Page 2 of Mile High Baby

I wasn't anti-marriage or family. It was great for people who wanted it, although in my lifetime, I'd seen many people get married and have a family, only to have it totally implode on them. I knew myself well enough to know I couldn’t make a woman happy. I had too much wanderlust.

Growing up, I’d done all the things I was supposed to do—play sports, get good grades, and go to college to get a degree. And for the first twenty-one years of my life, I felt like I was dead inside. I wanted adventure, travel, excitement, and nothing that would hold me back. My father wanted me to join the family business, but that wasn’t going to happen, so he disowned me. I responded by joining the military.

The military held tight control over the people who worked for them, but it came with travel and excitement. And when it was discovered that I had a unique set of skills, I was recruited by Noel St. Martin, the founder of Saint Security. At that time, he provided mercenaries to the highest bidder, but eventually, he turned the company into a global security business that worked with the most powerful and richest people in the world. And that work suited me just fine as well.

My work had given me plenty of adventure and excitement. There weren't very many places on the globe that I hadn't been to. The only glitch was the injury I sustained three years ago that resulted in my leaving the field to take over the running of the European office. Being a bureaucrat didn't sound fun, but being based in London meant I was a hop, skip, and a jump away from skiing in the Alps, or swimming in the Mediterranean, or any other adventure my mind could think up.

As I rose from my desk to get another glass of whiskey, I had to wonder if all this desk riding had made me soft. How hadn’t I seen what sort of woman Lorraine was? Had I been distracted by her made-for-fucking body? She had a round ass and large tits, all fake, but still. She had plump lips and a mouth that could suck off my sizable cock with ease. She also liked adventure and travel, so I had broken my one-and-done rule I adhered to with women. Not that we were an item. Ours wasn't a relationship based on love. It was based on a lust for life and fantastic sex.

And then one morning, she was gone, along with a sizable chunk of my nest egg. I was paid very well for what I did. I didn't have a lot of expenses, minus my adventures, so I’d been able to save up a sizable sum, enough that I planned to retire in two years at the age of fifty and really travel and experience life like I wanted. But Lorraine took enough money that retiring wouldn't be an option, at least not in two years.

Pissed at her and at myself for letting her dupe me, I vowed to make her pay. No one fucked with Alex Sterling and got away with it. I took two weeks off from work, leaving Wally “Cutthroat” Cuthbert in charge. Then I used my skills to hunt her down. Tonight, she was rotting in a jail in Paris, and with Interpol notified, apparently, there were other jurisdictions interested in talking to her. It only took me three days to make it happen. I didn’t get my money back, but I got justice.

I downed my whiskey and set my glass in the sink. I went to the only bedroom in my one-room flat and tugged off my T-shirt and my lounge pants, climbing under the sheets buck naked. I still had eleven days off. Maybe I'd head up to Iceland to one of its fantastic outdoor geothermal spas.

On my side table, my phone buzzed. I considered ignoring it because I didn't know anybody who would call me except for work, and I was off. But in case it was an emergency, I picked up the phone and looked at the caller ID.

Henry Banion

My lips twitched up in amusement. I poked the answer button. "Henry Banion, how the hell are you?"

Henry and I had been roommates and fellow womanizers and adventurers in college. Although our lives had gone in separate directions, we'd never completely lost touch. Seven years ago, he'd somehow convinced me to go to our twenty-year college reunion. He had a nineteen-year-old daughter at the time, but she was off traveling or something. So despite the fact that we were forty-one, we lived like we were twenty-one again. I wasn't sure about everything that we did those few days because we’d lived it up that much. There were swathes of time in which I had no memory, which meant we’d had a raucous good time. Maybe I’d go see him for the remainder of my vacation.

"Alex, how are you?"

Something about his voice dampened my enthusiasm. "I'm hanging in there. What's up?"

"I need to hire you to protect my daughter."

My gut clenched. Of all the jobs we could be given at Saint Security, protecting a rich man's daughter was the worst. Those girls were always entitled and bossy. Henry was a good guy, and I’d never met his daughter, but I did know he came from very old money, which meant chances were good that she was a bratty daddy's girl.

"I don't do that sort of thing anymore, but I can hook you up. We've got some really good people in New York—"

"No. I want to hire you. I need someone I know can be lethal if needed, and whom I can trust."

Lethal? "What sort of shit have you gotten yourself into, Henry?"

The guy ran a media conglomerate. How much trouble could news be?

"George Pitney has taken umbrage with a number of things we've been publishing about his business."

"Jesus fuck, Henry. George Pitney? You’re going to end up like Jimmy Hoffa, and nobody knows what happened to Jimmy Hoffa." That sounded like an exaggeration, but it wasn’t. George’s business looked to be on the up and up, but under the hood, it was filled with corruption. Before my boss Noel found his morals, we’d done some work for George. That man had a black heart, and I had no doubt that he’d do whatever, including kill, to protect it.

"I know. But I'm not as worried about me—"

"You should be."

"I'm more concerned about my daughter. I'm willing to take whatever repercussions are coming my way, but I don't want any landing on her. I've been doing some work with law enforcement."

I pinched the bridge of my nose. "Jesus, you do have a death wish."

"The thing is, they're close to indicting him and arresting him. But as you know, the tighter a noose squeezes, the more violent the attempt to save oneself is.”

I suppose I didn’t need to remind Henry that George had gotten free of every legal noose that had been attempted on him.

“And while I know that Saint Security has a stellar reputation, I can't risk hiring somebody I don't know. Whatever it costs, I’ll pay you,” Henry finished.

I thought of the crap ton of money that Lorraine had taken from me and for a moment considered naming it as my price. But Henry was my friend. For all intents and purposes, he was my only friend. He sounded scared and desperate, and I couldn't blame him, considering who he was dealing with.

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