Page 60 of Burning Hearts
It wasn’t a gift wrapped in a bow; it was a bill. An invoice.
“Majority owner, darling,” Tansy crooned to the two nearest cameras. Then she tilted her head and said to Beck, lower, “Control looks good on you. A little legal weather after the Portico fire. Just a minor kerfuffle. You understand.”
“Mom?” he asked, his jaw tight. “Is this some kind of joke?”
She looked at him with steel in her eyes. “This is no joke, son. This is liability. There are vendors to calm and staff to pay. Not to mention a potential multimillion-dollar lawsuit from a plaintiff who practices law for a living.”
I pictured the sharp-dressed attorney whose sponsorship dinner had been ruined by the fire. Perfect suit, ruined night, and a threat to sue that still hung over the hotel like smoke.
I understood enough to know that majority didn’t mean Beck would be richer. It meant he’d be responsible for it all. The profits, the debts, the risk.
And Beck, as Director of Operations at The Langford Hotel, knew exactly which VIP client was holding that threat like a lit match.
“If you say no,” Tansy said, “the board brings in a stranger with a briefcase and a corporate brand. They won’t know the staff, they won’t care about the town, and they’ll cut whatever’s easiest.”
Beck’s jaw flexed. I could practically see the spreadsheet light up behind his eyes. Staff he wouldn’t want to abandon, vendors who trustedhim, not the board, and a building he’d already been waking up in the middle of the night to worry about.
Saying no wouldn’t save him; it would just hand the mess to someone who cared less.
Beck kept his voice light and steady. “I know payroll hits on the first whether we’re full or not. I know that mortgage interest doesn’t care who’s tired. And I know that when the roof leaks, they’re already calling me.”
Tansy’s eyebrow lifted, just a fraction.
He slid the paper back into the envelope and tapped it once, like he was sealing a deal with himself first.
“So, let’s stop pretending this isn’t already my problem,” he said. “We’ll keep the lights on.”
“Thank you, dear,” Tansy said, kissing his cheek as cameras flashed.
Cade’s hand settled at the center of my back, warm and sure. Steady enough to anchor me. It said I’m here in the language we’d learned over three months—cold waters pressed into my palm, shared calendars. There was a spare key on my ring now, and a drawer at his place that wasn’t empty anymore. Time hadn’t cooled anything; we’d just learned how to carry it.
A group of people formed near the barricade by the sponsor wall. I saw sequins, clipboards, and Lila Monroe’s entourage insunglasses, moving quickly. They blocked a stroller and then a fire lane, which irritated me.
Before my producer brain could assemble a sentence, a man in a plain suit and a discreet earpiece stepped through them. He straightened one stand, said three hushed words, and the whole group shifted six feet without a single eyeroll or raised voice.
Then he turned in our direction and started walking over, unhurried, like a man who trusted the crowd to move around him.
“Rhett Coulter,” he said, offering a card to Beck first, then to me.
Coulter Risk Group, Private Security.
“We keep things safe and make it look like no one needed managing,” he said.
Beck took it with a laugh. “And you do it cuter than my ‘Please Cooperate’ signs ever could.”
A flick of a smile from Rhett. “Signs ask nicely. I get results.” He nodded once. “Call if you need protection.”
Then, he was gone, redirecting a golf cart.
“Oh my God,” Beck said under his breath.
His eyes tracked Rhett like he’d just found a new favorite channel to watch.
“Rhett is currently dating world-famous pop singer Lila Monroe,” I said, because I’m helpful. “Allegedly straight.”
“So… a project,” Beck said, as if he hadn’t just been handed a ten-million-dollar challenge with beautiful frosting.
“He’s not her bodyguard anymore,” I added. “He upgraded to fiancé and runs his own security firm now. Lila’s in town to sing at the Jubilee and tour wedding venues. The Langford is very high on her maybe list, which now makes it very much your problem.”
