Daddy's Angel (Montana Daddies 7)

“What?” Dominic asked. “Why not?”

“I’m not sure. I haven’t spoken directly to Arianna.” Kent frowned.

“She got her assistant to call you, huh?” Bain asked. “She’s so afraid and yet she couldn’t call you herself?”

Kent stared at him for a moment. “No, actually. An old Navy friend of mine contacted me about this job. Caleb Pierce.”

“Caleb Pierce?” Dominic repeated.

“Know him?” Kent asked.

“Heard of him. Isn’t he overseas guarding some rich prince?”

“He is,” Kent confirmed. “He’s a good man. I owe him a favor, he’s never called it in. Until now.”

“He involved with her?” Bain tapped his finger against the photo of Arianna.

“Not like that. Apparently, they grew up together. He said she’s a close friend. She sent him the letters and he contacted me. Asked me to send some people out until he can arrange something more permanent.”

“Does she even want us there?” Dominic asked, glancing over at Bain. This could be a tricky fucking job if she didn’t.

“Apparently she agreed to you both coming. She’s expecting you. She, or perhaps her assistant, sent me some details. She’s bought you both first-class tickets on a flight out to New York and her driver will collect you. Everything you need has been emailed to you, along with copies of the other two threatening letters. This could all fizzle out, like so many of these things. But she’s scared. Caleb is worried and I owe him. See if you can get her to send those letters to a lab so we can have them tested. Guessing she has her reasons for not wanting the cops involved.”

Probably more worried about her reputation and career than her life.

This was going to be so much fun.

“Fucking hate these jobs,” Bain muttered to Dominic as they collected their bags at the airport. They each had duffels with personal items along with hard, locked cases containing firearms. Standard for jobs like this.

Hopefully, like most of the others, this one would turn out to be a dud and finished quickly.

Dominic grinned at him. He was currently sporting a salt-and-pepper beard. His bright blue eyes twinkled with merriment. “Which is why Kent doesn’t usually send you on these jobs.”

“My fucking luck that Macca wasn’t available.” He’d just arrived home with his new girlfriend, Gigi. She was Australian, she’d moved halfway across the world to be with Macca.

He was fucking lucky to find someone special like that. Someone who was willing to uproot her life. Bain had never had that. His ex had been selfish. More interested in material things than him.

But that meant Macca wasn’t available for this job and unfortunately for him, neither were any of the others.

So he got babysitting duty. At least Dominic was with him. He’d let the other man do the talking. Actually, Kent had ordered him to let Dominic do all the talking. They were all aware that Bain didn’t have much of a filter. Catering to some rich brat’s every whim just wasn’t something he was good at.

Give him an enemy to take down, a good fight, he was there.

But getting his charge a double-shot mocha almond latte from a café halfway across town wasn’t something he was ever going to jump to do.

And yes, the last time he’d been on babysitting duty for some small-screen actress whose fame had been waning, that’s exactly what she’d demanded.

He’d told her he wasn’t some glorified errand boy and she could make her own damn coffee.

Yeah, letting Dominic do the talking wasn’t a bad idea.

“At least she sent a driver,” Dominic told him as they approached an older man holding a sign with JSI written on it. “That’s more than most do.”

Bain just grunted. He hated having someone else drive. He might have a few teensy-tiny control issues. They followed the older man, who’d introduced himself as Joe, out to a dark town car and climbed in the back. Bain tapped his fingers against his leg. Probably just as well he wasn’t driving. Manhattan traffic would do his head in.

“Nice ride, Joe,” Dominic said, making small talk with the driver as they weaved their way through traffic. “So you worked for Ms. Silvers for long?”

“Me and the wife, we’ve worked for Miss Ari for close to six years now. Just after she went big with her first album. The wife does all the cooking and cleaning. Well, not that there’s much of that to do seeing as Miss Ari just lives on her own. We probably should have retired by now, but we can’t leave Miss Ari on her own.”