LIGHTER

by Cole, Mila

  There was nothing funny about it. The guy had been eye-fucking his eighteen-year-old daughter, and not in a good way. If he’d been alone with her for any given amount of time, there was no telling what he’d do to her. No way in hell anyone was touching that girl. Not on my watch.

  “Boy,” he said through his laughter. “She’s a beautiful girl. Both of us know that. He was just showing his appreciation.” Funny that. His appreciation was about as pure as the devil himself. “My colleagues know she’s eighteen. There isn’t a single one of them that would cross me. That’s one thing you’ll never have to worry about. I’d end them. Simple as that.”

  Well, that didn’t make me feel any better. Once again, his power made him cocky. That just meant I’d have to keep my guard up, take extra precautions when scumbags were on the prowl. And Derosa was the biggest scumbag of them all. He obviously didn’t give a shit about his daughter’s well-being. The dollar signs were obstructing his vision. Sick bastard.

  With a nod of my head, I just agreed. I wasn’t in the mood to fight with the man. He wouldn’t think twice about ending me either. “Got it, boss,” I told him. “I’m going to head home. Trim is on duty tomorrow,” I reaffirmed.

  “Good night” were his only words.

  I left him sitting there behind his desk without another word.

  Fourteen

  Lighter

  Good thing I got a good night’s rest. My itinerary for the day was ridiculous. The fundraiser for the Pleasant Home Society was just a couple of weeks away, and I had so many details to nail down. Not to mention my college tour. I should’ve have scheduled to do that on the same day I’d met with my advisor last week. I didn’t know what I was thinking.

  Trim had been a trooper though. Out of all the security team, I seemed to have clicked the best with him. He was older, much like a father figure. Sometimes he was grumpy, kind of like Slick. Other times, he seemed witty, never caring to answer any question I had, though I didn’t ask too many. I guess you could say he was the easiest to talk to. Once I got past those crazy tattoos and that long beard, I found there was a pretty sweet guy underneath. It helped that he was amazingly beautiful to look at too, for an old man.

  I moved around the ballroom with Sandra, picking out the table settings and finalizing the last of the décor. We’d been there over an hour already. The woman couldn’t make a decision to save her life. How the hell she ever became president of the society was beyond me. It wasn’t that hard to choose. Most people were there to drink and have a good time anyway. They weren’t going to care if the flowers were exactly two feet off the table, and they really weren’t going to care if their plates had a floral design or a gold ring. I mean, come on.

  When I glanced over at Trim, he was still standing in the same spot I’d left him. His arms were still crossed tightly over his chest, and that same stoic expression was on his face. He could have been one of the Royal Guards in London that wore those red tunics and stood still for hours on end.

  “I say that one. It’s much more elegant,” I said, pointing to the gold-rimmed plate.

  “I think you’re right.” She nodded.

  I pulled out one of my mom’s tricks and glanced down at my phone. “Oh, my goodness, would you look at the time. I really hate to run, Sandra, but I have a million other things scheduled for the day. I completely trust your judgment on this.” I waved a hand dramatically over the table. “You have impeccable taste,” I lied.

  Her eyes lit up at my compliment. Mom’s tricks worked like a charm. You made your excuse to leave and paid a compliment, and you’d have them eating out of the palm of your hand. The thought of it all was tiring, especially considering I had no plans to be a pretentious socialite all my life. If it weren’t for Mom needing my help, I wouldn’t have been there in the first place. Don’t misinterpret my thoughts as complete criticism, because I loved giving back. I loved helping the charities, especially being as fortunate as I was. It’s just, I didn’t need some fancy ball gown and a thousand-dollar meal to do it. I could easily donate the money, as well as my time. All the flashy and expensive silverware didn’t mean anything to me.

  “You can call me, if you need me,” I told her, before giving her an air kiss goodbye.

  “Of course, darling. See you soon.” She waved goodbye as I walked away.

  Trim met me at the door with a smile on his face.

  “What?” I snickered. He’d obviously heard my conversation with Sandra.

  “Just thinking I may need to wear boots when I’m near you,” he replied.

  I glanced up at him with a confused look on my face. “Boots?”

  He chuckled. “It was something my momma used to say. Just meant that when the bullshit got too deep, it was safer to wear boots.”

  I laughed. “Was it that obvious?”

  “Not to her,” he said. His was still grinning from ear to ear.

  He followed me through the lobby, and the two of us made our way through the revolving doors of the hotel. We’d barely stepped outside when I saw the guy with his camera. Trim saw him too. He wasn’t trying to hide. Good thing I looked half-decent. He called out my name, and I stopped to let him get his picture. When there was only one of them, it was much easier to let them get their shot and move along.

  Once he got his shots, I moved to the open door where Norman stood, and slid inside the car.

  “Glad it was just one today,” I told Trim as he slid onto the seat next to me.

  “Me too.”

  “Where to, miss?” Norman asked.

  “I need food. Do you know a good place we can go that’s secluded? I don’t feel like being hounded over lunch.”

  “What kind of food?” Trim asked me. “I know a good place, if you like Chinese.”

  “Sounds good to me,” I replied. My belly was already rumbling at the thought.

  Trim gave Norman the address, while I dialed my mom’s number to check in.

  After a couple of rings, she picked up.

  She actually picked up.

  “Sweetheart,” she said.

  “Hey, Mom. I can’t believe you answered.” I was shocked.

  “You happen to catch me at the perfect time. We were wrapping up for the day. How are things going?” she asked.

  I missed hearing her voice. “Good. Things are really good. I really miss you though.”

  “Oh, honey. I miss you too. In fact…” Her voice perked up. “I was thinking that since I only have about a week and a half left on location before I fly to Vancouver that maybe you could meet me there. Come spend the weekend with me or something. What do you say?”

  Seriously? “Of course. I’d love that. I’ll check with Dad tonight and see if we can make arrangements. I’ll probably have to bring some of my security team with me, since he refuses to let me go anywhere without them, but I think that’d be a great idea. I’d love to see you before classes start.”

  “Sounds great to me too,” she said. “Text me and let me know.”

  “Okay, I love you.”

  “Love you too,” she replied.

  Norman stopped the car in front of some shady-looking building. When I glanced over at Trim, he just smiled, his long beard moving with his jawline.

  “This is it?” I asked. I didn’t see any Chinese restaurant from my window. It looked pretty shady to me. The front of the old building had boards up over the windows.

  “You wanted secluded,” he told me. Then he climbed out of the car.

  “True. I guess I should’ve said no rats too,” I mumbled under my breath.

  I walked next to Trim instead of in front of him as he led us through the alleyway next to the old brick building. It smelled like sweaty gym clothes and old cheese. My stomach curled. If the restaurant smelled anything like the alley, then I wasn’t eating. I was starting to rethink my likeness for Trim.

  Around the back edge, we took a right. It looked a lot different from behind. I would’ve never guessed it was the same building. There
was a glass door with an Open sign that we entered, and the smell of Chinese food wafted toward me.

  Whoa.

  “How does this place do any business? No one would ever know it was back here,” I proclaimed.

  He winked. “Word of mouth.”

  I nodded. This was pretty cool. Thankfully, it smelled nothing like it did outside.

  The two of us stood in line, and we both ordered after I insisted that Trim eat. He could still protect me even with a tray of food in front of him. We grabbed our food and drinks and chose one of the small booths in the back. He faced the door, while I faced the wall.

  “This smells delicious. Thanks for suggesting it.” I smiled. “I had my doubts when we stepped out of the car.”

  His head bobbed, and he smiled. “No problem.”

  We started to eat and fell into our usual comfortable silence. Normally, I wasn’t in the mood for talking. In all the years that I’d had a security team, this was the first set of guys that I actually liked.

  Mostly.

  Slick had a way of getting under my skin at times, but that was just because there was sexual tension between us. It was nearly unavoidable. But with Trim, it just felt natural. Eating together was no big deal. It felt like we were two old friends, having lunch together.

  It may have taken me a few weeks to warm up to them, but if these guys stuck around, they would soon be like family. They were going to learn every quirky trait I had before long.

  “Do you have a wife or children?” I asked Trim. He never gave me the stink eye like Slick did.

  “I’m divorced, but I have a son. He’s twenty-three, and his name is Knox,” he replied easily. “I’ve been divorced almost ten years.”

  Hmmm. I never expected that. He seemed like kind of a loner, a free spirit of sorts. I pictured him wearing a leather vest and riding a motorcycle. “Do you see your son?”

  He nodded. “Yeah. After the divorce, he came to live with me. Still lives with me, actually.” His grunt made me wonder if he didn’t like that idea.

  “I just found out Slick had a kid too.” My eyebrows rose. “I wasn’t expecting that. He seems so young.” I sipped my drink.

  “He’s thirty-five, I believe. So that’s not too young.”

  I coughed and nearly shot my water through my nose.

  “Thirty-five?” I cleared my throat.

  “Yeah.” He smirked. “He’s not quite as young as he thinks he is.”

  No. I’d say not. I couldn’t believe he was thirty-five years old. He was almost double my age. What the hell was I thinking? I would’ve sworn under oath that he was only like twenty-eight. I let that thought roll around in my head a bit.

  “What do you think about the food?” Trim asked me.

  “It’s really good. We’ll have to come back here again sometime. It’s nice to sit down and eat and not have to worry about someone snapping a picture of you.”

  His eyes were sincere when he replied, “I bet.”

  I stewed over our conversation a little more as we finished up.

  Slick was off-limits in a lot of ways, but I couldn’t wrap my head around his age. Talk about forbidden. He was my age when I was born.

  I shivered at the thought. Why the hell did he have to be so sexy? I got the whole “age is just a number” thing, but damn. My list of reasons for keeping my distance was getting longer and longer.

  Was it bad that even knowing his age, I still wanted to screw his brains out?

  Yeah.

  Never mind.

  That was bad.

  Fifteen

  Slick

  It had been a couple of days since I’d spoked to Mr. Derosa. We parted ways that night in his office, and to be honest, I needed a couple of days to cool off. That man was piece of work. A lot of times, I couldn’t control my anger, and he was one person that I couldn’t afford to lose my temper with. You know that old saying, “Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer”? Yeah, well, what it should’ve said was, “If your enemies are close enough to blow your brains out, that’s too fucking close.”

  I was surprised when he called to tell me he wanted to have a meeting with me this morning. A little worried actually, until I realized he wanted to meet with Tony too. It couldn’t be that bad, if the both of us were summoned in. Probably some kind of security breach or a scheduling issue that needed to be sorted out. From what I could tell, the two of us had been doing a damn good job. No one had gotten hurt on our watch, except Lighter’s pretty boyfriend.

  That shit was still funny.

  Tony and I were supposed to be off for the day. We hardly ever had the same evening off, so we planned to make the most of it. Tony was going to barbeque some steaks at his place. We were going to have a few beers and chillax for a while. Chloe was so excited about it. She asked if she could take her bathing suit, since Knox had bought her a Slip ’N Slide. The kid was spoiled rotten. I promised her we would go, and when Derosa called this morning, I almost flipped out. My first thought was that one of us was going to have to work tonight and our plans would get ruined. The man was good about messing up someone’s plans.

  I dropped Chloe off at Tony’s house with Knox. She was so excited to get out of the house and play. Then Tony and I rode on together to the penthouse.

  When we stepped off the elevator and into the penthouse, Lighter was sitting on the chaise lounge with a book in her hand. Her eyes flickered toward us and then back down to the page. Her lavender hair was tied up into two knots on the top of her head. It looked like she had Mickey ears.

  Cute.

  “Good morning,” Tony said to her.

  I wondered what the hell had gotten him so chipper. He was a man of few words. Normally. Unless he was drinking.

  “Morning, Trim,” she replied sweetly. “Slick,” she added.

  Oh, so I don’t get the same sweet gesture? Figures. I guess we were both in a better mood today. “Your dad in his office?” I asked her.

  She peeked up at me briefly, shrugged, and said, “I think so.”

  Tony followed me down the hallway to Derosa’s office. I knocked on the door, and his strong, slimy voice invited us in.

  “Good morning, gentlemen. Come in. Take a seat.”

  Do you ever feel like you’re about to be in trouble, but you don’t remember doing anything wrong? That was exactly how I felt. Like I was seventeen and had just skipped school and now I was awaiting my punishment. Tony, on the other hand, seemed as cool as a cucumber. He must’ve gotten laid last night.

  I smirked at the thought.

  “I asked you both in here because I have some stuff I wanted to go over with you. I figured it would be easier just to talk to you both at the same time. What better day than your day off.”

  My breath came out heavier than I hoped, and Derosa noticed. His eyes narrowed, so I nodded for him to continue.

  “Lighter is planning a weekend getaway to see her mother in Vancouver. It’s about three weeks out, or two weeks from Saturday, I believe. I’m expecting at least one of you to be on this trip with her. I don’t want her going alone. The two of you can discuss it and decide which of you want to do it. The expenses will be paid, but you’ll need to make sure you have a passport.”

  “Okay. How many nights?” Tony asked. I was curious myself. If I went, I’d have to be sure that Lucy could keep Chloe for that many nights. The most time I’d ever spent away from her was one night. Leaving her longer didn’t sound like that great of an idea. I’d need to talk to Tony to see if he could go instead of me.

  “Two nights. Three days. I’ll arrange for a private jet if need be, but you’ll still need a valid passport.”

  The two of us agreed for his sake. We could discuss who would be going later.

  He continued on. “Normally I wouldn’t send security with her, since her mother already has a team, but some things are changing around here. Which leads me to my next thing. We’re going to need to tighten up ship around here for a while. I have a new busines
s merger coming up and may have some angry guys on my hand. I just want to take the necessary precautions in the event things were to get out of control. I’m not expecting it, but I’m a man who likes to be prepared.”

  I cleared my throat, wondering how serious this matter was. Derosa liked to shove things to the side, forgetting they even existed, not letting on to the severity. “Are there any particular places Lighter shouldn’t go, or certain people or vehicles we should be looking out for? It would be nice to have some kind of idea of what we’re looking for so we aren’t blindsided.”

  His elbows were propped firmly on his desk. He laced his fingers together and rested his chin on top of his folded hands. “I’ll have to get back to you on that. In the meantime, I’d like security to remain with Lighter even if I am around.”

  Even if he’s around?

  Well, he pulled the pin out of that grenade.

  Damn.

  That meant one of us was working today whether we wanted to or not. Guess I should’ve seen that coming.

  My face fell, and I looked over at Tony, knowing all too well that he was just as aggravated as I was. It was written all over his face. I’d already told the rest of the guys that they didn’t have to work today. I couldn’t go back on my word.

  That left him and me to cover this shift. So much for steaks and beer.

  “Since it’s kind of last-minute…” Tony started. “Do you think maybe we can take Lighter with us today?”

  What?

  My head snapped around in his direction. My mouth hung open like a fly trap.

  You’ve got to be kidding me. It’s bad enough we have to babysit her at her house all day long. Now he wants to bring her home with us? It was supposed to fun. There was no need to ruin it for everyone.

  Could you imagine little miss princess eating off a paper plate?

  “Where exactly would you be taking her?” Derosa asked. He sat back in his fancy desk chair and crossed his arms over his chest. Suddenly he wanted to play father.

  I scoffed.