Page 26 of Protector

“Don’t you have to go get all made up or something?”

She laughs again—one of thoseyou’re so sillygiggles that makes her seem so innocent. “This is what I was trying to tell you. Accents is about showing young girls they don’t have to pile on makeup. It’s about adding a littleaccentto your natural beauty. It’s fun but…reasonable for their age. It’s one of the reasons I agreed to it.” She holds her arms out and with a head tilt, says, “So, this is me today. The natural look.”

“You do look beautiful,” I say before I can stop myself.

“Thank you.” She throws a glance over her shoulder. “Well, it looks like some girls are showing up early. Guess that’s my cue.”

I watch her turn to go, tossing me a look as she leaves that hits me square in the chest. This girl’s a fucking angel on earth—beautiful on the inside and out. Yes, it’s my job to protect her, but the tightness in my chest tells me it’s more than that. And I’ll be damned if I let anything happen to her. But this guy, this piece of shit, whoever he is… He comes in Shay’s vicinity, and I’ll take him down. Hard.

CHAPTERNINE

Shay

I wake to my back-up alarm, which is strange because I typically rise on my own. I grab my phone and see several text alerts: two from Rio, one from Cal, and two from Erika, my tech person. A sinking feeling in my stomach has me clicking on Erika’s name.

Erika: Don’t panic, but I think your guy hit the website.

My guy. I’m sure she wasn’t thinking when she assigned this “person” to me, but the thought makes my stomach roll. I immediately swipe out of there and go to the internet, tapping the bookmark for my page. “What the hell!”

I sit up, toss my phone next to me on the bed, then reach over and grab the tablet I have on the nightstand.Please be a glitch.

My fears are confirmed when I visit my webpage from the tablet and see almost every picture of me with a guy has been altered. Cropped, so I’m the only one in the image. I let that sink in. Maybe it’s a message that I’m not supposed to be with anyone but him. God, I hope no one I know is in danger. Tears spring to my eyes as I grab my phone and call Erika.

“Shay,” she says after the first ring. “I’m so sorry.”

“It’s not your fault.” I hear the shake in my voice and swallow. I have to get control of these emotions. Weakness has always pissed me off, and I can’t afford to be in a mood. I have too much to do. One of the benefits of half your family abandoning you is learning to suck it up, and when you have to be in front of the camera, you also learn to add a smile to that fake “I’m fine” persona. I suppose some would call it denial. Not facing your emotions. Which in my case, has been true. If there was something I couldn’t face or something I didn’t like, then in my mind, it just didn’t exist anymore. That mentality has come in handy over the years, and I’ll have to turn to that now to make it through this. I don’t see any other way. My fear, though, is that this situation is soin your facethat there is no denying it.

“Listen, I don’t want you to worry. I’ve already been on with Brooks’s IT guy, Miles. We’re sorting it out and will have everything fixed soon. And they’ll see if they can’t track where this guy came in, maybe find out something about him.”

“Before someone sees this, I want you to take the whole site down. Can you take it offline now?”

I hear a loud burst of air. “Crap, you’re right. I’m sorry. On it.” Next, I hear tapping keys for a few seconds, then, “It’s done.”

“Okay, thank you, Erika. I really appreciate this. I need to call Catherine in case anyone saw it. We’ll just say it was some sort of glitch.”

“Hey, no worries, girl. I’ll text you when things are back to normal.”

I make a quick call to Catherine, keeping it short because she can always see right through me. I hang up before she can ask how I’m holding up, but I have to admit, this has me rattled. And talking to Catherine tends to loosen my defenses, but thankfully, this time I kept it strictly business, even though this is very fucking personal, and my gut tells me this guy’s not going away.

I hug my pillow and think about Brooks and how relieved I am to have him on my side.

I allow myself just three more minutes to wallow before I throw the covers off. I have a full day and no time to let this asshole affect my productivity. I haven’t known Brooks long, but I have a feeling he will find out who this is and stop him. That faith is the only thing keeping me from turning into an agoraphobe and mailing in the rest of my career and future.

After a quick shower, I jump on a call with Billy, talk about the upcoming show and the afternoon appointment to see the cover proofs from my last photo shoot. It’ll be a long day of appointments, so I feel somewhat guilty for how bored Brooks will probably be. I’m sure I’m not the most exciting client he’s had; he probably feels like a glorified babysitter. I’m supposed to see him as an employee, but that thought still doesn’t sit well with me.

Walking down the hall toward the kitchen, I feel my phone vibrate in my pocket. In a hurry, I snatch it out without looking and tap to answer, putting the call on speaker since I’ve got one bag on each shoulder.

“Hello.”

“Your site’s down.”

“Yeah, it’s”—I stop in the hall and look at the phone—“going to be back up soon. Can I help you with something?” A knot forms in my stomach when it hits me; I have no idea why this person is calling me. Most people interested in me for something would go through Billy, or the agency, or even Catherine. “Who is this?” I ask when all I hear is breathing.

My heart racing, I wait for the answer.

“You know who this is, princess.” His tone is soft, cool, as if we’re close, having an intimate conversation. As far as I know, this is the first I’ve heard his voice.

One of the bags slips from my shoulder, then drops to the floor. Now I grip the phone with both hands and stare down at it. I know I shouldn’t hang up, but I can’t stand hearing his voice, feeling like he’s right here with me, invading my life, my peace of mind, my security.

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