Aryn's Desire: A BOLD Security Novel (Finding Submission Book 1) (6 page)

“Find anything interesting?” Dex asks.
 

“On what?”
 

He gives me a ‘don’t be stupid’ look. “I know you well enough to know that when you got back to your room, you cracked open your laptop and tore up the internet.”
 

I give him an exasperated look. “So?”
 

He bursts out laughing. “I’ve created a monster…I love it.”
 

I take another sip of coffee before setting it back on the counter. “Did you expect anything less?”
 

He smiles behind his coffee cup. “No, Aryn, I didn’t.”
 

Dex uses my real name for the first time in a very long time. When we were on the road, I’d told him to keep it to Beck and he stuck with it. To this day I don’t think Casey or Troy know my real name. “Shit, that reminds me,” I mutter as I stand up.
 

“What’s up?”
 

“Ahh, I gotta call Casey,” I tell him as I walk down the hallway and into the guest room. I pull my phone off the nightstand. I click on it, sliding it open and it goes off with a couple different emails. Nothing new in my world. I pull up Casey’s number and head back into the kitchen where Dex is messing around on his phone. “Want a laugh?” I ask Dex who gives me an evil smirk. He knows what I’m up to. If I know Casey, he’s sound asleep still. Unless the boys dragged him out early.
 

I put it on speaker, hit send and let it ring.
 

On the fourth ring a gravely sleepy voice comes on the line. “Helllooo.”
 

“Casey, where the fuck are you?” I bark into the phone.
 

“Where, what? Who is this?”
 

“It’s Beck, fucker. You were supposed to be here thirty minutes ago.”
 

“Oh shit.” All of a sudden the sleepy is gone from his voice and there’s a shit ton of shuffling going on as Casey panics, thinking he needs to be somewhere.
 

Dex and I both crack up laughing.
 

“You cock-sucking-motherfucker,” Casey growls into the phone, then there is a rush of air and a plop that’s loud enough to come through the phone. “Asshole,” he mutters into the phone.
 

Dex and I are still laughing as he grumbles his way awake. “What do you want, fucker?”
 

“I have a job for you.”
 

He groans on the other end of the line. “Yeah, when? What?”
 

“World Premiere Tour, prep starts on the sixteenth, right after New York. The first stop is here in town on the twenty-fourth.”
 

“Who?” he asks and this is because I know he has an extreme dislike of certain celebutantes, and country singers.
 

“Alyssa Serin.”
 

“Whoa! No shit?” I picture him sitting up stick straight in bed as he says this.
 

“Yeah, L.A., New York, Nashville.” I wink at Dex who smirks. “London, Berlin and Sydney.”
 

“Jesus Christ, that’s a lot of fucking frequent flyer miles. Who’s got point?”
 

“I do.”
 

“No shit? Mills is finally letting you off your leash.”
 

“Fuck off, asswipe. You in or not?”
 

“Fuck yeah,” he says excitedly.
 

“Nice, now go back to bed.”
 

“I can’t now, fucktard,” he grumbles.
 

Dex and I laugh. “I’ll be in touch,” I tell him and hang up.
 

“That was fucking cruel as fuck,” Dex says.
 

“But funnier than hell.”
 

We both carry on laughing for a good five minutes before he shoos me off to go get dressed. Raine is at Talon’s and Dex wants to go over there, see her, say hi to the guys and visit the twins. I imagine if Dex is going, Mouse and Peacock won’t be too far behind. Which means Casey will try and kick my ass in person for his wake up call this morning.
 

Raine answers the door, holding Logan in a bit of a football hold.
 

“I could get used to that,” Dex teases her and she lights up at his suggestion.

I, on the other hand, look at him from the corner of my eye. He’s joking, right? Mr. ‘I’ll never have kids’ wants kids? Jesus, being with the right woman can really change a man.
 

“Not yet, you can’t.” She winks at him in some secret kind of way. “Hi, Beck.” She smiles sweetly at me and coming down the stairs behind her is Talon holding Emily in a similar fashion.
 

“Hey guys,” he says with a smile. The twins are just over a month old, but they’ve grown so much since I last saw them about two weeks ago. That was the first time Addison felt like having a house full of people, despite all of us popping in at random times. I’d come over to help Mills out when Rusty wasn’t available, but since then, Rusty and Tori have managed it all. Mills did a complete security re-work of the house before they moved in a couple months back and he has an apartment on the property that is attached to the security center.
 

All of which was much to Talon’s dismay, but I guess there have been a couple of times it’s come in handy and now Talon praises it. “Where’s Kyle and Addison?”
 

“Kyle ran to the store, Mills is around here somewhere and Addison is sleeping. The twins were up quite a bit last night.” He coos at Emily and talks to her sweetly. Definitely not a side I ever expected to see from him.
 

“Let me have him,” Dex says as he takes Logan from Raine and goes to sit down on the couch. I guess his statement shouldn’t have come as that much of a surprise. He’s become the best non-uncle-uncle ever. I watch Raine as she watches Dex with Logan. There is a sparkle in her eye as she does. I’m assuming there is something brewing here between them with kids, but I haven’t a clue what it is. Seeing this just reinforces my loneliness a little more and it is starting to drive me crazy.
 

“Beck,” Mills commands in his own little way and suddenly Casey’s leash comment makes sense.
 

“Yes, sir,” I answer. Raine snickers and Dex glares at her. She sobers quickly. I guess since the secret is out, at least with me, Raine couldn’t hold it back anymore.
 

“Want to help me with something?”
 

“Sure,” I say automatically and I follow him out of the back side of the house, through the kitchen. He leads me out on to the grounds, around the pool and into his building. “What’s up, boss?” I ask him as we enter his living room.
 

“I need to reposition a couple of cameras. Mind helping me out?”
 

“Nah, not at all.”
 

Part of me wonders if Mills is doing this on purpose, pulling me out of the house. While he knows Dex and I are friends, he keeps us separated when possible. I understand his reasoning. When the shit hits the fan, personal ties don’t matter anymore. It’s all about the safety of those we protect, regardless of who they are and what they are to us.
 

Sometime later, Dex comes to me and says that he and Raine are leaving. Immediately I understand why he had me drive. He can go home with her, and I can go home from here. “No problem. Let me know what time we’re taking off on Friday.”
 

“Why don’t you just come stay at the house Thursday night? You can leave your car there, in the garage, instead of on the street at your house. Our flight is leaving Burbank at like, seven Friday morning.”
 

“Alright, I’ll let you know when I’m on my way over. Might be kind of late. I have a couple things to do before we leave to get ready for the tour.”
 

“No worries, we’ll chat,” he tells me as he says goodbye and off they go.
 

“You got them alright in Nashville alone?” Mills asks.
 

“Yeah, they’re going to Derek’s in North Carolina first. He’s got his own team in place. I think they asked me to come to placate you and Cami,” I tell him with a smirk.
 

He laughs, “Probably. Regardless of who else is there, they are your responsibility.”
 

“Absolutely. I got this,” I tell him with a stoic expression. I don’t need to go into details about our plans while we’re there.
 

“Good, call me if you need anything. Now about tomorrow night…”
 

Mills launched into the details of how tomorrow night was going to go. Talon, Addison, and Kyle are going to some sort of pre-award dinner and party thing and it will be Addison’s first night out of the house since the twins were born. I imagine the night will be short-lived, but good for her at the same time. Tori, Rusty, Mills and I are handling the detail this time around. I asked about Casey and Mills told me he had some other things going on with the guys. Despite the tour being over, we’re paid and assigned to 69 Bottles, whether we’re working or not. When working, our pay goes up exponentially, and with their appearances and whatnot, they keep us busy enough to keep me afloat. Believe me, I make good fucking money and live rather modestly, but still, the pay while on duty makes up for it.
 

I’ll be getting paid the entire time we’re in North Carolina and Nashville because I am on ‘hazard duty pay.’ When I go on tour for Alyssa, I won’t be paid from 69 Bottles, but damn if I’m not making more money. There is something to be said for actor and actress protection versus a whole band.
 

When I get home, I toss my keys in the bowl, put away my gun, and jump in the shower. Different day, same routine. I’m a boring ass motherfucker.

NINE

DEX TEXTED ME around noon the next day to let me know that we’d be coming back to Los Angeles before the album launch. That makes things a little easier for me. When we travel with the entire band, I usually take both of my guns with me, among other things, and rather than having to drag them to North Carolina with us, I can just take the usual one.
 

I’m back in a monkey suit, a black and white one tonight, headed to Addison and the guys’ house to escort them to some formal dinner affair.

When I arrive at the house, Dex and Raine are there, apparently they’re the twins’ babysitters tonight.
 

“It will be fine,” Raine reassures Addison who is obviously having a hard time parting from them. I can’t find it in myself to blame her for that. I can’t imagine leaving them like this, but Raine is more than capable of handling them. She’s been a very valuable asset to them, even before the twins were born.
 

“There’s milk in the fridge, don’t forget to heat it up,” Addison tells Raine and from the exasperated look on Dex’s face, I’m guessing it’s not the first time she’s said that tonight.
 

“Come on, baby, they’ll be fine.” Kyle wraps his arm around Addison and she leans into him, taking the support she wants and needs.
 

“We need to get going,” Mills tells all of us.
 

“Alright, alright,” Addison says as she straightens up.
 

She tells the twins bye again and again until Talon is practically dragging her out of the house and into the limo where Rusty and Tori are standing by holding doors.
 

“Beck, Tori - you’re in the back tonight. Rusty and I will take the front,” Mills commands in the way that works best for him. He is all business tonight. Fifteen years in the military can make you paranoid from time to time, but I cannot imagine what would happen if anyone on his detail got hurt or worse, killed.
 

When Addison was attacked during the tour, I thought Mills was going to lose his shit. He was nearly impossible to live with in the days that followed, but as we always do, we got past it and so did he. At least until it happened again a couple cities later. Though he never really said anything, I know that incident chewed him up worse than the first time. It did all of us because the one place that was supposed to be safe and sacred for the band was vandalized in ways we never could have imagined.
 

Addison handled it better than most women ever could. I know Raine’s ordeal shook her up worse, but there was a long history there with her attacker. Though I imagine both of them having someone to lean on made it easier for them to handle.
 

“We’re fifth in line,” Mills says in my ear and Tori tells the trio, who’ve been talking quietly since getting in the car. Addison is still visibly upset about leaving the twins behind, but she’s finding her public side pretty quickly, which means she’ll manage to get through this pretty damn well.
 

The limo moves up. “Fourth,” Mills calls and Tori and I begin a routine scan around the limo, mostly security and staff surrounding us. Fans are lining the streets to catch a glimpse of all those entering the event tonight. The limo lunges forward again.
 

“I can’t do this,” Addison cries.
 

“Yes, you can. Come on, sweetheart. The kids are fine, you’re amazing. Just a little while longer,” Talon comforts her.
 

“We will leave as soon as it is socially acceptable for us to do so, I promise.”
 

“I don’t want to see all the headlines,” she cries harder.
 

“What headlines?” Kyle asks her.
 

“They’re going to scrutinize me.”
 

“Addison, we’ve talked about this. You don’t look any different than you did eleven months ago. You look amazing and so what if anyone has anything to say about it.” Talon continues to comfort her and I look at Tori who shrugs.
 

“Third,” Mills says in our ears again.
 

The car moves again quickly. “Second.” This time it’s Rusty, Tori and I who scan the crowd outside the limo.
 

“On deck, guys,” Tori says and Addison manages to right herself pretty quickly. Checking herself in a mirror before stowing it into her purse.