Forgotten Bodyguard Box Set: A Forbidden Fruit Series

by Ali Parker

  "Trying to get some attention." I wasn't lying. I rolled onto my back and ran my hands over my breasts and down my stomach. His eyes followed my movements as he took another step back.

  "Stop. You're being a whore."

  "A needy whore?" I cupped myself and arched my back, moaning loudly.

  "I'm getting Pauly."

  "That's a good idea. Tell him that maybe you need a few minutes to yourself, you know... to wax the old weasel." I jerked my fist up and down as I continued to tease him. It was stupid. He was stupid, and I was too, but he wouldn't fall for my shit. He'd just call the big guns in to warn me.

  "Fuck you, kid." He turned and walked down the hall.

  I jumped up and finished packing, closed my suitcase and turned as Pauly and Daniel returned.

  "She's being ridiculous," Daniel barked as they stopped by the open door to my room.

  "Always." I turned and put my hands on my hips. "Pauly, come in and close the door. I need to tell you all the shit I've been putting up with. It's going to sound like sexual harassment, but-"

  "Oh, hell no." Daniel came barreling into the room, only to be stopped by my father's bodyguard.

  "Out!" Pauly yelled in his face and pushed at the other man until he was in the hall. "Go take a fucking cold shower. I see you sporting a hard-on. Sick prick. Get the fuck out of here."

  He turned and slammed the door shut. "Did you do that on purpose?"

  "Yes. I needed to see you, and every time I try to get close to you, that asshole is up in my business, listening to every word I say." I zipped my suitcase and put it down on the floor. "I'm going home. Alone."

  "No, you're not." He locked the door, pulled his phone from his pocket and turned on jazz music before setting it down on the floor.

  "What's that for?" I sat down on the bed, willing to give my closest companion a few minutes of my time before I stormed out.

  "Keeps them from hearing us." He sat down next to me and wrapped his arm around my shoulders. "You know I can't let you leave unprotected."

  "Why not? What does dad really care? He's not paid me a bit of attention since we came on this fucking trip, not that I'm at all surprised." I tried to pull back, but he tightened his hold on me.

  "Because I love you, butterfly. You know that." He gripped my chin and smiled warmly at me. "You look like your mother when you get angry."

  "I look like her all the time. It's why Mitch hates me." I pulled out of his grasp and walked to the balcony as I let out a long sigh. "He hated her too."

  "No he didn't, and he doesn't hate you either, Chloe."

  "Why did you let me see Ian the other night, Pauly?"

  "Because you love the boy, and though he's rough around the edges, I believe in love." He shrugged. "It's easy for me though. I trust the type of man that Ian is. He bolted without thinking at the UCLA event to come find you. If you wouldn't have played hero, we would have been fine."

  "And daddy still would have fired him." I put my hands on my hips and tilted my head. My father lying to me about Ian quitting was one thing, but Pauly playing along and feeding into it as well... too much.

  "I had no choice, Chloe. There's a lot more going on than I'm at liberty to discuss, and you know that."

  "Like why the fuck Jeremy is here in New Hampshire and no one is doing anything about it?" I was pretty set on the fact that Jeremy wasn't going to hurt me again, but no one else knew that. The fucker shot me a few weeks back and was still roaming the streets freely. Why?

  "Jeremy isn't here, butterfly. You saw someone that looked like him. I told you that we took care of him."

  "Did you?" I crossed my arms over my chest and pursed my lips, taking a shallow breath before giving myself permission to ride the razor edge for a while. "And what about Brant Thomas, Pauly? Did you guys take care of his family too? What was your involvement in the house fire that killed his wife and three of his kids?"

  The color draining from Pauly's face told me everything I needed to know. He'd done it. He'd followed my father’s orders or acted on his own accord and killed innocent people.

  Tears burned my eyes as I pulled the handle from my suitcase and moved toward the door.

  "Chloe. You don't understand, butterf-"

  "No." I slapped him hard. "Don't you ever call me that again. I'm going home and if any of you try to stop me, I'll go straight to the fucking FBI and tell them the little bits and pieces that I do know."

  "You can't do that." He gripped my arm tightly.

  "Are you going to kill me too?" Tears dripped down my cheeks as my heart broke in my chest. Hearing that my father was capable of such an atrocity was one thing, but Pauly? The man who taught me to skip rocks, swim against the waves and learn to dance on his feet? No. Just no.

  He pulled me into a tight hug as a soft sob left him.

  "Jeremy isn't going to hurt you, baby. He's after your father. He's got something that would turn all of our worlds upside down."

  I stood stiff and unyielding. "And it was worth paying him to kidnap me and shoot me?"

  "That wasn't part of the deal, and you know it, butterfly." He moved back and cupped my face as tears rolled down both of our cheeks. "He wanted to bring your father to the mat for what happened with Brant's family."

  "And does he have evidence that daddy was involved?" I had to know as much as he would let me.

  Pauly glanced down and released me, wiping at his eyes. "They both were involved. The evidence could be skewed to pin it on either of them. Ian is going to get it for us and then everything will be all right."

  I ignored the comment about Ian. I could dissect that later. "And you? How about you Pauly? Did you help him?"

  "I had no choice." The light in his eyes died, scaring me far more than I would ever let on.

  "Right. Don't follow me or I'll call the cops." I moved around him and opened the door.

  "Chloe. You don't understand."

  "Yeah. I do." I pulled my arm from him. "The only man who's ever really loved me is nothing more than a monster. It's nice to know that I can stop pretending to have one friend in the world, because I don't."

  I walked out, called a cab and got to the airport shortly thereafter. My tears were dried up and my heart completely smashed in half. I wanted to get to Ian and tell him everything I knew, but chances were that it would only put him in danger too. If my father and his thugs were willing to kill another man's family to try and debilitate him from running for president, then they were more than capable of knocking off a thug bodyguard.

  I'd saved his life once, and if this time it meant running from him with the evidence he had against my dad, then so be it. I was good with that, or would soon figure out a way to be.

  Chapter 19

  Ian

  We sat out on the back porch most of the night before, talking about some of the shit we'd been through as kids and always circling back to the same thing... we'd always been there for each other, and we always would. The plan was to drive up to Mitch's house around midnight and see if we could get lucky. Pauly had been good enough to give me the code to the place, but nothing was ever that easy.

  "You ready?" Cole stood at the doorway to the apartment as I leaned over the railing and watched the cars go by. The beach wasn't within a stone’s throw, but littered with trash because of the part of town I lived in.

  "Yeah." I turned and walked around him, grateful to see him looking a little better. Cindy wasn't worth the tears, but they weren't for her anyway. They were for the death of Cole's future, and that I could understand all too well.

  "It's about four hours up there. We'll have an hour or so of darkness before daybreak. Let's try and get in and out before the sun comes up." He turned to face me as I grabbed my phone and keys.

  "I can't help but wonder what the fuck could be on this jump drive. Seems like we're diving into something a lot deeper than either of us should be able to handle." I rolled my shoulders and tried to stave off the feeling that the shit was about to hit the fan.
Where I was fine getting caught up in the undercurrent of it, I wasn't good with Cole getting involved. "You sure you don't want to just hang here? I can do this on my own."

  "And miss the adventure? Have you lost your fucking mind?" He moved out of the doorway and shook his head. "No, I need this."

  "Breaking and entering isn't exactly something that you want on your resume. Might hurt your business, Bro."

  "Our business." He patted my back as we walked toward the rickety stairs that led to the parking lot.

  "Right. Either way, I'm sure there is far more to the story than either of us have." I jogged down and reached for the keys to the truck.

  He tossed them my way and got in, shaking his head. "I told you that there is a lot of mystery around Mitch's late wife's death."

  "Not just that, but something is going on with this Jeremy guy too." I started the truck and pulled out into the darkness. "The fucker had something Mitch wanted, so they lured him to New Hampshire and broke into his house and got it back."

  "Who told you that?"

  "Pauly did." I glanced over at Cole in the dark. "I would assume the fucker is going to find himself with a few bullet holes in his chest now that they have whatever they wanted from him."

  "Is this the same thing we're going to get from Mitch's house?" His expression hardened a little.

  "Yeah. It's a zip drive, like I said. Pink tip. Has evidence of something worth killing over, I guess." I hit the gas and sped up to get onto the freeway.

  "Are we sure we want to get involved in this?"

  "I don't want you involved, but Chloe is quickly becoming someone that I can't see living my life without. I need to find out if her father is the villain it's looking like. She can't keep living under the wing of his protection if he's a murderer. Hell, none of us can. The fucker is running for president, Cole." I ran my fingers through my hair as the weight of the situation rested on top of my shoulders.

  "This is nuts." He pulled out his phone and leaned back. "How does this kind of shit happen?"

  "Because people get greedy and set their eyes on a prize. They become so consumed over it that nothing else matters." My heart ached as the air seemed to escape from my lungs.

  "What?" He glanced over at me.

  "Nothing. I was just thinking about Mandy. She had a great life and so much to look forward to, and I fucked that up for her. I was greedy for more of her, and I didn't once consider the cost. We hurt her parents, her friends, my friends, fuck, I even shunned you a few times during that dark shit. And where did it get me? With a dead girlfriend and blood on my hands." I let out a shaky sigh. "I've started to dream about her again."

  "The nasty dream where she's bleeding from the face?"

  "No, worse... she's young and beautiful. It's the night I introduced her to shooting up." I pursed my lips and swallowed hard. "Fuck, I hate myself so much."

  "We all do, man. She made her decisions." He reached out and squeezed my shoulder. "Don't dive into that hole tonight. I need you here with me so we can figure this out and save your woman."

  "All right." I nodded and pulled myself together. "Pauly said we'd be dealing with guards, dogs and a high-powered alarm system."

  "Sounds like you might want to stop by the grocery store when we get into town." Cole chuckled.

  "Really? You wanna throw a steak at the guard dogs? That shit doesn't work."

  "I was kidding, man. I have some pepper spray in my bag. It will do the trick. Just try not to get bit before you spray it." He leaned back in his seat. "Do you think Senator Moore is really capable of doing something like killing his wife?"

  "No. I don't, but I wouldn't put it past his right hand man."

  *

  The large grey mansion sat on the shore, almost looming over the water below. Beautiful wouldn't begin to describe it. We parked a little ways down and made sure we had everything we needed before sneaking up to the edge of the property. The eight-foot tall white gate that surrounded the property almost seemed out of place for the location, but I could understand the need for it. The senator and his family had been receiving death threats since he started into office and pissed off all the conservatives in California, all ten of them.

  I snorted at the thought and caught a backhand to the chest.

  "I'll deal with the dogs. You get the front door open." Cole pulled out a tranquilizer gun and smiled. "I figured this would be better than the pepper spray."

  "Where the fuck did that come from?" I glanced over my shoulder back toward the truck like it might grow feet and help us out.

  "I have a bag of goodies. I own a security company, Ian." He motioned for me to join him. "Type in the code on the gate. If we can keep from tripping the intruder alerts, then we'll be good."

  "All right, man. I'll follow your lead." I jogged behind him and typed in the code Pauly gave me as he moved in front of me. I let out a soft sigh of relief as the gate opened.

  Cole darted in and ran toward the front door as the sound of barking lifted up into the night.

  "Fuck," I mumbled and hauled ass to catch up with him. Three large Dobermans moved out of the shadows, all from the same side of the house, thankfully. It took Cole a few minutes and the beautiful beasts were lying in the grass, sleeping like babies.

  "Wow. That was fun." He chuckled and jogged toward the door to join me as I typed in the code again.

  "You're a sick man." I pushed the door open and paused to listen for another guard dog. Nothing.

  "I just need some adventure in my life. Forgive me." He moved around me and stopped in the expansive foyer, putting his finger to his lips.

  I needed to find the motion sensors. A red light blinked in the far corner of the room, and I moved around the edges of the floor just in case. The code worked on the security system as well, which was concerning. If Mitch wasn't the bad guy, I was going to give Pauly an ass chewing on having the codes all the same. It was without a doubt the worst set-up I'd ever seen, and I'd broken into a handful of mansions as a kid looking for a few items to pawn off for food.

  Starvation made people do crazy things. Yeah, like start selling heroine.

  "Where are we starting? His office would make sense to me." Cole moved up beside me and tucked his tranquilizer gun into the bag strapped to his back.

  "Let's figure out where that is." I moved down the hall, trying to ignore my need to breathe in deeply. The smell of vanilla filled the air and reminded me too much of Chloe.

  "Where the fuck are the guards?" Cole pressed his ear to the door to our right and opened it. "TV room."

  "No clue. Maybe they decided to go to the titty bar." I walked down to the end of the hall and pressed my ear to the door. Nothing. I opened it and leaned in. "Here we go. Come on."

  We walked into the office and closed the door behind us before flipping on the lights. The curtains were closed, which saved us a step, thankfully.

  "If I were a senator with something to hide, where would I put it?" Cole moved around the room, banging on the wall with his elbow as if looking for a hallow spot.

  "Most people have safes in the floor now." I got on my hands and knees and checked under his desk, finding nothing. We searched the whole damn office and came up empty-handed.

  "Fuck," Cole mumbled and walked to a closet at the back of the room. "Why would this Jeremy guy just leave this information laying out at home? You think he wanted Mitch to get it? Maybe he's not the bad guy at all, but a fucking pawn in a much bigger game."

  "I agree with part of that, but I'm pretty sure Jeremy is a pawn in the worst of ways. The fucker wants something from Mitch or he wouldn't have taken Chloe, right? He's her ex-boyfriend to top it all off."

  "Shit. That poor girl has been through hell, hasn't she?" Cole opened the door and turned to smile. "Bingo."

  "She has." I moved up behind him and glanced down to see a safe in the floor. "Move and let me try the code."

  "All yours, brother." He smiled and moved back as the sound of a door closing caught our
attention. "Oh fuck. Hurry up and see if it's in there."

  My adrenaline spiked, making it hard to concentrate. I fucked up the code four times before finally getting it right. The safe popped open, and I scrambled through it, grabbing all the zip drives inside. I had no clue what I was taking, but the pink tipped one was sure to be in there. I closed the safe and stood.

  "We gotta go." Cole pressed his hand to the door and opened it slowly. "They had to see the dogs out front."

  "Try not to kill anyone. I'm tired of burying bodies with you." I slipped the zip drives in my jeans pockets and prepared myself to run through the house with him if that was the plan.

  "There are two of them from what I can hear. One is down here. I'll knock him out. Just get ready to move."

  "Let me get him." I tried to muscle my way around my brother, but he wouldn't have any of it.

  "Fuck off. Be quiet and let's go." Cole opened the door, and I could've sworn my heart was thundering loud enough to gain everyone's attention. I hadn't done anything too nefarious in three or four years, nor did I ever want to again. The staunch realization that I was ready to be a responsible adult rolled over me five times by the time we reached the front door. Wherever the guards were, neither of them were within eyesight.

  "Be careful and keep your eyes open," Cole whispered as he pulled the front door open and slipped out into the night. He hauled ass across the short stretch of grass to get to the gate. He pushed on it as I ran after him. "The code. What's the code?"

  I typed it in as the door opened and closed behind us.

  "Hey! Hey! What the fuck do you think you're doing?"

  "Run." I slipped through the gate after my brother and ran toward the truck as the sound of a gunshot filled the air. I could only pray that Cole didn't get hit. I didn't stop to look until I was in the truck. Lucky for his ass, he was right next to me...

  "Stop making eyes at me and drive. Shit." He pulled out his gun. "Now Ian."

  I turned the truck on and hit the gas, barely missing the large guy that barreled after us.

  Cole dropped his had back and laughed. "Holy shit. Did we just pull that off?"