Between the Pack

2

Chapter 2

Sly’s POV

The next day

The sun lightwas way too bright as I emerged from the Uber. Thank God I had my shades with me to block. Especially since I hadn't exactly gotten any sleep all night long. Not that I was complaining about that. It was the good kind of not sleeping that had come along unexpectedly and blown me away.

"You finally decided to turn up?" Jake joked as he watched me walk slowly toward the club where our security detail was finally going to begin today. Stark Light, owner of RedEye Security, which specialized in undercover operations and close contact protection, a little like this job, had assigned me to this team to protect singer C'Dion during her Las Vegas residency.

Stark only took on high intensity jobs, which was why the men he had on his team had sufficient military experience. He needed the best of the best, and that was what I would consider the team to be.

From afar, though, because apparently this singer didn't take her online threats seriously. We could protect her from whatever happened to come her way. She was the only thing any of us could care about at the moment.

"Good thing I did come." I pulled my shades down a little. "I don't think I could leave you guys to run things without me. Am I right, Jake?"

Ollie smirked quietly from the corner of the room. He might have been amused by this back and forth between Jake and me, but he'd never get involved. Ollie never really said much that wasn't one hundred percent vital. But when he did speak, everyone listened intently to him.

"So, now that you are here," Vinnie jumped in, not afraid to get in the middle of it to help us keep on track, "what do we all need to do? Fill us in, Sly."

"You know your assignments, don't you?" I checked, although I was pretty sure Vinnie's comments were more teasing than anything else. He was just acting like they all couldn't cope if I wasn't around. They could, but of course I was given the leadership role for a reason. "Stark filled us in before sending us to Las Vegas. We all have burner phones for this assignment."

I handed them out, watching intently as Jake immediately flipped his over in his hands, not showing any care that he was potentially about to drop it. Honestly, he was so lucky that he had such good reflexes, otherwise I would have had to kick his ass, which wouldn't turn out well for any of us.

"Now," I continued firmly, "you all remember how important it is that we are inconspicuous. No one is to see us. Especially not our main target."

Never saying aloud the name of the person we were looking after was one of the biggest rules of the job. I preferred it that way. We all knew who it was anyway, so there was absolutely no need. Plus, we did not want to be over heard. There was no telling who was listening in, and how, at any point. Technology these days made it damn near impossible to have a private conversation.

"This might not be exactly like the work we have done before, but we're going to behave in exactly the same manner," I declared. "All lives we're paid to protect are just as important. I don't want any of you to forget that at any point, okay?"

Vinnie nodded eagerly, Ollie gave one sharp nod, and Jake agreed with a small roll of his eyes. That was about all I would get from him, but at least I knew him well enough to understand he was on board. Sure, I might have been stating the obvious, I might have been treating them a little like they were kids, but I wasn't about to let anything slide just because I wasn't clear. No way. I would much rather state the obvious than say too little. That way nothing could be misconstrued. Miscommunication was not an option.

"So, we should get to our posts now?" Vinnie asked.

"No time like the present," I replied with a one-shouldered shrug. "Unless anyone else has anything they need to know?" No one said a thing. "Right, let's do it."

We all went our separate ways to get in position for this job. I headed toward the building where I was to be stationed. I wasn't the only person headed in to that building, there were plenty of other people doing the same thing. People bringing all sorts of equipment inside. Lighting, sound, stage parts…everything to make this residency a flashy Vegas show.

I made note of each and every one of the people that I passed, just because I had to know all of them. I picked out distinguishing features for all of them to recall later on if I needed to. Artificial red hair, neck tattoos, a scar…anything that would make sure I could pick them out of a line up.

Not that I was being distrustful of everyone, but since I couldn't yet know who the trouble could be coming from, I couldn't trust a soul.

"Excuse me," I asked the blonde woman with a clipboard in her hands. She had the look of someone who knew what was going on, which was a start. "Is there a manager here that I can get myself acquainted with?"

She narrowed her eyes and stared at me like I was a member of a different species, I suppose because I spoke so officially. Okay, so I needed to tone that down while I was here in Vegas. But could I? As soon as I snapped into work mode, that was how I talked. It might be too natural to me now.

"Daisy is in the back somewhere." She pointed wildly, not really giving me much to go on at all. Maybe she didn't know as much as the impression she gave. "Over there. I don't know where exactly. You'll find her."

I nodded just the once and followed her pretty aimless direction. I even had to ask a couple more people on the way. I suppose that was probably a good thing because it allowed me to make even more of a connection to the people surrounding this pop star, Claire. But it was kind of frustrating because I needed this Daisy to let me know what imminent threats my team and I needed to look out for.

Stark could only give us so much information. Daisy was the one who was going to have to give me everything I needed.

Eventually, I spotted the infamous Claire. I didn't know much about her and the songs she'd released, but I still recognized her. It was the wavy red hair that grazed her shoulders. The people standing beside her had a very distinctive look, similar to hers, very similar hair color, so I could only assume they were her family members. Parents, probably. And someone with a sharp tone and the look of someone who had to be a manager. I could only assume this was Daisy.

See? I was freaking perfect for this job. I worked that out in a heartbeat.

"Ah, Sly, right?" Daisy spotted me as I drew nearer to the crowd. I knew it was her, but that thought was confirmed as she introduced herself to me, and then Claire and her parents too. My suspicions were spot on. "Claire, this is Sly, he is going to be your bodyguard while we're in Vegas."

"Bodyguard?" Claire sneered as she ran her eyes up and down me. "Daisy, I already told you that I don't need protection. Why don't you ever listen to me?"

"It's always better to have protection, just in case," she replied guardedly.

Claire huffed and rolled her eyes. "I don't need this. I'm fine." She turned her attention back to me. "You just need to stay out of my way, okay? As long as you do that, we won’t have any problems."

Whoa, not what I was expecting. I cocked a knowing eyebrow but nodded, remaining professional at all times. "Sure thing. Whatever you want. I am here to make your life easier, after all. You won’t even notice me."

Much as I could respect her desire to want me out of the way, I had to admit that I agreed with Daisy. If she was in the public eye, she needed looking after, even if she couldn't see it herself. We didn't know too much about the online abuse, but I knew enough about the internet to see it was a shitty place where no one should really be. And while it was easy to assume it was just a faceless person on the other end of the computer screen, sometimes those people materialized. And when that happened, anything could go down.

Claire scoffed and rolled her eyes. Clearly she wasn't happy with having people watching over her, but whatever. It wasn't my job to keep her happy necessarily, it was just my job to keep her safe. That part of it wasn't a problem for my team and me…not that I was going to mention the team right now.

"I am going to rehearsals," she finally declared. "I have to get ready for my residency. I don't have time for any of this."

"Thank you," her mom declared with a soft smile playing on her lips. "We all appreciate it. I know Claire might not be showing her appreciation right now, but she's just as glad as we are to have you around."

Her father nodded. He could see just as much as I could that Claire wasn't too happy to have me around, but it didn't matter. I had to be here, no matter what. And if she did end up safe and we weren't needed, good. That was what we all really wanted after all.

"Well, we're going to go. Claire wants us to watch her rehearse."

I nodded and shook their hands, hoping I'd at least charmed them because it would be nice to have at least them on side. Once they left to watch Claire, it was only Daisy and me, so I could finally ask what was going on.

"So, Daisy." She smiled at me. "Can you fill me in on what's going on? Any dangers I need to be aware of, or any scheduling changes I should know about?"

"It isn't just you, is it?" She pouted out her bottom lip. "I thought there were more. That was what I'd been told in the initial meeting."

"Nah, the other three guys are here, all in their places. I thought it better not to have too many bodyguards on Claire all at once."

She nodded slowly. "Good, good. Probably for the best that it's just you actually. Let's not overwhelm Claire more than we already have. And, actually, I already have everything you need to know. I've got it all in this file."

She was definitely a type A personality. The sort who was super organized no matter what. That was good, I worked well with people like that. People who would just let me know where I stood with them. Simple.

"I will introduce you to everyone," Daisy promised me as she took me for a walk around the building. "But there are some people who are going to be more important for you to know. People you will be working closely with. Namely Claire's personal assistant, Paisley." She checked her watch. "She should be here somewhere but I'm not quite sure what she's doing at the moment. We'll find her."

Paisley.That was clearly a name I was going to have to remember. I committed it to memory, stored it in the back of my brain, and focused on the itinerary that Daisy was now going through. She was speaking so fast, she might as well have been tripping over her words. Yep, this was going to be wild.

As we walked around the facility, I felt I had all the information I needed, so Daisy was just giving me extra and going a little over the top, I allowed my mind to wander, and there was really only one place it was going to go. To last night, and the foxy woman I stumbled across in the bar. That shock of flaming red hair, her piercing blue eyes, the clashing colors of her clothing that somehow managed to look incredible pulled over that shapely body of hers.

Now she was hot. Not only was she absolutely gorgeous, with long, shapely legs that seemed to go on forever, but she was so much fun to be around. My God, we had the best time. Talking to her, even if we didn't get into anything deep, was awesome. I loved just chatting in the bar. But then things went further. As soon as she pressed her thong in my hand, I lost my shit. Kissing her had me on fucking fire, and then there was the sight of her naked. She had one hell of a body, pert, round breasts and nipples that tasted electrifying. Curves in all the right places that I adored touching and tasting. Plump, passion bruised lips that were incredible…

God, she was sexy. I was kind of looking forward to having another round this morning, but, unfortunately, after the about half an hour of sleep I did manage to get, I woke up very much alone. Depressingly alone. But what did I expect? For our fling to carry on? That wasn't the fast and loose lifestyle of Las Vegas.

But my God, the whole time I was here, working on this assignment, I was for sure going to be thinking about her, because fucking her was a seriously intense experience. Mind blowing actually. I didn't usually have this feeling, like I couldn't stop thinking about someone the next day, but I couldn't get enough of these thoughts. There was even a secret part of me wishing that when I got back to my hotel room, she would be there to meet me. Lying in bed, naked, legs spread, her arms flung above her head, writhing around as she waited for me to join her so we could reenact everything we did last night. Maybe even trying some new angles, although I was struggling to recall something we didn't experience.

If only I had her damn phone number so I could call her for another rendezvous. But the crazier thing was I didn't even have her name. All the things we did talk about, names and numbers weren't involved. Idiot.

I knew everything about her gorgeous body, inside and out, but I didn't know her name. I should have just asked. She was working out here for an undetermined amount of time, and since I was here for a month, we could have reconnected on more than one occasion. If I was ever lucky enough to run across her again, I would see if she was up for it.

My thoughts were distracted by a check-in text message from Vinnie, shortly followed by contact from the other guys. They all assured me that things were safe where they were at the moment, and I reassured them that it was the same here. So far, so good. C'Dion was going to be okay. Whether she wanted us around or not, we were going to make sure she was just fine.

As I read the messages, Daisy was busy talking on her own phone. I honestly wondered how anyone could understand her. The more stressed out she seemed to become, the faster she talked. I wasn't used to that. People in the military were always clear and concise with their instructions. There was never any messing around or miscommunication because all lives were on the line.

Then again, security work was the same, there were just far more variations when it came to the people I was working with.

"Right." Daisy whipped back around and grinned at me. "I have finally managed to locate Paisley, who I need you to meet because you'll be working with her more than anyone else. She's been running up and down the Strip trying to get hold of some of the contacts Claire needs to visit with her during the residency, but she's on her way back now and eager to meet with you."

I nodded eagerly, hoping this mysterious Paisley and I would be able to work together much better than I imagined Daisy and I would. I hoped she was someone I could get on the same page as.

"Here she is. I see her now."

Daisy grabbed my arm and tugged me forward, like I was a child who needed guiding. Only I couldn't even get my words together to say anything because Paisley had an all too familiar shock of red hair. Piercing blue eyes that shot through my soul. A body to die for.

There was no way…

But I knew what I was looking at, who I was looking at. If I needed any confirmation at all, it was in the very similar sort of stare she was giving me. One filled half with horror, half with recognition.

Paisley was her.

She was Paisley.

And now we were going to have to work together.

How on earth could I keep a straight face working alongside the woman who was on top of me only a couple of hours ago? The woman whose body would not quit, which was why I couldn't stop thinking about her. The woman I was just thinking I wanted to get my hands all over again.

And now she was here.

Holy shit.

"Paisley," Daisy declared with a happy tone. She of course had no idea what was going on here. Even if the air between us was so thick she definitely should have been able to sense it. "This is Sly, the bodyguard. Sly, this is Paisley, Claire's personal assistant, who you will be working closely alongside."

Closely.

Christ.