Gone : A Brother's Best Friend Bodyguard Romance (Guarding Her Book 7) Read online

  GUARDING HER BOOK 7

  ANNA BROOKS

  They will risk it all to protect what’s theirs.

  Nobody gets in their way and nothing will stop them.

  These are the men of Royal Ace Security.

  Copyright © 2020 Anna Brooks

  Published by Anna Brooks

  Cover design by Melissa Gill Designs

  Editing by Editing4Indies

  Proofreading by Kimberly Holm

  Formatting by Champagne Book Design

  All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form without written permission except for the use of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  The author acknowledges the trademark status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owner.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  About This Book

  Dedication

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Epilogue

  Previews and Excerpts

  Other Books by Anna

  Notes and Stuff

  About the Author

  Acknowledgments

  About This Book

  She consumed every part of me and I didn’t even know her last name. What I did know was once I had her, the thought of losing her terrified me.

  I still wanted what was best for her; even if that wasn’t me.

  But after a year of a want and need so strong I ached just thinking about her, she asked me to stay. And then she trusted me to keep her safe. Once I eliminate the threat against her, I’m going to spend the rest of my life proving that I’m not what’s best for her, I’m the only one for her.

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  Dedication

  To you. Yes you.

  Thank you for reading. And for loving this series so much.

 
  Prologue

  Izzy

  Damien informs me he’s walking up, and the anxious energy I’ve felt zapping my nerves all day recharges and returns quicker than it left, more powerful and with so much electricity the little hairs on my arms stand up. The text is short and blunt and nothing like the normally sweet messages he sends me. A lot of things about Damien have shocked me, and that was definitely one of them; I would never have taken him for a man who uses emojis in text messages.

  As I round the corner and spot him sauntering my way, I take in his impressive figure. He’s wearing a dark gray T-shirt over jeans that I know sit so low that they tease the top of his white Calvin Klein boxer briefs when he lifts his arms to wrap them around me.

  His steps come to a halt, and he drops his chin when he sees me. I’m hesitant in the short journey to reach him, afraid he’s going to be angry with me. “Hi,” I squeak.

  A faint bit of humor twinkles in his eyes when he raises a brow expectantly, and I rush to him, throwing myself into his arms. “How’s my Izzy baby?” His deep voice reassures me he’s not that mad, or at least if he is, he’s happier to see me than he is to reprimand me. I missed him fiercely, and being wrapped up in his embrace is exactly where I want to be because it feels so good… so right.

  His lips hit the corner of my own before they head south and gently suck on my neck, and then he nips my skin, knowing it drives me insane. He cups my ass, and just as I start to push up onto my toes to press deeper against him, I hear a throat clear. My brother. Oh, no.

  To my surprise, Damien doesn’t step away or remove his fingers from digging into me; instead, his grip tightens. “Wanna get your hands off my sister’s ass.” Gio poses the question, but there’s clearly only one correct answer.

  “Shit.” Damien curses and lifts his head, exposing his familiar face to my brother.

  “You’re joking, right?” Gio growls at the sight of his friend and me together. “Please tell me you’re fucking joking.”

  I turn to the side and hope that my guilt is palpable to both of them. “Oops, did I forget to mention that you two knew each other…” I bite my lip, and Damien lifts his hand. I fight the desire to suck his thumb into my mouth like I know he loves as he tugs my lip away from my teeth.

  “Stop touching her!”

  No way, Gio is not going to be mean to him. “Don’t yell at him.”

  “Don’t act like a slu—”

  “You do not want to finish that sentence, G.” Damien puts a protective hand at my hip and steps closer to Gio. “Izzy and I are gonna have a conversation about some things. But as her man, you finish that sentence, and we’ll be the one having words, and I won’t be doing any talking.”

  Gio steps closer now, clearly not intimidated. But I am. My heartbeat gallops in my chest and my throat dries up. “I know you didn’t just walk into my yard, put your mouth all over my sister, your hand on my sister’s ass, and threaten me.”

  “Like I said, she and I will have words about why she hid it from me that you were her brother until she gave me the address to here about twenty minutes ago. I’m just as surprised as you are. We can talk about that later.” He extends his arm so there’s distance between him and me. “And yeah, I came here, kissed my woman, put my hand on my woman’s ass, and threatened a man who was about to call her a slut for greeting me the way I like. If you have issues with that, then we’re gonna have a really big fuckin’ problem because I know what I got with her, and nobody, including you, is gonna do shit to threaten that.”

  Gio glances over Damien’s shoulder at me, and I plead with him not to mess this up for me. I beg him without words to let me have this without a fight. If I lost Damien right now, I don’t know what I’d do. He glares at my man and then leans in. “If you hurt her, I’ll bust your kneecaps.”

  “I hurt her, I’ll let you.”

  Chapter 1

  Izzy, four weeks earlier

  It’s not very professional to visualize my boss’s head exploding as I’m getting scolded, but if I don’t do that, then I’d be forced to listen to the words coming out of his mouth, along with the spittle, and then I’d get mad. I don’t want to get mad. If that were to happen, I’m not sure the result would be good for either of us.

  I learned my lesson from my last job about mouthing off, so instead of telling Dr. Dickman what I really feel, I’m just going to stand here and let him pretend to have a set of balls while he yells at me for something I didn’t do, and then go back to my job and talk shit about him behind his back. “… you understand me, Isabel? This isn’t the first time this has happened, but it will be the last. Am I clear?”

  Nodding, I lie, “I understand Dr. Rickma
n.” I wasn’t the last one who accessed the storage room, but even if I was, I know I locked it behind me. But even more, if I did accidentally leave it unlocked, a simple mention in passing or an email would be enough of a reminder. Pulling me into his office and closing the door to yell at me wasn’t necessary. He does it all the time, though. It must make him feel like a big man to berate all his female employees.

  He uncrosses his long arms, and I cringe when his creepy gaze trails down the length of my body and back up, thankful I wear scrubs and not skirts and heels. “I have an appointment in an hour with a new drug rep. Don’t keep them waiting.”

  “Sure.” Before he can say another word, I turn around and open the door that leads to the treatment area of the veterinary practice, and then roll my eyes at one of the techs as she’s restocking the bandage cart.

  Dr. Rickman is notorious for being a ginormous asshole, and everyone knows it. He’s the owner of the clinic I’ve worked at for three years, but up until about a year and a half ago, he was rarely, if ever, here. And he still doesn’t see patients; he leaves that to the other veterinarians. It’s very strange. I don’t know what changed, but now we’re lucky if we get one day a week when he’s not here.

  The entire morale of the hospital has gone down, and I’ve tried my best to keep everyone’s spirits up as much as I can, but when everyone is walking on eggshells, it’s pretty difficult. Ruling by fear never works in the long run, and he doesn’t know it yet, but he’s about to see a huge turnover rate. A lot of employees are already looking for another job since they can’t deal with Dr. Little Dickman—I mean Dr. Lyle Rickman—anymore.

  If it wasn’t for the girls I work with and the amazing clients and patients I’ve built relationships with over the past several years, I’d leave, too. No, I will leave. Eventually. It’s not as if the money is great or the hours fabulous, but I do love my job. That’s what I tell myself at least so I don’t have to face the fact that I absolutely have to have a steady income coming in right now, and I cannot, under any circumstances, just quit.

  As I reach the swinging door that separates the treatment area from the front of the building, I hear the phone ringing off the hook and several dogs barking. “Shit.” I hiss under my breath and then put a customer service smile on my face before walking back into the chaos.

  Carrie and Jesse are both dealing with clients while two people wait to be checked in, and the phones are both chirping. I hurry behind the desk and answer the calls, putting them on hold, and then check in the two patients. Once I get them into rooms, I go back and help the callers while the girls finish what they were doing.

  After about fifteen minutes of craziness, the hospital is silent except for a random bark and a low murmur. “Why does everyone always come in and call at the exact same time?” Jesse grabs her bright pink water bottle and unscrews the cap. “I mean, seriously, there was nobody here when you went back there.” She guzzles her water, and Carrie walks around the desk with a dry mop and pushes piles of hair into the vacuum that’s built into the ventilation system in the wall. “What did Dickman want to talk to you about anyway?”

  “Something about the supply closet being left unlocked. I kind of tuned him out after a minute.”

  Carrie snorts as she comes back behind the desk. “We all do. He’s such a douchebag.” She opens a pack of gum and offers me one, but I shake my head. “Everything about this place is awesome except for him. I feel like I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place.”

  “Tell me about it.” I reach into my pocket and pluck out my tube of bubble gum lip gloss and apply it while Jesse answers the phone.

  “Hey, Izzy,” Carrie teases, angling her head. “Your man is here.”

  “Shut up.” I laugh nervously, knowing exactly who she’s talking about. “He’s not my man.” Although I wish he was. A girl can dream. And boy, do I ever. I dream a lot about what it would be like if we were together even though there never will be an us.

  She leans over the counter to peek out the front window to see him getting out of his blacked-out Escalade and fans her face dramatically. “I’m pretty sure he gets hotter every time I see him.”

  She’s not lying. Damien Hill is every woman’s fantasy with his sharp jawline and coppery brown eyes that get a shade darker when he talks to me. He’s almost six and a half feet of pure muscle with slim hips and powerhouse thighs. His arms are corded, and the strength in his shoulders is clearly visible in the way they bulge and flex when he so much as lifts a pen. I haven’t seen him shirtless, but there is no doubt in my mind that he’s sporting at least a six-pack… and I’ve imagined plenty.

  “Stop staring. He’s going to see you, then he’ll think we’re weird or something.” I grab Carrie by the back of her scrub top and pull her away.

  “But I am staring,” she whines and pretends to pout. “I might be married, but I’m not blind.”

  Jesse has finished her call, and she’s now in the back area regarding herself in a mirror, fluffing her hair and pinching her cheeks. I’d make fun of her, but I’ve done the same thing when I know I’m going to be close to him… just not when people are around to see me act like a thirsty bitch.

  The outer door dings as Damien pulls it open, and then Carrie quickly backs away and shoves me closest to the side he’ll be coming to. I stumble a little bit but manage to stay upright by clutching the counter as the interior door opens. There’s no time for me to glare at her because he’s walking in.

  I swallow the drool in my mouth when he smiles at me. “Izzy. Ladies.” He nods, but his burning eyes keep a hold on me.

  “Hi,” I pull my shoulders back to try to display confidence, but it only looks as if I’m shoving my boobs at him. Shit. The thought I should slouch my shoulders again comes to mind, but when his attention sweeps to my chest, I decide not to. “How was your trip?”

  He drags his gaze up to my face, moistens his bottom lip, and then shrugs. “Glad to be home. How was my Judy girl?” He asks with such sickening love, I’m almost jealous of his dog. No, not almost. I am jealous.

  I wish he was talking all sweet about me like that, but alas, he’s not. He’s talking about his dog, which is another thing that makes him so amazing. He treats her like a princess. “She was perfect as always.” I pull up his account, and before I can even tell him the total, he’s handing over his platinum credit card. “She made a new friend this weekend.” I swipe the card through the reader and mark his invoice as paid.

  His fingers close over mine when I hand him a pen, and the contact sends a chilling warmth through my entire body that I’ve never experienced and will never, ever forget. My neck involuntarily arches, only to find him watching me intently. “Yeah?” He lifts a brow and prompts when I don’t say anything else, releasing my hand, somehow managing to get the pen without me even feeling it.

  I duck my head and swipe the invoice off the printer, then rip the receipt off the credit card machine. “Yeah. A little pug named Pepper.”

  “Thanks, Izzy.” He hands me the signed receipt, and I bite my lip to prevent myself from smiling like a teenager at how his deep voice causes a tingle between my legs.

  “I’ll, uh…” I clear my throat. “I’ll just go get her.”

  “No! You stay. I’ll go grab her.” Carrie rushes away without giving me a choice, and if it wasn’t for the fact that Damien was smirking right now, I’d turn around and glare at her, but I don’t want to miss a second of that sexy as all hell look on his face.

  I do catch a glimpse of Jesse, who’s doing a terrible job of pretending to be busy while she not so subtly stares at Damien.

  “Do you need to set something else up?” I figure the best way to go about this awkwardness, or at least what I perceive as awkwardness, is to stay professional by changing the subject.

  Damien shakes his head ever so slightly. “I’m gonna be home for a while.”

  “Oh, well that’s good.”

  “Yeah, Izzy, it is good.” His tongue rolls over his
lower lip again, and I clench my thighs together at the sudden onslaught of images of what that tongue would feel like on me. “It’s really good.”

  God. I tear my gaze away from him and adjust it to the floor, surprised my panties aren’t at my feet in a puddle. How can he turn three simple words into hours’ worth of foreplay?

  “Well, um…” I have to clear my throat again. “If you need to bring her for daycare or anything, just call me, I mean us. Just call the hospital and we can get her scheduled.”

  He grins at how flustered I am, but I curse myself. He’s the only person in the world who leaves me stammering and nervous. “I’ll do that, Izzy.”

  Thank the lord above, Carrie comes through with Judy. “Here she is.”

  Damien’s face, sexy as sin even though it seems to be in a perpetual state of seriousness, transforms and becomes soft when he sees his absolutely beautiful Doberman Pinscher. “There’s my Judy girl.” He crouches down on his haunches, and Carrie lets go of the leash. Judy is trained so well that she doesn’t even need a leash at all, but she has to have one while inside the hospital.

  There isn’t a woman alive who doesn’t fall head over heels for a man who absolutely adores his dog. Especially not a man like Damien. Even though he only drops her off when he has to go out of town for work, he’s sad and regretful about it, and those feelings are unmistakable. I fully admit I spend time with Judy on my breaks and sometimes even after my shifts just because it makes me feel closer to him for some stupid obsessive reason.

  “Isabel.” The hairs on the back of my neck stand up when Dickman snaps my name, but I keep my sights on Damien.

  Damien gives a command with his hand for Judy to stay and then slowly pushes up to his full height, but he doesn’t look at me… no, he’s looking behind me at Dr. Rickman. And he’s not looking very kindly.