. Now, she probably shouldn’t go any further. She’d only be ruining their friendship and Jaxon’s close bond with her brother if she continued to push herself onto him when he clearly wasn’t interested. Plus, she did have some pride left.
Her watch tapped her with an incoming text. It was from Christine Pan, her manager of one year.
Hey, I know you said you’ll be at your brother’s gym. Just wanted to let you know that Bryce Green, the guy Smith Security proposes to be your new bodyguard, is here in my office. If you have time right now, you might want to come and interview him so he can start straight away. Let me know ASAP, please.
Holly smirked. Christine was just as bad as her family in wanting her to finalise the hiring of her new bodyguard. She glanced at Xavier and Eve, who were still enjoying the discussion regarding the theme for their upcoming wedding.
Xavier had insisted he wanted to be present when Holly checked out this new guy, but that was just Xavier being his usual overprotective self. The last time they’d interviewed her security detail, she’d asked all the questions herself, with Xavier simply nodding and agreeing with everything.
So Xavier didn’t have to be there for this interview. All that she needed to determine was whether she’d like the man enough to let him follow her around. Only she could make that decision, not anyone else.
She really didn’t want another bodyguard. The drama regarding their parents’ unwitting connection with criminals had been over months and months ago. That had been the only reason she’d agreed to have a security detail in the first place. Now, that horrible event was well and truly behind them, thank goodness.
Jaxon: The Assignment: Indie Rebels, Book 2 Page 2