Chapter 1
Bronson
Iwas only doing this for Lucy Lee.
If the job had beenanyoneelse, I’d be home right now, breathing in the country air on Red Oak Mountain.
But fuck me to hell and back, Cal had dropped this case in my lap, and I couldn’t walk away.
Lucy was famous, gorgeous, andeveryman’s definition of a perfect country wife.
Or at least mine.
My job was to protect Lucy Lee while Cal and his team hunted down the person who kept putting hits out on her.
Which is how I found myself stealthing through the beach dunes that bordered her rental.
The beach grass was tall and dry at this time of year, rustling lightly in the wind. I moved through it quickly without making a sound.
When I got to her place, I surveyed the territory.
It wasn’t what I expected from a three-time CMA award winner.
Lucy’s beach house sat at the far end of a remote stretch of coast, elevated on weathered pilings.
The old 1970s stilt house was… humble.
But I wasn’t here to ponder why an artist whose last album went platinum would choose to rent an outdated beach house in a tiny coastal town.
I was more concerned with tactical matters.
Sightlines were a problem.
There was only one metal gate and a flimsy decorative fence circling the property.
There were no cameras visible, and the nearest neighbor was half a mile away.
She was alone out here andcompletelyexposed.
After slinging on my thermal imaging goggles and ensuring there were no targets hiding in the surrounding woods, I slipped up the stairs and knocked on the door.
It swung open a moment later, and I came face to face with a legend.
I had to work hard to keep my face neutral. I was a burly, gruff dude. I couldn’t very well fanboy over a musician.
She wasnothinglike the woman I’d seen at her sold-out stadium show in Dallas a few years back.
Lucy was barefoot, windblown, and wearing a loose linen shirt over cut-off shorts. Her dark hair fell in soft waves around her face.
And I instantly felt my cock inch up a notch.
“Bronson Hale,” I grunted. “Salt and Steel Security.”
She looked me over the way people do when they’re trying to decide if they’re going to trust you, and I let her look because that was fair. I was a large stranger on her doorstep, and she’d already had three attempts on her life.
“You’re bigger than I expected,” she said after her eyes slipped up and down my body.
“I get that a lot.”
