“His daughter had a baby,” her mom reminded her. “That’s why he moved back in the first place.”
Tears pierced her eyes. She hated crying, hated how open and vulnerable it felt. “I worked so hard for this part.”
Her mom hugged her. “I know, baby. I know.”
“How do I just give it up?”
Her stepfather sighed. “You don’t. You’ll come to Santa Monica with us tonight. I’m hiring the security firm my friend Jared and his wife recommended. McKay something. I have a conference call with the owners in the morning. As luck would have it, they’re based in Dallas and also offer personal security.”
A deep sense of relief spilled over her. This didn’t have to be over. “A bodyguard?”
“I know you said you didn’t want…” her mother began.
She shook her head. She knew when being stubborn had crossed the line into too stupid to live. “I’ll take it. I’ll be a good girl and do whatever the bodyguard says.”
Her mother frowned. “No, you won’t.”
She probably wouldn’t. She was something of a free spirit. “How about I’ll tone it down and try to follow the rules.”
“You do that,” her father said. “Now get some clothes, and we’ll try to have all of this sorted out by the time you finish the shoot and come home.”
Ally set the tea down, feeling better than she had before.
This would all work out. They would figure out who was trying to scare her, and she would hang with her bodyguard in Dallas. Her parents would be happy she was being watched over. Yes, it would work out for everyone.
Except the birds…
* * * *
West Rycroft looked down at the file on his desk and then up at his brother because he had to be kidding. “No.”
Wade Rycroft rolled dark eyes and sat back in his chair. He occupied the only actual office on this floor, the one the rest of the company called the “Man Cave,” despite the fact that there were several women who worked as bodyguards, too. Beyond being his brother, Wade was also his boss. “Is there any particular reason you’re telling me no to this assignment?”
“Come on, man. I just came off entitled-princess duty.” He’d glanced through the file on his potential client, and it hadn’t taken long to determine what kind of gig this would be. “I had to spend three weeks with an actual princess, and I now know why the French Revolution happened. I am one peasant who is sick of putting up with their shit.”
Princess Amelia of the small European country whose name he’d already forgotten had been the worst. She’d tried to ditch him three times. He’d caught her with a pharmacy of drugs she didn’t need. And she liked to shoplift. He’d had enough of celebrities to last a lifetime.
And she’d treated him like he was her beck-and-call boy. He’d had to firmly explain to her that servicing her sexual needs wasn’t part of his job. She’d had eight hands, that one.
“You do know that you’re a personal bodyguard, right?” His brother was looking at him like he was the biggest dumbass in the world. “You signed up for this gig. Please, Wade, I don’t want to punch cows for the rest of my life. I want to see the world. Well, this is seeing the world, buddy. I’m sorry we don’t have a bunch of blue-collar workers who need bodyguard services. We’re kind of stuck with the wealthy and famous.”
That was where his brother was wrong. He actually liked his job. It was simply one class of clientele he had a problem with. “I don’t mind businesspeople. I can handle most of them. There was that writer fellow. He was nice. He only got mean when someone tried to tell him lingonberries were the same as cranberries. He was serious about his juice. I could work for him again. I learned a whole bunch about history.”
But Ally Pearson would be a handful, and he needed some peace in his life. Three months of following after one of the most overprivileged and undertalented people in Hollywood was too much to bear.
Ally Pearson had been handed everything in life. Beauty, fame, money, a place in society.
It was a long assignment and would keep him away from his friends and brothers. The idea of giving up so much time for a woman who would treat him like a servant at best held little appeal.
Besides, he’d been starting to wonder if there wasn’t something else out there for him. He’d had specific goals when he’d joined McKay-Taggart, and he’d reached them.
He was getting restless again.
“I’m afraid Ms. Pearson is the client we have,” Wade replied. “If you actually read her folder, you would know she needs a bodyguard. She’s got an active threat to her life.”
He’d seen her show a couple of times. He’d had a girlfriend back in Broken Bend who’d been obsessed with Match Made in Hollywood. She’d even tried to dress like Ally Pearson and had ridden around in a golf cart stolen from the country club like a jackass. “Given how annoying she is, it doesn’t surprise me.”
“Fine.” Wade frowned at him. “If you’re going into the job and you don’t care if the client lives or dies, you’re not the man for this.”
He sighed. “I didn’t say that. I said I don’t want to deal with another Princess Amelia with the octopus hands. She’s not the only one. I hate it when the client is awful to the people around them. They act like the rest of the world is nothing but staff, and the staff is so far beneath them they aren’t human.”
“I get it.” His brother’s expression had turned sympathetic. “We all want to be treated with some dignity. If you’d told me about the princess, I would have reassigned you. I would have put Tessa on her, and if she comes back, that’s what I’ll do. No one at this company wants to set you up for sexual harassment.”
He shrugged. “I didn’t want to complain.”
“But you complain so well and so often,” his brother countered, a ghost of a smile on his face. “Come on, West. This isn’t a terrible assignment. She’ll probably ignore you most of the time. She’s here to work. She’s going to be rehearsing for a week or two, and then they’re shooting around the city. I think they’ve got a lot of time in a studio here, too. You can sit there and read or play on your tablet when she’s working. You would be her twenty-four seven guard for most of the week, and I’ll rotate in two other guards to make sure you have time off. If that’s too much, I’ll think about splitting it further.”
Whoa. Twenty-four seven for three months? It was insane because none of the married agents could do it. Most of the singles wouldn’t want the assignment either. He would get maybe two days a week off, and he would be on all the rest of the time. “How much?”
McKay-Taggart paid overtime for anything beyond forty hours, and they also had hefty per diems.
A brow rose over his brother’s eyes. “You really didn’t read it?”
He had to explain this away because now he saw the upside. “Look, you remember when I was going out with Rhonda?”
“The one who kept trying to get you to propose and take her away to the big city?” Wade snorted slightly. “She thought the big city was Harlingen.”