Forgotten Bodyguard Box Set: A Forbidden Fruit Series

by Ali Parker

  "You like to dance?" Tristan moved up beside me and offered me his arm.

  "Absolutely, though I've not been salsa dancing in a long time." I pushed at his arm and smiled. "Stop being proper. Your dad isn't watching anymore."

  "Gets old fast." He slipped his hands into his slacks and turned to put his back to the door, pushing it open. "That's the reason I'm in college way out in California. It's the only way to take a shit without them filming it. I swear they've put their entire future in me."

  "No pressure, right?" I walked back out into the chilly night air and glanced around. Ian was long gone, but I couldn't help but hope that he would sneak up behind me at the club and drag me back to his hotel for the night.

  Being responsible sucked miserably.

  "I'll grab us a couple of beers. You get us a table." He nodded toward the bar as we walked in.

  I nodded and moved through the bodies, half expecting Daniel to reach out and yank me back. God forbid I got a few feet in front of him. The club was the last place he'd want me to spend the evening, but thanks to my father approving it, it looked like I was going to get my way. A few beers and a dance or two and the night would be over and I would be headed back to the hotel with Pauly. If I couldn't have Ian, then sleep would have to do. I could find him in the recess of my dreams and have a nefarious good time.

  I finally found a table near the back as the music shifted to techno, surprising me a little. I smiled and reached for the chair in front of me. Someone pulled me back, gripping my elbow tightly.

  "I'm not going anywhere. I promise. Shit." I turned and stumbled backward into the middle of the large crowd filling up the dance floor. Jeremy.

  "Listen, I know you're terrified of me, but I need to explain myself." He gripped my hands and pulled me firmly against him. "Don't scream, or I'll get my gun."

  "That would be why I'm terrified." I stepped on his toe hard and pulled back.

  "If I wanted you dead, you would have already been dead, Chloe. I didn't mean to shoot you. You fucking rushed me, remember? It was an accident."

  "I don't think so. You tore me down with the truth about our relationship first, remember?" I pulled again as he wrapped his arm around my shoulders and pressed the back of my head, locking me against his thin chest as he pressed his lips to my ear.

  "I lied. I shouldn't have said that shit to you, but if I didn't villainize you in my mind, I never would have been able to hold you hostage."

  "And why did you hold me hostage? What do you have that they want, Jer?" I pushed at his chest softly, wanting to run, but not wanting to miss what the fuck was going on. Ian was searching for the truth, and I had the guy with all the answers right in front of me.

  "I can't tell you, but you need to tell your bodyguard friend to watch his back." He moved back a little and gave me a dark look.

  "What? Don't you threaten him, you bastard!" I jerked back and glanced around for Daniel. Now he was too busy to help. Typical.

  "I'm not threatening him, but they're not going to let him get ahold of something that might condemn your father and live to tell about it." He reached for me, turning us as the music shifted again. "I would never hurt you, or anyone really. Your dad ruined my fucking life and I had proof of all of it. That's why I took you. I needed to drag him out to the house, but your fucking guard got right up in the middle of all of it."

  "That's his job." I let out a shaky sigh. "What do you have on my father? What has he done?"

  "You remember eight years ago, just a couple of years after your mom died when your dad went after the presidency? I was his campaign manager."

  "You told me that part already."

  "The other candidate, Brant Thomas. Remember him?"

  "Yes, I know Mr. Thomas, Jeremy. Get to the fucking point before my friend or my new bodyguard see us out here." I spun around and moved back to press my hands to his chest.

  "There's evidence that the house fire that killed his family wasn't an accident at all." He glanced around as sweat collected at his brow.

  "You think my father would murder his opponents’ family?" My voice was a little too loud by the looks I got. I forced myself to whisper. "That's a fucking joke, right?"

  "He wasn't trying to kill the family, Chloe. He was trying to take out Brant. I have the evidence at the house, or did. I got word from the lady watching the place that my house was broken into and ransacked two days ago." He glanced around again.

  "Why did you come up here? If you have the evidence, just go to the police." Terror washed through me. Was my father really capable of something so heinous? My source was a creeper that had not only kidnapped me and shot me in the chest, but used me for several years to try and get closer to my dad. Sadly enough, I didn't know which one of them to believe in.

  "I wanted to try and talk sense into him, but I can't seem to get him alone." He sighed. "I don't want anything but my life back."

  "What did he take from you?"

  "My reputation."

  "And how the hell is he supposed to give you that back?" Someone tapped on my shoulder. I glanced around to find Tristan standing there with both beers lifted and a look of concern on his handsome face.

  "I got your beer."

  "Thank you. I'll be right there. Promise." I gave him a sexy smile, which he seemed to appreciate.

  As long as Daniel didn't see me and Jeremy together, we'd be okay. A sense of relief rushed over my body, the sensation leaving chill bumps in its wake.

  "Jeremy?" I looked around to find him gone. "Jeremy?"

  I moved through the crowd, unwilling to give up on finding him. After searching the whole damn place twice, I had no choice but to return to Tristan.

  "Old friend?" He handed me the beer and smiled.

  "Yeah, sort of." I lifted the beer to my lips and glanced around, spotting Daniel at the far end of the bar. Jeremy stood in front of him, saying something just beside his ear. He patted Jer on the back before he walked off and turned his attention to me, locking eyes with me.

  "You wanna dance?" Tristan asked and stood up beside me.

  I couldn't seem to pull my eyes off Daniel. What the fuck was he doing talking with Jer? Was he a plant? A rat? And beyond that, had my father really murdered four people over running for office eight years back? Surely not... His race to the top couldn't have corrupted him to that degree. I couldn't swallow that reality, I wouldn't.

  Chapter 17

  Two Days Later

  Ian

  "You staying here?" I walked into my rundown apartment and dropped down on the couch as Cole stood in the doorway, looking about like I felt. A forty-eight-hour turnaround trip was the worst fucking idea I'd ever had, or damn near close to it.

  "No. I need to go home and deal with this shit." He ran his hand through his blond hair and let out a long sigh. "When are we going to Santa Barbara?"

  "Soon. You need to cancel our contract on the Maryland job. We aren't going back up there for that shit. I wanted to see her, and thanks to Pauly, I got to."

  "Hope it was worth all the fucking effort." My brother yawned loudly and wiped at his eyes.

  "It was, man. I appreciate you. Call me and let me know if you need me later."

  "I won't." He turned, waved and walked out, leaving me in the blessed silence.

  Guilt rushed across me that didn't belong to me, and yet I gripped on tightly to it. I shouldn't have fucked Chloe in the bunk house. She deserved so much better. We weren't silly teenagers looking to get high and come a few times. She was a beautiful young woman with a broken spirit that needed love - attention. I was fucking things up left and right, but I wasn't sure how to be anyone other than me.

  My eyes fluttered closed as the world disappeared and sleep rushed in to greet me.

  "Do you like this dress?" Amanda turned and smiled over her shoulder. She couldn't have been more than eighteen.

  "Yeah. You look incredible." I got up from the couch and moved to stand behind her, trying like hell to get my bearings. />
  The mirror in front of her showed a much younger me as I stopped behind her and slid my hands over the silky material. I ran my fingers over her flat stomach and up to cup her small breasts.

  "No bra?" I whispered against her ear as warmth filled me. Devotion and love were all I had to offer her, but she would get every ounce of me as long as she wanted it.

  "No. I thought it would be sexy. You think they'll notice and throw us out?" She laughed and turned, sliding her arms up my chest and touching my face as she pulled me down for a long kiss.

  "I can only hope they'll kick us out. You know I hate these fucking things," I growled softly against her perfect mouth and slid my hands down her back. Senior year prom. I had to borrow a suit from her dad, which was almost too big on me. With not even a pot to piss in, Cole and I were living in a rundown shelter on the far side of town. Mandy was well aware of my situation, but didn't care. She loved me for me. Period.

  "And what would we do if they kicked us out?" She licked at my mouth and turned her shoulders back and forth, rubbing her pebbled nipples over my chest.

  "We'd find a safe quiet place. Shoot up and fuck like bunnies." I picked her up, lifting her above me until her breasts were in front of my face. "Pull your dress down baby."

  She couldn't have weighed a hundred pounds.

  "My mom and dad are-"

  "Pull your dress down." I glanced up at her, pinning her with a hard stare. She belonged to me, and if I wanted to suck her titties in front of her mother... I would.

  She smiled shyly and tugged it down before wrapping her legs around my upper torso. I leaned in and sucked one of her nipples deep into my mouth as she groaned.

  "No drugs tonight, okay?" She ran her fingers through my hair as I flicked my tongue across her sensitive skin and pulled her back down to grind against my erection.

  "You know I like to relax." I kissed her a few times roughly. "Besides... tonight's the night. Remember?"

  "Ian. Really?" She released her hold on me and slid down the front of my body.

  I barely let her feet touch the ground before I spun her and gripped her hips, grinding my erection against her ass. It wasn't nearly big enough for me, but I loved her. I would make do with what I had.

  "Yes really. You've been promising me for five years that you'd open up your ass for me tonight. I want it." I pressed my hand to the front of her pussy and tapped it softly. "We'll work into it. I won't hurt you."

  "I guess." She pulled from me and walked to the closet to slip her feet into the dainty shoes her mom had bought for our senior prom. "I'd really rather not smoke anything tonight. Can't we just have one night where we fuck sober?"

  "Yep, but tonight isn't that night." I moved up to the mirror to fix my tie, so full of myself, so ready to teach her a new way of living. Smoking was fun, but shooting up? That was where pleasure lay...

  A scream lodged in my throat as I shot up from the couch and turned around in my empty living room.

  "No. Fuck." I dropped back down to the couch and pressed my hands to my face, trying hard to shake the image of the rest of the night. I'd taught her how to shoot up, and she'd handled it so well until the drugs hit her system. She'd been a fucking whore for me that night, opening up new avenues to pleasure that weren't allowed to exist for reasons I discovered the next day.

  It had taken more than an hour in the ER to get her ass repaired from the damage I'd done to her. I'd never forgive myself. Not ever. The drugs we shot up threw us both into such a state of depravity that nothing pulled us out until we woke the next morning with her in pain.

  The only option was to call her parents, giving both her mom and dad clear knowledge of what we'd been up to. I took their abuse with stiff shoulders and refused to look away from either of them. I wasn't welcomed in their home or around their little girl again.

  I left a broken kid, never wanting anything to do with women or drugs again. The withdrawals from losing her far outweighed the need for another hit.

  Good thing she showed up at my door with a bag on her shoulder four days later, ready for far more than I was comfortable with.

  *

  I needed to get out of the house, but with no money and very little gas, walking down the beach seemed the best option. I had to find a way to shift my thoughts from Mandy and Chloe to something else. There was a monster inside of me that seemed hell-bent on ruining every good thing in my life, and I wasn't sure how to get rid of his ass.

  My phone buzzed as I pulled up to the strand and turned the bike off. Cole.

  "Hey man, I was just-" I started, but didn't get to finish.

  "Dude, come get me. I'm in the front yard waiting on you."

  "I only have my bike, Cole." I turned it back on. We could figure things out once I got there.

  "I know. Come help me get mine in the truck and we'll put yours in there too. I can’t do this shit by myself. I'm such a fucking loser, Ian. I can't leave." He was huffing and puffing as if he had just run a marathon.

  "I'll be there in five minutes." I didn't hesitate before turning the bike around and speeding all the way to my brother's house. The kids playing across the street were sitting in the ditch, wide-eyed as they stared toward Cole's place.

  I turned off the bike and walked toward the house as the sound of Cindy screaming, followed by something crashing, caught my attention. I jogged toward the house and walked in without knocking.

  Cole's pretty bride was in the kitchen, a vase in her hand as she screamed at him.

  "You fucking want out? Fine. I'll take you for everything you're worth." She threw the vase at his feet and it shattered, sending shards of glass all around his legs.

  "Hey. Take it easy. Shit," I barked and walked toward him.

  He turned and lifted his hand toward me, his eyes rimmed with tears. "Just get my shit out of the bedroom and put it in the truck. It's all packed."

  "If you touch one goddamn thing in here, I'll call the cops, you piece of shit," she screamed toward me.

  "Yep. Fuck you too, Cindy." I turned and walked toward the bedroom as she screamed a few more things about my lack of care for life and how neither of us came from anything or were going toward anything. I could almost agree with her, but I knew my brother would one day be a strong contributor to society. He had a lot of patching up to do inside of him, but one day it would happen.

  I grabbed his shit and walked toward the door, ignoring the screaming match between the two of them. I had the truck loaded up in ten minutes flat and was covered in sweat by the time he jogged down the stairs and tossed me the keys.

  "You're driving." He got into the truck and closed his eyes, leaning back and pressing his hands to his face.

  I got in, not entirely sure what to say. Seven years was a long fucking time to give someone only to walk away with nothing. My brother wanted a woman to worship, a daughter to dote on, a son to teach baseball to. I wasn't sure I wanted any of that, but Cole... he wanted the American dream, and his decision to leave his wife only put another fissure in his hope to get it.

  "Hey-"

  "Don't." His voice cracked, and my heart broke in my chest. I'd only seen him cry once, and it was in anger over how fucked up our childhood was. He'd been turned down from college because of us being so broke and not having a residence that we could point to. Life was one shit-storm after the next. I'd never in my life seen someone so broken as I had him that day.

  "Okay." I nodded and pulled out of the driveway as Cindy came running toward the truck, screaming for him to stop, that she was sorry, that she loved him.

  The sound of him crying next to me, locked behind his hands, shoulders shaking violently left my breakfast rising up in my chest. He meant everything to me.

  "Fuck man." I pulled the truck over and pulled him toward me, wrapping him in a tight hug as my eyes filled with tears. "We're going to figure it out, Cole. I promise."

  "I just don't understand. I'm a good man. I just want-" He pressed his face into my chest and tightened h
is grip on me. "It doesn't matter. Obviously I don't deserve it."

  "Fuck that shit." I pressed my cheek to the side of his head and held him tightly. "One day man. I promise you. One day you'll find her and everything will change."

  "I don't want her." He pulled back and wiped at his face. "Fuck love. Fuck life. I'm sick of all of this shit."

  I couldn't disagree, so I didn't.

  Chapter 18

  Chloe

  It had been three days since I'd last seen Ian, and I was ready to crawl out of my skin. With all the events my father signed himself up for, him and Pauly were running nonstop, which was good and bad. I was glad to have a break from him, but on the other hand, not getting to talk privately with Pauly about Jeremy was upsetting. Every time I went near him, Daniel would come close. It was like the bastard knew that I was onto them.

  The only way I was going to get attention was to throw a fit, which sucked, but I was used to it. We were heading out to Maryland later that day, but they were going to have to finish the tour without me. I was going home. No more hanging out in hopes of finding out something that might help Ian or Pauly. I was done.

  "What are you doing?" Daniel stopped behind me at the entrance to my bedroom.

  "Packing. What are you, blind?" I glanced over my shoulder and glared at him. "And stop looking at my ass. You could be my father."

  He snorted. "Don't flatter yourself, chickie."

  "No?" I turned and walked toward him, stopping in time to leave a little bit of space between us. "You don't want any of this, hm?"

  I turned and brushed my ass by his leg.

  He coughed loudly. "Nope. You're nothing but a spoiled child."

  "This is true." I crawled up on the bed on all fours and stretched sensually, wagging my spoiled ass in the air. "I'm not really a child though, am I?"

  I let my hands slide along the mattress and dropped down as he took a step into the room and stopped.

  "What are you doing right now, Chloe?"