Page 2 of Hideaway Heart

“Twenty-four-seven for two weeks?” The job got even less palatable. “I want to help, Sully, but I’m about to open a business. I can’t leave town.”

“You wouldn’t have to,” he said quickly. “She rented a place outside Petoskey for the first two weeks of September. That’s near you, right?”

“Yes,” I said warily.

“She should not stay there alone, no matter what she says.”

“And what does she say?”

“She’s a bit resistant to the idea.”

“What’s ‘a bit?’”

“I believe her words were, ‘I don’t want some Navy SEAL goon up in my business while I’m on vacation.’”

I laughed. “That seems like more than ‘a bit.’”

“She needs you, Xander. Paparazzi follow her and bang on her car windows. Weirdos go through her trash. She just got back from a sold-out tour where she was mobbed wherever she went.”

I frowned. “Didn’t she have security?”

“She did, but they were a bunch of clowns hired by the label. At least one of them was selling information to photographers—what hotel she was staying at, when she’d be coming and going, where and when she had restaurant reservations, where she was shopping.”

“Assholes,” I muttered.

“They were all fired, but one of them is threatening to sue her. She’s also got a dickhead ex-boyfriend who still thinks he owns her.”

My hackles went up. “Who is he?”

“Duke Pruitt.”

“That guy?” I could feel my face prune up like I’d smelled something bad. “His music sucks.”

“I’m not a fan.”

“Is he harassing her?”

“She says it’s nothing she can’t handle, but the guy’s a dick. I don’t trust him. He treated her like shit for years, and now that she finally left him for good, he wants her back.”

“Maybe now isn’t the best time for a vacation,” I suggested.

“We’ve told her that, but she insists she’s fine, even though she’s five-foot-nothing and has zero self-defense skills, besides a loud voice. And the way she posts on social media all the time, I feel like people are going to figure out where she is.”

I exhaled. “She should stay off social media.”

“She claims that’s impossible and unnecessary.”

Of course she did. Because she was a celebrity who knew everything. “Does she at least have security cameras at this vacation house?”

“Apparently not.”

I exhaled again. Louder this time.

“Look, I know this is a lot to ask. If I was in the states, I’d go with her. But I’m deployed—about to go off the grid—and my gut is telling me it’s a bad idea for her to be up there alone. I trust my gut. You would too, if it was your sister.”

“You’re right. I would.”

“You’re the only one I’d trust with her safety. Will you do it?”