Forgotten Bodyguard Box Set: A Forbidden Fruit Series

by Ali Parker

  Every time I closed my eyes, she was waiting there. Waiting to tease me, to touch me, to offer me her innocent heart as if it were mine to keep.

  A sardonic laugh bubbled up inside of me as I glanced up from the table where I sat in the middle of Billy's. The other guys would show up soonish. Seeing that most of them wore the collars their wives clasped on their necks, it was a matter of getting permission to hang with the guys.

  I'd have given up every ounce of freedom I had to come and go in exchange for the pretty woman who had my body aching, my heart racing.

  The door opened at the far end of the bar, and Cole walked in with his head down. The top of his navy blue San Diego Padres hat was all I could see. I tilted my head to the side and studied his disposition as worry crept up my chest. Something was off.

  His shoulders were rolled in, his feet sliding more than lifting as he walked. He stopped by the table and grunted something before dropping down in the chair beside me and glancing up. The scratch below his left eye was ugly, but the bruise that surrounded it was way worse.

  "What the fuck?" I reached over and grabbed his chin as he narrowed his eyes, growled and slapped my hand away.

  "Fuck off. Don't touch me again."

  "Who did that to you? I'll beat his fucking ass." Fury was mine. There was only one person in the world that mattered to me consistently - Cole. He was a little smaller than me, though he was the older of the two of us. That being the case, I'd always been out in front of him, taking punches for him and whooping asses for us both. Whoever had hit my brother had fucked up royally.

  "Leave it alone." He pulled his hat down as the pretty rocker-chick that always waited on us stopped by the table. We ordered a couple of beers, and I waited until she left to tap the table between us.

  "Hey. I'm not kidding. Tell me who did that. I'll find the bastard and lay waste to him. When did it happen? Fuck, what happened? You're one of the nicest bad-guys I know." I snorted, trying hard to get him to talk.

  "I got into a fight, and I wasn't willing to fight, so I took a few hits and walked out." He shrugged.

  Realization rolled over me as I pressed my hand to my chest. I couldn't push him too far, or he would break down. It'd been years since I'd seen him lose his shit, but the slight tremor in his muscles told me he was close.

  "Hey. We're packing your shit up and you’re coming home with me. All right?" I reached over and squeezed the thick muscle of his shoulder. I hated the bitch he'd promised himself to. She was nothing more than an abuser stuck in the hot body of a thirty-year-old woman.

  He nodded and mumbled, "I don't wanna talk about it anymore."

  "Okay. Let's watch the rest of Senator Moore's campaign trail. They’re in New Hampshire this morning. Let's see what the old goat has to say." I got up and walked to the bar top to grab the changer. We were the only ones in the bar side of the restaurant. I flipped to the right channel and turned it up a little.

  After putting the changer back, I sat back down by my brother and took a sip of my beer that the waitress must have delivered.

  "Did you get us a hamburger?" I pushed his beer closer to him as my heart constricted in my chest. I hated seeing him in pain. What kind of fight did you have to get in with your wife where the bitch thought it okay to punch you in the face and scratch you up some? Had he hit her? No. Never.

  I needed to change the subject quickly. He wasn't going back home to her alone, and things would only get better from there on out, but there was no way for him to see that in the middle of his pain.

  "Help me look for Chloe." I glanced up as the cameraman panned the large crowd at the event. "She's got long blond hair and big blue eyes. Huge tits and looks like an unruly college girl with an agenda."

  He snorted and shook his head. "You're a dick."

  "Agreed, but it's a good description, no?" I smiled and took another drink of my beer.

  "And if the cops asked for a description of her, you'd have given that one?" He reached for his beer and pulled off his hat.

  "Yep. Everything but the size of her tits. I don't need no damn copper thinking about my girl’s assets." I wagged my eyebrows at him. "Those are mine."

  "Are they?" He shook his head. "I'm pretty sure you let her walk from your life a week ago with no commitment or promise of another date."

  "Date? We didn't go on a date. She invited me to the club to rub up against her and then finish the job back at my place." I brushed my fingers over my lips. All I wanted in my life after Amanda was causal sex, but getting it from Chloe felt so far beyond wrong. I wanted more with her, but it simply wasn't in the cards.

  "Sounds like your kind of gal." He leaned back and let out a long sigh. "I can't believe Cindy fucking hit me, Ian. We've been in a lot of fights, but she snapped. Like fucking lost her head and attacked me like she was some kind of rabid dog."

  I turned my attention back on my brother and reached over to pat his back.

  "You're done with that shit. I'm going to help you just like you've helped me a million times in my life. We'll get you back in school so you can finish up your criminal justice degree. You need to wrap up some loose ends in your own life, take some time for you. It will help you heal."

  He nodded and glanced up at the TV. "I guess I don't have much of a... wait. Is that her?"

  I jerked my attention back to the TV as my breath left my lungs. She was standing next to Mitch, her long hair pulled back in a braid of sorts, her dress conservative, but beautiful. She looked like an angel, innocent and yet so full of untapped power.

  "Damn..." I took another drink of my beer. "I want her so damn bad, Cole."

  "Go get her. I realized this morning riding up here that life is so fucking short and fleeting. Spending it miserable for even a minute is a tragedy neither of us can afford. You have the power to change your situation."

  "And you have that same power to fix yours." I glanced over at him before turning back to stare at her.

  "I'll fix it. I promise. You?" He patted my back roughly as he got up and groaned, stretching.

  "I want to, but I don't know. She deserves so much more than I can offer." I licked my lips and stifled the groan that raped my insides. Fucking her the week before had been a balm to my soul, and for an hour or so, nothing mattered. Not my shitty past or my dicked up present, nor my future, whatever it might be. Being with her left my mind clear, my heart healed.

  It was so much more than sex, though I didn't want it to be. She was playing it safe, and I should have been too. I just wasn't sure how to anymore.

  "Let's go up there." Cole moved to stand just under the TV. "I can get Terrance to watch the company for a few days. We could get out of town, go on a road trip."

  The idea was entertaining for sure, but stupid.

  "We don't need to chase after trouble. You know I have a restraining order against me." I smiled and shook my head. "It's all good. We'll take care of your stuff, and when she comes back down here to lay on the beach, I'll just happen to run into her there."

  "You sure? It could be fun." He turned and slipped his hands into the back pockets of his jeans.

  I nodded and lifted my eyes as the camera panned. The lanky guy tucked among the faces on the side of the stage was all too familiar. Jeremy.

  "Holy shit." I stood up, knocking my stool backward. "That's the guy, Cole."

  I lifted my hand and moved to the monitor, pointing at him as I reached up on my tippy toes.

  "What guy?"

  "The one that kidnapped and shot Chloe." I moved back as chill bumps raced across my skin. "Why is he there? Damn, man. What if he's there to finish the job?"

  "Why aren't the guards around her and her father looking for him? How the fuck is he still running around free?"

  "No clue. I think there is more to it than we might see from the surface." I grabbed my phone and dialed Pauly's number. The disconnection notice I got left me disgusted. The fuckers had completely cut me off.

  "Like a political scandal of sort
s?" He picked up my chair.

  "I don't know." I tucked my phone in my back pocket. "How can we find out where else Mitch is going for this part of his campaign trail?"

  "Look it up online." He shrugged and finished his beer in a few swallows.

  "Can you get us a sub-contracted job at the next event? He usually does two to three in one place before moving on." I pulled out a couple of dollars and threw them on the table. "I have to get up there."

  "I'm coming with you, and yeah, I'm pretty sure we can get the contract or a portion of it at one of the events. I can get you close to the girl, but the rest will be up to you." He tugged his hat over his wild hair and turned to walk to the front door.

  "Good, but it's not the girl I'm trying to get close to. No one else might care about that creepy bastard in the background, but I do. Time to take his ass out. I can ask questions later."

  "You think she's in danger?"

  "I don't know. My first instinct would be to say yes, but if Mitch and Pauly haven't taken Jeremy out, then maybe they're all in bed together."

  "And what? Mitch had the guy kidnap his only kid? That doesn't sound right."

  "Most of the time things don't in politics. Either way, we go up there and snatch up Jeremy so I can beat him to a pulp and put a bullet in his head."

  "Dude." Cole turned and grabbed my shirt as I tried to move past him. "You're not killing anyone. We'll question him, beat his ass and turn him in to the cops."

  "Right, because they always get the right guy." I shook my head and snorted. "I'll make the call, and whatever it is, you decide then if you're in or not. If not, no worries. This is my girl, my problem."

  He pursed his lips and glanced around as he released me. "All right. It's on you, but I'll be beside you no matter what. Let's go to the office and get the tour schedule and grab a contract for one of the venues, then we can head out."

  "You sure you don't want to deal with things at home and let me take care of this?" I had to give him an out in case he needed one.

  "Nope. That shit will be waiting for me no matter how long we're gone. Let’s go take care of your girl. Mine isn't really mine anymore."

  I patted his back and moved to get on my bike, torn in half for him and yet ready to ride whatever wave he had to mount to get through the storm headed his way. I'd be right beside him, just like I always had been.

  Chapter 10

  Chloe

  "And that's why you need a candidate like me for president," my father finished as the crowd around us went wild.

  I shoved the need to roll my eyes and fake gag as I clapped and plastered a Miss America smile on my face. Daniel stood to my left, Pauly to my right and a handful of guards dressed in common clothes all around the arena. My father had mostly stuck to the political hot buttons, but made sure to throw in several comments about the need for strong families no matter what tragedy might strike. The fact that he used my mother's death as a way to gain himself more support or sympathy from the crowd left me cold toward him.

  His unwillingness to play a part in my life was a dead subject, and didn't hurt me nearly as much as him bringing up my mother. Too much mystery surrounded the night she died. I'd yet to let it go, even though it had been almost ten years. I wasn't sure I ever would.

  "Come on, butterfly. Walk behind Daniel and let's get to a corner of the meet and greet room so that you're not left unprotected." Pauly pressed his hand to my back as I turned and followed Daniel out. I'd gotten a great ass chewing and quite a threat laid against me for giving Daniel the slip in Ocean Beach a week before, but fuck was it worth it.

  The memory of Ian's hands all over me, buried inside of me left my blood racing, my body warming. The high I always experienced when thinking about him was quickly followed with intense sorrow. I shouldn't have left the way I did, but I didn't have much choice. He'd either walked away from the job, or my father had forced him to. Either way, he wasn't a part of my life, nor did he probably want to be, or so I told myself. It was easier to deny the burning need inside of me to drop everything and run back into his arms like some sappy-ass love story.

  Love didn't really exist from what I could tell. It was a lie people told themselves to cover up their lusty ways or co-exist with another person to stave off loneliness.

  "Keep moving, peanut," Pauly whispered and moved up to my side as Daniel opened the door in front of us.

  Something caught my eye, and I gasped before reaching for Pauly. "Is that Jeremy?"

  "Where?" He paused and placed his hand on the gun strapped to his body as he glanced around. "I don't see anyone that even looks like Jeremy. He's been taken care of. There's nothing to worry about."

  Ice water raced through my veins as I pulled from Pauly. "Taken care of?"

  The bastard that kidnapped me, slapped me around and shot me in the chest deserved to be beaten and thrown in jail, but taken care of didn't sound like he was sitting in jail. It sounded like he was at the bottom of a river somewhere, which wasn't at all okay. A life for a life was a code that the ancient world and the gangsters followed, but we were normal citizens that followed rules. Jeremy would get his in court when he was prosecuted.

  "It's nothing to worry about. Come in here and stop hovering in the doorway." Daniel gripped my arm hard, pulling me into the room like a rag doll.

  I whipped around and reached out and gripped his nuts in my hand. "Don't touch me again unless someone is firing a weapon at my fucking head."

  He growled and gripped my hand tightly, but I didn't let up.

  "Let him be, Chloe. He's here to protect you." Pauly clasped my shoulders and pulled me back. "And you, be more careful with her. Don't jerk her around again, or you'll find yourself replaced. Got it?"

  Daniel's face turned red as he pursed his lips, nodded and walked across the room to the make-shift bar top.

  "What does taken care of mean? I think I have a right to know." I turned to face Pauly.

  "He's been taken captive and we'll get him to the cops the minute he returns something he stole from your father, but keep that to yourself. You didn't hear it." He cupped my face and smiled warmly. "You're beautiful, just like your momma was."

  "It's ten years today." I glanced around and forced the sadness inside me to die down. She'd been gone a long time, and I'd blocked most of my memories from our time together. The sadness wasn't for her losing her life, but for me losing my mother. It was selfish. She was most likely just like my father, traveling around the world and leaving me with various nannies so she could live her dreams. I wasn't sure of that, but it seemed fitting to keep me angry instead of broken.

  "Seems like yesterday." He leaned down and kissed the top of my head before pulling me into a hug and whispering against the side of my head, "Your father doesn't want you near Ian, and I don't either, yet you still continue to seek him out. Why?"

  "Because he's hot." I glanced around the room, still unsure if I'd seen Jeremy or not.

  Pauly gripped my shoulders and pulled me back toward him. "Stop looking around. It draws too much attention to us." He chuckled and moved back enough to glance down at me. "You know that shit you pulled with Daniel has to stop. No more running off, all right?"

  "And you realize that I'm twenty-two, right? I'll walk out of this place and never look back if you guys don't loosen the collar around my neck. I don't have to be here."

  "That's true, but you're also not done with school just yet. Your father is paying for it, and honestly, we have a few enemies that I'd like to protect you from. Politics gets a lot more sticky than some people believe." He brushed his thumb by my cheek. "Let's get through the lunch we have with some of these dickwad supporters and then we can run back to the hotel. You'll have time for a nap and can swim all afternoon in the pool if you want. We don't have another event until Tuesday.”

  "What are we doing on Tuesday?"

  "Taking a group of constituents out for an evening on the water. We're renting a boat, I guess." He gave me a sheepish grin.
<
br />   "Hopefully the boat capsizes and we all get eaten by big-ass sharks." I turned and caught my father's eye as he motioned me over.

  "Do certain sharks have big asses?" Pauly chuckled as I rolled my eyes playfully.

  "It would seem that it's time to live the lie again. Excuse me," I mumbled and walked toward my father, realizing that I'd been doing that my whole life. It was so natural to keep it going that it scared me at times.

  When would I simply be able to be me and nothing else? Never, it would seem.

  *

  "We live in Santa Barbara most of the year, and my Chloe here goes to UCLA." My father reached over and brushed his hand down the back of my head.

  Where I loved him, I didn't like him in the slightest. Every muscle in my body locked having him touch me lovingly in front of the crowd of strangers with overly large smiles. It was disturbing in a way I couldn't remember having felt before, but it would be over soon enough.

  "How do you like UCLA, Chloe?" an older gentleman across the table asked as he leaned back in his chair. "You're not in one of those girl groups, those sororities, are you?"

  "No, of course not," my father answered for me, lying through his teeth.

  I smiled and pushed my seat back. "I'm going to the restroom. I'll be back."

  "Of course, dear." My father turned and nodded at Daniel. "Watch over her."

  "Absolutely, Senator Mitchell." Daniel moved up behind me.

  I glanced over my shoulder. "He has a dick if you wanted to suck it for him. Not sure if he's too old for you, but..."

  Daniel shook his head and stopped beside the bathroom, leaning against the wall beside the door and giving me a hard stare.

  "You're going to grow up one day, and when you do, you'll thank all of us that tried to protect your spoiled ass." He leaned in menacingly.

  "Right, because you watch over me out of the goodness in your heart. You being here and licking my dad's ass crack has nothing to do with the fact that you're getting paid far beyond what your junior high education would allow." I shrugged and walked into the bathroom at the sound of him cursing.