Total pages in book: 54
Estimated words: 49393 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 247(@200wpm)___ 198(@250wpm)___ 165(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 49393 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 247(@200wpm)___ 198(@250wpm)___ 165(@300wpm)
My brothers and I got to work together in a business we loved and enjoyed the financial success that came with it. I had everything I wanted, and I was proud of the Burns boys. We made good, and our parents would be proud of us if they were here to see it. I was content and grateful for my place in the world and what I’d been able to accomplish. The only thing I didn’t have was someone to share my life with—apart from my brothers.
We’d spent years building our brand and working hard to reach this level with our firm. I didn’t have time for dating, and I wasn’t going to put a cheesy profile on some dating application where I pretended to like long walks and shit like that. It’s not that I wasn’t looking to slow down, but I didn’t watch Hallmark movies and wished I lived on a Christmas tree farm or anything. I did think that by thirty-two I would have had a family, but it wasn’t to be, so I was content with my work success.
Four hours later I was doing a perimeter check for a client and noting how I thought they should adjust their exterior cameras to get a better field of vision and listing which parts of the landscaping were blocking the line of sight. I could tell that the gardener had a lot of trimming in their future. I thought about all these rich people with their giant, stupid shrubbery with special outdoor lights on it.
That was the zone I was in when my phone rang. It was Jasmine’s cell number on screen, not the office. She never called while we were on a job as I was now, and it would have been unusual for her to text during that time unless it was critical. I answered instantly.
“Hey,” I said, concerned.
She didn’t answer immediately and my instincts picked up on it with a spike of adrenaline. Something was very wrong. I heard a squeaky sound and a ragged breath on the other end of the call.
“Jas, answer me,” I said sternly, trying to hide my worry and sounding impatient instead.
“Sorry,” she managed to say, her voice too high and shaky. She was crying.
“Are you okay?” I said, my voice too gruff.
“I’m okay. I shouldn’t have called you,” she blurted in a rush. “I just freaked out. I had a bunch of alerts that we had job applicants already. When I went to look at them, one of them was—was Chris. My ex.”
Shit, I thought, but had to stop myself from saying it out loud.
“Okay. I’m glad you told me. You did the right thing calling. Now let me think,” I said.
I pulled up the locations on my brothers, sent them an urgent text, Eli was the closest to the office and said he was on his way there the second he got my message.
“You’re there by yourself, right? Okay, then lock up and stay put and one of us will be there in ten minutes. Can you do that?”
“Yeah. You don’t have to send someone to babysit me, Jake.”
“I’m not sending a babysitter. You know our mission. We protect our own at all costs.”
“Thank you, Jake. There’s not really any danger, nothing immediate, but it made me feel better to hear your voice if that makes sense. I needed you to know what was going on.”
“It makes sense,” I said, my gut twisting at the mix of tenderness and fear in her voice. “We’ve got your back. Do you want to stay on the line and talk to you until somebody gets there?”
“No, it’s all right. I’m going to go lock up and pace back and forth like a crazy person now and be paranoid, okay?”
“The perimeter’s clear on the cameras, I checked. Nobody’s going to get anywhere near you on my watch,” I said.
“Thanks for listening,” she said.
Any time Jas.” I hit the end button and dropped the call. No way on my watch, that asshole ex of hers was getting anywhere near her.
4
ELI
When I got the message about Jasmine I was on my feet and excusing myself from the table before I’d even hit reply on my screen. Hell no. That piece of trash couldn’t get near her or harass her. She was under Burns protection and should never have to worry for one minute.
I was disgusted by the ex-boyfriend’s reappearance. I was happier believing he was probably dead, having pissed off the wrong person for the last time. But there he was, right in Alexandria. I was not a man of primitive urges or violence. I strove to be a reasonable man, rational and measured in my responses to events. This particular situation, Jasmine’s ex-boyfriend resurfacing in her life, far from Alabama and cropping up in the online applications—it made me forget I was rational.