Page 11 of Guarding Grace (Hawk Security #2)

Grace

We hustled downstairs and into Terry’s Porsche, where I expected to get a chance to take a breath. Wrong. When he pulled away from the curb, the beast of an engine roared, and its power threw me back against the seat.

“Speed won’t do me any good,” I squeaked, “if I don’t get there in one piece.” It didn’t hurt much, but because of the cut in my ass, I sat crooked in the seat.

“Trust me, Kitten. I’ll get you there safely.”

Kitten . I liked the sound of that much better than his other names for me. Still, it took a minute of white-knuckling the door handle and pressing my feet against the floorboards before I relaxed.

Eventually, I realized Terry knew how to drive fast. His hands were sure on the wheel, and he methodically scanned the mirrors and traffic ahead as we darted between lanes and rounded corners.

Maybe it was the adrenaline from that kiss that had my motor revved, but I soon found watching him drive at hyperspeed to be sexy.

“Why were you meeting with Elliot?” he asked as he sped by another car.

I braced as he hit the brakes to slow for a delivery truck. “He called. He needed my help, and I had to go because he’s?—”

“I get it. So what did he say? What’s going on with him? ”

There wasn’t much, but I tried to recall it exactly. “I don’t know details, but it sounds like he’s a courier for some criminal. He said his boss sent the guys at the restaurant.”

Terry nodded. “That would have to be Tall Tony Russo, head of the Italian mob in town. He’s bad news. Fuck, they all are. The first two who attacked you worked for him. How did the little snot get on the wrong side of them?”

“He said a delivery went wrong.”

“It figures he wouldn’t know better than to work with those whack jobs.” He huffed. “What kind of delivery? Drugs?”

I sighed. “He didn’t say.”

“What else?”

“That’s all he told me before the goon squad arrived.” I shivered, remembering those few minutes.

“If that’s it, why meet with you?”

“He wanted the key to my warehouse space.”

“And you gave it to him?” he asked incredulously.

I looked out the window. “I had to. He needed my help.” Was I enabling more bad choices?

“Kitten, I’m not judging. Where is this warehouse?”

Kitten made me smile. I gave him the address. “Elliot said he needed to lie low.”

Terry considered things silently as we took the next corner. “Okay. We’ll look into it. Hopefully that’s where he went.”

“Thank you.” I rested my hand on his shoulder. “I mean that.”

He nodded. “I promise I’ll do what I can to help him. For you, not for him.”

As we drove on, I replayed what had happened in my apartment between me and this honorable man I’d always referred to as Tyrant.

Oh my God. I’d kissed Terry Goodwin, the one-time bane of my existence, and it had been breath-stealing.

He’d blown my mind by admitting to wanting me.

Instead of our day at Disneyland being an aberration, it had revealed the truth of how things could be for us—playful banter hiding attraction.

His crude meanness was the inconsistency, the falsehood.

And all for some stupid sense of obligation to my brother who’d died years ago.

I loved Pete and missed him terribly, but he wasn’t here and shouldn’t be a factor anymore. Like I told Terry, I was my own woman and could make up my own mind.

The first time Pete had gone on a deployment, it had been a hard talk. He’d sat me down to discuss the possibility that he wouldn’t make it back .

I’d cried a gallon of tears that day.

He’d insisted that if the worst happened, I should go on and live my life, relying on his best friend, Terry, and a few others. He’d made me promise to stop mourning him after a month if he didn’t come back.

It had to have been the toughest thing a teenager had ever agreed to.

But Pete did return from that deployment, and several others.

Then, four years ago had come the awful news that he’d been captured overseas by the worst people on the planet.

That information had allowed me to both worry and hope.

Then, a month later, I’d opened my door on a Saturday morning to the sight of an officer in dress blues and two others. It was the visit I’d dreaded.

Pete had been declared KIA based on claims by the terrorists and a video that I thankfully didn’t watch.

I closed my eyes, recalling how I’d cried and cried, trying to adhere to Pete’s one-month limit. I failed, but eventually I’d pulled up my big-girl panties and gotten on with life. I’d finished college and after that started SpaceMasters with the money from Pete’s life insurance.

Terry had been the trustee of the money, and while I’d been in school he hadn’t let me spend it on anything not school related. I’d always resented the way he used it to control me.

A smile overtook me as I remembered the day I’d landed my first customer for a business I wouldn’t have been able to get off the ground without the money Terry had forced me to save.

I’d wanted to spend it on the car I’d coveted—a sweet little blue BMW that I’d thought would heal the hurt I felt from Pete’s loss.

Instead, the Terry I’d considered so mean at the time had forced the correct long-term decision on me.

“We’re here,” Terry announced. “Safe and sound as promised.”

I opened my eyes as we pulled into a space in the building’s underground parking.

Terry took my hand as we rushed to the elevator.

I pulled it back. “This is my place of work, and I need to be professional. No PDA—none, get it?”

“Yes, ma’am. I’m only your guard.”

“And don’t ma’am me either.”

“Sure thing, Kitten.”

I slapped his arm. “You’re impossible.”

Upstairs, I breezed out of the elevator and down the hall to SpaceMasters with the sense of pride I got every time I saw our name on the door.

We had quickly become the premier organizational design firm in town.

It didn’t matter if you needed to organize and optimize a walk-in closet or the backroom storage space of a large hardware store.

We could provide space-saving solutions from functional to tastefully elegant.

The tingle at the small of my back as Terry guided me through the door reminded me that having him here was not going to be simple. I’d never been able to ignore Terry’s presence, but since that kiss, I now had to consciously fight the urge to turn around and admire him.

Down girl , I reminded myself. The kiss had lit my fuse, but the explosion would have to wait until we were alone.

We bumped into Marci, one of my designers, just inside the door. “Peyton’s looking for you,” she said.

“Thanks.”

“You made it,” Peyton exclaimed as she rushed up. “Mrs. Eclestone just returned, and she’s in demo room one. She’s still not very happy about you being late.” Then she paused to look at my face. “What happened to you?”

“I was mugged last night.” I didn’t have time to elaborate on this morning as well.

“That’s terrible. Can I?—”

I shook my head. “Not now. Mrs. Eclestone first.”

Terry stepped up beside me.

Peyton startled as her gaze shifted to my bodyguard. “Oh.” She gave him a quick onceover and an appreciative smile.

“Ignore Rambo. He’s shadowing me today.”

“Rambo?” squeaked my usually cool-headed assistant. “I could show him around for you.”

He extended his hand. “Terry Goodwin. You must be Peyton?”

“Guilty… Wait… the Terry Goodwin?”

Terry smiled. “Has Grace mentioned me before?”

Turning red, I admitted, “I may have.” I scanned the office. As I suspected, women around the space were attempting to be discreet while getting a look at Terry. Maybe it had been the Rambo mention.

He chuckled. “Nothing good, I’ll bet. Huh, Kitten?”

Peyton’s smile gave it away.

“The truth can sometimes be ugly,” I added. “Best not to ask.” I turned back to Peyton. “Anything I need to know before I meet her?”

She tore her eyes away from Terry and held out a folder. “I’ve loaded up the layout and pictures she brought, so everything is set, but…” She raised a finger to her temple. “Your face. ”

“Maybe later.” I turned to Terry. “You can wait in my office. Peyton will show you the way.”

Peyton’s face lit up. I’d always known Terry was attractive, but seeing his effect on my pretty assistant twisted my stomach in an uncomfortable way.

“No.” Terry’s tone was unyielding. “As your bodyguard, I go where you go.”

I nodded. “Okay, but only because I don’t have the time to argue with you.” I didn’t do these customer sessions with onlookers, but I was out of time.

Peyton led the way and whispered, “Bodyguard?”

“Temporary,” I whispered back, then fell in behind her.

With Terry beside me, my stomach calmed. I hated needing to have him here, but I liked that he wanted to be with me. I took a breath before we followed Peyton into the demo room.

Mrs. Eclestone was everything I’d been told to expect—clear skin, impeccable makeup, and nicely styled hair, longer than normal for a woman of her age, and without a speck of gray.

Her perfection made me question my decision against makeup.

One of our materials brochures sat in front of her, alongside Gucci glasses. Yes, she was a woman who kept up her appearance and would expect elegance in her house as well.

“Mrs. Eclestone, this is Grace Brennan, our visionary and the owner of SpaceMasters.”

I rounded the table and gave the woman my best smile and handshake.

She looked up and squinted at Peyton. “Thank you, dear. You may leave us.”

I took the seat opposite her, careful to sit upright on the edge and not put pressure on my butt where I’d been hit by that stupid Taser.

She waited until Peyton had closed the door to lift her Gucci glasses to her lip and pause. “Young lady, I was told excellent things about you, but frankly I’m very disappointed to find that this is the way you run your business.”

I pasted on a smile and steeled myself for more. “I’m sorry to hear that.” She was the customer, and the customer always came first, even if she was a pretentious bitch.