Page 33 of Mile High Baby

My father's face reddened in anger. He shot up from the couch. "I'm not like you, Alex."

"Maybe you should be because you're putting everyone in danger. You're sitting here asking your daughter to be a good little girl and not leave the house when that is the same directive that I and everyone at Saint Security have given you now that the DA isn’t so sure he’s going to charge Pitney. But for some reason—”

"I have a business to run. I have people who count on me."

"That's right, and one of them is sitting right next to you. You’re going to toss her under the bus so you can go to Los Angeles?"

I stood on wobbly legs, feeling like I was witnessing something I shouldn't be. I almost wondered if there was something deeper going on than the surface level argument about whether or not my father was being unreasonable.

"I'm just going to give you two space to work this out."

My father reached out and took my arm. "I'm sorry for this, Tori. Tell me that you understand what I'm doing."

I nodded because I did understand. I didn't agree with him, but I understood. "I know you'll do what you feel you need to do. I'm going to go upstairs now because I have my own business to run." I cocked my head to the side. "You’ll let me know when you leave?"

My father pulled me into a hug. "Of course I will, sweetheart." He kissed me on the side of the cheek. "Thank you for understanding."

I gave him another nod, and as I turned to leave his office, I glanced over at Alex. He was watching me intently, but I couldn't decide if he was upset that I wasn't pushing back against my father, like he did, or just angry in general. It didn't matter. Nothing was going to change the situation. My father was going to take this trip, and I was going to be here, home alone with Alex.

At least I knew I was safe. One thing that I learned from this discussion was that Alex was willing to kill to keep me safe.

13

Alex

Iknew why Victoria didn't stand up to her father. She knew he was hard-headed and determined. So did I, but that wasn’t going to stop me from trying to pound some sense into him.

Henry knew a little bit of my work between the time I left the military and Noel changed the business from mercenary work to security. But he never asked me about it and I assumed that was because he didn't want to hear the unsavory things that I had done. Had I killed anybody? Yes. But the only one who was caught by surprise by their demise was a bigger asshole than George Pitney. The others died because they were trying to kill me. Luckily for me, I won. And if someone tried to get into Henry's place and get to Victoria, I would kill them too.

But until this moment, my work in my past had never come between us. Henry had hired me because of my work, but his comment about his not being like me made it clear that he held judgment about it. I decided to call him on that.

"You may not like the work I've done, Henry, but don't pretend like that's not the exact reason you brought me in."

He turned his attention back to me, running fingers through his hair. He looked at me with an expression of defeat. "You're right, Alex. But my only request is that you keep Victoria safe. Whatever is involved to do that, I'm one hundred percent in on it."

I interpreted that to mean he was okay with my murdering anybody who got too close to Victoria.

"But I won’t beat George by becoming like him."

I nodded that I understood what he was saying. And the truth was, I wasn't advocating for his hiring a hitman, although now that I had thought about it, it wasn't such a bad idea. My goal in saying he should hire a hitman had been to point out that from now on, Henry and Victoria would always be living with George's shadow behind them. It didn't matter if he was in prison.

"If you will excuse me, I need to pack,” Henry said, clearly done with the conversation.

I didn’t believe him. I was pretty sure Knightly or Mrs. Tillis had already packed his bags, but I nodded again and then exited his office. I headed straight to the nook in the kitchen where I got in touch with my team to review Henry's latest plans.

For a moment, I considered going with Henry to protect him, but when I figured out that Ian would be the one to come over and watch Victoria, I nixed that idea. Truthfully, it was probably better for Ian to go with Henry. He was young and had come from the California office, which meant he knew the landscape and the other people at Saint Security in Los Angeles. At least that was the excuse I told myself. I also had noted in Ian's profile that while he had done good security work, he’d never been in a life or death scrape. I couldn't trust that if shit went down with Victoria, he would be able to respond by taking a life or giving his life if necessary.

While all those reasons were true, I couldn't deny that I didn't like the idea of Victoria being cooped up here with Ian. It was stupid. It was the exact reason I should be the one to leave with Henry. That woman was going to be the death of me.

"If Banion really wants to Stop Pitney, this could be a good time,” Dax said as we discussed the new situation.

"How's that?" I asked even though I was pretty sure Dax was thinking that with Henry around, Victoria would be vulnerable, something Pitney might take advantage of.

“Knowing Pitney, the way to stop him is through Henry’s daughter—"

"No. I'm not using Victoria as bait.”

Dax was silent for a moment. "I know you’re friends, but you know as well as I do that they’ll always be targets as long as Pitney is a free man.”