Letting out a sigh, I climbed out of my Maserati and closed the door behind me. I wasn’t looking forward to this. I hated asking for help, almost as much as I hated the idea of some bodyguard monitoring my every move, but Marcus wanted a name by the morning, and I’d be damned if I didn’t get him one.
I smoothed my hands over the lapels of my suit jacket as I walked up a cracked concrete path toward the home. As I approached, a sensor light switched on over a plain white door, and I noted the few scraggly hedges around the entrance that had seen better days. Then, just as I was about to knock, the door was pulled wide open.
“Well, what do we have here? The illustrious Alexander Thorne standing on my li’l ole doorstep. To what do I owe this pleasure?”
I glared at Sean, and in that moment wished I’d had that final growth spurt that pushed me past his six-three frame. But no, Bailey and I had topped out at an even six, leaving Sean to lord it over us for the rest of our lives.
With shoulders broad enough that they just about filled the doorframe and an attitude pricklier than a porcupine’s, I supposed Sean’s overall appearance and demeanor helped when it came to his chosen career path. However, to those of us who existed in a world where we had to converse with others, it was a rare day that Sean didn’t open his mouth and somehow irritate the shit out of someone close by.
That someone right now just so happened to be me. “Are you done? Did you get it all out of your system?”
Sean rubbed his fingers over the dark scruff covering his chin and shrugged. “Maybe? Maybe not. Come on, Xander. You got to admit, it’s not exactly an everyday occurrence for you to rock up at my place in the shadows of twilight. What’d you do, kill someone?”
“No. Jesus. Would you just get out of the way and let me inside?” I took a step forward and shoved him in the arm, and Sean finally stepped out of the way.
“Okay, relax.” He chuckled. “No need to get all pissy about it.”
But as I walked into a narrow hall and stopped to see him still standing in the open doorway, there was no relaxing in sight.
Ever since I’d left the news station, I’d been trying to push aside the nerves that had been building in me. I’d tried not to think about who might be watching me, who might be following me. But as Sean stood there with the door wide for anyone to see, a wave of panic rushed in, and I, well…I lost my shit. “Can you hurry up and shut the fucking door?”
Sean’s eyes widened, and with a sharp flick of his wrist, he slammed the door shut behind him.
“Lock it, too.” Sean opened his mouth to speak, but I quickly cut him off, not in the mood for any of his smartass retorts. “Just do it, Sean.”
I watched closely as Sean not only engaged the lock on the handle, but also the chain, then he turned back to me and crossed his arms. “Okay, it’s locked. You wanna maybe tell me what’s got your panties in such a bunch tonight?”
“I don’t wear— Shit. I just…” I ran a hand through my hair. “I just need to talk to you, and I’d rather not do it with the door open for the world to hear, if that’s okay with you.” When Sean merely stood there, I looked over my shoulder and down the hall. “This the way to your living room?”
“I guess you could call it that,” Sean said, as I headed off in that direction. “Not that I do that much living in it.”
I came to a stop in the sparse space and scanned the bare walls, lone recliner, and mounted television on the far wall. “I can see why.”
“Yeah? Well, not all of us can live in a fancy-ass skyscraper, you know.”
I totally agreed, and didn’t actually think Sean would know how to enjoy the finer aspects of luxury apartment living. But this? This place was just depressing.
“You ever heard of a photo or coat of paint?” I took another look around. “Something to add a little bit of character to the place?”
“My bad.” Sean came around to stand in front of me. “And here I thought we could sit around and discuss what kind of color scheme would go best with my complexion. I thought you were here for help, not to offer up your expert design skills.”
“Can’t I do both?”
“No, you can’t. I just got off a long-ass case, I’m tired, and you called me. So what’s going on, Xander?”
He was right. I was the one who’d called, the one who was inconveniencing him, and here I was being a rude shit.
What can I say? Sean always brought out the best in me.
“I need your help.”
“Yeah, I kind of gathered that—”
“Sean, can you just for one second in your life not talk? Please.”
Sean shrugged and kept his mouth shut—shocker. I swear, the guy could talk under water with marbles in his mouth. Always had an answer for everything.
“I need your help,” I said. “I have to get some…personal security.”
When Sean stood there mute, I glared at him, and he pointed to his mouth. It was official. I was going to kill him.
“You can talk.”
“Are you sure?”
I gnashed my teeth together, and Sean smirked.
“Just checking.”
“More like agitating. So? Can you help me out or not?”
Sean’s dark blue eyes wandered over me. “Personal security, huh? I mean, I know you think you’re a big shot and everything in the news world, Xander. But I hardly think people are mobbing you when you walk down the street for an autograph.”
“Not that kind of— God, you’re annoying.”
Turning away from him so I wouldn’t resort to something as juvenile as punching him, I wandered over to the small hole in the wall that I supposed could constitute for a window, and found myself thinking about who was out there. Who might be looking in.
Shaking off those thoughts, I quickly got back on topic.
“My station wants me to hire a bodyguard. Trust me, if I didn’t have to, I wouldn’t. But since I don’t have a choice, I want to choose, and I thought that you might be able to help point me in the right direction of a company I could—”
“Wait a minute. Hold up.” I turned to see Sean walking around the recliner toward me. “Why do you need a bodyguard? Is someone threatening you?”
I thought about those final lines I’d read: I want to touch you, be with you, Alexander. You’re meant2bmine, and soon you will be.
I slipped my hands into my pockets to keep them from shaking and tried my hardest not to appear unnerved. “It’s nothing, really.”
Sean took a step closer and scrutinized my expression, searching for the truth. And for the first time since I’d entered his home, there was no joke lingering in his eyes. Sean looked one hundred percent serious.
“That wasn’t my question, Xander. Has someone been threatening you?”
4
Sean
I WASN’T SURE why, but the idea that someone had been messing with Xander made me want to ram my fist through a wall. Sure, we’d had our ups and downs in the past, but that was to be expected between people who’d been in each other’s lives for as long as we had been.