Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 67320 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 337(@200wpm)___ 269(@250wpm)___ 224(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 67320 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 337(@200wpm)___ 269(@250wpm)___ 224(@300wpm)
Samantha reached out and pulled Cynthia into a tight embrace. “Landon, go do your thing. Keep my godson safe. If you accidentally kill his father in the process, there will be a bonus for you. Just kidding. Kinda. Leave.”
I looked at the two of them in disbelief. This was so not what I’d expected when I’d boarded the plane sometime yesterday. “Samantha, I don’t even know where in the hell I’m going. I’m going to need his itinerary, at the least. Pull yourself together quick enough to help a guy do his job, would ya?”
“Micah’s driver is downstairs waiting for you. I’ll email you all the information you’ll need. It’ll be in your mail before you get into the limo. I promise.”
She batted her eyelashes at me.
“My clothes are fine.”
“Sure, they are,” they both chimed in.
I left the room, hating both of them just a bit but knowing that Sam would have all the information I needed in my email before I made it to the elevator. She might be smitten with her best friend, but she was also the consummate professional and loved her godson. Other than keeping Micah safe, my only worry was to ensure that somebody was keeping my own son safe while I was out of the country. As I pushed the elevator button for the lobby, I punched the button that would dial Seth.
He answered on the first ring. “He’s perfectly safe—tried to pull a fast one on Eli, but he was expecting it, so Ari’s disappearing stunt has been successfully thwarted. They are on a cruise…a gay cruise, no less, headed toward Jamaica. Eli is with him. Arizona is perfectly safe, much to his dismay.”
“I don’t guess anybody would like to take a few minutes and explain to me what the hell is going on between those two?” I asked as I watched the floor numbers click down. I couldn’t put my finger on how Ari and Eli knew each other because if I did, the only answer I could come up with pissed me off. After some amateur hacking into the college’s system, I knew they’d both attended school together—before Eli had abruptly withdrawn from classes and disappeared.
My son came home broken-hearted.
Wait—underage and broken-hearted.
If it called for it, I was going to kick Eli’s ass from here to the Mason-Dixon line if I found out he took advantage of my son when he was underage, immature, and away from my protection.
Yep, even if it wasn’t in the budget, I’d kick his fucking ass!
Chapter Two
Jinx
I sat in Jaxson’s hotel suite and watched the cocaine lines disappear faster than the clothes were, and for the millionth time in my life, wondered what in the hell I was doing and what the fuck I was doing it for. I enjoyed absolutely zero percent of my life. About two years ago, I stopped trying to figure out why I was doing it and just went with it—it was my parents’ dream. Well, it was my father’s dream. I wasn’t sure how my mother felt about my modeling career. Sure, she’d been a supermodel in her day, but unlike my father, she didn’t still crave the attention and money that my world garnered.
I glanced around the room. There were probably twenty-five to thirty other models and a few Instagram followers that always managed to find a way into the private parties. Sadly, I’d slept with every girl in the room. At least once. Maybe twice. They were beautiful—absolutely perfect in every physical way. Sure, most of them were empty on the inside, but they were still gorgeous. Why, then, didn’t they do anything for me? Looking at them now, all I could think about was the sexy man who would officially be my bodyguard starting tomorrow. I’d been surrounded by beautiful people my entire life. More often than not, I found myself naked and surrounded by the beautifully naked, and it rarely meant a damn thing to me. Sure, I could get it up when required. There were times I even enjoyed sex…but yet, there hadn’t been one time that any of the people in this room or that had been in my bed had ever caused every nerve in my body to stand up and take notice—not like the bodyguard had.
Was it because he looked so different compared to the people that normally lived and partied in my “circle”? My group, myself included, were small-framed and thin…painfully thin. Thus, the lines of disappearing cocaine. Drugs were one way many of my friends managed to stay thin. Starvation was another. Exercise to the point of bulimia was yet another. Anorexia was rampant around me. Yes, I worked out in the gym on a daily basis but had to be incredibly careful to not put on too much muscle mass—it wasn’t what the industry craved. I had to be cut but not too muscular. I had to be thin but not too thin. I had to be perfect…too fucking perfect.