The Hero She Deserves - Page 69

“I don’t doubt that.” Sawyer paused. “I get it, Park. I was there not long ago.”

“I’ll be fine.” His tone was clipped.

Sawyer nodded. He’d leave it. For now.

“So, you hooked up with Hollywood’s hottest actress?”

“It’s—” Sawyer wanted to say more than a hook up, but was it? Hollis would eventually go back to LA and leave him behind. “She’s smart, beautiful… And I’m not letting her get hurt.”

Park sipped his coffee. “You’ve got my help, but man, you need to admit to yourself that you’re in love with her.”

Sawyer’s heart skipped a beat. “No. I’ve only known her a week.”

Park lifted a dark brow.

“What the hell do you know about love anyway?” Sawyer said.

“Not a thing, but I have eyes. I can see just fine.”

Sawyer shook his head. “That’s not what’s important right now. There are hitmen on this island who want her dead. That’snotgoing to happen.”

Park gave him the faintest smile. “Luckily, Hollis has two Ghost Ops soldiers at her back. And she has a pretty mean swing with a frying pan.”

If the hitmen tried again, they wouldn’t know what hit them.

“I’m glad you’re here, man.”

Park lifted his mug, chinking it against Sawyer’s. “Happy to be here.”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Hollis listened to the low rumble of Sawyer and Parker talking. She glanced out at them on the deck. It was clear that they were good friends.

She chewed her lip. She didn’t have close friends like that. She had Tavion, and she trusted him, but they didn’t hang out a lot because they were both so busy. He was as much of a workaholic as she was. She had plenty of acquaintances, some who would stab her in the back to get a role if they needed to.

Everything in her life was about work. The next movie, the next premiere, the next potential Oscar win.

Life had been whizzing past, and she hadn’t stopped to smell the roses. Hell, she hadn’t even stopped to smell a daisy.

This entire situation with Reuben had brought her life sharply into focus.

She looked back at the laptop screen and made herself concentrate. It wasn’t the time to have an almost-midlife crisis while she was being hunted by a hitman. Or hitmen.

Information popped up on the screen and she leaned forward. Her pulse spiked.

It couldn’t be.

She checked the photo again.

“Sawyer,” she called out.

He walked in from the deck, and looking at him distracted her for a second. She just loved the way he walked, so in control of that big, powerful body.

“What have you got?”

Parker entered silently, standing nearby like a dark shadow.

“There was this weird gap in Reuben’s early schooling record. He only started school in the fourth grade. So I did a bit more digging.”