Hold Safe (Biker Daddy Bodyguards #3) - Sue Brown Page 0,2
know that name?”
“We were at the same party in Paris last year,” Craig said. “You took care of an older boy as a favor.”
Mo nodded. He’d owed the boy’s Daddy a favor and the Daddy had come to collect. But he still couldn’t remember…“The kid who kept trying to hit on you? He thinks he’s a Daddy?” Mo burst out laughing. “He’s got to be joking.”
“I wish I were,” Quinn said. “Look, he needs a firm hand and you’re the one to deliver it.”
“Get him a bodyguard and a Dom. You don’t need me.”
Quinn continued, ignoring Mo’s interruption. “Two days ago, he had what looked like a home invasion.”
“So?” Mo was impatient now. He’d said no repeatedly. Why wouldn’t they listen to him?
“They set the place on fire. Holden was supposed to be at home but had to go on a sudden business trip. No one was hurt, but only because he wasn’t there.”
“He could have started it for the insurance,” Mo suggested.
Quinn shook his head. “We checked his financials. The guy’s loaded. He doesn’t need the money. Besides, he’s got a watertight alibi. Trying to placate an irate client.”
Mo shrugged. “Why do you need me? He has security, doesn’t he?”
“Monaghan’s came to us,” Craig said. “They know we have…uh…resources that they don’t. The home invasion was one of several incidents where Holden could have been hurt. Brake failure. Food poisoning. Separately, they don’t mean much. Put together, there’s a pattern.”
Now Mo was confused. “Why come to you? Monaghan increases his security and lets the police investigate the incidents. It isn’t rocket science.”
Quinn and Craig exchanged a look Mo didn’t trust.
“What is it you’re not telling me?” Mo demanded.
Quinn spread his hands out on the table. “Holden is non-compliant. Monaghan is at his wits’ end. The client needs to be taken in hand and frankly, you’re the Daddy for the job.”
Mo stared at him, then Craig. “You’re fucking joking.”
“No,” Quinn said.
“After everything you know about me, you want me to take on a client who doesn’t listen. Are you fucking insane?”
“Griff told you about us. About what we do. Me, Craig, Griff and now you. Our job isn’t just about protecting the client,” Craig said. “It’s about taking care of the needs of the boy.”
Mo shook his head. “No. I mean it, never again. I’m not a bodyguard and I’m not a Daddy. Find some other sucker.”
Quinn pushed a brown file toward him. “Tuesday morning, ten a.m.. Don’t be late.”
“Are you listening to me? I’m not doing this.”
Quinn got to his feet. “See you there.”
Mo sat back in his seat, ignoring the file. “Don’t hold your breath.”
Present Day
Mo ignored the sneer on the face of the man who’d turned to look at him. He ignored the smug looks on Quinn and Craig’s faces, and instead turned to Dominic Cook, the operations manager of CDR. “The answer’s still no.”
“And yet you’re here.” Dominic echoed his receptionist.
Mo wondered whether Dominic had put money on him too. Stupid question. Of course he had.
“Let’s get down to business,” Dominic said.
“Him! He’s meant to take care of me?” The guy who’d been standing burst out. “Look at him. He just came off the mountain. His beard’s down to his knees. I can’t take him to business meetings. I’ll be a laughingstock. What the hell are you thinking?”
Mo did a slow turn to him. No prizes for guessing the dark-haired, pale-skinned, angry man waving his hands was Joseph Holden. He was pretty. No doubt about it. “They’re thinking you’re a spoiled brat who needs to shut up. Now sit down and listen while we try to save your sorry ass.”
Joseph opened his mouth and closed it again. He sat.
Joseph
The room went silent.
“Remember you’re a Holden. Never let another man tell you what to do.”
His father’s words rang in Joseph’s ears as they had done since he had sat an eight-year-old Joseph down in his study and told him that one day he would be the head of a great empire.
Yet today he’d sat like a kid, his cheeks flaming, because some yeti just off the mountains had ordered him to. He knew he’d made a huge mistake. He’d lost face in front of a room full of alpha men. He could see that in the smug expressions in the room. Now he’d have to work twice as hard to regain the power.
He was the client, the top dog in the room. Correction. He should have been the top dog. He was the billionaire; they were merely