Page 41 of Bad Boys After Dark - Brett
“And she never wants a real relationship, either,” Grace pointed out.
Sophie pushed to her feet and pulled Grace up beside her, laughing when Grace pretended her arms were made of rubber. “Come on, you don’t need your arms to use the StairMaster.” As they headed for the aerobic equipment, she said, “Lindsay wants a relationship. She’s just afraid she won’t be good at it because our parents and grandparents are so good at it. I think Brett’s afraid, too, but for different reasons. Look at his family, and look at mine. From what Amanda has told me, his father lost it when his sister died. He became really mean, and their parents divorced. I’d be afraid if that happened to me, wouldn’t you?”
Grace stepped onto the machine and laid her towel over the console. “Sure. I guess you’re right. Then there are people like me. My parents are like yours, happily married since the dawn of time, and I’m in no hurry to get into a relationship.”
“Because you love your work, and it’s demanding and takes weekends and evenings, and a relationship will only add stress. Whereas my job ends when I leave the office.”
“True. But even if I didn’t work all those hours, I’m not sure I’d want a man in my life. It has nothing to do with my parents.”
“And you suffered a heartrending breakup, remember?” Sophie had been there to pick up the pieces after Grace and her first love, Reed Cross, had gone their separate ways. “Oh my gosh. You’re right. I could be way off base. Reed ruined you for all other men. Maybe some woman ruined Brett for all other women.” She hadn’t thought of that. She had no idea what relationships he’d had when he was younger, only of his refusal to have them as an adult.
“Reed didn’t ruin me. It was my decision to break up. But there are a million reasons people don’t want relationships. A person needs to be happy with who they are before they can be in a relationship and have something to offer someone else. So maybe he’s not happy with himself.”
“Yeah, maybe, but I doubt it. He’s more confident than any man I’ve ever met. I mean, he knows himself well enough to admit he could mess things up between us and that he doesn’t want to. That takes confidence.” Sophie picked up speed, huffing through her workout. “Why do I feel like, if someone did hurt him, I want to track her down and beat her up?”
“Maybe because you’re with a guy who looks and acts like he can do anything. He makes you laugh, makes you moan,” she said with a lift of her brows. “He’s at your house every night and texts you sexy stuff all the time. But he can’t give you the one thing you have always wanted.”
“Well, I’m not giving up on him. I’ve never felt this way before, and I—”
“Trust my heart,” they both said at once.
“You know I love you,” Grace said. “But if it were me saying I wanted to try to fix a man, you’d haul my butt into a bar and get me drunk. Then I’d give up, because I don’t really want a man in my life. But since we’re talking about you, and I’ve never seen you so loopy over a guy before, I’ll just say this. If he hurts you, even if it’s your fault for wanting something he may not be able to give, I’ll kill him, sexually gifted or not.”
“You won’t have to. He’s not broken or in need of being fixed. Just figured out.”
BRETT SAT IN the conference room with his management team, reviewing the security details for the upcoming concert and trying not to show his agitation at being stuck in the office at seven o’clock at night. There was no avoiding the late meeting, as coordinating a team of busy managers required flexibility. The concert was taking place in a few weeks, and with the recent attacks on public venues, they had to make sure they had all their bases covered.
“Where do we stand?” Brett pointed to his top guy, Giovanni “Gio” Amato.
Gio had worked for their company for the past seven years. With a background in terrorism detection, a decade in the military, and five years as a private investigator, he never missed a beat. He set a steady gaze on Brett, rubbed his square jaw, a mannerism that gave away his meticulous nature, and said, “We’re set. We’re taking anti-terrorism precautions on all levels. The facility is in complete lockdown when not in use. Starting three days before the event, we’ll be doing bomb sweeps every morning and night, and we’ve got a team in place to search every package delivered through the day of the event. The venue has already banned carry-in items except for purses, which will be searched. As agreed, we’ve doubled our security personnel, and every person who enters the building will get a pat-down as well as metal-detection screening. We’ve added extra camera surveillance and metal detectors on all levels, behind the scenes, and at all entrances. We’re also blocking entrances and ramps so nothing wider than a wheelchair can fit through.”
