Page 6 of Imperfect Saint
“She’ll get over it and realize it’s for the best. Trust me.”
Lemon seemed to have faith. He wished he did. But he wasn’t so sure Millie would get in a car with him once she saw that he was the man Lemon had sent to help play buffer between her and her ex. She might take one look at him and decide the ex was the lesser of two evils.
Millie might be young but by God, the girl was also the most stubborn person he’d ever met which was really saying something considering he’d been a member of the United States Army for all the formative years of his life. Maybe he was a masochist, but it was that stubborn streak of hers that had first attracted him to Millie, even if now he cursed it every time he set sights on her.
Spending a weekend with her, outside of work, meeting her family and friends, seeing the Millie that they got to see, would change things between them. It would have to. Whether it would be for better or worse remained to be seen but it was a chance he was wiling to take. He didn’t even hesitate; in fact he jumped at the opportunity.
“I’ll do it.”
“I know.” Lemon was smiling again.
“Try not to sound so smug.” He huffed.
“You try not to kill her ex this weekend, ok?” Lemon’s tone turned serious again, “I know what I told you about their breakup made you mad and I know you know what it means when I say I think there’s more to the story, but that’s why I want it to be you with her. You’ll have her back no matter what goes down at that wedding. You’ll be whatever she needs.”
He was just glad that he and Lemon were on the same page. The story she’d told him didn’t add up. Millie had broken up with her longtime boyfriend because she’d caught him cheating. She’d told her family but it didn’t seem to matter to them. They wanted Millie back together with the asshole no matter what, but both he and Lemon sensed Millie hadn’t told them the whole truth, a big truth that could have gotten her ex and her family off her back all in one admission.
But why?
If the more to the story was that he was a serial cheater, or worse, that he’d somehow hurt Millie, surely she’d want to tell her family so that they’d back off. She could have used that information to keep this Joshua guy out of her life for good. So why was she keeping whatever had really happened between them a secret? And not just from her family, but from Lemon too?
What was Mille hiding?
“I’ll take care of her. I promise.” He cleared his throat when he glanced up and saw his older brother standing in the doorway of his office. “I need to go so I can get my things in order. Text me the details about where to be and when, and anything else you know about the event.”
“Thank you, Hunter.”
“Don’t thank me yet. If that bastard tries anything, you may have to bail me out of jail.”
Lemon giggled, “You’re not going to do anything that might end with you in jail because then you won’t be at Millie’s side where you can protect her.”
One corner of his mouth twitched because Lemon knew him well. She’d become a friend in the time since he started working for her. He liked and respected her. And she was right. He wasn’t going to leave Millie’s side until she was safely back home, away from the prick that had broken her heart.
“Touché.”
“I’ll text you the details.” Lemon added, “And don’t forget, weddings are supposed to be fun.”
She hung up before he could tell her that this was a job to him, not a vacation. But maybe that was for the best. He wasn’t entirely certain that was true and he didn’t want to lie to her. He would be working to keep Millie safe and to gauge her relationship with her ex so he could figure out why she needed a buffer in the first place. But he would also be spending a weekend alone with a woman that drove him absolutely crazy with want.
Maybe he’d call it a working vacation.
“What’s going on? Sounded like you were making weekend plans.”
Hunter looked up to see that his older brother was still leaning against the doorframe as if he was holding up the entire building.
Vaughn St. James had always had that way about him. It wasn’t just that he was built like a linebacker either. It was his ego, his aura, his mere presence that seemed to suck up all the free space in any room he walked into. People had a tendency to take one look at Vaughn and assume he was just a pretty face with a gym membership. What they only learned after they underestimated him was that he’d gotten a perfect score on the SAT’s, graduated both high school and college early and with honors and used his massive brain to start a company that did more than just provide muscle for hire.
Vaughn had started All Saints Security & Protection Services on his own, with nothing but a dream and a bank loan. Just a handful of years later and they were the premiere agency in the southern United States working for clients ranging from country music stars like Lemon Kelly and her touring partner Trent Thorne, to billionaire executives, party girl heiresses, tech geek start-up CEO’s and everything in between. They provided bodyguards and security details but they also had a tech division that monitored everything from the cameras on a client’s property to thwart stalkers to their bank accounts to keep an eye out for fraudulent charges. Vaughn’s company did it all and yet he still managed to single-handedly run the business and check in on his little brothers almost hourly to make sure Hunter and Tyler weren’t doing anything they shouldn’t be doing.
It only figured that Vaughn would show up while Hunter was on the phone with Lemon agreeing to a job that wasn’t really a job when he was already booked with another client for the weekend.
“That was Lemon. She needs me to handle something for her this weekend so you’ll have to get someone else to cover the detail at the surprise Bluebird performance tomorrow night.”
“She has a job for you?” Vaughn frowned.
“Kind of.”
A dark eyebrow rose, “Kind of?”
