Keep It Simple (MMG Series Book 4)

by Hilliard, R. B.

  As dessert was being served, the phone rang.

  “Sarah, it’s for you,” Max called from the kitchen.

  “Look at you already making plans,” Joss teased.

  Excusing myself from the table, I bolted up the stairs to the guest room and picked up the phone. “Got it!” I shouted down to Max and waited for him to hang up.

  “I can’t believe you are finally here!” Amanda shouted.

  Amanda Mills was one of the few people I’d managed to keep in touch with after we moved to Kentucky. She was also one of the many reasons Max and the agents in charge of our case decided to send me to Scotland. Six months after we ran, they discovered I’d been talking to Amanda and other friends from Charlotte. I was a selfish, angry, rebellious teenager. What did they expect?

  “I can’t believe I’m here either! I have so much to tell you. What’s the plan?” I asked.

  “We are going out! I have your ID ready to go. You are Sarah Pember and are twenty-two years old. Sound good?”

  I was instantly skeptical. “My brother will freak, Mandy. You know how protective of me he is.”

  “Relax, the picture is real. Max will never find out. The guy I used to make the ID’s is a real professional. Now, throw on something hot. Becki and I will be by to get you in thirty minutes.” A flash of guilt hit, but I shook it off. Why shouldn’t I go out? I can always hang with Max and Ellie tomorrow night.

  I quickly unpacked my suitcase. At the last second, I decided to change from my long sleeved button down shirt to a sweater. The front draped down just far enough to show a little skin. The back, however, dipped almost to my bra and exposed most of my back. It was both classy and sexy. I threw on my charcoal skinny jeans and dark grey Converse.

  Like Max, I was born with a head full of dark brown hair. Mine, however, was not wavy like his, but wildly curly like our mother’s. The only way I could keep the curls under control was by wearing it long. Last month I had caramel highlights put in and, had to admit, it looked fabulous. Using the blow dryer, I tamed the curls into pretty waves. Then I lined my deep blue eyes with charcoal liner and put on a thick coat of mascara. Last, I glossed my lips a deep berry color and spritzed with perfume. Not wanting Max to have a coronary when he saw the missing back of my sweater, I made sure to slip into my black denim jacket. Snagging my purse and phone from the bed, I headed down the stairs. As I hit the bottom step, I spotted Amanda’s car parked in the driveway through the front windows.

  “I’m going out with Mandy and her friend. Be back later!” I yelled, as I opened up the front door.

  “Wait, you’re going out?” I heard Max shout from somewhere in the house. I stopped on the front porch and waited for him to appear. Sure enough, Max, followed by Ellie, Kurt and Joss all appeared in the doorway. Max was scowling at me. After seeing him smile so much over dinner, his scowl seemed out of place. Once again, a flash of guilt rocketed through me.

  “Damn girl,” Kurt said under his breath. Joss smacked him and he swatted her on the ass.

  Ellie smiled and held out a spare key. “You look amazing, Sarah. Have fun tonight. Here’s the spare key. We’ll give you the alarm code tomorrow.”

  “Where are you going?” Max asked.

  “Out with Amanda and Becki,” I nonchalantly replied.

  “Be home by eleven,” he clipped.

  “I hate to tell you this, but that was my curfew three years ago, big brother,” I jokingly replied.

  “Max, she’s an adult,” Ellie gently scolded.

  “She’s my baby sister,” he snapped.

  “Who is an adult,” Ellie added.

  “How about this, I promise to come home sometime tonight. Does that work?”

  “Yes,” Ellie said.

  “No,” Max said.

  Kurt laughed.

  “Come on!” Amanda yelled from the car.

  Leaning up on my tip-toes, I kissed Max’s cheek and whispered, “Love you.” He let out a sigh of resignation and I fled to the car before he changed his mind.

  I waved goodbye as Amanda peeled out of the driveway. On the way to the bar, she formally introduced me to Becki. Amanda and Becki were roommates at UNC Charlotte. Amanda had bobbed blonde hair and big green eyes. Becki had long brown hair and big brown eyes. The tips of her hair were dyed a pretty turquoise color. Two things I had going for me were my height and my chest size. Normally big boobs made women look larger than they were. On me, however, they only accented how thin I was everywhere else. If you took away my boobs, I had nothing. Amanda was the polar opposite of me. She was short and curvy in all the right places. Guys preferred curvy women.

  Ten minutes later, we pulled in front of a free standing two story brick house. The sign above the front door said Patterson’s. Once we exited the car, Amanda slipped her arm through mine and gave it a big squeeze. At five feet eight inches, I towered over both girls. Good call on not wearing heels tonight.

  Amanda handed me my ID right as the bouncer stepped out to greet us. In a flash, our hands were stamped and we were inside. Love Me Two Times serenaded us as we made our way across the floor to the bar.

  “What is this place?” I asked.

  “A bar,” Amanda sarcastically replied.

  “Say it isn’t so?” I gasped, in my best Scottish accent.

  Becki laughed.

  The inside of the pub reminded me of Scotland and I felt a sudden pang of homesickness. I wonder what Lyndsey is up to right now?

  When I was told I was going to live in Scotland, I was terrified. I didn’t know anyone there. It was a foreign place with strange people. How was I going to survive? Max and the two agents in charge of us assured me I was going to live with a nice family. Thankfully, they were right. Grant and Lyndsey Hodson were wonderful people. Their daughter, Reece, was a few years younger than me and their son, Heath, was born the month after I arrived. I practically helped raise him. Lyndsey was Scottish, whereas Grant was American. They lived in Pennsylvania until Reece was ten and then moved to Edinburgh, where they had been living ever since.

  Amanda slung her arm around my neck and squeezed. I tried to shrug her off and she laughed. “Oh no you don’t. I get to hug you as much as I want tonight. Damn, girl, I still can’t believe you are standing here with me. What are you drinking?”

  “Beer, I’ll get it,” I told her. Due to watching my dad drink and smoke away his life, I was not a big drinker. When I did drink, I stuck mainly to beer.

  “I’ve got it. You get the next round.”

  I followed Becki across the crowded bar to an empty booth. As we waited for Amanda to bring over our drinks, I took in the room. The bar stood to our left and an empty dance floor on our right. We had the perfect view of both. A song about roller coasters began playing and Becki huffed.

  “Be right back. I’m going to pick some real music,” she announced.

  I watched her maneuver through the tables and laughed when some guy tried to grab her ass and she thumped him on the forehead.

  Five minutes or so passed and I began wondering what was taking Amanda so long. I looked for her and finally noticed her across the bar talking to some guys. Amanda and I couldn’t be more different. She liked attention. I did not. I grazed over the rest of the bar and paused for a brief second on two men sitting on the far side. Both were good looking men. One of them saw me staring and I quickly turned away. A minute or so later, I glanced back over. He was still staring. Oh God, what do I do? I didn’t mean to catch his attention. Calm down, you’re just looking, Sarah. We sat across the bar staring at each other for what seemed like ages and, I had to admit, I really liked what I was seeing…dark hair, dark eyes and deliciously full lips. The man was a feast for the eyes, that’s for sure.

  “Sorry, I ran into a guy from one of my classes and it took me forever to lose him.” I tore my eyes away from the dark stranger and watched Amanda set the drinks down on the table. “Where’s Becks?” she asked.

  “Changing the music,” I told her.


  “Cheers,” she said, tapping her glass to my bottle. “When are you moving back?”

  “Max asked that same question on the way to the house tonight,” I told her.

  Her eyebrow shot to her hairline. “Aaaaand?”

  “You know I have a year left in school. After that, we’ll see.”

  “You know you can always finish school here.” Her pouty expression humored me.

  “I have a decent job and good friends there, Mandy.”

  “Your job is serving coffee, something you can do anywhere, and you have good friends here,” she huffed.

  Becki slid in beside us and Amanda switched the subject to Becki’s latest conquest, a guy they called “Slick.” Only half listening to their banter, I glanced back over at the good looking stranger and was disappointed to see he was no longer there. Vance Joy’s Riptide poured from the speakers.

  “Your pick?” Amanda asked Becki.

  “No, but I like it,” Becki replied. “What’s more, I like what’s sitting at the table in front of the dance floor.” All three of us turned to look. Sure enough, directly in front of the dance floor stood a high top table containing a group of four guys. “Did you see that? One of them just waved at us. Let’s go check them out,” Becki suggested.

  “You two go ahead.” I held up my beer. “I’m going to finish this, order another round for us, and I’ll be right over.” I had no intention of going over with them.

  Amanda and Becki slid out of the booth and danced their way across the floor to the table of guys. I sipped the rest of my beer and shook my head at them trying to capture the table’s attention. When one of the guys leaned over and kissed the guy sitting next to him on the lips, I almost choked on my swallow. Once I got it down, I burst into a fit of hysterical giggles.

  “What’s so funny?” A deep voice beside me asked.

  I whipped my head around to see who had invaded my personal space and was surprised to find the dark haired stranger from across the bar sitting there. From his jet black hair and ice blue eyes, down to the tips of his fingers, which were currently wrapped around a beer bottle, was one hundred percent masculine glory. His eyebrow shot up in question and it took me a minute to mentally put my tongue back in my mouth and catch up with the moment.

  “See the two nitwits dancing in front of the table of guys over there?” I nodded my head towards Amanda and Becki, who were shamelessly shaking their asses in attempt to get noticed.

  “I do,” he answered.

  “Ignore the girls and watch the guys for a minute,” I told him. Sure enough, not even twenty seconds passed and the same two guys as before started making out. A deep, rich laugh erupted from his throat as he watched my friends making complete and total fools of themselves, and I couldn’t help but giggle along with him.

  “What I want to know is why you aren’t over there with them?” he asked.

  “Not really my thing,” I shrugged.

  “What, dancing?”

  “Calling unwanted attention to myself,” I clarified.

  Our eyes met and his sparkled with mischief and something I couldn’t quite put my finger on. “We definitely have that in common,” he muttered.

  “Fear of dancing?” I quipped.

  “Not wanting to be seen dancing,” he corrected, and we both laughed.

  “Hi, I’m Cas.” He held out his hand in introduction.

  I took it and tried not to shiver when he wrapped his long fingers around mine. “I’m Sarah,” I managed to get out without stuttering.

  “Are you from Charlotte, Sarah?” I thought about how to answer him and decided to go with the shortest answer.

  “Yes, however, at the moment, I am living in Europe.”

  His eyes widened in surprise. “Seriously?”

  “Seriously. How about you? Do you live in Charlotte?”

  “I just moved here from the coast,” he answered.

  I nearly choked on my drink. “You left the beach…to live here? Are you crazy?” His smile slightly faltered. I’d obviously hit a nerve. He took a sip of his beer and collected himself. When he recovered, he explained it to me.

  “I moved here for job purposes.”

  Pretending not to notice his evident inner turmoil, I asked, “What is it you do?”

  “I’m in the security business.”

  I waited for him to give me a detailed explanation of his existence and was pleasantly surprised when he failed to show signs of extreme narcissism. Instead, he glanced over at the bar and took a drink of his beer. My eyes were riveted on his lips as they enveloped the mouth of the bottle. As he swallowed it down, he shifted his gaze back to me and I quickly glanced away.

  “So, are you here for a visit or something more permanent?” he asked.

  “I’m here for the week.” He gave me a questioning look and I elaborated, “My brother is getting married next weekend. I’m in the wedding. I leave to go back the day after.” Max would flip his lid if he knew I was sitting here telling a complete stranger my business.

  Cas opened his mouth to respond when a hulk of a guy stepped up to the table. I recognized him as the guy who was sitting next to Cas at the bar earlier. He had short brown hair and strong facial features. His appearance screamed body guard.

  “Work called. We have to go,” he said.

  “Damn,” Cas muttered under his breath. Then he introduced us. “Sarah, this is my co-worker, Bobby. Bobby, meet Sarah.”

  Bobby gave me a friendly, but guarded smile. “Nice to meet you, Sarah.” He turned back to Cas and said, “I’ll give you a few.”

  “Be there in five,” Cas responded. His deep blue eyes focused back on me and my stomach fluttered. “Sorry to run out on you, Sarah.”

  “Oh, but I was so hoping for a dance,” I teased. The sound of his laughter did funny things to my insides.

  “Can I get a raincheck?”

  “That’s okay,” I said through my laughter. “It was nice meeting you, Cas. Thanks for sharing a laugh with me.”

  A strange look appeared on his face and I wondered if I had offended him in some way. He opened his mouth, as if to say something and I held my breath and waited. When he closed it and shook his head, I knew the moment was lost. Disappointment pierced like a knife to the gut. I watched him scoot to the edge of the bench and almost swallowed my tongue when he stood up. In a fitted grey Henley and ass hugging dark jeans, the man was a freaking Adonis.

  “It was nice meeting you, too, Sarah.” He tapped his fingers on the table and turned to walk away. Five steps later he stopped. My heart galloped inside my chest when he turned back. As he reached the table, he dipped his head so we were eye to eye, and said, “Meet me here tomorrow night at nine.”

  Without thinking, I nodded my head yes and breathily replied, “Okay.” Staring deep into his eyes I smiled. He returned the smile before turning and walking away.

  “Who in the hell was that?” Amanda asked, sliding in beside me.

  With a smile still on my face, I answered, “That was Cas.”

  “He is seriously hot. By the way, you could have warned us those guys were gay.”

  I patronizingly patted her hand. “And miss out on the entertainment you two provided the entire bar? Hell no.” she snorted, and I laughed.

  Chapter Two

  Cas

  ‡

  “What in the hell was I was thinking last night?”

  “You weren’t the one thinking. He was.” Bobby gave my dick a head nod. I paused long enough to scowl at him. “What?” he asked, “I don’t blame you. The girl was gorgeous.” I watched him dive into his breakfast burrito, before turning back to my camera.

  We were parked outside a hole in the wall motel room and waiting to bust Mrs. Pickerson’s husband with a prostitute. I did not have a jealous bone in my body, but for some reason Bobby’s words bothered me.

  “I didn’t ask for your opinion.”

  Bobby’s brows shot to the roof of the car. “All I said was she was gorgeous.” Whe
n I didn’t respond, he laughed and loudly slurped down his drink.

  I needed a woman in my life like I needed a hole in the head. Women were complicated and I already had way too many complications to deal with. For some reason, though, I couldn’t seem to shake last night from my thoughts.

  Sarah.

  Bobby and I had just found seats at the bar when she and her friends walked through the door. Talk about a tall drink of water. With long, dark curly hair, a perfect face and a mind fuck of a body, the woman spelled danger. I wasn’t the only one who noticed her. Every man in the bar paused to look when she entered the room. She was simply magnetic. I watched her take a seat with her friends and stared her down until she noticed me. I never once questioned what I was doing. I just did it. Something about her called to me. When her friends stood to dance and she stayed behind, I couldn’t stand it any longer. I had to meet her. Just a conversation, I kept telling myself. No harm in that, right?

  “Look man, you are almost free and, like you said last night, Sarah lives in another country. Talk about the perfect no-strings-attached situation. It doesn’t get any better than this. I mean seriously, how long has it been for you, a year, two, more? It’s a wonder you haven’t lost your mind by now.”

  Bobby Preston and I had been best friends since grade school when we discovered our mothers worked at the same hospital together. Like me, Bobby had a younger sister and a father with unrealistically high expectations of his only son. Bobby was the one who talked me into becoming a PI. He was also the one who convinced Garrett to hire me in Charlotte. I owed Bobby a lot and would do most anything for the guy. What I would not do, is discuss my love life, or lack thereof, with him. We were grown men, not fucking high school girls. I lifted the camera and zoomed in on the motel window.

  “There’s movement inside,” I announced.

  “Want me to pull closer?”

  I zoomed in further and contemplated the angle. “I think we’re good here. Chances are he’ll be shifty when he comes out. I don’t want to risk him making us.”