“Don’t worry about it,” she said, walking the other way.
If he hadn’t been as eager as he was—a word he liked better than stubborn—he would have followed. Instead he swung open the back door and stepped outside, eyes already searching for a car that would just scream Nikki Waters. However, the question of what she drove died on his tongue. Less than a foot out, he spotted a blue four-door in the corner of the lot. The words Orion Bitch could be seen through the windows of the car next to it.
Chapter Three
Nikki sighed heavily behind him.
“Your car trouble is graffiti,” Jackson deadpanned.
“Yes. Now can we go?” Nikki placed her hands on her hips.
“Is there anything on the other side?”
He could tell she was holding back an eye roll when she answered.
“Yes. It says the same thing.”
Jackson raised his brow, but the woman was already retreating. He followed without a word to the temporary roadside parking. She didn’t have to ask what car was his. Nikki walked up to his Ford and waited for him to unlock it, quickly opening the door herself.
She was definitely a fan of control.
“So I guess you really did do your research on me,” Jackson said when he settled in. “You didn’t have to ask which car was mine.”
“We’re very thorough with our vetting process. We like to have all the facts.”
“We? But aren’t you the boss? Aren’t you the one who makes all the final decisions?”
Nikki smiled; the look wasn’t particularly kind.
“That may be true, but I’m a team player,” she said. “I never make big decisions without the input of my employees.”
Jackson pulled out into traffic and started on their way.
Did that mean she’d gotten consensus about him? He’d been hired so quickly she wouldn’t have had the time, would she? And did that mean that everyone within Orion knew about him? About his past? Instead of asking any of these questions, he asked a more pressing one.
“Do you know who did that to your car?”
Nikki tensed further. He didn’t miss her hand half fist before she caught herself and went about smoothing the wrinkle in her jeans. She did know who did it.
“No,” she lied. “Probably someone who just wanted to cause some trouble.”
“But it was oddly specific. Whoever did it knows you.”
Nikki shrugged.
“I’m sure it’s nothing. I’ll have it taken care of later,” she said, eyes following the cars outside the windshield. “Not a big deal. Jackson—” she started, then stopped. She seemed to be rethinking what she had been about to say. “There’s no need to tell Kelli or the others,” she said. “They’d worry for no reason.”
Jackson gave her a knowing smirk. “So you do know who did it, then.”
Nikki gave a smile, but it was mocking. One that burned bright and then was doused. It was a telltale sign of annoyance. Nikki didn’t like him. Yet she had hired him. Before he could stop himself, he had to ask why.
“You’ve read all my files, and I’m betting you didn’t just stop at my criminal record,” he started. “Not trying to sound ungrateful, but why did you hire me? Not many people who know what happened give me the time of day.”
He didn’t look at her as he asked, keeping his eyes on the traffic, but from his peripheral he could almost see her harden. This time it wasn’t from tension.
It was something else.
“Because everyone deserves a second chance.”
They didn’t talk the rest of the way to Orion. Nikki brought out her phone and seemingly answered emails until he stopped the car outside the brick building. In large metal letters, ORION SECURITY GROUP hung like a beacon above the double front doors, sunlight reflecting from it onto the asphalt. The name meant little to him, but he hadn’t missed the reverence Jonathan had displayed while talking beneath it the day before. This place was a job, but Jackson was starting to see it meant more to a few of them than just that.
“Thank you for the ride,” Nikki said before opening her door. “If you want to use the gym during the call, feel free.”
Jackson raised his brow at her before glancing in the backseat at his duffel bag. He’d already planned on hitting the gym after he dropped her off. She opened the door and turned back, throwing out a wink. “What I lack in passion I make up for in keen observation skills.”
The way she said it, voice dipping low, coupled with her playful wink and matching smirk, momentarily kept Jackson still in his seat. He was starting to think that maybe having Nikki Waters as his boss might be harder than any client or case they threw his way.
Jackson grabbed his bag, taking her up on her offer, and followed her in. He wasn’t about to touch the jab about his jab about passion and how she might need more of it in her life. Somehow he thought it might be a harder task to apologize to the woman. If he didn’t do it the right way, then he’d do more damage than good.
A woman with short blond hair and a small baby bump met them in the lobby. When she saw Jackson, she gave him a big smile with a fun laugh tacked on.
“Jonathan wasn’t sure you’d get here in one piece,” she greeted, confirming it was Kelli. “Glad you survived.”
Nikki let out a particularly loud sigh.
“Of course it was Jonathan,” she muttered. “Where is he?”
“Already in the conference room, talking to Oliver on the phone. He said he has everything set up for the meeting.”
“Good.” Nikki turned to Jackson and motioned to Kelli. “Jackson, this is Kelli Tranton. Word to the wise, if you leave any food in the break room refrigerator, this one right here will most likely eat it.”
The two women laughed together while Kelli pointed to her stomach in defense.
“Blame Mark Tranton for that,” she said, motioning to her pregnant belly. “Just be grateful I’m not eating your chocolates.”
“My what?” Nikki asked, playful mood on pause.
Kelli’s face lit up and she moved behind the secretary’s desk.
“I almost forgot! These were on the doorstep in a box this morning with your name on them.” Kelli produced a heart-shaped box of chocolates with a ribbon tied around it. “There’s no name aside from yours on it. Must be a secret admirer. Just be thankful I got it before the heat did.”
Jealousy, swift and pungent, moved through Jackson. It caught him by surprise. Why should he care that his boss had an admirer? He’d only met the woman yesterday afternoon.
“Oh, and it came with this, too. I didn’t open it.” Kelli handed over what looked like a blank white envelope. It wasn’t even sealed. Jackson watched as Nikki uncertainly took out an equally plain sheet of printer paper and unfolded it.
And just like that, Nikki’s body language completely changed. Her good mood evaporated. The shift was so quick that it put Jackson on alert.
“What is it?” Kelli asked, not missing the change, either.
Nikki rescanned whatever was written on it before answering.
“It’s nothing,” she said, voice a little too harsh. She readjusted her mood, adding a smile to her lips and folding the paper back up. “Just some nonsense of a man trying too hard.”
Jackson might not have known the beautiful woman next to him, but he knew in that moment, without a doubt, that she was telling a lie.
A big one at that.
Nikki made a beeline for her office and was back out and into the conference room before Jackson had even walked into the bathroom to change. He threw on a pair of slick black athletic shorts that cut off at the tops of his knees and a loose tank top. It had the silhouette of a wolf drinking a beer as a logo superimposed against the blue cotton. He looked down at the obnoxious shirt and realized it might be
time to buy new workout clothes. At the gym he frequented near his place, often he’d lose the shirt halfway through his routine, but Jackson thought that, considering how he’d started off with the boss, keeping said shirt on might be best.
His thoughts on his apparel drifted as he left the bathroom and headed to the gym. Starting with the weights lining the back wall, he tried to keep his mind away from his boss. Less than two days on the new job and he was already having to distract himself.
* * *
“WAS IT JUST me or did he talk way more than he needed to?”
Oliver Quinn’s voice floated up from the middle of the table on the conference phone’s speaker. He seemed to be picking up on exactly what Nikki was feeling. Jonathan nodded from the seat next to her.
“He sure seemed to like the sound of his voice,” Jonathan added. “We should have let him run the meeting.”
Oliver snorted.
“Nik is nice but not that nice,” he said.
“You best remember that,” she responded, pinching the bridge of her nose. A headache had planted itself between her eyes while their now confirmed client chattered on endlessly. “I’ll tell you, though, nice, professional or otherwise, I’m starting to get tired of the wealthier clients.” She looked down at her notes and the name that lined the top.
Oliver, ever the encouraging one, jumped in before she could continue. “Hey, remember, occasionally we need to work with the rich to help the not-so-rich. We’re like—”
“Robin Hood,” Nikki and Jonathan finished at the same time. Oliver laughed.
“I guess I say that a lot,” he ventured.
Nikki nodded to the phone. “Every time we don’t like one of the snobby clients.” But as she said it, she realized that it was something she liked to be reminded of from time to time. Orion worked on a mostly pro bono basis, giving security to those who really needed it despite their financial status. However, good intentions couldn’t always pay the bills for them to keep the business going. That meant that once in a while they had to take on a much wealthier client to keep Orion’s doors from closing. In a month she would dispatch a team to protect Grant Riley, something of a technology guru with little tact and a lot of attitude. Nikki sighed, already knowing that it would be an interesting contract.
“Well, boys, there’s something I need to take care of really quickly, so can you two give Mark a call and loop him into what’s going on?” Nikki looked down at her cell phone’s clock. “He should be on break now.”
Oliver said, “Aye aye, captain,” while Jonathan saluted. If her thoughts hadn’t already turned back to the chocolates and accompanying letter, she would have smiled or laughed. As it was, she left the conference room and swiftly went to reception.
There, she addressed Kelli with more force than she’d intended. “I need your car for a bit.”
* * *
JACKSON WATCHED THROUGH the Plexiglas windows of the gym as Nikki walked to the front of the building with the pinched expression of someone deep in thought. He stopped his workout and decided it was time to take a break, too. Getting some water from the cooler just outside the door, he waited for Jonathan to follow. When he didn’t come out, Jackson moved closer to the door.
He heard voices on the other side.
Jackson moved down the hall toward reception and peeked through the cracked door. Kelli was on the phone. He craned his head around without notice from the woman and scanned the rest of the room.
No Nikki.
Jackson downed the rest of his water and decided to make a bad decision.
Thirty seconds later his cup was in the trash and he was standing in Nikki’s office, the door closed behind him. He wasn’t surprised that it hadn’t been locked. Nikki seemed to trust everyone in Orion without issue. Well, maybe not him. Not yet anyway. And, well, maybe not if she caught him now.
But I’m trying to help, he reasoned with himself.
Something was definitely wrong with the woman and that letter she’d received. Not to mention the graffiti on her car. Jackson might not have known her well at all, but what he could bet of Nikki Waters was that she didn’t easily ask for help.
So he’d do it without her knowledge. It was the least he could do when she’d given him the job.
Jackson moved across the woman’s desk and the files on top without trying to pry. Next he went to the filing cabinet in the corner and slowly slid the top open. Folders with employee names filled it, even his. Temptation to see his file was great, but he didn’t want to push his luck any more than he already had done by staying longer in the office. He didn’t know when Nikki would be back and he had no idea when Jonathan would be done. He closed the cabinet and went back to the desk.
There he noticed the tiny drawer on top with the lock on the outside and knew without a doubt that was where she’d put her letter.
You shouldn’t be doing this, Jackson thought as he grabbed a paper clip from a neat little tray on the desk’s top. This is a breach of trust, he thought as he unfolded the clip. If she catches you, then the one good dose of luck you’ve had in a while will go down the drain. Jackson began to pick the lock, drowning out his own concerns until one thought repeated and the drawer opened.
Old habits die hard.
There, folded just how it had been when handed over to her, was the white sheet of paper resting on top. With only a small hesitation Jackson picked it up and unfolded it.
“What the hell?” he asked the room.
There were no declarations of love or even like and there was no name. Typed in tight black font were only three short lines of text.
Even stranger, they were addresses.
Jackson took a picture of the letter before returning it to the drawer. He then put the paper-clip-turned-lock-pick in his pocket and quietly left Nikki’s office. As far as he could tell, Jonathan was still talking to the same people he had been and Nikki hadn’t yet returned. He went back to the gym and looked at the picture.
Something didn’t feel right.
No, something was wrong.
Chapter Four
The first address was in Colorado. The second was in Wisconsin. The third was in Arkansas. All appeared to be, according to an internet search, residential.
Jackson stared at his phone for a moment as if it would explain who lived at the addresses, why they had been sent to Nikki and who had sent them. His phone didn’t answer him, so he decided that a more personal search might yield better results. Like a dog after a bone, he grabbed another cup of water and tried to look casual as he walked into the lobby. Kelli looked up and smiled.
“Taking a break or done?” she asked.
Jackson made a show of stretching his muscles.
“A break,” he answered. “I thought I’d come up here and say hello again.”
Kelli’s smile seemed genuine as she said hello again. She offered him a seat in one of the plush chairs, which he declined with the excuse that he was on the sweatier side of comfort. She laughed and rubbed her belly. Absently Jackson wondered if she knew about his past, too.
“Sorry again about sending you after Nikki this morning,” Kelli said, expression truly apologetic. “I heard the two of you didn’t get off on the best foot when you met and Jonathan made the point that maybe the ride would help. But honestly, I don’t think Nikki is in the best of moods today.”
Jackson arched an eyebrow. He could get somewhere with this conversation now.
“So it isn’t just me that’s gotten her wound tight?” he asked, half laughing.
Kelli shook her head. “To be fair, her job requires her to be somewhat tightly wound but, no, I don’t think it’s wholly you.”
Jonathan found he was a bit relieved at that.
“I imagine running your own security agency can’t be easy,” he said, alre
ady gearing up to aim for a specific question. “You make friends, sure, but I bet you make some enemies depending on each bodyguard’s success.”
The expression on Kelli’s face seemed to darken momentarily, her eyes unfocusing enough to make Jackson believe she was thinking of the past, before her happy disposition snapped back into place.
“Understandably, this job can be very dangerous,” she said. “And understandably, that has made some people very angry.”
“I’d imagine some hold a grudge,” he added on. “You think any of them might act on it?”
Kelli gave him a questioning look, one that didn’t seem to be suspicious, but he knew that wasn’t far behind. He’d been an Orion employee for only a day and here he was, asking about the bad side of things.
“Sorry, I just don’t know much about this place,” he admitted. “I just want to know what I’ve signed up for, and like you said, I got off on the wrong foot already with the boss, so I’d like to not ask her about the people who might dislike her and her company.”
Kelli seemed to like his answer and smiled.
“To be honest, all the people I think would hold grudges and act on them are mostly locked away in a prison somewhere with no hope of leaving,” she said. “At least not for a very, very long time. Believe me, I’ve personally seen some of those people put away.”
Again, Jackson felt his eyebrow rise in question. At some point he’d need to sit down and ask Kelli what she meant by that, but now he wanted to push the question he’d really been targeting. “So there’s no one who could really mess with Nikki, then?”
As Kelli shook her head, Jackson saw a new thought seemingly pop up behind her eyes. She furrowed her brow, about to voice it, when the door behind them opened. Jackson turned, feeling weirdly guilty, but stopped when he saw Nikki and the expression across her face.
She was angry.
“Is everything okay?” Kelli asked, but the redhead was already moving past them at a fast, determined clip.
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