Page 1 of Safe Haven

ONE

MADDOX

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“ARE YOU SURE you want to do this?” Zeke repeats the same question he’s asked five times already. “I can send someone else. I’m sure?—”

“I’m positive.” I don’t want to hear who he’d send in my place. Don’t want to think about who he believes might be better suited for the task I’ve been assigned. “Eli cleared me three weeks ago, remember?”

Alaskan Security’s resident physician actually gave me more than the all-clear. He gave me a fucking glowing review. Said I tested better now than nine months ago—before I was shot at point blank range and left to die in the snow.

“I remember.” Zeke blows out a sigh, raking one hand through his hair. “Fine. If you say you’re good, then you’re good.”

I wish he sounded like he really believed it, but I’ll take it anyway.

“Agreed.” I lift my brows. “Now can I get the fuck out of here?” I don’t like stalling.

And that’s all my life’s been lately. Stalling. Biding time while my body healed and recovered. Waiting for the day I could get back out there doing what I love instead of sitting on the couch eating cookies and watching Netflix. Watching the world pass me by was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do.

Not that my life’s been filled with difficulties. I’m one of the few men at Alaskan Security who had an idyllic childhood. One of only a handful with both parents alive, let alone still happily married.

Maybe that’s why the injury I sustained protecting Savannah—Zeke’s now wife, and my close friend—hit me so hard. I’m not used to suffering.

Turns out I don’t fucking like it.

“Yeah. Go.” Zeke motions to the door leading out of the newly renovated gear room at Alaskan Security’s Nashville location. “Don’t let that fucker get anywhere near her.”

A slow smile works across my lips. “I don’t plan on it.”

I grab the bag I packed, haul it over one shoulder, and stride out into the warm fall sun, breathing in a lungful of the sweetly scented air.

I like Nashville. Like the city. Like the weather. Like the new compound where I live and work. Like the people filling it.

But I fucking love what I do. Love being the thing that goes bump in the night. Love knowing I’m the bogeyman for men who need to be wiped from the earth. I love taking them out andsending them where they belong. And I don’t lose a second of sleep over it.

Does that make me a little fucked up? Probably. Does it mean I’ve always been the black sheep of my wealthy, suburban family? Definitely.

It also means these past nine months have been torture. Purposeless and soul sucking.

But they’re over. I’m back and—arguably—better than ever. I can get this one easy job under my belt, prove I’m as good as I’ve ever been, and then everything will be back to normal. Zeke will see I’m not a liability and put me back on the regular roster.

After tossing my bag into the back seat of the dark colored sedan I’ll be using, I get behind the wheel and pull around the large building that’s technically still under construction. I’m not the only one who’s been busy improving over the past few months. A whole crew of builders have been hard at work on the warehouse serving as Shadow’s new home base, and the residential housing adjacent to it.

It’s interesting to see how much can be accomplished when a shit ton of money is involved. I watched it happen when Pierce, the owner of Alaskan Security, built the townhouses in Fairbanks where most of Rogue lives, and now I’m watching it happen again here in Nashville.

There’s a total of ten single-family units being built for our team, and five of them are already finished. One of those five is mine since I’ve been grounded and needed a place to stay while I waited out my sentence.

Not anymore.

I roll down the heavily tinted window and swipe my badge to open the gate blocking the property off from the general public, then I’m free. Putting the past nine months farther behind me with every mile I drive.

This isn’t the kind of job I’d normally be excited about taking. It’s not the kind of job I’d normally be assigned. Working as a personal bodyguard is more in line with what Alpha and Beta do, but I’m not complaining. This is a means to an end. A quick way to prove I’m as good as I—and Eli—say I am.

It’s also relatively close to home, making it easier for someone from Shadow to tackle rather than flying in a guy from another team. I can get to where the client lives outside of Memphis in just over two hours by car.

The third, and maybe biggest, reason I’m the one heading to Audrey Hawthorne’s address, is because she’s a friend of Savannah’s. I’m not naive enough to believe Zeke came up with me being the one to take this job on his own. I know his wife had a hand in my name being shortlisted. Savannah and I spend a lot of time together. She knows just how stir crazy I’ve been.

She also knows I would do anything for her, and she assumes my affection for her will make me more invested in Audrey’s safety.

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