Chapter One

“Ms. Pearson, am I boring you?”

She forced herself to look up from her phone and directly at the big guy who seemed to be the boss of this particular company. He was big and broad and totally gorgeous. “Oh, yes.”

The hot guy at the end of the table snorted and started to laugh but quickly covered it up when the hot dude beside him sent him a death stare. It was a good death stare, as those went. She believed it.

They looked a little like brothers. Brothers or really close friends, though one of them seemed significantly older, so she was betting on a familial relationship.

A brow rose over the big boss’s icy eyes. “Well, don’t let me keep you then.”

“So you don’t need me?” She stood up. If she could go, there were a million things to do before the table read.

“Allyson, sit down.” Her stepdad had flown out with her and seemed determined that she take things seriously, hence she was at McKay-Taggart sitting in a conference room going over things she’d already lived through.

She sighed and sat back. “Fine, but I already know all these things. And everyone has a folder about the case. You know this is the part of the movie I never understand. The scene is obviously only there to inform the audience about the facts of the case. Wouldn’t a smart writer find another way?”

“I don’t know the facts.” The ridiculously hot guy at the end of the table held up a hand. He had sandy blonde hair and all-American good looks. His accent was slightly twangier than the rest of the people in the room. She would bet he hadn’t grown up here in Dallas. Most of the people she met from Texas cities had light accents. “I mean, I know some of them.”

“That’s great, West.” Sarcasm dripped from the big hot guy’s mouth. “Since she’s your client.”

That was interesting. The minute she’d entered the conference room, she’d noticed the guy at the end of the table. He was big, too, though not as massive as the truly scary dude. Lucky for her, she’d learned how to handle scary dudes. You ignored their scariness and plowed right through.

“Sweetie, this is not a movie,” her stepdad pointed out. “They need to be able to ask you questions, and that means going over the case with you.”

“But they have the reports.” She wasn’t sure why she would have to go over it again. She mostly wanted to forget those episodes of her life.

“Sometimes there’s more nuance to a situation than what shows up in a report.” The big guy’s wife was gorgeous, and she seemed to be something of a fan.

The morning had started okay. She’d been greeted by a bevy of women. Charlotte Taggart had introduced her friends as Genny Rycroft and Yasmin Tahan. She’d signed some autographs and answered some of their questions. They seemed to be the kind of fans who understood that reality TV wasn’t a hundred percent real. Charlotte had offered her some truly excellent coffee, and they’d all talked while they waited for the exposition…conference thingy to start.

She liked those women. They were cool. And there was a teenaged girl hanging around who looked like she wanted to murder someone. Ally already liked her.

“I think I can get what I need from the reports,” the hot bodyguard guy said. He was seriously gorgeous and had a smile that lit up a room. There was no smile on his face now, though. “I doubt she’ll add anything to the discussion.”

Oh, he was not a fan. She wasn’t sure if it was because he knew who she was or he simply didn’t enjoy the company of fun, charming, successful women. It could be either.

“I have questions, and I have procedures,” the big boss explained. “If you don’t want to follow them…”

He let the threat dangle, and Ally sat up a little. Now she was interested because this dude knew how to make a few regular words into a threat that had everyone at the table straightening their shoulders like they were soldiers and the general wasn’t happy. Even her stepdad. This dude had some serious mojo, and she could work with that.

She’d played an ex-military character before. She’d done training with a group of soldiers who took her through an abbreviated BUD/S program. It wasn’t like the infamous Saving Private Ryan training, but she’d done her time in the field. She’d eaten MREs and learned how to survive in a forest and the desert.

Mr. Taggart could be excellent inspiration if she ever had to do it again. Not that the character had to be military. She could use it for Delia Crowne. She had a monologue that she knew the director wanted her to shout her way through, but now she wondered if she shouldn’t go quiet. It might be far more impactful.

“I’m sorry, sir,” Hot Guy Who Didn’t Like Her said. “I only got the assignment last night. I’m happy to be brought up to speed.”

“Ms. Pearson, this is West Rycroft.” Taggart sat back, using the pen he held in his hand to point West’s way. “He’s going to be your main bodyguard and will be coordinating all of your security. You’ll spend most of your time with him, but he’ll have two other guards who fill in when he needs time off or if he thinks you need more than one set of eyes.”

Oh, wouldn’t her life be easier if she only had one set of eyes on her.

Nope. She wasn’t pulling the poor little rich and famous girl routine. She was not falling into that trap. Her life was good, and she was working to make it even better, and she wasn’t going to apologize or whine and cry about it. “Excellent. I promise I’m here in Dallas to work. I’ll film for ten to twelve hours a day, and I’ll be in my trailer most of the rest of the time. I have a couple of social events, but they aren’t high risk.”

“Social events?” West had picked up his pen and looked down at the blank legal pad in front of him, but not before she’d caught that hint of disdain in his eyes.

She was so sick of men. They came in two types, it seemed—the ones who thought she was a sex toy to be passed around and the ones who decided she was an airhead with no thoughts in her head past her next shopping trip. She twirled her hair in one hand and gave her best blank look. “You know. Parties. Chilling with some of the hot people here in Dallas. Gotta get in my socials, you know.”

Charlotte Taggart’s gaze narrowed, and she could practically hear the woman calling bullshit, but West simply put his pen down.

“You’ll have to run anyone you’re…chilling…with by me,” he said, clearly taking on the disapproving authority role.

“She’s not going to be partying.” Her stepfather sent her a death stare of his own. “Believe it or not, she’s not a partier.”

“I just play one on TV,” she quipped.

“I think you’ll find the social events she has scheduled are all charity gatherings.” Her stepdad pulled out his phone. Unlike a lot of the older people she knew, her stepdad was a whiz with tech. Gavin Jacks wasn’t letting the world pass him by. “I sent your boss her schedule for while she’s here. She’s resisted getting a personal assistant, or her assistant could help you. Ally won’t tell you this, but when things get hard for her during this shoot, take her someplace out in nature when she has a day off. She looks like a city girl, but she enjoys hiking and being by herself. This is going to be hard on her. She’s used to a lot of alone time.”

“Not according to her actual socials she’s not,” West argued. “Look, Mr. Jacks, I am a huge fan of yours, and I respect the fact that Ms. Pearson is your stepdaughter, but you need to understand that I’m her bodyguard, not her nanny. I do not need feed and caring instructions.”

“Damn straight.” It was good to see someone stand up to her stepdad. He was good to her mom and had always watched out for them, but he was also a leading man in Hollywood, so he could play the massive dick card when he wanted to.

Her stepdad frowned her way. “You are not helping.”

“How about we discuss the reasons why Ally needs security?” Charlotte seemed determined to turn this whole thing around.

Exposition it was then. “A couple of years ago, I picked up a stalker.”

“Since the beginning of her career, she’s picked up four of what I would call credible threats,” her stepdad interjected. “Everyone who works in show business at our level has to deal with overzealous fans. These four went beyond that.”

“We disagree on that,” she countered, not wanting to overestimate the threat. “One of them was a mom who lost her daughter, and I look like her. She fixated on me. That was all.”

“She found your house,” her stepdad argued.

They weren’t going to have this fight in front of people they didn’t know. “And I handled her. The other two the police caught, and they haven’t bothered me again. That we know. Honestly, it could be one of those two men.”

“I’m sorry. The math isn’t adding up.” West had a pen in his hand again, so she figured she was talking about something he was actually interested in now. “You said four stalkers?”

“Mrs. Jackson wasn’t a stalker. She was a woman dealing with grief, and she’s getting help.” She wasn’t going to tell them that she personally was paying for the woman’s therapy. “Brian Hudson is in jail. Not for breaking into my place. He attacked a model.”

“Yes, and you were lucky it wasn’t you,” her stepdad said.

She ignored him. Nagging was one of his love languages, which was great because it was her mom’s primary language. “The other known stalker is a man who goes by JK Harris. He was a set designer, but he hasn’t worked in the last two years. I met him on a set a few years ago. It was my second film.”

“ Ready for Love ?” Charlotte asked.

It was nice to have one person in the room who liked her. “Yeah. I was the gloomy best friend. It was actually a fun part. Anyway, I talked to the guy. When you’re on set, unless you’re some kind of huge star or some assholey method actor, you end up spending a lot of time with the crew. You get to be friends. Well, JK took it too far. He got drunk at one of the crew parties and got super handsy. I called him out, and he got fired. So I became the bitch who ruined his career.”

“Of course.” Charlotte’s eyes rolled. “I’ve heard that accusation a couple of times myself.”

“Oh, baby, you did not. You never ruined a career. You blew heads off.” Taggart winked his wife’s way. “No one complains after that. Have you thought about doing that, Ms. Pearson?”

Oh, they were a fun couple, and she wanted that story. “Every day. Did you do it up close or from a distance?”

Charlotte’s elegant shoulder shrugged. “It all depended on the job. I will tell you it’s far less messy from a distance.”

“Do we know where this JK Harris is? Also, who is the fourth stalker?” West seemed excellent at ignoring his elders, too.

“He disappeared a while back,” she admitted. “And that’s where things get interesting. The police think Harris is the one causing trouble, but I don’t think so. Harris’s letters were all full of threats, and he sent them through the mail. He liked to stand outside red-carpet events shouting about what a whore I was until he was escorted off the grounds. He didn’t send elaborate, horrifying art projects.”

“He could be escalating,” West offered.

“Or he could be someone new, hence the fourth stalker, who might or might not exist.” It was what she was afraid of. Like she needed another person who wanted to take her down a peg, who blamed her for their problems.

“West, if you were running the investigation portion of this case, where would you go from here?” Taggart asked. “You’re not, of course. Think of this as an academic exercise.”

Oh, she knew a teaching hospital when she saw one. Was she getting the newbie? That could be fun.

“I would ask Eve McKay for her opinion,” West replied. “I would request that Eve study the case reports and give me her thoughts on whether this is the same JK Harris or if she thinks we’re looking for another person.”

“Unsub.” See, this part was interesting. Or it would be if it also wasn’t horrifying because she was living through it. There was a reason she preferred fiction to real life. “We’re looking for an unsub. I once got through four rounds of auditions to play an FBI special agent who hunted serial killers. I did a ton of research and even wore a boring suit and everything, but they went with the brunette.”

“I told you to dye your hair,” her stepdad said.

He’d been right about that. Apparently, blondes made better victims than feds, according to the completely dickish casting director who’d offered to let her play a dead body. Naked, of course.

“Excellent. That is exactly what I’m going to do.” Taggart pushed back and stood, straightening up that big muscular body of his. “I’ll leave you and West alone to work out your schedule. As for the investigation, I’ll be the lead on that.”

“I appreciate you taking care of this personally, Mr. Taggart.” Her stepdad stood.

“Jared is a friend of the family,” the big boss replied, shaking his hand. “Why don’t we go to my office and settle up the accounts? You’re not staying in town, right?”

“No. I have to get back to LA. I start my own shoot in a couple of days,” her stepdad said as they started out of the conference room.

The last man standing was the one she was almost certain was West’s brother. Or cousin. Or stunt double. “Can you handle this on your own or should I stay to referee?”

West gave him a steady smile that held only the slightest hint of dismay. “We’ll be fine.”

She was glad one of them was optimistic.

* * * *

She was pretty much every bit as bad as he’d imagined. Ally Pearson was bratty and privileged and didn’t care one bit about anyone but herself. He wasn’t buying the whole “she’s a sensitive soul and needs nature time.” Parents could have rose-colored glasses on when it came to their kids. She was snobby and generally everything he tried to stay away from.

But damn she was pretty. He’d seen pictures of her with all different colors of hair. She seemed to change the color as often as the wind blew, but the warm brown she had now seemed to suit her spectacularly. It caressed her shoulders in waves that framed her face. She’d walked in wearing sunglasses that probably cost more than he made in a week and deceptively plain jeans and a T-shirt. On most other women they would be everyday, ordinary clothes, but somehow her graceful curves transformed them into something deeply sexy. When she’d taken off the sunglasses, he'd been struck by how pretty her eyes were. They almost matched her hair color.

Pretty much everything physical about the woman called to him, but then it was probably that way with every man she met.

The good news was he wasn’t led around by his dick. He’d grown past his “girl pretty, follow her” phase of life. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to find a woman to spend time with. It was just that he was of an age where he wanted to spend long periods of times with a woman. Like the rest of his life. He wasn’t about to dick around with some Hollywood hot chick who couldn’t be bothered to remember how many stalkers she had.

“So was that like your brother or something?” Her eyes were on the door Wade had walked through.

He was going to stop that in its tracks. “Yes, he’s my brother, and he’s also married. Happily married with a kid.”

Her eyes went wide. “Why would… Oh, if I asked about him I must be interested in him sexually. We’re going to go right there, are we? No fucking around.”

He wasn’t going to go into her reputation as a maneater. All it had taken was a quick Internet search to figure out she’d been linked to most of the men in young Hollywood at one point or another. And a couple of her married directors. Well, those had been rumors, but most rumors had a hint of truth. “Just putting the truth out there. Wade is my brother, and he’s married to Ian’s admin.”

“He’s Genny’s husband?” Her nose wrinkled. “He doesn’t have an ex-military look. If I had to guess, I would say he grew up on a ranch. He has small town turned big city vibes. And I would bet they were high school sweethearts but something went wrong and they didn’t reconnect until they were older. I got that because when she references her son, she refers to her husband as Wade, but when she talks about her daughter, he’s Dad.”

That was a fairly dead-on representation of Wade and Genny’s love relationship.

She flushed a little, giving her cheeks a pretty pink color. “Sorry. I’m nosy, but it’s because I study people. Especially the interesting ones. This office is filled with them. When I meet someone interesting, I try to figure them out. It’s kind of my job.”

“I thought your job was letting cameras follow you around while you shop.” At least that was what he’d gotten from the research he’d done.

He watched as any relaxation in her body fled, and she shifted into a brittle stance. “You’ve made it plain how you feel about me. Now could you please go over the schedule? Or do you think that will be too much for my womanly brain?”

That wasn’t fair. “I did not say that.”

“No?” She looked at him, her head cocked slightly in a challenging way. “Okay, so you’re not a misogynist. It’s just me you hate.”

She would try to make this dramatic. He needed to remember that she was the client. Or rather her stepdad was. No matter how distasteful he found her, he had to be professional, and up until now he hadn’t been. “I’m sorry I gave you that impression.”

“Because you would rather keep that impression to yourself?”

“I would rather we have a professional relationship.”

“Well, Mr. Rycroft, I’m not the one insulting the other part of this professional relationship, so if that’s what you want, you’ll have to find a way to make it work. Why don’t you give me the schedule and then I think you’ll find we don’t have to talk. I like my bodyguards like I like my men. Pretty and silent.”

Oh, she wanted to play that way? West started to open his mouth and stopped. Hadn’t he started this nasty little bit of conversation? She’d asked about his brother, and he’d gone to the worst possible place. If he wanted a respectful relationship with her, he should probably try to start over. He’d promised his brother there wouldn’t be trouble, and here he was causing it ten minutes into getting into a room with her. “I’m sorry I wasn’t respectful, ma’am.”

She snorted. “Ma’am? I’m younger than you, and I don’t give a shit about respectful. Respect is something you earn, and you don’t know me. What you weren’t was kind, and that does mean something to me. However, I’m not going to be picky about it. It’s either you or some asshole who thinks he can hit on me and have a story to tell his friends. At least you’re the kind of guy who obviously keeps his hands perfectly to himself around whores.”

He didn’t like the flush of shame that went through him. He hadn’t been nice, but he certainly hadn’t called her names. “And I didn’t say that either.”

“No?” She stood up, settling her designer bag over her shoulder. “You assumed because I asked about your brother that I wanted to hit on him. You want to know something sad? The only guy here I thought was my type was you. And then you fixed the problem by opening your mouth. So we’re all good. Anything else we need to discuss? Otherwise I need to go find my stepdad.”

He should have known this was going to happen. The minute she figured out he wasn’t going to fall all over her, he became useless. He should have played this another way. “So you can get him to fire me?”

She stopped, frowning his way. “Why would I do that?”

He was confused. And he had to stop himself from getting to his feet and into her space. “I think it’s clear you don’t find me acceptable.”

“Are you talking about that fight we just had?”

“I wouldn’t call it a fight.” He needed to lower the temperature in the room. “I would call it a misunderstanding.”

“I didn’t misunderstand, West. You need to understand that you can’t gaslight me.”

“Gaslight?” The accusations kept coming.

“The fact that you call what happened a misunderstanding is the very definition of gaslighting. We both know what you meant. Own it. If you feel bad about it, apologize, but don’t try to make me think I didn’t understand what was going on.”

She was rude and prickly, and he had to admit to himself that she was also right. How many times had he had a girlfriend tell him nothing was wrong when it obviously was? No matter what she’d done, he was also in the wrong. “Fine. I’m sorry, Allyson. I shouldn’t have said those things to you, and I shouldn’t have tried to twist it around so I didn’t have to feel bad.”

She stared at him for a moment and then seemed to come to some decision. “Okay.”

Things still didn’t feel settled. “We should talk about working together since this didn’t seem to go well.”

She shook her head, the chestnut strands caressing her shoulders. “We’ll be fine. I already told you I’m not picky. You don’t like me. I get it. Join half the world, man. I was the brat princess on a reality show. Everyone either hates me or they want to be me, which means deep down they hate me just a little.”

He definitely did not understand this woman the way he’d thought he would. Maybe she simply didn’t comprehend the stakes. She’d been a bit casual when talking about men who wanted to kill her. “You would trust me with your life?”

“No, West,” she said with a weary sigh. “That’s why it works. I don’t trust you at all, but then I don’t trust anyone with my life. You’re here because my parents need to know they’ve done everything they could to protect me, but I learned at a young age that I can count on no one but myself. I won’t rely on you in any way. Don’t get me wrong. I’ll stick to your schedule. I’m not going to run off and do something stupid. But I also won’t expect you to lift a finger to help me because in the end, you won’t find me worthy of saving. So I’ll save myself.”

She started for the conference door.

Now he did what his instincts told him to do. He stood up and blocked her way, looming over her because she didn’t cede a centimeter of space to him. She simply turned that gorgeous face of hers up, one brow rising in obvious challenge.

“I need to make something clear to you.” He was so stinking close to her, and the camera did not lie. She was even more beautiful in person. “I’m in charge while you’re here in Dallas, and I’m not in charge because your parents are paying me. I’m in charge because I am the man who will step in front of a bullet for you. I am the man who will take whatever is coming your way. We can not enjoy each other’s company and I’ll still protect you. I take my job seriously, and I will not put anyone’s life above yours for as long as we’re together. And that includes mine. Do I make myself clear, Allyson?”

She stared at him for a second, and a deep sense of satisfaction went through him. He now knew how to shut her up. Get into her space and challenge her. He would bet no one ever challenged her. She was a woman in control of the world around her, the queen of all she surveyed. It would do her some good to be around people who didn’t worship the ground she walked on.

He didn’t want to acknowledge that the air around them seemed to have come alive and was crackling with tension. Sexual tension.

The first woman he’d ever had real chemistry with and she was the one he was never going to touch.

“Perfectly clear.” She took a step back. “I’m going to wait on my stepdad. I’m taking him to the airport.”

“ I’m taking him to the airport,” West corrected. “The job starts now. We have three guards, though I’ll be with you most of the time. When I’m off, it’ll be Tessa or Matt. I’m working out a schedule with them, but for the first day or two, it’s me twenty-four seven. I need to evaluate the situation and assess threats. When do we need to leave the office?”

“About an hour.” She didn’t look happy about it, but at least she wasn’t arguing with him.

“I’ll meet you and your stepdad in an hour then. Tess will meet us at your hotel and make sure it’s secure. I need an hour to pack and make sure everything at my place is handled, but then I’ll be with you for the night.”

She turned and walked away.

And West knew the real battle had just begun.