Page 3 of Hell or High Water

“Me? Why just me?” That was fucking unfair. I wanted to go back to sleep.

Linc scowled. “Because you’re the one I need for the job.”

“And what is the job again?”

Because he hadn’t told me shit. The governor had knocked up a stripper twenty years ago. So? He hadn’t been the governor then. Although Mississippi folks might frown upon this information if it got out.

“Bodyguard,” he replied.

Why was nothing he was saying making sense? Was it the hangover making me slow to catch on?

“For the governor?”

If the governor needed security from us, Linc would send someone like Bane Cash, Oz Savelle, or, hell, even Locke. But me?

I pointed at my chest. “You want me to be the governor’s bodyguard?”

He shook his head. “No. You will be the governor’s daughter’s bodyguard.”

My eyebrows shot up. “You want me to be the bodyguard to an eight-year-old?”

He sighed, looking increasingly pissed off, but, dude, I did not want to hang out with a kid all damn day. Why did the governor’s brat need a bodyguard?

“No. I want you to keep an eye on the stripper’s daughter. Would you fucking pay attention? Take her to school, pick her up. She’s staying at the cabin on my property. You will keep tabs on her the entire time she’s there. If she goes through with her threat to out Baskin to the media and his wife, then shit is gonna hit the fan.”

There were so many things about what he’d just said that I didn’t understand. He was going to get angry and possibly shout again, but, dammit, he was asking me to babysit a nineteen-year-old girl who was threatening her father.

“The stripper’s kid?” I asked, wanting to clarify.

He nodded.

“And she goes to college where?”

“High school. She’s a senior.”

I rubbed my temples. Great. I was dealing with someone who was still in fucking high school at nineteen. Jesus, this was going to be a nightmare.

“I’ll give you all the details, but we’re running out of time. First, go get a fucking shower.”

“Why me?” I asked. I didn’t see what I’d done to Linc to have to suffer a punishment like this.

“Because Baskin has two more years before another election and we clean up his messes and he covers up ours. Do you want Blaise Hughes coming to fucking Mississippi because we didn’t do our job and this shit gets out? How do you think the god-fearing Bible Belt is gonna feel if they find out that the man they have put in office has a kid from a stripper and kept it quiet for twenty years?”

The edge in his tone made it clear this would be bad. I mean, I had known it would be, but, damn, couldn’t they just pay her off or something?

“Don’t we normally dish out hush money on this shit or threaten lives?”

Linc grimaced and shook his head. “Not gonna work this time. The girl’s momma died, left a mountain of medical bills behind, and she has nowhere to go. She called him yesterday on a number he’d given to her mother.” He said the last word with a hiss. “Threatened to tell his wife and the media if he didn’t help her.”

Fuck. She sounded fun. I sighed.

“Okay then, why not Gathe or Forge?” Anyone but me.Do not make me suffer through this bullshit.

“Because Gathe would fuck her and Forge is too old. That leaves you.” His eyes drifted over the room as if he was rethinking that comment. “She’s going to be moved into the cabin today. After we meet with Baskin and get all the details on her and what he wants us to do, you’re going to go with me to pick her up at the motel she is currently at. Then I’ll lay down the rules for her and be on the way.”

“How long do I have to do this?”Please say one day.

“Until she graduates high school. She asked for a place to stay, money to live on, then to cover her expenses for a month after graduation so she can get a job and save some money. She said once she has enough money, she’ll leave town, and he will never hear from her again. He doesn’t believe her though. He knows he’s going to have to write a hush-money check. Probably several times in his life.”

---