Page 58

DENVER

The security guy who answers the door at Seasons eyes me up and down.

“Denver? What are you doing back, Buddy?”

I clasp his hand in mine, and we shake. “Just come to talk with Sterling.”

“He’s interviewing for your replacement.”

“Still?”

The guy chuckles. “Apparently he thinks you’re hot shit or something, because none of these chumps have measured up yet.”

I tilt my head at the door further down the hallway behind him that leads to Sterling’s office. “Can I?”

“Go ahead. I think they’ll all be glad of a break. Sullivan and Mal are in there with him,” he adds.

I nod and stride down the hallway, opening the door at the end. There are three guys in dark suits sitting on chairs, lined up outside Sterling’s closed office door. All six eyes flick up to take me in, assessing me for the level of competition I pose.

One of them clears his throat as I walk past the empty chair beside him and head straight to the door.

“I wouldn’t interrupt them,” someone else pipes up as I lift my fist to knock on the door. “Last guy just about pissed himself when he walked out.”

I turn and my eyes connect with Killian’s as he walks in from the direction of the main bar.

“Bet Jenson would have loved cleaning that up,” I reply.

Killian breaks into a grin and pulls me into a hug. “You’re a slippery beast. Anyone else wouldn’t have gotten away with it,” he says low enough that only I hear.

“I’m impressed,” I say, clapping him on the back.

“What can I say? I was taught by the best.”

I pull back and look at him. “The others?”

He gives a swift shake of his head. “If they know, then they haven’t said a word. Neither have I.”

“Appreciate it,” I say, holding his eyes.

“I don’t know how you fucking did it. There’s no way I could have spent three weeks watching the woman…

” He glances at the guys waiting to be interviewed, then leads me farther down the hallway, away from them.

“I couldn’t have spent three weeks watching her the way you did.

I’d have gone crazy and needed to speak to her. ”

“She needed space. And time,” I say. And the fact is, I’ve spent years keeping an eye on Sinclair from afar while working for her family. It was my job.

And these last few weeks, it’s become my salvation.

Watching her. Seeing the way she’s been without me. Knowing for a fact she hasn’t seen that fucker Brad Garrett-Charles once since the night of the party. My girl has been walking around, heartbreak as clear as day in every move she’s made.

She loves me.

She just chose wrong. And I understand why she did it.

“You come to get shit out in the open, then? Got to say, I don’t envy you for having to go in there with all three of them.”

I press my lips together, refusing to let apprehension slip in.

“I was always going to have to tell him. If it wasn’t me, then there would have been a day she met some other guy and I’d have had to tell him why I needed to leave.”

“Good luck. I’ll come to your funeral,” Killian says.

I walk to Sterling’s office door and three pairs of eyes bounce to me again as I knock heavily on it.

It opens and Mal’s brows shoot up his forehead as he takes me in. His eyes drop over my suit and tie.

“Here for the interview?” he asks.

“Sure am.”

He grins.

“Position’s been filled!” he barks at the three guys waiting on chairs. “Killian will show you out.” He inclines his head, calling over his shoulder into Sterling’s office. “Thanks for coming, but you didn’t get it.”

A big guy steps out as Mal stands to one side to let him pass. He looks me up and down with an unimpressed grunt, muttering something about how I must be fucking superman to be picked.

Mal holds out an arm, inviting me in. “About time. Whatever shit you’ve been up to, couldn’t you have done it faster?

I’ve done so many interviews my brain’s ready to pack the hell up if I have to ask one more fucking question.

” He snorts out an amused chuckle as I step into the room, and he closes the door behind us with an ominous thud.

Two pairs of blue eyes immediately pin onto me like laser targets.

“Tomorrow’s phone call’s canceled then?” Sullivan clips.

“Yeah, it’s canceled,” I say, glancing at him.

“About fucking time,” he mutters, leaning back in his seat, his ankle resting over the top of his other leg.

Sterling runs a hand over his jaw, studying me from his seat behind his large wooden desk. I don’t take a seat. I don’t step further into the room as Mal walks over and throws himself into a chair with a sigh. I don’t move an inch.

I wait.

“How was your flight back?” Sterling asks finally, his eyes narrowed and calculating. “Admire any sights while you were there? Bet there’s a lot to look at. A man can probably spend hours sitting around… watching.”

I consider my answer as he holds my gaze without an ounce of discomfort.

He knows. I suspected as much. I’ve worked side by side with him for years. He knows me as well as anyone can. And the man misses nothing.

Sullivan and Mal remain silent, but both of their eyes track between Sterling and I, no doubt sensing there’s a hidden undercurrent to his words.

Outrage. Admiration. Pity?

I haven’t figured out which.

The night I called him and said I needed to see him, he didn’t hesitate to open the door of his home to me.

He never asked why I was turning up in the middle of the night to hand over my resignation for a job I’ve dedicated my entire existence to for years.

He didn’t ask why I was so mad my hands wouldn’t stop shaking unless I kept them clenched into fists.

He didn’t ask a single question.

He just said one thing.

“Thank you.”

He thanked me for everything. He didn’t need an explanation.

He trusted me.

He’s always trusted me.

“I’m in love with Sinclair,” I say into the silence of the room.

“What?” Mal scoffs.

“Fucking hell,” Sullivan mutters.

Sterling leans back in his chair, a picture of complete calm and authority. “How long?”

I inhale slowly, my nostrils expanding. “Long enough that I no longer know what it feels like not to love her. Nor do I want to know.”

“So you aren’t back here to get your job back?”

“No, sir.”

“You’re here for my daughter? The one I asked you to protect?”

“That’s correct.”

Silence engulfs the room until he tips his head, thinking. “And if I don’t give you my blessing?”

I can’t stop the way my eyes hold his, burning into his gaze as every cell in my body goes on high alert. My fingers flex by my sides and a cracking of the bones inside them echoes around the room.

Sterling narrows his eyes at me and they gleam with amusement. “You think you could take me?”

“With respect, I would take you. If it was for her, I would take every last damn man breathing, and not even break a fucking sweat.”

Sterling chuckles, but Sullivan and Mal remain deathly silent, watching the two of us.

“I must say, Denver.” He sighs. “I’m disappointed.”

The air leaves my lungs like I’ve been punched in the gut.

“I’m sorry that I didn’t tell you sooner,” I say with a sincerity that I feel in my bones.

He shakes his head. “Not saying the words to me, doesn’t mean I didn’t know. You might think you know Sinclair better than anyone. But she’s my daughter . Remember that. I will always be the man who loved her first.”

The room is so fucking silent you could hear a pin drop.

There’s both a threat and acceptance in Sterling’s words.

And I hear and respect both.

I clear my throat. “Yes, sir.”

“You should have damn well come to me sooner,” he growls.

“Sir,” I repeat, standing firm and unmoving, waiting for him to make his next move. He still hasn’t indicated whether he’s considering running me out of the States, making sure I never work close protection again, or worse.

“Like I said, I’m disappointed ,” he says again, dragging out the word like a knife across my throat.

I hold his eyes, refusing to back down. He can say what he wants to me. He can tear me the fuck down with words. But I’ll stand here and take it without blinking if it means I’m one second closer to getting back to her.

“Disappointed that it took you so goddamn long to act on it.” His eyes glitter as I frown in confusion.

“My daughter is special, Denver. I wasn’t going to assign any man to be her bodyguard. To spend all that time with her. To be the one she placed her faith into. The one she would grow close to.”

I thought that my time in the military and undergoing mock hostage training would have made me unshakeable. But it takes everything in me not to curse out loud in shock. I blink in rapid succession, my heart banging against my ribs as I look into his unwavering gaze.

“I trust you with my life. Now I’m trusting you with my daughter.”

“Jesus, Dad,” Sullivan rasps.

“You sly old fucker.” Mal chuckles.

Sterling’s eyes crinkle at the corners, still glued to mine. “My daughter hired a dating coach all the way from England to find her father love. And now I have Hallie and a baby coming and feel like the luckiest man in the world. You know what I asked her?”

“No, sir,” I reply, my mind still reeling that he knew. All this time, he had set us up.

And we thought we were the ones keeping a secret from him.

“I asked her why she didn’t hire Hallie to find love for her. Because we all damn well know how much my daughter has needed someone these past couple of years.”

I force a swallow, but my throat is so thick even breathing is tough.

Sterling runs a hand around his jaw again, his eyes softening at the memory. “She told me seeing the people she loves being happy is more important to her. That she would be happy knowing I was happy.”

“She’s incredible like that,” I say, my voice coming out with an uncharacteristic crack to it, that I mask.

“She sure is,” Sterling says, before pausing. “She won’t put herself first, Denver.”

His statement hangs in the air. I know what he’s asking, no, telling me to do. I know, because it’s been my main objective ever since I first laid eyes on her, long before she ever looked at me with anything other than indifference in her eyes.

He doesn’t need to worry.

It’s like I told Sinclair, that’s what I do.

And it’s what I will continue to do while there is life in my body.

I’m the asshole who will fucking die for her… and not because it was once my job.

“She won’t need to. I’ll do that for her. She will always come first. I swear on my life. I won’t let?—”

“—me down?” Sterling clips. “I damn well hope not.”

I shake my head. “Her. I won’t let her down.”

“Better.” He smiles.

“I should have known,” Sullivan grumbles. “You played sleeping fucking lions.”

Mal snorts and looks at me. “No way.”

“Practically threw his gun at me to get down on the floor with my sister,” Sullivan grunts.

I keep stock still. Any movement I make, anything I say, will risk my composure cracking. Because the mere mention of her and the floor brings me right back to that moment I pushed inside her for the first time on the gym mat.

The minute I knew there was no fucking going back. That I had to have her no matter what.

And the blood on my dick after was the confirmation I’d known all along.

Sinclair belongs with me.

She always has. She always will.

“You’re a sucker for punishment taking on my sister. She pulls some shit,” Sullivan says.

“Don’t fucking speak about her like that,” I warn on instinct.

Sullivan glances at me with growing respect as though I passed some secret test he’s set me. Then he smirks at me and tips his chin. “Good luck. You’ll need it.”

“Welcome to the family.” Mal leans back in his seat, chuckling like he could sit here all day, drinking this in. His eyes travel to Sterling’s, and they exchange a look of amusement.

And beneath it is complete solidarity.

These are the Beauforts.

They’re one of the country’s most powerful, influential families.

And regardless of blood, now they’re mine. But even though Mal might have been the first one to say it, Sterling made it known that first day, when he gave Lizzie and Dixie the new start they needed.

When he helped out my family and grew his own, all at the same time. Because no matter what else could have happened after that day. I would always have been grateful to him, connected to him.

“Now get the hell out of here.” Sterling smirks.

I nod. “Yes, sir.”

“Excuse me?” He lifts a lone brow and my lips curl.

“Yes, Boss ,” I reply.

“I expect you in bright and early tomorrow, Denver. Don’t think you’ll get special privileges just because my daughter likes you,” he says.

I can’t help myself.

I take my first real deep breath since I stepped over the threshold into his office.

“ Loves me,” I correct.

He holds my eyes, his glittering.

“Yeah… damn well loves you. Now get the hell out of my office.” He flicks his fingers at me, chuckling.

“Yes, Boss,” I say again, doing exactly as he says.