Page 33 of The Forbidden Sitter
He and I passed in the foyer as he came inside. “Stay with them today, Samson.” I showed him thetext.
“Got it, boss.” He looked at me with those dark eyes that I knew had seen many horrors. An ex-Marine, I knew he had some stories that could curl my hair. But he never told me any. He and I weren’t friends. He was my protector, and he took that job seriously. “And how aboutyou?”
“They’re more important right now.” I shoved my hand through my hair. It was a nervous tic that I’d never learned to conquer. “See if you can find someone for me when you get time. I want you watching over them both. I know the threat is with my son, but his babysitter would definitely jump in front of a bullet for him. You’ll have to keep her safe too. But don’t let them know you’re doing it just yet. Watch over them, but keep it covert. I’ll talk to Brooke about it when I get backhome.”
“Yes, sir. I’m on it. They’ll never know I’m watching them.” He headed out of the room and stopped to look back at me. “You be careful, Gannon. I don’t like leaving you unprotected. Maybe it would be better if you called the police and had them come outhere.”
“I don’t want to upset Brooke with this. It might be someone the cops can easily find, since I have a phone number.” I turned to leave. “I’ll be fine. And I’ll be on the lookout for anything out of theordinary.”
I could tell Samson wasn’t taking this well, but he walked away to go watch over the people I loved the most in the entireworld.
***
On the way to the police station, I made the calls to the other men involved in the nightclub. Neither had been contacted, it was just me, but they met me at the police stationanyway.
With the vandalism, and now a threat like this one, it was more than obvious that someone wanted to end our nightclub. But for what reason, none of us had even the slightestclue.
We met in front of the police station just as the sun broke the horizon. The place wasn’t bustling yet as we went inside. August looked tired, and I knew it was a bit early for him to beup.
“You know, I can probably handle this on my own,guys.”
Both shook their heads as Nixon said, “No. We’re all in this together. A threat on your kid isn’t a thing we can sit back and allow you to deal with all alone. The only reason we weren’t threatened is because neither of us has anyone in our lives who they could use to get tous.”
August nodded in agreement. “That’s right, Gannon. We’re all in thistogether.”
After waiting what all three of us deemed too damn long, we were finally able to talk to a detective. We had no idea he’d been assigned to the investigation of the incident that happened at the club. Detective Peterson had been on that case, and nothing had been found out. So none of us were happy with his work or the fact that they were sticking him on this thing too. The one thing he did manage to find out for us was that the number the text had come from was a dummy number, notreal.
Leaving the police station, we all decided it was time to hire our own guys to get to the bottom ofthis.
August muttered, “Can you believe thatguy?”
Nixon shook his head. “He’s ajoke.”
We walked back to our cars that were parked in the parking lot, which had now become quite full as three hours had gone by and the day had officiallystarted.
Pressing the key fob to unlock my car, I growled, “Who the hell in Vegas would care enough about what we’re building here to go thisfar?”
The detective had had one idea in his ancient bald head. He had told us he was looking into the other owners of the upscale nightclubs in Las Vegas. He thought it had to be one or more of them who didn’t want the competition our club wouldbring.
The old guy’s exact words had been, ‘There just aren’t that many super-rich people on the entire planet who can afford to go to expensive clubs likethat.’
If that’s the way the detective that had been assigned our case thought, then we’d end up with nothing if we relied on only him to figure this shit out before something else terrible happened. Something worse,potentially.
“You head home, Gannon.” Nixon jerked his head toward the car his bodyguard was in. “My guy will follow you to make sure you get there okay. We’re going to have to make some changes here. Let our drivers take us where we need to go. Keep our bodyguards closer than we normally do. We can’t underestimate who’s doingthis.”
With a nod, I had to agree, “Yeah, you’re right. I mean, we had the entire crew take lie detector tests, and none of them had anything to do with the explosive device that was set at the club. There’s someone with some serious connections who has to be doingthis.”
“Either that,” August added, “Or some completely inept person who has no idea what they’re getting themselvesinto.”
I had no idea which one it was, but I knew I’d find the motherfucker and make him pay for threatening myson.
Chapter21
Brooke
Wakingup the next morning with a dreamy smile on my face, I half wondered if I’d imagined everything. Then I tried sitting up on the side of the bed and groaned “Ow…”
It definitely was not a dream. Everything hurt. Literally every part of my body, inside and out hurt. I had had no idea that sex used that many muscles in the human body. After last night, I must’ve burned every calorie I had in my body because I was also starving todeath.
