Page 64 of Her Guardian
I don’t think either of us will be getting much sleep tonight.
Boyd claims my body again and again once we return to the room. Thankfully, he doesn’t break the only bed left standing. I fall asleep in his arms, but he doesn’t seem to sleep. I wake up when he shifts and moves, but he urges me to go back to sleep each time.
When I finally open my eyes to the sun peeking through the Las Vegas skyline, Boyd is still holding me, but he’s finally dozed off. His phone is in his limp hand. I don’t know how long it will be before a message disturbs us, so I nuzzle close to his neck to enjoy as much time with him as I can.
The message comes as soon as I get comfortable. Boyd jolts awake and stares at the screen for a moment before pushing me away.
“I have to go,” he mumbles.
“Already?” I groan. “But you barely slept.”
“Doesn’t matter,” he says, hastily getting dressed. “The defense contractor is ready to meet with us. No real danger, but this isn’t exactly legal, so Dante wants my crew there.”
“Hopefully you get enough gas sensors to spread them around to all the families that could be targeted,” I say, reaching for my vape and my laptop before rubbing the sleep out of my eyes.
“We’ll see,” he rumbles. “We’ll take whatever they can spare. I got a message during the night that they just filled an order for the military, so we may not get as many as we hoped we would.”
Boyd approaches the bed, and I look up at him. I don’t want him to go, but he has to. Because I’m helping the Dirty Vegas Mafia catch the Mafia Prince Killer. I’ve never felt so out of my element while being exactly where I want to be.
Well, almost.
His lips find mine and then I’m right where I want to be. Close to him. Feeling his arms pull me closer. Moaning into his kiss and moving my hips toward him, begging him to undress and climb back in bed with me.
“It won’t take long,” I mewl, sounding so needy it makes me tremble with confusion. I’m never like this. “Just stay a few minutes.”
“I can’t,” Boyd sighs, pulling away from me and trailing his fingers down my arm before letting go. “But once we catch this motherfucker? I’ll be able to spend all of my time with you. You’ll be tired of me in a week.”
“Never,” I laugh, jumping toward him and making him catch me so I can get one more kiss.
I stand by the bed and watch him go. I sink into the mattress and open my laptop. My podcasts are doing great. I should be doing cartwheels right now. The ad revenue is already good, and I’ve got some bigger sponsors in my inbox. Some of the ones who abandoned me after my podcast’s popularity didn’t last.
“Work… right…” I sigh, taking a hit from my vape. “It’s been so long I forgot this is actually a job sometimes.”
My boss will be expecting me back at the restaurant in a few days. I hate to quit over the phone, but I’m not leaving Las Vegas until they catch him. I may not even leave after that. Not if I truly belong to Boyd. I’m certainly acting like I do.
I dial the number and tense up when my boss answers the phone. “Hey, Mrs. Talbot…”
It’s not a fun conversation. There’s some yelling on her end, and I take the brunt of it because I deserve it. She’s been extremely generous with my schedule, especially when I run off to Las Vegas on a whim. I apologize profusely and promise to find someone to cover until they find a replacement. That eases her tone, and we end the call more pleasantly than it began.
Then I have to make good on that promise. I go through my contacts and stop when I get to Vicky’s name. I hit the button to call her, because this is too much for a text.
“Vicky! Hey, didn’t you post on Facebook yesterday that you were looking for a second job?” I chirp, keeping my tone pleasant. “You used to work as a waitress in high school, right? At your uncle’s bar…”
“Yeah, girl. Waitress, bartender, whatever,” she replies. “Did that for two years.”
“How would you feel about waiting tables again?” I continue. “There’s a spot at the diner where I work. Actually, it’s my spot, and I told them I’d find someone to cover… but if you cover, they’ll probably just hire you to replace me.”
“Oh! Um, yeah!” she says, excitement radiating through the phone. “When should I start?”
A few text messages later, I’ve passed Vicky off to my boss, and she’s officially got my job. I get a really nice thank you message from Mrs. Talbot. At least the bridge isn’t burned, if things don’t work out. Not that I was going to be at the restaurant much longer, anyway. My mom made it pretty clear the clock is ticking.
I turn my attention back to my podcast. I know where I went wrong last time. My podcast was red hot and popular, but I didn’t know how to keep the momentum going. I burned through the interesting stuff too quickly, rather than baiting my listeners.
It’ll be different this time. I know what my audience likes, and they’ll listen to an entire episode just to hear one thing they haven’t heard anywhere else. I won’t mess up like I did last time. Sure, I won’t keepallthe listeners. That’s not realistic. I just need enough to keep the sponsors.
“Alright, I don’t have anything interesting to share, but I can hop on and do a recap,” I say, reaching for my air pods. “Another thing I didn’t do well last time. Content is still content, when the podcast has a lot of attention. When it doesn’t—might as well talk to the ether.”
But really, I’m just distracting myself.
