Forgotten Bodyguard Box Set: A Forbidden Fruit Series

by Ali Parker

  I kicked in the door and stopped short as three guys turned toward me and lifted their gun.

  Jeremy, Daniel and Brant.

  "Come on in and join the party." Jeremy smiled and nodded toward the bed.

  Chloe was tied up, trashing about as they all stood around watching her.

  "Give me Chloe and I'll walk the fuck out of here and never look back." I pointed my gun at Jeremy as my arms shook.

  "Not happening." He laughed. "What is it with this woman, anyway? Melinda and Pauly gave up their lives for her, and now you? What the fuck?"

  "You guys get going. Mitch is going to announce you first." Brant motioned for Jeremy to leave. "I'll take of this. You guys helped me with my problem in the past and it's payback time."

  I couldn't keep my eyes off Chloe. She was pissed, but other than that, I couldn't see anything wrong with her. No blood or anything that would cause me to move toward full-blown panic.

  Shock rolled through me. "You were part of your family's murder?"

  "Politics requires sacrifice kid. Sympathy wins votes and loss binds people to one another. My life has been too good up to this point." Brant motioned for Daniel to move toward the window. "Get over there and look for the guy in the red shirt near the IT booth."

  Daniel nodded and walked over to the window with his snipper rifle.

  Red shirt? IT booth. Cole.

  "No." I lifted my hands. "Don't do this. I'll take Chloe and we'll never say a fucking word about any of this."

  "How can I trust you when you're the one that brought the zip drive to my office, seeking help in bringing Mitch down?" Brant's eyes narrowed as Daniel positioned himself to take my brother out.

  "I'm telling you that I don't give two shits about Senator Moore or anything he's up to. I care about Chloe and my brother. Let us go and we'll walk away and never look back."

  "He's lying." Daniel glanced over his shoulder and nodded.

  I didn't have time to reach either one of them before they fired their weapons. The sound of my scream as Chloe's body jolted on the bed in front of me would haunt me forever.

  Before I realized what I was doing, I turned and shot Daniel in the back and charged Brant. He lifted his gun to shoot me, never got a chance to pull the trigger. I didn't stop punching until I had him bleeding from the nose and mouth.

  Realization rolled over me. Brant and Daniel had fired their guns. Chloe and Cole. My girl and my brother. Fear like I'd never experienced in all of my life took hold of me, dragging me under and threatening to suffocate me.

  "Get him up. He's one of the bad guys." I could hear muffled voice in the background as two strong hands pulled at my shirt.

  "No." I jerked from them and tried to get to the bed as three cops leaned over the mattress. I screamed again. "No. Don't let her die. She's all I have. Please."

  The pulled me into the hall and dragged me down the stairs through the lobby toward a cop car. The sound of the crowd cheering in the background left my spirit broken. .

  "Hold up." The cop on my left paused and pressed his fingers to his ears. "Holy shit."

  "What's up?" The other cop repositioned me as I jerked against them.

  "Look at that." They turned as the scene of Brant's house burning in the distance played. This time there was sound to the video and every word muttered condemned the men involved.

  The shouts of joy in the distance soon turned to screams of horror. Somehow my brother had gotten the zip drive to the right guy and convinced him to play it, but what did it matter now?

  Without him and Chloe in my life, I was nothing. I closed my eyes and let the pain of loss tear away my vision until only darkness existed.

  I had failed them both. And this time there would be no redemption.

  Epilogue

  Ian

  It had been a month since the shooting, and nothing I believed true that night had come to fruition.

  Cole and Chloe had healed with a few stitches from the shooting, which was a fucking miracle. Daniel's shot was meant to scare me more than anything, but Brant's was intended to kill Chloe. Good thing the bastard wasn't good with a gun. My life would have been over had things turned out the way I envisioned the day the cops pulled me out of the hotel.

  My brother was on his way to New York to start a new life, and my girl was locked to my side forever, healthy and whole.

  "What are you staring at so intently?" Chloe smiled up at me as I turned to look down at her. Her long blond hair was pulled back into a playful ponytail, and damn if I didn't want to throw her over my shoulder and break the new office building in properly.

  "I'm trying to decide what color would look better on this sign." I wrapped my arm around her shoulders and stepped back to get a better view of the sign that hung above the front door.

  "I like the blue that Cole originally used." She wrapped her arms around my waist and smiled up at me. "You don't like it?"

  "I don't know. It reminds me too much of him." I leaned down to kiss the tip of her nose before releasing her. My brother being gone felt like a part of my heart was missing. I hadn't realized how closely my identity was tied to our relationship. I was having to grow and mature beyond the man I once was. He had a new life, and I was working to start mine.

  "Let's go to New York next weekend and visit him." She smiled and walked into the building, leaving me there with my thoughts. The CNN special over Senator Moore and his accomplices had aired earlier that morning, but I was waiting to share it with Chloe. She was in a good mood, and I didn't want to bring up the past and drag her down.

  We were just starting to get her past having horrible nightmares every night. As bad as they were, it left me with a sense of purpose and a stronger determination to protect her from any and everything.

  Mitch didn't survive the wounds I inflicted on him and somehow wound up buried next to Melinda in the middle of San Diego cemetery. Chloe had strong opinions about him taking the spot that we both knew belonged to Pauly, but we let bygones be bygones. There was no reason to drag up her mother's infidelities and further exploit her past.

  I walked into the office to find her sitting at my desk, the photo album that Cole had picked up from Pauly's apartment lying open before her.

  "You okay?" I pressed my shoulder against the open door frame and studied her. She was beyond beautiful and left my heart racing every time I walked into a room she was in.

  "Yeah. I just still can't believe that Jeremy was Mitch's son from a previous marriage. He'd been planning this rise to the top all of his life. Every step he took was calculated, including the ones where someone had to die." She shook her head and dragged her fingers across one of the pages. "I just feel like I didn't really know anyone from my past, including my mom and Pauly. I mean, shit... he never even told me that he was my dad, Ian. How could he keep that to himself?"

  "Because like all good fathers, he wanted to protect you." I moved toward her, stopping beside her and running my hand down the back of her hair. "I didn't know my parents either. I don't even have pictures, but you know what? My life is about you and the future. The past can stay locked up behind me. I don't want any part of it anymore."

  "You're right." She glanced up and pursed her lips. "This has to be about what's ahead of us, not what's behind."

  "Exactly." I leaned down and kissed the top of her head. "However, one thing you can be sure of is that your mother and Pauly loved you very much. These pictures make that more than obvious."

  "Yeah. Thank you for getting this for me." She stood up and moved into my arms. "I just can't believe it's all over."

  "It didn't go the way I expected, and if I would have lost you or Cole-" I stopped as my throat closed up. My whole world could have ended thanks to one fucking bullet and a misjudgment on my part.

  She moved back and reached up, brushing her fingers by my lips. "No more of that. We're both okay and plan on giving you shit for a really long time."

  "Oh yeah? You guys think I deserve some payback?"
/>
  "Well, you didn't take a bullet for us. I'm up two at this point." She laughed and slid her hands down my sides to cup my hips. "I can think of a few things you could do to make it up to me."

  I leaned in and wrapped my arms around her waist before standing back up and brushing my lips by her breasts. "Oh yeah? Like what?"

  "You can start by guarding my body if you want."

  I snorted. "I can think of a lot of things I'd rather do than guard your body."

  "I like the sound of that." She wrapped her arms around my neck as I pulled her down a little and gripped the back of her neck.

  "And here I thought you were a good girl all this time." I licked at her mouth and moved to press her against the far wall of our office. It was going to be a great life. We had some healing to do and some memories to lock away, but I had no doubt that between the two of us, time would heal all wounds.

  "Good. Then my tricks worked." She wrapped her legs around my waist and leaned down to consume my mouth, kissing me in a way that had the world disappearing around us.

  "I love you, whether you come good or bad." I moved to press my mouth to the side of her neck, kissing her as I rocked against her.

  "I love you too. Now, get to all those other things you mentioned, like me coming." She laughed against me as I growled low in my chest.

  The woman was going to be the death of me, but what life story we'd have to tell when that time came. My greatest fear was to never matter enough, to be quickly forgotten in the hearts of those that I loved most, but she wouldn't let that happen.

  Of that, I had no doubt.

  Want more?

  Join me for Ian’s brother, Cole’s story, “Illegally Detained” or Chloe’s College BFF, Alyssa’s story, “One Time.”

  Please make sure you’re part of my Insider’s Group or following me on Amazon or Bookbub if you want the update for this new release!

  Coming 2017!!

  Ali Parker Starter Library

  10 Novels – Free for You

  Ali would love to give you access to 10 Free Novels for joining her Insider Group.

  Ali writes everything from Second Chance Romance to Sexy College Sports to Romantic Suspense, and even a little bit of Romantic Erotica under Zoe Reid. Click the button below and tell us where we need to send the 10 free novels to!

  You deserve a getaway today… grab a good book and enjoy!

  Click Here!

  About the Author

  Ali Parker is a full-time contemporary romance writer who is looking to flood the market this year with lots of great, quick reads. She loves coffee, watching a great movie and hanging out with her hubs. By hanging out, she means making out. Hanging out is for those little creepy elves at Christmas. No tight green stockings for her.

  Ali on Amazon

  Website ~ Facebook ~ Twitter