Page 14 of Behind the Scenes

Alexis yelled again, this time with impatience lacing every word. “Lauren, where are you? I need you now!”

Her assistant hurried away toward her boss, so Hunter went to find Paul. He stood near the counter eating a bagel with cream cheese and smiled when Hunter walked into the room.

“How are things coming?” he asked as he quickly wiped food from his mouth.

“Did you know that her bodyguards aren’t usually anywhere near her when she’s at home? For God’s sake, they’re in another residence, if I’m understanding the set up in LA correctly.”

Paul nodded and then shrugged, like all of this sounded normal to him. “Yeah. Lexi doesn’t like having them hanging around.”

“Well, they need to be close by. They aren’t just giant sized paper weights. Where did she plan on having them live now that she’s here in New York?”

“Hmmm, I don’t know. Now that you bring it up, I have no idea. They can’t stay here since there are only four bedrooms and she’s using one of them for an office.”

“Well, she’s going to have to make some decisions on that and quick because they need to be nearby until we get to the bottom of who’s stalking her.”

A look of worry came over Paul’s face. Frowning, he said, “She’s not going to like that.”

Hunter slapped him on the arm and smiled. “I’ll tell you what. Let me tell her and you’ll avoid being the one in the line of fire when she blows up. Sound good?”

That brought a smile to the manager’s face. “I like that. Anything to avoid the wrath of Lexi.”

“For that, I need you to get me the names of every assistant, bodyguard, and anyone else who’s been paid by Alexis in the past year.”

“Okay. I can get on that today. I’ll get you everything I can tonight or latest tomorrow.”

Slapping him on the arm again, Hunter smiled. “Great! Now I need to go speak to the woman herself.”

As he walked out of the kitchen, he heard Paul say, “Good luck.”

He didn’t need luck. This was a job, and she was a client. Simple as that. It’s not like he planned to make her do much anyway. All he needed her to do was answer a few questions.

Making his way to her office, he stopped in front of it and listened for a moment. He heard nothing, so he knocked on the door.

She responded by barking, “Go away!”

Hunter had already had enough of this shit. If he was ever going to find out who was stalking this woman, he needed cooperation.

Her cooperation. And right now.

Throwing the door open, he walked in and stared her down as Lauren looked on with terror in her eyes. “I’m not going to be able to do my job if you don’t work with me, Miss Marchand. If you want to ever be free of whoever is stalking you, I suggest you help me.”

He watched as rage filled her brown eyes, and she said to her assistant through gritted teeth, “Lauren, leave us alone.”

She did just that, hurrying past him and shutting the door behind her. Now maybe he’d get some answers that could help him. He’d dealt with feisty women before. He actually preferred women to have some spunk.

Too bad Alexis Marchand had a bit too much of it. Not to worry. He’d handled women like that too. All it took was a firm hand and letting them know who was in charge.

And he would have no problem making her understand the person in charge of this job was him.

Chapter Five

Rage bubbled upinside Alexis. How dare he barge in there without being asked! The nerve of this man! Did his rudeness have no end? First, he ignored her when she tried to be nice and strike up a conversation, and now he thought he could just march into her private office and demand to speak to her.

Nobody demanded anything of Alexis Marchand, especially some man she didn’t even much like. If he thought she was going to simply let this pass, he was sadly confused.

Standing from her comfy chair, she walked over to where he stood looking like some conquering Alpha male and stopped directly in front of him. Only a few inches taller than her five foot ten, she looked him in the eye and let him know whatever he thought he’d accomplish by walking in on her, he’d only succeeded in angering her even more.

“Mr. McKary, I’m not a fan of being told what to do, especially by men. Strangers who have shown me nothing but disrespect don’t get to tell me what to do either.”

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