Page 7 of Imperfect Saint
“She asked me to do her a favor, okay? Her assistant, Millie, needs some protection this weekend and Lemon asked me to handle it. I said yes.” He glanced up from where he’d started organizing his messy desk and saw Vaughn’s frown only deepen, “What was I supposed to say? No? Lemon is my biggest client.”
“What does her assistant need protection from?”
Hunter really, really didn’t want to get into this. Especially considering he had no proof. But his gut had filled in the blanks and he knew trying to hide anything from his older brother was useless so he stopped what he was doing and met Vaughn’s piercing stare.
“Abusive ex boyfriend.”
That made Vaughn’s jaw twitch and Hunter recognized the gesture. He was sure his own had been jumping during that call with Lemon. She hadn’t outright said that Millie’s ex was abusive. They’d danced around that topic. But he’d known they were both thinking it. Vaughn rubbed his chin before he spoke again, a habit of his when he was thinking.
“Why is the girl going anywhere near an asshole like that?”
“Family wedding.”
“I take it her family doesn’t know then.”
It wasn’t a question so Hunter didn’t bother answering it like one, “It’s two nights away. I leave tomorrow afternoon. I only had the one job booked for tomorrow night, so as long as you can get someone to fill in for me…”
“I’ll get Tyler to cover you.” Vaughn gave a short nod and then turned as if he was going to leave the office before pausing and turning back, “And Hunter? What I overheard about going to jail if the asshole tries anything? I’m your first call. Always.”
Hunter grinned, “And here I thought you were going to tell me to not get arrested.”
“That would be my preference but if it comes down to protecting the girl, I know you won’t hesitate to take matters into your own hands if necessary. Try to think with your head, the one on top of your shoulders, while you’re on this job, and be careful.”
“I’m always careful.”
“No, Hunter.” Vaughn shot him a serious look, “You’re not. You lead with your emotions and as your boss I see that as both the asset and the liability that it is. It makes you good with the clients. It’s why Lemon didn’t hesitate to call and ask you to do her this favor. She trusts you. But as your older brother, I’m asking you, seriously, to be careful this weekend. You’ll be alone, without backup, in a place you don’t know, with people you’ve never met before. Think before you act. Okay?”
“Okay.” Hunter nodded and Vaughn gave him one last look before nodding and then leaving his office.
Hunter smiled once Vaughn was out of sight. It wasn’t often his big brother gave him a compliment and he couldn’t deny the words had been nice to hear. Sometimes he wondered if Vaughn only kept him and Tyler on the payroll because they were related. They shared a last name and even if some people would only call them half-brothers, Vaughn had always been one hundred percent there for Hunter and Tyler.
Hunter knew it couldn’t have been easy for Vaughn. He wasn’t just older. He was old enough to be Hunter and Tyler’s father himself. Their father had married a woman only a few years older than Vaughn and Hunter knew that had caused friction between the old man and his eldest son. But even when Vaughn had pulled away from their father, he’d never walked away from his brothers. He’d taken them under his wing, been the best older brother they could have asked for and had even given them jobs at the agency.
Vaughn was a good man. He was a good brother and a good boss. He put up with a lot from Tyler and had never once threatened to fire him, even though Hunter sometimes thought his older brother should do just that. Vaughn kept them close, but he never doled out special treatment and he certainly didn’t hand out compliments, which was why Hunter wasn’t at all surprised he’d followed it up with a warning.
Vaughn thought Hunter could be reckless but nothing was further from the truth. He did let his emotions rule his decisions sometimes but he didn’t think that was a bad thing. He cared about Lemon as more than just a client and Millie… well, what he felt for her was in a whole other ballpark. But that didn’t mean he was going to go rushing into a situation unprepared.
If anything, he was going to do a deep research dive before he went in so that he’d know exactly what he was dealing with. It might not be the kind of situation that involved guns and vests but that didn’t mean it wasn’t dangerous. He needed to do some recon and he needed to do it fast.
Hunter sat back down at his desk and opened his laptop. He typed in his password and once the main screen came up he opened every search program he had available to him. It was time to do something he hadn’t let himself do since he’d first been introduced to the beautiful and mysterious Millie Turner.
He was going to Google her. Then he was going to Facebook her. Then he was going to run a background check and from there he’d expand his search to find the people she was connected with. Namely, he intended to track down the guy Lemon had told him about and find as much dirt on him as was possible in the small window of time he had before he was supposed to pick Millie up.
What did Lemon say his name was? Joshua something? Joshua Bell. He even sounded like a douchebag.
Hunter leaned forward in his chair, pulled up the search engine and typed in Millie’s name. He had to scroll a little to get past all the articles about Lemon that mentioned her assistant by name. Once he did though, he rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn’t seeing things. When he stared at the computer screen the article was still front and center and his jaw clenched.
He couldn’t believe what he was reading.
He’d wanted to learn more about Millie and with just a couple of clicks, he had. He’d discovered with nothing but a Google search that he didn’t know a damn thing about the girl he’d been lusting over for half a year. He hadn’t looked into her before because he’d had no reasonable excuse to put her name into their system. She wasn’t a client and Lemon had vetted her long before Hunter joined the team. But he’d also refused to search out information about Millie online because, as much as he wanted to know everything about her, he’d wanted her to be the one to tell him. He’d wanted Millie to let down her walls, talk to him, and trust him with her secrets.
From what he had learned in just one preliminary search, Millie had a lot of secrets.
When he finally flipped off the computer later that night, he’d accepted the truth. If he was going to this wedding as Millie’s date, it wasn’t because Lemon had asked him to. It wasn’t even because he was worried about her wellbeing. He had said yes because he wanted to go, because he wanted to be with Millie and because by the end of the weekend, he hoped that she would trust him with all of the secrets she’d been keeping.
Maybe she thought she needed a buffer because of her ex. Maybe Lemon had only asked him to fake being Millie’s date. But there wasn’t anything fake about how much he liked Millie or the lengths he would go to prove to her that his feelings for her were real.
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