Steady (Pleasant Valley Book 3)

by Anna Brooks

  “If you must know, I was neither.” When I get up to make my way to the shower, he reaches out and hooks an arm around my waist, pulling my back to his chest.

  “If you were neither of those, then what is it?” His hand glides up my stomach, and when he reaches the underside of my breast, I give in.

  “Whose room is this?”

  The moment the words are out of my mouth, he drops his hand and steps back. “Go take your shower, babe. I’ll make us some breakfast.”

  I want to force him to tell me, but I know he will on his own time. He hasn’t said as much, but I know bringing me here is a big deal. So I go against my instincts and hop in the shower to clean up then meet him downstairs when I’m finished. His back is to me, but when I walk into the kitchen, he turns and glances at me.

  “Are you sure?” His voice is low as he talks to the person on the phone. “Fuck.” His eyes don’t leave mine, but his words are directed at the person on the other end of his cell. “I’ll figure it out and let you know.”

  A knock on the door causes me to jump about four feet, and Erik smirks as he ends his call. “It’s just Chris; he brought my Jeep. Have a seat and I’ll be right back.” He pulls a chair out at the small buffet table and nods at it then walks down the hallway where I hear a door open and the murmurs of two male voices.

  The view mesmerizes me, and I walk closer to the door instead of the table. I thought Lake Michigan was beautiful… but it doesn’t have anything on the damn Pacific Ocean. One of my foster homes was a couple of blocks away from a beach, and oftentimes, I’d walk down there to get away from the chaos of living with random kids and a set of ‘parents’ who really just wanted the money from the state.

  “You hungry?” Erik’s voice pulls me from my thoughts, and I make my way to the table.

  “Yeah. What did you make?”

  “Not much.” He sets a bowl of cut up fruit, a bowl of eggs, a plate of toast, and a plate with sausage and bacon in the middle of the table.

  It consumes almost all the surface area, and I laugh. “Where are we supposed to eat?”

  “I didn’t realize there was so much.”

  “Ya think?” I hop off the stool and grab an empty plate then begin filling it up. “Wanna go outside?”

  “Yeah. That sounds great.” Erik loads up his plate, too, and we make our way to the patio. We sit on the steps, and I prop my plate on my thighs.

  In the distance, I can hear kids screaming and the sound of laughter. I glance around to find the source of the noise. “Do you know your neighbors?”

  “Kind of. Enough to wave when we pass but not enough to remember the kids’ names.”

  “Hmm.” I chew on a piece of bacon.

  “We were in my parents’ room.”

  Not expecting the admission, I almost choke on my bacon, but Erik pats my back.

  “I’m good.” After clearing my throat, I ask, “Is it hard for you to be in there?”

  “Yeah. I had the entire room stripped and all new furniture added. I did the same to my childhood room but left the guest room the same. Kind of took me off guard when you asked, but I should have known you’d notice.”

  “Notice what?”

  “How … lifeless the house seems.” He shrugs and shovels the last bite of his food into his mouth.

  “Not the whole house, just the room. It’s empty.”

  After setting his plate on the step at his feet, he turns to me. “I want to take you somewhere today. Well, two places, really.”

  “Okay.” I’m excited to see where we go.

  * * *

  When we end up at a cemetery, I kind of wish I would have asked what our destination was. Erik stops his four-door Jeep and shuts the engine off. Wordlessly, he gets out and walks around to me then opens the door and helps me down.

  His hand in mine leads the way, and I bite my lip to halt the questions from coming out of my mouth.

  “Smith always asked me where I’d go when I disappeared. He usually thought I was off on a bender somewhere, which was the case sometimes. But most of the time, I was here. If I wasn’t working, I’d come here to visit them.” He stops in front of two large gravestones and nods at them. “I’d stay at the beach house alone,” he adds. “Then I’d come here.”

  He sets his hand atop a stone.

  Mae Marie Anderson

  Loving wife and mother

  “It wasn’t until after Sophia that I had the courage to come and talk to them.” His hand moves to the slightly larger stone.

  Andreas “Ace” William Anderson

  Devoted husband and father

  “To ask for forgiveness.” He turns toward me and sets his hand, now cold from the cement block, on the side of my face. “And when I met you, when I realized what I really felt for you, everything made sense. I understood my father’s last words; I got that he wasn’t really disappointed in me, but in himself for putting that kind of responsibility on me. I was just a kid.” He drops his hand and his head.

  “You were.” I love that he’s not holding himself accountable.

  “Chris was sick that night. For about the only time in his life, he was fighting the stomach flu. I remember him coming into the kitchen with a barf bag in his hand. My mom took one look at him; he was pale, almost looked green, and she shooed him away, but he refused to leave.” He laughs. “She had to call my dad and get him to order Chris to leave.

  “They didn’t intend to kill my mom. All they wanted was to steal her jewelry and break into the safe. They taunted her for a bit, fucked with her and threatened a bunch of shit. It was when they threw her, and she hit her head on the coffee table. That was what killed her. When my dad shot himself, the noise alerted Chris that something was wrong. He found me. Them. He found us all.”

  My heart breaks a little more every time I hear his story. Every time I learn more details. Words won’t help him. Doesn’t matter what I say, nothing can make him feel better about it. So I do the only thing I know how. I wrap my arms around him and hold him as tight as I can.

  “Somehow they got to the front door, so I assumed they’d already been through security at the gate. It was stupid of me to open it. I thought they were delivering something. Chris blames himself just as much, if not more than I do. We still fight about it to this day, but I hope there will come a time that we both can think about my parents without the first thought being their death.”

  “I hope that, too.”

  He kisses the top of my head, and we stand just like this for a little while. I truly feel honored that he brought me here and shared this with me. The vibration from his phone interrupts our moment, and he sighs before pulling it out of his back pocket.

  “Shit. I gotta take this, baby.”

  He answers his call and walks away a few feet while I take a seat on the bench directly across his parents’ graves. I can’t hear any actual words, but I can definitely sense an angry tone in his voice. When he comes back and stands in front of me, it’s more than apparent I’m correct. His jaw’s clamped tight, and he shoves his phone into his pocket with so much force I’m surprised the denim doesn’t rip. “Gotta head to The Firm for a bit.”

  “The Firm?” I ask as I stand.

  “Yeah.” He doesn’t elaborate but takes my hand and leads me back to his Jeep. Once inside, he drives with ease, and about forty minutes later, we pull up to a run-down building. A press of a button and the brick splits in half and becomes two doors that are opening. “What the hell?”

  “Indoor parking garage.”

  He drives in, and I absorb the steel and metal. Black vehicles line either side, and Erik backs into a space. I jump when he opens my door, too busy to even notice that he got out of the vehicle. He takes my hands in his. “You okay?”

  “Uh.” I give a shake of my head. “Where are we, exactly?”

  “You’re at the best damn protection firm in the country,” a loud voice booms, and Erik’s face lights up.

  “You mean the world?” Erik
turns and shakes hands with a man who looks straight out of an action movie. Short buzzed hair, black t-shirt, black cargo pants, black boots, and a pair of aviators hooked onto the neck of his shirt.

  “Now that you’re back, it is.” He pats Erik’s back then looks at me. “You must be Polly.”

  My face must register my surprise because he laughs. “You think big man here would keep you a secret?”

  “What?”

  “He’s not going to hide someone as pretty as you.”

  “Watch yourself, Royce,” Erik warns as he gives me a gentle tug so I hop out of the Jeep. He throws his arm around me. “Polly, Royce. Royce, Polly.”

  I shake Royce’s outstretched hand. “Nice to meet you.”

  “Same.” He nods. “Everyone’s waitin’ for ya whenever you’re ready.” When he turns around and walks away, I notice a gun tucked into the back of his pants.

  Erik waits until he’s out of listening range. “Royce has only been with us for a little while, just turned nineteen, but the kid’s sharp as a tack. He’s got some issues he’s working through and some growing up to do before he goes into solo protection.”

  “I’m so confused right now,” I tell Erik.

  “I know, baby. I’m sorry. I haven’t gone into detail about this much. I promise I’ll give you more details later.” He takes my hand in his and leads me through the industrial garage and down a hallway. When we reach a door, he turns the knob and pushes it open. “I’ve got something to take care of really quick, and then we’ll talk some more, okay?”

  “Okay.” I follow him into an office and take in the photos. “Is that the president?” I shriek the words the moment my eyes hit a photo on the wall. “And that’s Hunter Dean!” Hunter is a super famous actor.

  “Yeah. I told you I took some jobs every once in a while.” He shrugs. “I’ve lived here more than The Valley the past six-ish years until I met you.”

  I have to remember he comes from a famous family, so to him, this isn’t a big deal. I’ve also just realized I’ve only hit the tip of the iceberg with this man. I have so much more to discover under the surface.

  “This is my office. Make yourself at home. There’s not much in here, but here.” He hands me his phone. “You can mess around on that while I’m gone. The fridge is stocked, and the cabinet above it has a bunch of food. I’ll be back shortly.” He kisses me before he leaves and closes the door behind him.

  I’m left to wander around the room and stare at the photos. There’s one of him and his father. He looks so much like him it’s almost scary. Erik is about ten or eleven, I’d guess. He’s standing next to his dad with his arms crossed, copying his dad’s pose. They’re both dressed like Royce is, and it’s the most adorable thing ever.

  There are more photos of celebrities and a couple of Erik and his parents. I sit in his desk chair, which is super comfy, and scroll through his phone but quickly realize I don’t really know how to work any of the buttons.

  There is a knock on the door, and before I have a chance to say anything or get up, it’s swung open. I was halfway out of the seat, but when I see who it is, I fall back down.

  “Hey. Erik around?” Hunter Dean. Hunter fucking Dean asks me. Me.

  “Uh,” I stutter.

  “Uh. He around or not?” he snaps.

  “He’s in a meeting.”

  “Fuck.” He runs his hands through his hair, his shoulder-length signature blond hair. “I’ll just wait here.”

  “Oh, I don’t know if he—”

  “Well, I do know, and he’ll want to see me.”

  Wow, this guy’s a douche canoe. His public persona is way different than this pompous attitude.

  “Get me a water while I wait,” he says as he’s looking at his phone.

  Now, I’m very easy going and I don’t usually let things get to me, but something about the assumption that I’m here to serve him rubs me the wrong way. I worked too hard in my life to be treated like trash, even by a rich ass movie star. “I don’t work for Erik.”

  “And I care because?” God, the audacity. He doesn’t even look up from his phone to insult me.

  “The fridge is over there. If you want something, you can get it yourself.” I lean back in the chair and flip through the phone again even though I have no clue what I’m doing. Just to have something to do with my hands.

  I hear movement but don’t give him the satisfaction of looking up. However, when his face looms above me, I have no choice but to crane my neck. “Listen, bitch. I don’t know who you think you are, but you’d better realize who I am real fast beca—”

  He stops talking when his head is yanked back and his face slammed against the desk. “Hunter Dean, is that any way to talk to Erik’s fiancée?” Royce says as his eyes are assessing me. For being so young, he certainly acts like a much older man.

  Below him, Hunter struggles to get up, but Royce holds him down with ease. “Fuck, man. I didn’t know.”

  “Even if she wasn’t, you think that’s how you talk to a lady? Think you can come in here and disrespect a woman like that by gettin’ up in her face?”

  “What the fuck did you just say?” Erik’s angry voice fills his office, and Royce winks at me.

  “I’m sorry, man. I didn’t know who she was. I thought she was your secretary or some shit.” Hunter’s voice has taken on a higher pitch.

  A couple of other guys, each scarier than the last, stand outside Erik’s door with amused looks on their faces as they watch the drama unfold.

  “Let him up,” Erik demands as he steps fully in the room and next to me. “You okay?”

  I nod, unable to actually form a word at the moment since I’m surrounded by so much testosterone it’s practically choking me.

  “Thought I made it clear last time, Hunt. We will not be providing our services to you anymore. You are not welcome here, and you definitely do not have the privilege of walking into this building, into my office, and speaking to my woman.”

  This side of him is one that I’ve been embarrassed to admit that I really, really like. So yeah, kind of melting a little as he speaks.

  “Erik, man. Come on.”

  “No. You lied to me, Hunter.”

  “I had to!” he yells. All the other men tense up as Hunter’s anger escalates, and Erik takes a step closer to me. “I had to. My agent told me I needed to clean up my image. I didn’t think it’d go bad.”

  Royce laughs, and Erik shoots him with a look clearly meant to tell him to shut the fuck up. “You seem to think I give a shit, Hunt.”

  “Come on, Erik.” Hunter shifts nervously. “Nobody else will help me.”

  “I know.”

  “What do you mean you know?”

  Erik looks at me then at Royce. “Can you finish giving Polly the tour?”

  Royce nods. “Yup.”

  “Go on with him, baby. I’ll find you in a minute.” He holds his hand out for me. I take it, and he kisses me gently on the lips before patting my ass as I walk out.

  Chapter 23

  Erik

  Once Royce walks out, Gio and Carter silently ask me if they should stay. I shake my head at them, and they close the door. Once it clicks, I give my attention back to Hunter.

  He swallows and holds his hands out. “I’m really sorry, Erik. I was out of line. I just—”

  “I don’t give a rat’s ass. I told you, Hunter, from the beginning, before you even signed the contract, that in order for us to do our jobs, we needed the absolute truth from you. Not only for your own protection but for my guys, too.”

  “I swear that was the only thing I lied about.”

  “It was one thing too many. Jesus, Hunter. You staged a robbery. For what? So you could look like the fuckin’ hero.”

  “Yes.” He hangs his head. “That’s exactly what I did. After the drunk driving last year and the sex tape earlier this year, my agent told me I needed to do something to get the public talking about me doing good.”

  I rub the bac
k of my neck, still dumbfounded that this guy is so damn stupid. “Wes is good. You know that. But you put him in a situation that he never should have been. Not only would I never want to have you as a client because you lied, but not one of my guys will want to protect you ever again.”

  “I’ll pay you double,” he pleads.

  “No.” I open the door. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got other business.”

  He stomps his feet as he walks out. I shake my head at his childish behavior and follow him to the front door where Gio is. He pushes the door open, and Hunter bumps into him as he makes his way through. Gio steps in the direction Hunter is going.

  “Leave him, Gio. He’s not worth it.”

  “I hate that fucker.” The door shuts, and Gio walks away.

  Voices from down the other hallway make my feet turn in that direction. Normally, we have a receptionist, but she quit the other day when her boyfriend’s job transferred to Florida. So when we saw Hunter from the monitor when he walked in, we finished up and went to deal with him. I made the mistake of turning my back to the camera, but I really didn’t think he’d be so stupid as to be a dick to Polly.

  That’s why Royce got there before I did. He saw him walk into my office where Polly was and took off. Reasons like that are part of why we hired on Royce at such a young age. He’s got a natural instinct which is something that you can’t teach. Naturally, we all followed him to my office. People like Hunter Dean are the worst part of this business. Then again, they’re why we’re in business in the first place, but still. Not all celebrities are pricks. When we get hired, it’s usually because there’s a problem and our clients trust us to take care of them, so they’re usually more than accommodating and respectful to me and my guys.

  As I get to the end of the hallway, I hear Polly laughing and know that Royce is layin’ on his charm. He’s got a way with the ladies, for sure. I’ve seen grandmas turn into little schoolgirls in front of him.

  “He did not.” Polly giggles.

  “He did. Your man is a regular old Casanova.”

  Ugh. I know exactly what story he’s telling her. I’m regretting my decision to have him be the one to take her out of the room, but he was the only one she’d met. “Shut it, Royce.”