The Bodyguard: A BWWM Bad Body Romance(46)

He taught her to use a basic pistol - the one she was so surprisingly adept at taking apart and putting back together. He supposed it shouldn’t have surprised him that she learned to shoot it fairly quickly as well. He might have been convinced that she were sneaking in extra sessions behind his back if it weren’t for the fact that he took the weapon from her after every practice.

Juliet was a smart fucking cookie. She absorbed information like a sponge and did her best to swallow the damaging emotional baggage that came with the guns she learned to fire. The first time he handed her a loaded weapon, Hank half thought she’d bolt. Her eyes had glazed and her expression became one of thinly veiled panic.

But that had only been the first session.

The second one had been better. During the third - when her nerves had been particularly strained by another questioning session with Simmons, she hit the edge of the target, surprising the hell out of him.

She was defiant, but he supposed he should have expected that. She always wanted to go another round, or shoot a target further away, but he reminded her that he had to conserve ammo. She really wasn’t supposed to be shooting at all.

In an odd way - a way that unsettled him - they grew closer. During the times he went away to work his way deeper within the Aguiler circle he tried his best to put her from his mind but could never really do so completely. It was obvious she was in his blood - and no matter how battered or pissed he was when he returned, he always took her to bed.

Always.

He knew what they were doing was stupid - dangerous even. He also knew that Simmons had to have an idea that they were messing around. But the old man said nothing. Aside from a few suspicious stares, he let Hank have his way. Continued to let him orchestrate the routine that kept Juliet safe and Bosh and Crowley in line.

When things started to heat up, he was grateful that he had her to come back to. He spent up to a week away from the cabin at a time, and during those weeks, one move might mean the end of him.

It wasn’t as if Hank had never run in Aguiler circles before, but this time was obviously different. With Solomon and his father at one another’s throats, the streets had become a dangerous place. One corner belonged to the son and another to the old man - and they obviously had no qualms about taking one another’s men out.

Caesar had experience on his side, but Solomon had pure fucking brutality - that much was evident the first time Hank rose high enough to accompany his men out on an important mission. It turned out that mission was to kidnap his own goddamned sister. Solomon was willing to do almost anything to get leverage over his father, and it was well known that the old man was fond of his only daughter.

It made sense that Solomon would send a squad to acquire her at any cost.

Hank did his best to make peace with what he had to do. He stayed in the car and got ready to drive the moment they brought the girl back to the car. He didn’t expect that Solomon would actually hurt his own sister, but that’s exactly what the bastard did. Of course, America Aguiler was no angel herself, but no woman deserved to be hit while she was defenseless and scared.



But that was exactly what Solomon planned to do to Juliet - that and more. While it took him almost three fucking months to get anywhere near the man, when it did, it was apparent just how serious he was taking the search for Juliet. Solomon demanded no prostitutes and slept with no women, and he constantly had teams of men on the lookout for information on her.

The news that Juliet might have been taken into protective custody didn’t even seem to phase him. He was a man with a mission - and that mission was most likely murder.

It was enough to boil Hank’s blood.

In his youth, with his sister dead and his mother apathetic, Hank had been mad enough to do some stupid shit. He’d gotten in trouble and risked his life more times than he could count before he finally sobered from his grief enough to realize that he needed to make better decisions.

That there was a different way to achieve his goals.

He could be a temperamental motherfucker, but when it came to the Aguilers, he’d learned to wait and watch like a good boy. It was the damned pits, but that was how the work was done.

But this was a new trial on his patience.

Solomon was obviously on the ropes - the authorities were after him. The city was after him. Hell, his own father was after him. But he was still playing king of the hill.

And his brawn was still fucking terrified of him.

But, for the moment, Hank could do nothing but play along. It didn’t matter that he wanted to throttle Solomon every time the skinny bastard demanded to know where Juliet was. It didn’t matter that every time he thought of Solomon’s hands on her, he wanted to destroy something. All that mattered was getting that final piece of info that put him away.

That made him suffer for all the pain he’d caused.

After a particularly brutal nine day stretch in which he’d watched a bruiser make a mistake that got him offed, Hank pulled up in front of the cabin and killed his car, unable to make himself go in.

He wanted this to end. He fucking needed it to end.

Thinking that this asshole might one day get to Juliet...that he was still on the rampage killing innocent women like he’d killed Hank’s own sister tore him up inside. He was playing a dangerous game here.

How many times had he told himself that it was dangerous to get close to anyone? That the only way for him to ensure the safety of anyone he cared about was to stay far away from them? He’d tried to tell himself that this was his job. That protecting Juliet was a paycheck and a way for him to get to the Aguilers.