Protected_A Second Chance Baby Daddy Romance

by Kelli Walker

  “His name’s Ryder Smith. And he broke my heart.”

  “Oh, shit. Seriously? Are we gonna have to kill him now?”

  “I like how you went from wanting me to screw him to wanting to kill him.”

  “You’re my best friend and he hurt you. It doesn’t matter if we weren’t friends when he hurt you. What matters is he hurt you. Though I am curious.”

  “What?” I asked, groaning.

  “Is he hot? Because your answer was a little wishy-washy there.”

  I felt my cheeks blush as Becca started clapping her hands.

  “Oh, yes! Fuck me, I’ve been waiting for this moment.”

  “What moment?” I asked.

  “The moment when your anger towards Langley is no longer impeding on your ability to look at other men. Alicia, you’re a beautiful woman. And I get why you’re hiding underneath those clothes and all, but shit. Even I can see your curves. What’s he look like?”

  “Becca, stop. It’s not like that.”

  “Indulge, Alicia. Damn. I’m not asking you to fuck him. Just… let your mind wander. What does he look like?”

  I leaned back into the booth and grabbed my drink.

  “He’s tall,” I said.

  “Okay, okay. We like that.”

  “And tan.”

  “Oh yes. Tall and dark.”

  “And muscles. Oh… the muscles, Becca.”

  “Does he pump weights?” she asked. “Don’t tell me that man’s a runner.”

  “Nowhere near it,” I said. “His shoulders are broad and… and meaty. And his legs. The floorboards of my apartment literally cry out for mercy when he starts walking around.”

  “Oh shit, girl. You got yourself a slab of beef.”

  “And his eyes. Dark brown, but with speckles of hazel? When the sun catches them just right like they did this morning, they twinkle.”

  “Wait a second. This morning? He stayed over?”

  “It’s one of his services. Around the clock protection means he stays with me,” I said.

  “Uh huh,” Becca said. “Around the clock, huh? And he’s not charging you?”

  “He said he wasn’t.”

  “He wants to bang you.”

  “No he doesn’t.”

  “Yes, he does.”

  ‘“Oh come on. This was supposed to fun and then you go and ruin it.”

  “We’re still having fun! I bet behind those jeans he’s got a massive cock just waiting-”

  “Stop,” I said. “Stop right there.”

  “But you’d know from experience, right?” she asked.

  I sighed and shook my head as the alarm on my phone went off. I picked it up and shot Ryder a text message, letting him know I was still okay. I reset the timer and we ordered our food, and I tried to steer clear of talking about my current situation. It was nice, feeling free enough to meet Becca for lunch. We laughed and gossiped and even started planning a beach trip together over the summer.

  A beach trip I wouldn’t have to run by anyone for permission.

  We finished up lunch and Becca insisted she pay. Which I was thankful for, because I was running low on funds. Even budgeting myself and living in a dingy apartment with minimal electric use was still draining the money I’d saved up. And living off ramen noodles and coffee was pretty much my existence until I could get a job.

  Or until alimony payments started back up.

  I hated still being attached to him that way, but I didn’t have a choice. Not really. Do to anything with my degree required me to go back to school, and I would need those alimony payments to keep me afloat monetarily while I was furthering my education. My lawyer convinced me I had earned it after being married to the son of a bitch for so fucking long, but every time I saw that payment drop into my bank account, it made me a little queasy.

  Like he still had some semblance of control over my life.

  I hugged Becca’s neck before I headed back to my apartment. I shot Ryder a message letting him know I was coming back and he told me he was on his way. Which meant he wasn’t there. I felt a bit of anxiety creep up the back of my neck as I processed that.

  I didn’t expect him to stay in an empty apartment, but should I wait until he was back?

  Just in case?

  I pulled into the parking garage and forced myself to go upstairs. I slid my key in and turned, then let myself into my apartment. The food in my stomach cascaded a warmth through my body that beckoned me to sleep. I was headed straight for my room until I saw the broken furniture in my living room.

  And the broken coffee pot in the kitchen.

  And the broken pictures on my wall.

  My jaw dropped to the floor as my eyes rose to the window. The window I had peered out of when I saw Langley on the street. My hands were shaking and my stomach was rolling with sickness as the blood red scribbling on the surface caught my stare.

  SLUT.

  It was written in bold letters across the window Ryder perched himself at last night.

  I walked into my apartment as splintered furniture cracked underneath my feet. I heard heavy footfalls coming down the hallway as my eyes fell to the floor. I bent down and picked up the lipstick canister. The black and chrome detailing that was all too familiar as I flipped it over.

  Floral Garnet.

  The lipstick Langley always insisted I wear.

  “This is Ryder. I need my team to 1465 5th Avenue. Gloryview Apartments. Fourth floor, apartment G. Now. Bring technical analysts, evidence bags, sweeping powder, and a clean-up crew. This is going to take a while.”

  The lipstick case fell from my hand as my eyes rose to the window.

  He had been in my apartment.

  Langley Atkinson had gotten in.

  Ryder

  I stuffed my phone into my pocket as I surveyed the wreckage that was her apartment. Everything was smashed. Splintered. Broken. She was staring at the window aimlessly, her eyes unfocused and watering. I approached her from behind, careful not to make any sudden movement.

  Careful not to spook her.

  “Come here,” I said lowly. “Come on. It’s okay.”

  She turned into my chest and buried herself into me. Pressed so hard into my chest it became hard to breathe. I wrapped my arm around her frail, shaking form. Feeling her tears soak my shirt. Her body shake against my bones.

  Her curves pour into my crevices.

  I looked down the hallway as I stroked my fingers through her hair. Holes were bashed into the walls and her door was practically torn off its hinges. It was mass chaos. Nothing but a desolate wasteland.

  Whoever this was-- even though we all knew who-- was on a fucking rampage.

  “It’s gonna be okay,” I said. “You’re safe with me.”

  “Where did you go?” Alicia asked breathlessly.

  I looked down at her and watched as she craned her neck to see me. To hook her gaze into me. Her eyes were round and full, and a salted sea was dripping from them. She was begging me for an answer she wouldn’t like.

  “I was with you,” I said.

  Fire ignited behind her eyes and she shoved me away. Pushing so hard she fell back onto her ass. I reached down to try and pick her up but she scurried to her feet. She held her hand out to me to stop me. To keep me from approaching her.

  She pressed herself against the wall as tires screeched outside.

  “You were where?” Alicia asked.

  There was no use in lying to her.

  “I was with you,” I said. “At the restaurant.”

  “I told you I didn’t need you. I told you that wasn’t necessary.”

  “As your bodyguard, I can override what you instruct me to do if I feel your life is in danger,” I said.

  “What? Like Langley overrode my wants? My passions? My instructions of him?”

  “That’s not what I did and you know it. You were out there. Exposed. And look at this. Look at the anger and destruction your ex is capable of. You think being in public is going to
protect you from this? From this anger he holds inside?”

  “I told you I would be fine. Sent you fucking text messages on the hour until I left. And you were what? Sitting on the street? In a booth behind us? And not here, waiting for him when he busted into my apartment and ransacked my fucking home!”

  “Smith, where do you want us?”

  I whipped around and saw my team standing at the door.

  “Yoake, I want you in the kitchen at the counter. I want you pulling traffic cams and accessing the security cameras in this apartment building. I want proof he came into this apartment. Video evidence.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Abram, I want you dusting for everything. Fingerprints. Boot prints. Every single fucking print you can find. Then run it through databases and pull that son of a bitch up.”

  “Got it,” he said.

  “Wilde?”

  “Yes, sir?”

  “Pictures. Take all the pictures you can. This is an active crime scene and we treat it like one. Take them outside, too. Up and down the sidewalk. In the bushes. If that man so much as peed behind a tree waiting for the right moment, I wanna know about it.”

  “Got it,” he said.

  “Alicia?”

  “What?”

  I whipped around and found her slouched against the wall. Desperate to hold herself up as her hands continued to tremble. I knew she didn’t understand and I knew she didn’t mean what she’d said earlier. She was frightened and fearful and everything was out of control. Just when she started gaining some sort of control back, Langley disappears, I come back, and suddenly she’s taking orders again.

  But I have to get her safe.

  She can’t stay here any longer.

  “We need to get you somewhere safer,” I said.

  “I know,” she said weakly. “But I don’t have anywhere to go.”

  “What about Becca’s?” I asked.

  “I don’t want to bring this down on her head. She’s watched me flounder for thirteen plus years. She’s been through enough.”

  “Your parents?”

  “The died a few years back.”

  I watched her eyes water as she placed her temple against the wall.

  “I’m so sorry,” I said.

  “Car accident. Drunk driver. You know the story. They die, she lives. The cruel irony of of my life since college.”

  I didn’t know what to say, so I stayed silent. She was all alone in this world and Langley manipulated that. Took advantage of that and made her frightened of her own strength. It made me irate inside. My vision was dripping red. The guys were moving around me, snapping pictures and dusting every broken fucking piece for prints.

  But my eyes were solely focused on Alicia.

  Then, an idea popped into my head.

  “You could stay with me.”

  “What?” she asked.

  “If you don’t want to go to Becca’s and you have nowhere else, you can come stay with me,” I said.

  “I’m not going to your house.”

  “It’s not really a house,” Yoake said with a chuckle. “More like an estate.”

  I shot him a look and he promptly went back to his laptop.

  “What does that mean?” Alicia asked.

  “Nothing. But it is secure. You’ll be safe there and have your own room and bathroom. I can keep a closer eye on you-”

  “If you remember, that's why I’m pissed with you in the first place.”

  “I know you don’t like it. You took orders from an asshole for your entire marriage and now I’ve swooped in and taken your controla way, but I’m not trying to control you, Alicia. I’m not making this decision for you. I didn’t police who you went to lunch with or why. I didn’t tell you how to dress or what to fix for breakfast or even demand you bring me coffee. You made a decision about your safety that, as a professional, I didn’t agree with.”

  “Then why didn’t you say something?”

  “I did. Multiple times. And you overrode me. But when you left, something didn’t feel right. So I got in my car and followed. That’s it.”

  I watched her sigh as she turned towards me. She pressed her back into the wall and wrapped her arms around her chest. I knew she didn’t like it and I knew I was crossing into uncharted waters. It was unprofessional, at best, for me to bring a client back to my home for protection.

  But this wasn’t any client.

  This was Alicia.

  “Okay,” she said. “I’ll go.”

  I was shocked, but I made sure it didn’t resonate in my features.

  “Good. Go back some things up and I’ll meet you outside. I’m going to pull the car around.”

  “You’re leaving again?” she asked.

  I could hear the anxiousness in her voice.

  “Yoake,” I said.

  “Black-belt in Aikido, Jiu-jitsu, and Karate. Ten years in the Army, Special Forces.”

  “Wilde,” I said.

  “Sniper for the Marines for three years. Served for seven. Best target practice score six years running. And I really enjoy my weight time in the gym.”

  “Abram,” I said.

  “We’ve got the best two-mile run time, the best free-climbing run time, the best fighter pilot skills, and the best boxing punch wrapped up in one sweet little package that can disarm, unload, and reload in under seven seconds.”

  All the guys chuckled as a shadow of a grin crossed Alicia’s cheeks.

  There she was.

  “You’re safe with them,” I said. “When you’re ready, Yoake will escort you downstairs.”

  “You got it, boss,” he said.

  Then I turned on my heels, made my way out the door, and headed for the car.

  Alicia

  I clutched my bag in my lap as we rode through the streets of the city. Buildings were passing us by at a fluid pace and I wondered where it was Ryder lived. Every time I thought we were slowly down to turn into an apartment complex, we rode past it. Every time I thought we were turning into a driveway, we smoothed by it. My leg was jiggling with nerves as my eyes took in the way the city fell behind us, and soon it was nothing but trees and rolling hills.

  “Where do you live exactly?” I asked.

  “In a house,” Ryder said.

  “Where?” I asked.

  “We’re about five minutes out. Trust me, the ride’s almost over.”

  I nodded and settled into the chair as the world passed me by.

  I felt us turn and go over a bump. I whipped my head up from my chest and watched as a wrought iron gate opened in front of us. I furrowed my brow deeply as we wound up the driveway towards a massive brick and stone house.

  I gawked at its sheer size.

  The house was beautiful. Two stories of sprawling estate with what looked like an in-law quarters out back. Ryder pulled us up to a four-car garage and opened it up, revealing the three other beautiful cars he had in there. I had no idea what kind they were, but they were painted all sorts of colors. One was yellow and the other was a deep cherry red. The one on the far end was navy with chrome accents and the one we were riding in was completely blacked out.

  We inched into the garage before he shut down the car.

  “Let’s get you inside,” he said.

  I followed him up the stone walkway and he unlocked his front door. We walked into the foyer of his house and I let loose a breathless giggle. The floors underneath our feet were marble and the two staircases leading up to the second floor shone brightly against the light from the crystal chandelier above our heads. I tilted my head back and took in the very high-vaulted ceilings as I slung my bag over my shoulder.

  Straight though between the two staircases was a fireplace. Stacked with wood and waiting to be lit as chairs sat on either side of it. To my right was a library. Filled with shelves of books and comfortable couches that beckoned for me to sit in them. And to my left was the entryway into the kitchen.

  I could see the stainless steel appliances and be
autiful dark granite countertops.

  I was shocked. Stunned to my very core. I was scared to walk across the floors, afraid I would dirty or sully them in some way. Ryder shut the door behind us and began punching something into a keypad. It beeped and sang out, then started rattling off all the things in the house that were armed.

  Windows armed.

  Front door armed.

  Back door armed.

  Basement armed.

  Bedrooms armed.

  “The bedrooms are armed?” I asked. “Wait, there’s another floor to this thing?”

  “Each door and window in the house has a sensor. If the alarm is set, it not only notifies the authorities if someone doesn’t input a passcode, it records all the doors and windows opened and vandalized in a period of one hour. And yes, the house has a basement.

  “What’s in the basement?” I asked.

  “Another apartment-like set up. A room. A bed. A couch with a television. A bathroom. Things like that.”

  “And you live here.”

  “I do.”

  “I thought you were a security guy,” I said.

  “I own the company, remember?” he asked.

  “Yeah. Right.”

  I took my first step into the foyer and my footsteps echoed off the walls. It was beautiful. Definitely not the type of home I saw Ryder living in someday. Not that I’d envisioned him living somewhere or anything. But given the kind of man he was, the house almost didn’t suit him.

  “Why are you doing all this?” I asked.

  “To keep you safe.”

  “No, no, no. All of this. Everything. The footwork it takes to protect a client. If you own the company and can afford something like this, why run around and do all the grunt work?”

  “Grunt work?”

  I turned around and saw him grinning at me.

  “Yeah. I’m sure you have an office somewhere. Why aren’t one of the guys from my apartment looking after me?”

  “Honestly?” he asked.

  “I’d appreciate it.”

  “I wanted to protect you personally.’

  “What do you mean?”

  I watched Ryder take a step towards me and reach out for my bag. He took it from me and slung it around his shoulder, removing the burden from my body. He towered over me. An endless tale of strength and muscle as my eyes met his. I could feel his heat radiating against my body. I could see his eyes darting down to my lips. I felt my body come alive in his presence, and I curled my toes into the floor to root me.