Page 38 of Auctioned to the Billionaire Bodyguard

But I had a plan to protect her.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Jess

Byron and Nadine had taken me home after we heard the news about Skeeter. Everyone kept trying to reassure me he was dead. But I knew him.

They didn’t.

The only way I’d ever be satisfied he was dead is if they showed me a picture of his dead body. That was it.

Still, I was able to sleep for a while before I had to be back over at Cayenne for my performance. Nico was so pleased with how things had gone the night before that he’d worked a deal with Carmen where they’d ‘share’ me between Sugar and Cayenne. I’d do a week in Cayenne and then switch for a week in Sugar. They wanted to try it that way for a couple of months before they decided if it should be a permanent thing or not. Then they’d decide which dancer that I’d share duties with. They were leaning towards Madeline, though, who put on such sexy performances they made me blush. When she was in Cayenne, I’d be in Sugar and vice versa.

Nadine and Byron hadn’t wanted me to work tonight, and Nico had said he’d understand if I wasn’t up to it. I thought the worst thing I could do was sit around and think about things. I’d rather be busy.

So, Byron had brought me to Sugar. I’d get ready here, then walk to Cayenne. There was a back hallway that connected all theclubs, but you could only get there through the office hallways. Nico had shown me the way and told me I should use that to go between the clubs. He didn’t want me to just walk outside dressed in my barely there stripper outfit.

Obviously.

I’d laughed until he’d shrugged and said normally he thought it would be an excellent advertisement for the clubs. Then he’d told me about a dancer, Candace Keys, who’d worked at Sugar a while back. She’d been murdered. So had a patron of Cayenne who’d looked a lot like one of their other employees, Daisy.

The sheriff and Reynolds thought there was a serial killer in town, but that maybe he’d left and gone somewhere else. No more murders had occurred for a while, but Nico didn’t want to take any chances.

I’d been horrified, but I had tried not to show it. I hadn’t thought West Bay would be crime free. The bigger the city the more crime that occurred, it seemed. Still, the thought of a serial killer had never crossed my mind.

I was thinking about all of this as I walked down the back hallway where the offices were. Carmen, Ardley, and sometimes Leo were usually the only ones there, but there was a large office with a couple of desks in it that served as a working spot for any of the Salazars when they were at Sugar and needed to work.

I was glad there was a plush carpeted runner than ran the length of the hallway. Otherwise, I’d make a ton of noise in these heels. I was heading towards the semi-secret back passageway when the sound of Byron’s deep voice made me stop. What was he doing in Carmen’s office?

I knew they were friends, and several people had dropped hints that there was more between them at one time. I’d thought all of that was over, though.

Then I remembered the way Carmen had looked at me a few times when Byron and I were together. It hadn’t looked over for her, I realized.

Was it not over for Byron, either? Had I misjudged his level of commitment to me? He’d told me he was a one-woman man and that he didn’t sleep with women he didn’t want to have a relationship with.

What if it’d been a line? I didn’t have much experience with relationships since I’d been stuck with Skeeter at the MC for so long. And something told me that relationship hadn’t taught me much at all about love.

I bit my lip. I knew I shouldn’t listen, but I was so tempted.

I creeped a bit closer to her door. It was cracked wide enough that I could see it was just the two of them in her office.

I listened.

“I gave you so many chances to change your mind,” Byron was saying. “What made you do it now?”

“Honestly? Seeing you with her. I see the way you look at her. I’ve never seen you look at anyone like that. Except for me.”

“Carmen,” Byron sounded exasperated. “ForyearsI told you I loved you. I told you I wanted to be with you. And now that I’ve finally found someone I think I could fall in love with, you tell me that you have feelings for me after all?”

“I’m not trying to play games with you. I swear. It’s just… I don’t think I realized how deep my feelings for you run until I thought I might lose you.”

“Are you sure this isn’t just a case of not wanting someone else to have me?” He asked gently.

She walked around her desk and they hugged. It was like a knife in the heart to see how good they looked together.

“I swear that’s not it.” She looked up at him, and he brushed her hair back from her face in a shockingly intimate gesture that had me sucking in my breath.

“Then what is it?”