Page 5 of The Heart

Colton Fisher is the only person on the planet who can get away with this type of bullshit. I’m not sure where the guys first met him, but I know they all grew up in the same city where we now live and have known each other for years.

I guess Colton was some rich kid who breezed his way through college, then swore to never have a real job, just to spite his father. A decision whose motivation I am well acquainted with. But Colton isn’t very good at not working. The entrepreneur has a resume a mile long of private work ranging anywhere from bodyguard to search and rescue. Apparently, he even signed on to help out the police during investigations because he “has all the fun toys,” according to Sebastian. He then proceeded to dive into the specs of the weapons, cars and security equipment Colton owns, half of which I’d never heard of. But I’m learning, because living with two men will do that, unfortunately.

As inappropriate and obnoxious as Colton can be, I have nothing but respect for him. When his abusive, piece-of-shit father died, leaving him an orphan and an only child, he inherited more money than he knew what to do with. Instead of just retiring on a beach somewhere or turning into some sort of high-society asshole, Colton just kept doing what he was doing, and eventually ended up working for us. Not because he needs the money, though we do pay him generously, but I think it gives him something to do. The guys really like having him around and, I suppose, I do too.

Okay, I know I do.

And I know for a fact my guysreallylike getting to use his fun toys. They always seem to have one weapon or another spread out across our coffee table back at home. I even heard Colton talking about ahelicopterat some point. But I’ll believe that when I see it. The man’s ability to joke around might just exceed his wealth.

When I’m standing just outside the ballroom, I take a breath and smooth out my dress, feeling my weapon hidden beneath the material.

It’s still strange that I can afford to spend this kind of money on a dress. But since Ryan and I are usually the ones running things from the van, looking like a couple of hot messes in sweatpants and T-shirts, I decided to splurge for this evening.

Even though I studied my ass off getting my Master’s degree in business, I was worried the guys only offered me this opportunity in order to keep me out of another dead-end coffee shop job. But once I actually started, I found that I’m great at this.

I love handling the paperwork with Luke and helping to coordinate the operations with him and Sebastian. The guys have taught me everything about the security systems we use and they’ve been showing me the ropes on investigative work as well. I’m thrilled to be learning everything I can from them, and get excited whenever I start to get a handle on something new. I didn’t realize how much I’ve learned until I started training Ava.

I never pictured myself running an entire company, but then again, I never really pushed myself. In fact, more often than not, I underperformed so as not to draw attention to myself or wind up in a position that would miss me when I inevitably had to leave it. Being the daughter of the man running the King of Hearts, the most notorious gang in the city we left, meant I had to keep a low profile. If I didn’t, then I usually found myself either on the run, kidnapped or shot.

Dealer’s choice.

Now that all of that is over, for the first time in my life, I truly enjoy my job. Being a relatively new and growing business, I get to help build it from the ground up. Not only that, I get to run it with my two favorite people in the world.

And tonight, I’m determined to prove myself in this new role I’ll be playing.

With large event security jobs, it’s part of our services to offer several undercover agents on top of the very obvious armed guards standing at the exits. Having eyes and ears that are discreet has proven to offer us additional insight, and therefore greater security, in the past. Which means that tonight, I will be working undercover alongside the guys.

We’ve done high-profile jobs like this before, and we’ve secured large venues, but this particular fundraising event is definitely the largest op we’ve run. Our team has worked tirelessly for the past several months preparing, and we’ve been in town since last week setting it up.

This party in particular will host not only a handful of distinguished members of society, but several representatives of the local government as well. Many of which came with their own bodyguards, but it’s our company that’s running the show. We vetted and are working with a few other security teams, some private contractors we’ve worked with before and local law enforcement. I have to admit, we need the help. This is a large building with a lot of people, so we divided up the extra hands into three other security teams on top of our own.

Eventually, the guys and I would love to hire enough personnel so that we can have two or more teams on our payroll permanently. That way, we can work multiple jobs at a time, handle large events on our own, and maybe Sebastian, Luke and I could take a vacation sometime. It seems all we’ve done since we moved is work… well, amongother things.

And now I’m blushing.Great.

I step into the ballroom and take the glass of champagne that is offered to me on a fancy tray by a pretty blonde in a black dress. I look around the room, my eyes immediately finding my team, team one, along with members from teams two and three spaced out around the room, all standing precisely where they were instructed. Team four is handling the outside, and Ryan and Ava are monitoring every inch of this place from the live feeds.

Jace is standing at the far end of the room, guarding one of the outer doors. He’s only twenty-four years old and goofy as all hell, but you would never know that by the way he carries himself, or by how shy he is around strangers. Even though he’s not quite as bulky as my guys, he’s definitely fit and takes his job seriously. Jace has also been with us since the very beginning. He already knew the guys, is friends with Colton, and has been an incredible asset to the team.

Then my eyes find their way to the last two members of my team. The men who walked into my coffee shop nearly a year and a half ago and turned my whole world upside down.

Andfuck me.I saw their suits hanging in our hotel room, but I hadn’t seen them on.

Not until now.

God,they’re fucking beautiful.

Sebastian and Luke are standing away from each other, each having found their way into separate conversations. Neither of them have noticed me yet, and so I watch them for a moment, a little jealous at how comfortable they both seem. It’s so different from the way I’m used to seeing them. They’re more relaxed than when they’re positioned as bodyguards or security, and more…suavethan when we’re alone.

It’s a sight to see. And holy shit, I want to keep looking at it.

I watch as Luke laughs and smiles at something an older lady just said, his blond hair swaying with the motion. The woman beams at him, resting her hand on his flexed arm, her bracelets jingling as she chuckles, eating up whatever it is they’re talking about. The other women standing around are equally impressed. Hell, they’re practically hanging all over him. I kind of love watching his charming side come out at parties, and Sebastian was right. He really is a ladies’ man. It makes me a little proud, knowing with absolute certainty that the sexy-as-fuck man they’re all swooning over is coming home with me tonight.

And every night.

I might even be a little jealous if I didn’t know that for certain. But I do. I know every chiseled line of the body hidden beneath that dress shirt in a way they never will. I know every tattoo.

I watch his blue eyes sparkle in the light from the chandelier, how that dimple in his cheek appears when he smiles or laughs. He’s sex in a suit.

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