DRAGON SECURITY: The Complete 6 Books Series

by Glenna Sinclair

  “I will escort your daughter to school and drive you to work. Since you are the target, I’ll remain with you. However, you’ll have to end your work day in time to pick your daughter up from school so that the two of you—”

  “We have a very strict shooting schedule for the next three weeks. I can’t alter it now. Too many people are involved. The logistics…”

  “But you don’t want your daughter spending time at the studio, do you?”

  “Why can’t we follow our regular routine and have Beth take care of Olivia after school?”

  “Because I would prefer not to have anyone here at the house when I’m not around.”

  “But—”

  “Like I said in the car, you need to follow my rules to the letter, or this won’t work.”

  Quinn’s jaw tightened, a muscle popping just below her right ear. But she simply nodded.

  “You don’t leave the house without me, not even to go check the mail. You need to go shopping, you need to attend a meeting, then you let me know ahead of time so that I can make arrangements. From now until the danger has passed, you clear everything past me. Do you understand?”

  Again that muscle popped. She clearly wasn’t used to depending on other people for much of anything. That was something I could almost admire about her.

  “You must think that I’m overreacting. I guess they showed you the letters…”

  “Megan showed me one.”

  “I get fan letters. The production company I worked for before, and now mine, has a website and a post office box where fans can send letters. I’ve gotten letters before. But these…I’ve never gotten anything like them. And when the pictures came—”

  “Pictures?”

  She got up and took a couple of Polaroids from a drawer and handed them to me. Megan hadn’t mentioned pictures, and she certainly didn’t mention that they were of the kid. That bothered me, making me wonder if maybe I should be spending my time watching over Olivia instead of wasting it on Quinn.

  “Someone knows who I am, and that’s impossible. My face hasn’t been shown on any of these movies in six years. For someone to connect my face with my professional name…they’d almost have to have inside information. I used a different name before I stopped showing my face, and now I use a professional name—Milly LeBouche—that has absolutely no connection to my private life. I have no idea how they found my daughter or me. It’s…it’s creepy.”

  “Megan has her investigators tracking the letters. We’ll figure out who’s doing this. Probably by the end of the week.”

  She nodded, but she didn’t seem convinced.

  “You don’t trust easily.”

  She glanced at me. “Neither do you.”

  That caught me by surprise. “What makes you think that?”

  “You give off this aura, like a wall between you and everyone else. People who do that, in my experience, have been deeply damaged by something.”

  “Haven’t we all?”

  A quick smile burst over her full lips, but then disappeared just as quickly.

  “Let me show you to your room.”

  I followed her upstairs, trying not to watch the way her ass moved under those tight jeans, like perfectly round melons bouncing just slightly in a sling. She had legs that were slender and delicate, but also ripe with muscle, the kind of legs a runner might have. And there was this gap between her legs that gave me thoughts I shouldn’t be having. And that ass…she was incredibly sexy. She could probably sell millions of copies of her movies with just stills of that erotic body.

  “I don’t really have a guest bedroom,” she said, directing me to the left of the stairwell. “I use this room as an office, but there’s a couch that pulls out into a bed.”

  She flipped on the light and exposed a large room with an antique roll top desk in front of a tall window, several bookcases laden with dozens and dozens of titles, and the couch she’d mentioned pushed off to the back of the room.

  “This is fine.”

  “The bathroom is across the hall. You’ll have to share with Olivia, so don’t mind the bubble bath and the Cinderella toothpaste.”

  “Not a problem.”

  “I guess you’re used to this sort of thing.”

  I wasn’t, really. She was the first client that Megan was allowing me to take on alone. But Quinn didn’t need to know that.

  “What time in the morning?”

  She turned and regarded the closed door of Olivia’s room. “She has to be at school no later than seven forty-five. So we’ll need to leave about seven thirty.”

  “No problem.”

  She turned again, her eyes moving slowly over my face. “Just…thank you for being so nice to Olivia earlier. But, please, don’t encourage her to get too attached. She already had to leave all her friends behind when we moved from Austin. I don’t want her to lose someone else she considers a friend.”

  I wanted to ask why they’d moved, but I didn’t. It really wasn’t any of my business.

  She said a curt goodnight and disappeared behind the heavy wooden door of her bedroom. I waited a minute or two, then slipped back downstairs. I wanted to take a walk around the perimeter of the house and look for anything unusual. It was an old neighborhood in a part of the city that was making a comeback. There were houses a block away that looked like they were ready to be torn down, but then there were her neighbor’s houses and most of them were newly renovated, sporting fresh paint jobs and energy-efficient windows. There was some distance between them, more so than in most modern neighborhoods, but it was still a residential area in a large, overcrowded city.

  I walked between the houses, checking windows and window screens, making sure everything looked secure. The French doors at the back of the house still bothered me, but there was a lock on the back gate. Someone would have to climb the eight-foot fence to get to the doors, so I figured they were okay for one more night.

  I was crossing the backyard, headed back to the front of the house and my personal belongings in the back of the SUV when I happened to look up and catch Quinn’s shadow in an upstairs window. She lifted off her shirt as I watched, the sheer curtains blurring detail, but not everything. Her breasts were full, her nipples wide. That I knew from seeing her at work. But the way she stood in her bedroom, her arms lifted as she took down her ponytail, made her breasts seem even more erotic than the bare flesh had been. I felt a stirring deep in my belly as I watched her cross the room, lifting some other kind of garment over her head. I was almost ashamed of it, that need that burst through me. She was my client. It wasn’t my place to have such feelings for her—no matter what it was she did for a living.

  I rushed around the side of the house and grabbed my things, stopping in the bathroom long enough to brush my teeth before locking myself in Quinn’s office. It was late and I was exhausted, but my thoughts…I lay back on the couch without bothering to pull out the bed, my arm resting across my eyes. I didn’t even know what I was doing here in Texas. I should have gone home; I should have stayed in California. But home without Sydney wasn’t home.

  Cole was a good friend. It was kind of him to set me up with his sister’s security firm—even if it was for selfish reasons. He’d begged her for a job, but then he fell in love and found himself caught between a rock and a hard place. He didn’t want to let his sister down, but his new woman wanted to travel, so he compromised and called me. He knew I’d just left the military and that I was looking to do something other than brood about Syd. He knew everything because that’s what brothers did. They told each other all their dark secrets in the middle of the night when they were hunkered down by enemy fire.

  He’d said that this could be good for me and that this could take me out of my own head and make me stop blaming myself for an accident that was simply that: an accident. And he was probably right. But I didn’t think that any job could ever make me stop blaming myself for what happened to Syd.

  We shouldn’t have been drinking. And I
really shouldn’t have allowed her to take the keys to the truck. And I really, really shouldn’t have reached over and touched the wheel while she was negotiating those curves…

  I couldn’t stop seeing it happen over and over again. Even now, even in this strange woman’s house, it played itself out in my head until I had to get up and move so that I could stay a step ahead of my demons.

  I went downstairs, but stopped when I caught sight of Quinn sitting at the kitchen table, a mug between her hands.

  What demons was she trying to outrun?

  Chapter 4

  Megan

  I was still at the office close to midnight, finishing up paperwork. Since I had yelled at my people for not doing their paperwork, I thought I should get mine caught up, too. I was also waiting for Hayden, half-hoping he might have some good news for me for once.

  I shouldn’t have held my breath.

  He tapped on my door just as I was putting the last form in the last folder.

  “Got a minute?”

  “Tell me you have something.”

  He shook his head ever so slightly, his eyes never leaving my face. “I’m sorry. My friend…he looked at the police report, but it’s been too long. Even the test we had done on the paint scrapes…he said a Chevy Suburban is just too generic. There are too many of them out there to trace back to any one person. Especially black. There’s nothing more he could tell us except that he agrees that it wasn’t an accident.”

  Disappointment burned through me. I leaned back in my chair and regarded Hayden, annoyed by the sympathy I could see in his eyes.

  “Okay. So we regroup and go at it another way.”

  “I really think we’ve done all we can for now, Megan. If some new evidence were to come to light…”

  I nodded. “Is that your way of telling me that you’re ready to move on to something else?”

  “Of course not. I’m just trying to be realistic.”

  I stood up, slamming a file cabinet door with my hip. “Are you saying that I’m not being realistic?”

  “Megan—”

  “Don’t patronize me, Hayden.”

  “I’m not.” He grabbed my shoulders as I tried to move around him. “I know this is important to you. I’m just saying that maybe you shouldn’t have high expectations.”

  “Go to hell!”

  I shook his hands off and moved around him, surprised to find Dante leaning against a desk just outside my office, curiosity hard to ignore in his eyes.

  “Megan, please don’t,” Hayden said, following me out of the office.

  I spun on my heel and pressed a finger into his chest.

  “You do what you want to do. Okay? But this is my brother. This is my family. I don’t know about you, but family is fucking important to me. I don’t care about being realistic or having high expectations. I’m going to find out what happened with or without your help. Got it?”

  “I’ve got it.”

  I spun back around and pointed a finger at Dante.

  “Go home and mind your own business.”

  I marched out of there, aware that I was overreacting, but not really caring. I was tired, and I was frustrated, and I missed my brother and Luke…why did he have to leave me? Why couldn’t he come find me now? He’d left that note…

  Why did it feel like my life was unraveling a piece at a time, and it all began when Luke, my fiancé and the love of my life, left me at the altar two years ago?

  I needed a drink. That’s what it was.

  “Sam? Can you come over? I have this lovely bottle of wine…”

  Chapter 5

  Quinn

  I was mostly behind the camera today, watching over Coleman’s shoulder as he shot footage of another actress and the hot new hunk we managed to steal away from another production company. This footage was more BDSM than foot fetish, though she did use her foot in some very interesting ways. The final few scenes were due to the editors this weekend. The hunk was pretty hot. Tall and blond and looking pretty good once Susie did her magic with the body makeup and a little bit of baby oil. Almost as hot as the girl in the leather bustier and zippered mask.

  I was hyper aware of Vincent standing by the door, practically patting down everyone who came and went. Most of my production staff was aware of the threats I’d gotten, but some of the actors and their people were clearly annoyed by his attention. Everyone, that was, but this redhead who came with the hunk. She was hanging out by the door, talking to him about God knows what, twirling her hair and licking her lips like he was an ice cream sundae she couldn’t wait to devour.

  “Dragon boy seems to be having fun,” Susie said near my ear.

  I looked over just in time to see the redhead lean in and whisper something close to his ear. He didn’t acknowledge her, even when she touched his arm and continued to whisper. He actually glanced over at me, then shook her off, moving slightly to the left. The redhead seemed a little confused by his movement, but then she got the message and walked off.

  “He seems a little…” I didn’t know the word for it.

  “Aloof,” Susie supplied for me.

  I nodded. “He doesn’t talk much. But he seems to like Olivia. He had a whole conversation about Disney princesses with her at breakfast. She seemed to enjoy educating a man on that sort of thing.”

  Susie looked hard at me. “And Mom? Did she enjoy spending the evening alone with a man?”

  I knew I was blushing; I knew that Susie and Coleman were both taking special interest in my answer. But there was really nothing to tell.

  “He told me the rules of this arrangement, and then we both went to bed.” I brushed a piece of hair out of my face as I turned back to finish watching the last scene we’d filmed. “It’s not like this is some great romantic movie. I’m not Whitney Houston, and he’s not Kevin Costner.”

  “No,” Susie agreed. “He’s much better looking.”

  I gave her a look, and she laughed as she walked away. Somehow I found myself looking at Vincent when I had been watching Susie walk back to the dressing rooms. He was just standing there, looking completely bored out of his mind. But there was something about the intensity of his seemingly distracted gaze that told me he wasn’t bored. He was paying close attention to everything that was going on around him.

  He was…I would have to be blind to say he wasn’t good looking. He was impossibly good looking. The way his chest stretched out the front of that t-shirt was making my thoughts wander over the mountains and valleys that weren’t mine to think about. And those eyes…there was just something about them that made my body ache in places it never really had before. But he was distant. Detached. That was something I wanted to change. I didn’t know how and didn’t know why, but I wanted to draw him out. I wanted to hear that deep voice a little more; I wanted to know his story.

  I told myself that when this whole thing was over, he’d be gone and I’d never see him again. But I couldn’t help myself.

  ***

  Lunch was brought in by a caterer downtown and set out on tables at the front of the studio. I grabbed a plate, picking and choosing from the meats and vegetables provided, not sure if I was really hungry or if I was just ready to sit alone in my office for a little while and forget everything that had been happening in my life.

  The production staff swarmed the table behind me, all laughing and joking with each other. A lot of them I’d hired after we arrived in Houston. Some were college students hoping to get real life experience with film. Others were veterans of the porn industry I’d found through contacts back in Austin. They got along like brothers and sisters, though, usually happy to see each other, but occasionally fights broke out that had to be moderated. Today wasn’t one of those days, I was glad to see.

  I snuck away and settled on the long, microfiber couch in my office, sighing as every muscle that had tightened under the strain of trying to get a day’s worth of filming done on shorten schedule slowly began to relax. I set my plate on the couch beside me
and closed my eyes for a second, trying not to think about how much was left to do before Vincent insisted we call it a day at three.

  “Do you mind if I join you?”

  I opened my eyes, a little surprised to see Vincent, a plate in his hands, at the door.

  “Um…of course not.”

  He came inside and grabbed a chair, straddling it backwards. He dug into his food, wrapping a piece of ham around a chunk of cheddar cheese and popping the whole thing into his mouth.

  “Sorry about the rabbit food,” I said. “Most of the actors we work with are on strict diets and we try to comply with the food we provide.”

  “No problem. I’m always happy with anything that’s edible.”

  “Must make things easy for your wife or girlfriend.”

  He glanced at me. “I’m single.”

  “Yeah?” I couldn’t help the little titter of my heart at that idea. “Have you always lived in Houston?”

  “No. I’ve only been here a couple of months.”

  “Where are you from?”

  He glanced at me, those dark eyes almost boring through me. “You just moved to Houston, didn’t you?”

  “Almost three months ago.”

  “Why?”

  I picked up my own plate and picked at the sliced carrots I’d chosen. He wasn’t going to make this easy, was he?

  “I made it known that I wanted to start my own production company, and the people I was working for, they didn’t really like that idea.”

  “Why not?”

  “I was making too much money for them. They wanted to keep me in front of the camera. But my contract was up and I was ready to get out of there, so they blackballed me. One of the producers even threatened to out me.”

  “Really? He wanted to make your real name public?”

  “Not only that, but he apparently had some footage of my face from a movie we’d done some time ago and he threatened to put that out on the internet if I didn’t resign with his company.”

  “Did he?”