Hannah
“Welcome to King City.”
“Thanks,” she grumped at the airline employee standing near the exit as they disembarked the plane.
“Now now Hannah, let’s play nice,” her older brother chided her.
“I’m hungry Chad,” she replied, all but stalking through the airport in search of the first restaurant.
“Luggage first,” he told her, grabbing her arm and steering her toward baggage claim.
“Yippee,” she said dully, but she followed him along.
“The in-flight meal wasn’t good enough for you?” he asked.
Hannah bared her teeth. “I want a steak.”
“It’s 9 a.m.,” he told her, as if she didn’t know the time.
“I’m well aware of how early it is,” she told him sternly, reminding him that it was he who had forced them into taking the five o’clock departing flight to get to King City. “That doesn’t change the fact that I am craving a steak.”
Chad laughed as they came to a halt in front of baggage claim. To her relief, it took less than twenty minutes for the conveyor belt to begin to move. As they had traveled first class, their baggage came off first.
“Now can we go get food?” she asked.
“We need to pick up one more thing,” Chad said.
She looked up at him as his eyes scanned the crowd in front of them. “What is it?” she asked, suddenly on guard, looking behind them to see if they were being followed.
“Oh, nothing,” he said, distracted. “Just trying to find—ah, there we are,” he said, and strode forward.
Hannah followed as they pushed their way through the throngs of people moving this way and that in no particular order. She hated airports.
“Mr. Terrik?” a deep, rumbly voice said at the same time her brother stuck out his hand.
“Chad, please,” he said, shaking the hand of the man in front of them.
Hannah just stared.
“I’m Josh.” She watched as his lips moved, the delightfully deep rumble of his voice rippling through her as he spoke.
“Hannah. Hannah?”
Her brother elbowed her in the ribcage.
“Huh? What?” she said, the spell broken as she finally yanked her gaze away from the pools of steel-blue that had captured her.
Now, as she spoke, those same eyes were drawn to her.
“Uh, hi,” she said, glancing up once again, but making sure not to stare. “Hannah.”
“Josh,” he said, giving her a lopsided grin. “I’ve been assigned by Valen to—”
“Ahhh,” Chad said awkwardly, his voice trailing off, but it was too late.
Hannah felt her eyes darken, a storm brewing in them. “No, please, continue,” she said dangerously, glaring at her brother.
The big man—he had to be a bear shifter—looked uncertainly between the two of them. “I was told you were expecting me,” he replied, looking angrily at her brother as well.
“Now listen,” Chad said, holding up his hands. “There’s a perfectly good reason for all this.”
“Were you hired to be my ‘bodyguard’?” she asked, all but spitting out the last word.
The tall muscle-bound man nodded, his eyes narrowing as he continued to stare down Chad.
“See,” her brother said with a shrug of his shoulders. “This is why I didn’t tell you, Hannah. Because I knew you’d overreact to it.”
“Overreact?” she asked incredulously. “Chad, I’m twenty-six, and...” she paused, glancing over at the other man. “And I don’t need a babysitter. You know full well that I don’t either.”
“Listen, Hannah, it’s just for a day or two, okay? Please?” Chad pleaded with her.
“Unbelievable,” she said, rolling her eyes. “It’s like I’m a damn child.”
“If it helps, I’m not a big fan of babysitting either,” he said, meeting her gaze once more. “But my boss, who is not a man I wish to cross, was very adamant that I do this. So if you don’t mind, I’d appreciate it if we could both just accept that we don’t want this, that we have other things we’d rather be doing, suck it up for a few days, and perhaps not entirely hate each other’s guts by the end of it.”
Hannah stared at him, trying to ignore the feeling in her stomach as she eyed his day-old stubble against his nicely tanned skin. It was weathered, indicating he spent a lot of time outside exposed to the elements, in a way that made her want to just reach out and caress him.
Which you are not going to do. That would be a gigantic mistake. He’s going to be bad news, and you know why. Don’t tempt fate.
Licking her lips in frustration, she nodded. “Fine. I guess.”
The two men breathed very noticeable sighs of relief, bringing a smile to her face. “So what’s the plan?”
Josh stood up straight. “I have two cars waiting for us, ready to take you to your hotel.”
“Good,” Hannah said, gesturing for him to lead the way. Inside, she was impressed with the crispness of his response. She wasn’t sure what he was normally, but he was a professional, which earned him a bit of respect from her.
She followed him through the airport, his size ensuring that others moved out of their way, making the journey quick and painless. During it she steadfastly ignored her brother, and promised to herself that she was ignoring the way her “bodyguard’s” butt looked.
They emerged outside into a warm, but not oppressively hot day. Her jeans and V-neck gray T-shirt kept her at a perfect temperature. The sun was rising, with the perfectly clear blue sky promising a beautiful day to come.
“Mr. Terrik, you’ll be in car one,” Josh said, pulling open the door to a luxurious-looking four-door airport limousine.
“Chad, please,” her brother said as he slid inside, nodding politely in her direction.
Hannah just sniffed and lifted her chin loftily, still unhappy with her brother’s decision to hire her a bodyguard. It’s not like she needed one, and he damn well knew that.
“Mrs. Terrik, you’ll be in the second car,” Josh said, bringing her out of her reverie as he indicated the door he now held open.
“Hannah. Seriously. Don’t even think of ignoring the fact I just said that either, okay? Besides, it’s just Ms.,” she said, leaving her luggage on the sidewalk and getting in the car.
Josh quickly put their two bags in the trunks and then climbed in the back seat with her. He nodded at the driver and the two vehicles departed, her brother leading the way as usual.
“Phew.” The audible sigh of relief came from next to her. “That was not how I envisioned all that going down.”
She glanced over at him, planning on ignoring him at first, before giving in. He seemed genuinely thrown off by her reaction.
“Listen, I’m sorry for tearing your head off earlier,” she said. “I just hate it when he acts like I’m fifteen and gets me a hired gun for the weekend because I’m in some sort of mortal danger or something. Which I’m not.”
“Why would he think you’re in danger, and he’s not?”
Hannah frowned. “Because secretly he’s a sexist pig?” She laughed at the reaction on his face. “I’m sorry, I’m just joking. That’s not true. I mean, he is protective of me, but that’s just natural older-brother syndrome I think.”
“So you have no idea why I was directed to protect you while you two are here?”
She shrugged. “Not really. I mean, I guess he could think that there might be trouble in the city, but that wouldn’t be a first. I’ve proven I can handle myself before. I’m not sure why this would be any different.”
Around them the landscape began to speed up as they got on the highway, heading in the direction of a slew of skyscrapers ahead of her. Downtown. She desperately wished they were heading in the opposite direction. The lure of the forest she had seen was strong.
“What are you and he here for anyway?” Josh asked.
Hannah looked at him skeptically. “Wow, they really didn’t tell you much, did they?”
He shook his head. “No, all I got was ‘Go meet Chad Terrik at the airport. Ensure that no harm comes to his sister while they are in town. No harm, understood?’,” he said, using air quotes to emphasis the last sentence. The shifter shrugged. “So, here I am.”
“I see,” she said, wondering if he was telling the truth. If he knew more, he was doing an admirable job of hiding it from her. “Well, my brother does a lot of public speaking. He’s got two speeches planned here before we move on to the next town.”
“Speeches about what?” Josh asked immediately, and she could see suspicion forming in his eyes.
“Equal rights for all, that kind of stuff,” she said, trying to brush it off.
“Ah,” Josh said, leaning back in his seat, seeming to relax at that comment. “And you? What do you do in it all?”
Hannah hesitated, looking away. “Nothing,” she said at last. “I’m still trying to figure out what to do with my life. So I just go around with him,” she said, staring out the window.
There was a brief silence as Josh digested that news. “Why don’t you do what he does?”
She shook her head violently. “No, that’s not for me. I know what he does is valuable, that it needs to be done. But I just couldn’t do it. Too much talking, not enough doing,” she said with a harsh laugh.
Josh nodded thoughtfully as he sat back into the seat next to her. Hannah very carefully did not react to the not-so-covert glances he continually sent her way as they drove on.
Was he checking her out?
No, there had to be another reason. She wasn’t sure what it was, and their departure from the highway distracted her for a moment. Now, driving through city streets, she wondered what it was that he did that had gotten him sent to babysit her for the weekend. He must have screwed up massively to draw this job.
“What is it that you—”
She never completed the question.
“Oh shit!” Josh shouted, throwing himself toward her.
He never made it. In front of them the first car, the one with her brother in it, slammed on the brakes, tires squealing.
Hannah screamed as a pickup truck flew into the intersection they were crossing and collided with her brother’s car. The smaller vehicle wrapped itself around the bumper of the truck. Windows shattered and glass flew everywhere.
She didn’t have time to watch, however, as the car with her in it tried to swerve to the left around the rear of the truck. They were traveling too fast, and clipped the backside of the vehicle. The momentum of the turn plus the impact up front flipped her car upside down, and spun it across the intersection on its roof into oncoming traffic.
Josh barked in pain as metal shrieked when another vehicle couldn’t stop in time and T-boned her vehicle, spinning it around some more. Hannah cried out as she realized it had impacted on the same side Josh was sitting on, slamming the door into him.
The car spun around crazily until it hit something on her side, and then the entire wall of the car collapsed in on her. The last thing she remembered before darkness claimed her was look of horror on Josh’s face.