“Aspen, are they trying to change your mind about the job opportunity?” he asked, approaching and giving her a kiss on her cheek. She felt claustrophobic even though she was outside on the balcony.
“We should head back inside,” she said when Zin stopped her by taking her hand. She nearly lost her footing and wound up against his chest. They stared at one another. He towered over her as did the others.
He held her gaze, and she swore he was going to kiss her, but then he stepped back. He turned from her making her feel like shit. As if she weren’t good enough, not even for a one-night stand. Or perhaps he thought of her as a sister because of Porter. After all Porter had to have told them that she had been abducted years ago. It was probably why they acted like overprotective brothers. As soldiers they put the needs of women and children first. Too bad they didn’t know exactly what her needs were. Or maybe it was too bad she couldn’t tell them and let them try to ease her fears, her resistance to physically connecting to another human being in a more intimate way. They knew she had hang-ups. In fact, they knew more than most.
“Be careful. Are you getting a ride home with someone?” Weston asked, sounding fatherly.
She shrugged her shoulders. “The night is still young,” she said with attitude and opened the door and exited the balcony. She thought she heard cursing, but the sound of laughter as some drunk woman was lifted up over a guy’s shoulder before they headed down the hallway to the bedrooms blocked out any othe
r sounds.
Tonight, just like all the other nights the past four years, she would go home alone, and sleep in a bed scared, with the lights on. This was her future, the torture she continued to experience night after night. The nightmares ruled her mind and no one could help her get past them. No one.
She put on her game face and headed into the main room. Gary Sparks spotted her, and his eyes brightened, and he stopped talking to his friends to get to her.
“Aspen, I finally caught you alone. Can we talk about the meeting this week?” she didn’t want to but at least the business dealings would take her mind over the balcony scene.
She smiled and looped her arm through his.
“Sure, but someplace where no one can overhear the plans.”
He winked. “Alone with Chicago’s most sought after bachelorette? Aren’t I a lucky bastard?” He chuckled and she smirked as they headed toward the study.
Then the thought hit her. The guys always showed up whenever she was in town in Chicago for business or whatever. They ran different businesses in Chicago and Texas. Were they keeping an eye on her for Porter so closely that they would follow her here? Was this what their job offer was all about? Her temper flared as she thought about how stupid she was to be affected by their good looks and charms. They were being bodyguards as if she were some kid in need of a babysitter. Well hell. They would know soon enough just how independent and resourceful she really was. She knew more than they gave her credit for. Finding out who had been responsible for her abduction and why gave her the courage to take her life back. Oh yeah, Storm, Zin, Winter, Weston, and York would know soon enough how capable she was. Not even death intimidated her anymore.
Chapter 2
Storm Jones stood by the desk and shook his head.
“How the hell did she pull this off? Since when did she do business with the Russian fucking mob?” he said aloud to Zin as Zin pulled the information up on the computer screen.
Winter, Weston, and York stood there looking just as shocked as Storm felt.
“The woman is amazing, but this, this shit is going to cause some big-ass trouble. Andrei Renoke, that slimy Slavic bastard, is going to shit a brick,” Winter said.
“How can we be sure that it was Aspen? I mean, she doesn’t work for Dmitri. I know they spend a lot of time together and she’s helped him with that organization he started, but still. I’m not sure she has the capabilities of pulling this off,” York added.
“How could she? This is a twenty-million-, maybe forty-million-dollar deal from what my sources say. Everyone is trying to figure out how Dmitri came out on top with the bidding on this construction job. Clearly Andrei used his political and mob ties to get Clarence to give his company a shot,” Winter said.
Storm ran his hand through his hair.
“Hell, we know she’s good at a lot of things besides retraining employees. It had to be her. We saw her with Gary Sparks at John Brothers’s party. Read this description again of the unidentified woman who flew on Clarence’s jet yet wasn’t seen clearly by anyone to identify her,” Storm told Zin.
“Okay, here is the description. The identity of the individual who apparently coordinated this multimillion-dollar deal with Cartwright Productions stationed in Houston, Texas, is assumed to be a woman. Black hair, shapely figure, fashionable attire and wearing a scarf tied around her hair and large sunglasses, was clearly an attempt to hide her own identity from reporters. The unidentified woman, whose name was not on the flight list, disappeared in the private aircraft of Clarence Cartwright. No further information is available at this time,” Zin read from the article.
“Aspen. You’re right, Storm. It has to be her. I bet that plane went to the Caribbean where she was supposed to meet her friends and do that cruise thing. At least that’s where Porter said she was,” Weston added.
“Well, her brother would know. So if she was there, then maybe we’re all mistaken,” Weston added his point.
“I spoke to Porter that day, and he said that his sister had to fly somewhere for a meeting with some big shot and then would head back out to meet her friends. It was her. I’m telling you, we need to hire her to retrain our employees in Texas and get her out of Chicago. The security firm could have gotten a bad rap when that woman, Cherise, was abducted and held hostage by her ex. If our employees were better trained, they would have asked the right questions and identified the guy as a possible threat to the women not a long-lost brother. These people need better training,” York told them.
“Either that or we’re going to have to downsize this operation, focus on more of our non-legit commitments that bring in a shitload more money, and start doing these missing person investigations on our own. I don’t know about you guys, but sitting in the back of a van for days at a time sucks,” Weston said. They chuckled and agreed.
“I think we need to think about this more before we ask for Aspen’s help. Our priority, and Porter’s, is to keep Aspen out of Chicago and business like this. He is going to fucking flip out and he’s not the only one. You guys do realize that Dmitri is going to hire our company and Brock, Smith, Rex, and Reno’s company to do all the security work this project entails,” Storm said.
“Holy shit. She just landed us the biggest contract of our business careers,” Zin said aloud.
“She couldn’t know about our illegal dealings could she? Like know we have been trying to get out and go legit? I mean is this an opportunity to do just that?” Weston said.