Page 4 of Flirtatious

“What about your friends, those guys you hang out with? You can’t stay with one of them?”

He dismisses that out of hand with a shake of his head. “They all have lives to lead and girlfriends who live with them now. It’s like in the past year every single one of them has gotten tied down,” he answers with a healthy dose of disgust for his friends’ happily ever afters.

This Chris should definitely run. Now.

“You, on the other hand, are a single guy with two bedrooms, so I figured you’d like the company,” he adds.

I guess I should be thankful Wilder has saved me from a life of peace and tranquility. If I could get him to stay still long enough, maybe he could pose for a statue in his honor.

A hundred things pop into my head that I want to say about what he figured I’d like, but I remember my mother and her big blue eyes looking up at me as she pleaded for some time alone with my father and without Wilder. So I simply shrug and stuff all those ideas into a place in the back of my mind for some other time.

“Well, I tend to keep to myself, but feel free to stay as long as you like,” I say before closing my eyes.

If he walks back into the apartment right now, this morning won’t be totally ruined.

Wilder slaps me on the arm, and my eyes fly open to see him standing next to me looking far too excited. “Great! You know, Liam, we’re brothers, so we should hang out more. I know we’re as different as night and day, but we’ve got more in common than you think.”

I look up at him as not a single thing comes to me that we may have in common. We’re brothers because our parents adopted him, so we don’t even share blood, even though he oddly looks like me with his dark hair and blue eyes. Other than looking like we’re related, I can’t think of a single thing we like that’s the same. Or anything that we dislike together either.

“Stay as long as you need to, Wilder. Mi casa es su casa.”

“Terrific! I’m thirsty. You want anything to drink?” he asks.

I shake my head as one thing in common between us occurs to me. We both came into the same amount of money when we turned twenty-one. Wilder pissed away nearly every dime of his on partying, sex, and then restitution to pay back for his crime that got him sent to jail. I, on the other hand, have all that I got and more after some wise investments.

He slams the glass door harder than it needs to be shut, and I shake my head again. We have nothing in common.

I get maybe another ten minutes of peace in the sun before my phone rings. Grabbing it off the table next to where I sit, I hold it in front of me as my eyes adjust to see my cell’s screen. VIP Security. Maybe there’s a job for me after all.

Before I can even say hello, a man’s voice begins speaking. “Liam, this is Jonah Bradley, president of VIP Security. I know we haven’t spoken many times in the past, but I wanted to be the one to call you with a new assignment because you’re the perfect man for the job.”

Sitting up, I try to remember any time Jonah Bradley and I have spoken in the past. Maybe once at the Christmas party VIP held two years ago? No, that was his assistant I was talking to near that punchbowl of eggnog that ended up nearly leveling him after someone dumped what must have been an entire bottle of rum into it.

“Hello, Mr. Bradley. I appreciate you thinking of me for this job you believe I’m perfect for. It’s nice to be recognized for my hard work.”

“Fantastic! You’ve heard of Mia, the young singer whose name is on everyone’s lips? She needs a security chief, and you’re the right man for the job.”

He sounds like an Army recruiting ad, except working as Mia’s head of security would be a hell of a lot worse than enlisting in the military. Last year, she ran away and ended up in rehab after her people finally wrangled her somewhere in south Florida. Then when she got out, she insisted she didn’t need a new bodyguard, which meant I’d waited all that time while she dried out for nothing.

No way I wanted to be saddled with this assignment. Nope. No thanks.

“This is the classical pianist I was supposed to go protect who ended up in rehab?” I ask, wanting to make sure I’ve got the right crazy person in mind.

Jonah hesitates for a moment before answering, “Yeah, well, about that whole pianist thing…forget everything you thought you knew about her because today’s a new day.”

Now he sounds like someone recruiting people to join a cult.

“I appreciate being in consideration, but I think this time I’m going to have to pass, Mr. Bradley. We tried this last year. It didn’t work. I think someone else would be more appropriate.”

Still, he doesn’t give up.

“Nonsense. You’re the best man I have, Liam. You might not know that I actually pay attention to the company I run, but I do and I’ve seen what clients say about you. You’re professional and get the job done. No muss, no fuss. That’s exactly the kind of attitude necessary for this assignment.”

I replay all the news coverage I’ve seen in the past few days about Mia being missing and the shitshow surrounding it. No man in his right mind would want to step into that mess. That girl and her life are nothing but a hassle.

“It all seems pretty moot anyway, doesn’t it?” I ask, knowing if he’s calling me that something’s changed with her situation. “She’s been missing for forty-eight hours. Seems to me this is like closing the barn door after the horses have all left the barn.”

“I’m happy you’ve been keeping up. That’s good news! As for Mia being missing, that’s been mostly a show for the press. Andrea Shanoff, Mia’s mother, never misses an opportunity to create a media spectacle. They found out her previous head of security got her a room at some hotel with the help of his sister a day ago. Andrea’s just been milking the madness.”

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