8
STARK’S POV
What the hell is going on?I paced up and down at the front door, waiting for Lucky to bring back Renee safe and sound. It was getting late now, too late. The art show finished a while ago now, leaving plenty of time for the car to bring them home, but that hadn’t happened yet. Why hadn’t that happened yet? It had me seriously nervous. Even as I tried my hardest to figure out a million excuses why they could be so late, it didn’t feel right. Something had happened, something had to have happened.
Oh!The door swung open, making me jump. Shit, I got myself so caught up in the fear of something happening to Renee that I almost wasn’t expecting her to come home. So, to see her slamming the door open so hard it hit the wall, nearly shaking the building, startled me. So much so that I nearly didn’t see the expression on her face.
But as she stormed passed me without even saying hello, which wasn’t like her at all, I spotted hot tears brimming in her bright red eyes. She was crying, or on the verge of crying anyway, which was odd. An art show for someone who loved art was supposed to be fun, not something that made her weep.
“Renee?” I called after her as she stomped up the stairs two at a time. I wasn’t going to let her go without at least trying to speak with her. “Renee, are you okay?”
But she didn’t answer me, and as she turned the corner and out of sight, I knew I wasn’t about to get any kind of answer. Not from Renee anyway, but since Lucky wasn’t far behind her with a sheepish look on his face, I would get the answer from him.
“What’s going on?” I demanded, mentally noting his nerves.
“Renee is…struggling.”
That wasn’t it. That wasn’t all of it. I folded my arms across my chest and stared at him until he opened up a little more.
“She’s figuring out who Diego Vanderbilt is, and I guess she doesn’t like it so much.”
I knotted my brows together. While Iwasn’t exactly impressed by Diego, I didn’t have any real reason to look into him. But Lucky wasn’t like that. If Lucky got a bad vibe from someone, he would do his best to find out everything he could. It was safe to say that his computer hacking skills had helped out RedEye Security on more than one occasion. I guess I was going to have to utilize that here too.
“What do you know? What have you found out?”
“I hacked his social media accounts after the first time I met him.” He didn’t need to bring up the shitty library story again. I’d heard it enough times to be irritated by it. “And I found out that he has a string of women basically on speed dial.”
I bit down on my bottom lip, trying to keep my irritation inside. Renee seemed like a super sweet woman. Beautiful as well as charming. Diego was trash and nowhere near as good as Renee, but that wasn’t my judgement to make.
“We can hate him as much as we want, but that doesn’t mean a thing.” I shrugged, trying to let Lucky see that I was all blasé about it. “We have been hired by Mr. Vince Vaughn to protect his daughter from threats on her life. Not look into her fiancé.”
“But he’s cheating on her, and she deserves so much better.”
I rested my hands on his shoulders and stared deeply in to his eyes so Lucky could see how serious I was. “Listen, it isn’t up to us to have an opinion.”
“I see that,” Lucky agreed. “But at the same time, shouldn’t we protect Renee from a shitty future? Shouldn’t we let her know that she’s right to be worried about Diego because he’s no good? I really don’t feel right about any of it. I’m sure we have a duty to protect her this way as well.”
I understood where Lucky was coming from. I didn’t want to let Renee walk into a shitty life either, but that wasn’t up to us. When we got this job from Vince Vaughn, when the oil tycoon insisted I be on the squad rather than only sending my well-trusted men, I understood the underlying message that we weren't to ask any questions while we were here. Decisions had been made between the Vaughn and Vanderbilt families and that was the end of it.
“We have a duty to do what we are paid to do,” I reminded Lucky. “We have a duty to keep an eye on Renee and ensure nothing happens to her. We don’t have a duty to talk to her about anything personal at all. I don’t know what happened between you two tonight, but you may have already over stepped the line. We can’t get actively involved in her life. You have been on enough jobs to know that.”
He had, and I trusted Lucky whole heartedly. I wouldn’t have him working for RedEye Security if I couldn’t trust him. He had never done anything to make me worry about him, but now, looking into his eyes, I could see intense feelings there. How could I not be worried about him? He clearly had a burning connection to Renee, which was troubling.
Toby knew her as well. He had some sort of history with her from college. He hadn’t gone in to detail about it, and I hadn’t asked him either, but there was something there. And then Wes seemed oddly entranced by Renee as well. Or at the very least the artwork she created. Now there was Lucky, and he seemed the most caught up by her of all.
I didn’t even want to contemplate the complications surging through my chest every time I laid eyes on Renee. It was too much for me. I had to lead by example and definitely not feel anything for anyone I worked with. That was a killer move for anyone working in security detail, but most of all for a guy who ran a security company. I could wreck RedEye Security if I felt anything for Renee, so even if there was anything there, I had to shove it down.
“You’re right,” Lucky finally agreed with his head hung low. “I know I’m getting in too deep. But it’s hard because Renee is really cool. You know, she’s beautiful and she’s candid and honest as well. A real sweetheart. It just seems like such a shame.”
I opened my mouth, about to agree with Lucky, but I stopped myself at the very last moment. If I gave him an inch, he might take a mile and think it was okay to hold onto these emotions, maybe even act on them. He had to stop. We all did.
“Where are Wes and Toby?” Lucky asked me sadly. “I think I need a drink.”
I pointed behind myself to the balcony area where the guys were drinking beers and shooting the shit. I was supposed to be with them, but I had been too busy waiting for Lucky and Renee to walk through the front door. I'd planned to join them afterward, but now I wasn’t too sure I was up for it.
I had a lot of shit going through my mind, and I wasn’t sure what to do with it. But I needed to deal with it before I got caught up in my feelings. I already knew I couldn’t feel anything for Renee, and that I definitely shouldn’t, but whatever had gone on tonight had stirred up those feelings all over again.
I watched Lucky go before I collapsed on the bottom step with my head in my hands. I kept pushing any feelings I had for Renee down, but now they were surging through my blood stream.
I didn’t get feelings easily. I never had, and I never thought I would. That was why I didn’t mind working closely with people, because I was so sure I wouldn’t ever mix business with pleasure. But Renee was different, and I didn’t know how to handle it. Especially since she was engaged to a dirtbag. We all hated Diego, that much was clear. Ever since the library incident, we all got a bad feeling about him, so I could see why Lucky didn’t want to let Renee go on with this wedding.
But that didn’t mean we could do anything about it. It would lose us this high paying job that we really needed and wreck RedEye Security’s professional reputation.
I needed to make sure she was okay. That was the right thing to do, wasn’t it? Just because Renee’s life wasn’t in danger didn’t mean she wasn’t hurt. She was upset, and I was pretty sure Mr. Vaughn wanted me to make sure her mental health was okay too.
At least that was how I justified it to myself as I headed to Renee’s room. I told myself that over and over again, almost as if it was a mantra, until I heard her voice.
“What the hell?” For a moment, I wondered if she was talking to someone. There wasn’t anyone else in the house aside from us because her parents were out at some business networking party, but she could have been on the phone. If that was the case, then I wasn’t about to intervene.
At least I could take a look at Renee to be certain because her bedroom door was ajar. Once I knew she had someone to talk to, I would be fine. Maybe I would even join the rest of the guys for a drink to take my mind off everything.
Oh!But Renee wasn’t on the phone. She was standing in front of the full-length mirror with mascara running down her cheeks. My heart damn near stopped beating as I spotted the heartbreak on her face. She was more upset than I even realized. I couldn’t go anywhere.