His to Protect_A Bodyguard Bad Boys/Masters and Mercenaries Novella Read online

  His to Protect

  By Carly Phillips

  A Bodyguard Bad Boys/Masters and Mercenaries Novella

  Introduction by Lexi Blake

  His to Protect

  A Bodyguard Bad Boys/Masters and Mercenaries Novella

  Copyright 2018 Carly Phillips

  ISBN: 978-1-945920-79-0

  Published by Evil Eye Concepts, Incorporated

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination and are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or establishments is solely coincidental.

  Book Description

  His to Protect: A Bodyguard Bad Boys/Masters and Mercenaries Novella

  by Carly Phillips

  Talia Shaw has spent her adult life working as a scientist for a big pharmaceutical company. She’s focused on saving lives, not living life. When her lab is broken into and it's clear someone is after the top secret formula she’s working on, she turns to the one man she can trust. The same irresistible man she turned away years earlier because she was too young and naive to believe a sexy guy like Shane Landon could want her.

  Shane Landon’s bodyguard work for McKay-Taggart is the one thing that brings him satisfaction in his life. Relationships come in second to the job. Always. Then little brainiac Talia Shaw shows up in his backyard, frightened and on the run, and his world is turned upside down. And not just because she’s found him naked in his outdoor shower, either.

  With Talia's life in danger, Shane has to get her out of town and to her eccentric, hermit mentor who has the final piece of the formula she’s been working on, while keeping her safe from the men who are after her. Guarding Talia's body certainly isn't any hardship, but he never expects to fall hard and fast for his best friend’s little sister and the only woman who’s ever really gotten under his skin.

  About Carly Phillips

  Carly Phillips is the N.Y. Times and USA Today Bestselling Author of over 50 sexy contemporary romance novels, including the Indie published, Dare to Love Series. She is happily married to her college sweetheart, the mother of two nearly adult daughters and three crazy dogs. Carly loves social media and is always around to interact with her readers. You can find out more about Carly at www.carlyphillips.com.

  Also from Carly Phillips

  Click to purchase

  Rosewood Bay

  Fearless

  Breathe

  Freed (coming late 2018)

  Bodyguard Bad Boys

  Rock Me

  Tempt Me

  His to Protect

  Dare to Love Series

  Dare to Love

  Dare to Desire

  Dare to Touch

  Dare to Hold

  Dare to Rock

  Dare to Take

  Dare NY Series (NY Dare Cousins)

  Dare to Surrender

  Dare to Submit

  Dare to Seduce

  Billionaire Bad Boys

  Going Down Easy

  Going Down Hard

  Going Down Fast

  Going In Deep

  Hot Zone Series

  Hot Stuff

  Hot Number

  Hot Item

  Hot Property

  Lucky Series

  Lucky Charm

  Lucky Streak

  Lucky Break

  An Introduction to the Lexi Blake Crossover Collection

  Who doesn’t love a crossover? I know that for me there’s always been something magical about two fictional words blending and meeting in a totally unexpected way. For years the only medium that has truly done it well and often is comic books. Superman vs. Batman in a fight to the finish. Marvel’s Infinite Universe. There’s something about two crazy worlds coming together that almost makes them feel more real. Like there’s this brilliant universe filled with fictional characters and they can meet and talk, and sometimes they can fall in love.

  I’m a geek. I go a little crazy when Thor meets up with Iron Man or The Flash and Arrow team up.

  So why wouldn’t we do it in Romanceland?

  There are ways out there. A writer can write in another author’s world, giving you her take on it. There’s some brilliant fanfiction out there, but I wanted something different. I wanted to take my time and gradually introduce these characters from other worlds, bring you in slowly so you don’t even realize what I’m doing. So you think this is McKay-Taggart, nothing odd here. Except there is…

  Over the course of my last three books—Love Another Day, At Your Service, and Nobody Does It Better—I introduced you to five new characters and five new and brilliant worlds. If I’ve done my job, you’ll know and love these characters—sisters from another mister, brothers from another mother.

  So grab a glass of wine and welcome to the Lexi Blake Crossover Collection.

  Love,

  Lexi

  Available now! Click to purchase.

  Close Cover by Lexi Blake

  Her Guardian Angel by Larissa Ione

  Justify Me by J. Kenner

  Say You Won't Let Go by Corinne Michaels

  His to Protect by Carly Phillips

  Rescuing Sadie by Susan Stoker

  Acknowledgments from the Author

  To Liz Berry and MJ Rose and for making me part of the 1,001 Dark Nights family. Dreams really do come true. And to Lexi Blake for trusting me to write in your awesome and amazing world. I hope I did you justice.

  Sign up for the 1001 Dark Nights Newsletter

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  Discovery Bundle Three

  Featuring stories by

  Sidney Bristol, Darcy Burke, T. Gephart

  Stacey Kennedy, Adriana Locke

  JB Salsbury, and Erika Wilde

  Table of Contents

  Book Description

  About Carly Phillips

  Also by Carly Phillips

  An introduction to the Lexi Blake Crossover Collection

  Author Acknowledgments

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Epilogue

  Discover the Lexi Blake Crossover Collection

  Discover the World of 1001 Dark Nights

  An excerpt from Fearless by Carly Phillips

  Special Thanks

  Chapter One

  Talia Shaw mentally ran through her to-do list, pleased with the outcome. Laundry folded and waiting to be put away. Dishwasher unloaded. All other household tasks complete with the afternoon to spare. She rarely took more than one day off a week from her job at Newton Laboratories, so chores tended to pile up.

  Not that she had anything else to do. Work came first and it usually left little time for anything… or anyone else. She wasn’t complaining. She happily lived and breathed her research.

  She carried the full laundry basket into the bedroom, placing it on the bed just as her cell phone rang. Her assistant’s name flashed on the scr
een, and she answered his call. “Hi, Chris.”

  Christopher Eldridge was the best assistant Talia had ever had. He worked the same long hours she did without complaint and was as dedicated to their current research as she was. Although her reasons were more personal.

  “Chris?” she said again when he remained silent, only the sound of breathing on the other end.

  “I’m at the lab and something’s wrong,” he said in a hushed whisper that wasn’t at all like his normal moderate tone.

  She narrowed her gaze. “What is it? What’s going on?”

  “Someone else is here and everything is—” Dead silence followed.

  “Chris?” she asked again, but the call had obviously been cut off.

  That was odd, she thought, nerves prickling along her skin. It wasn’t unusual for her or Chris to go into work on a Sunday, but his low, raspy voice and the panicked tone, along with the insistence that something was wrong, weren’t normal at all.

  She wished she wasn’t so paranoid, but she came by it naturally. Her mentor, Dr. Jonah Goodwin, was suspicious to the extreme, and he’d hammered into her the need to take precautions with every experiment and piece of work she was involved in. Especially now that she’d had success at last. It was that sense of caution and unease that had her hitting redial and calling Chris back.

  Twice.

  But voice mail picked up immediately each time.

  She hung up and tapped the phone on the edge of the rubber basket, more than a little concerned. Was something wrong with their work? Could it be a problem with the last of the experiments they’d worked on before finalizing the formula? Possible, but he’d also said someone was there… Nothing made sense.

  She bit down on her lower lip and decided to head over to the office and see what was going on for herself. Leaving her laundry on the bed, she grabbed her bag off the counter, picked up her keys and entry card, and climbed into her car.

  She lived in an apartment close to the lab in the Arts District in downtown Dallas, and on a Sunday, she made it to the building, also downtown, in no time. The parking lot was nearly deserted, which she expected on the last day of the weekend. She saw Chris’s Prius in his usual spot, but there was no sign of her assistant.

  She pulled her car to an empty location near the door and rushed inside, expecting to find the security guard at his usual post, but his seat was empty. Damnit. She’d wanted him to accompany her to the lab, in case something really was wrong, as Chris had said.

  She glanced around, but other than the tall potted plants lining the glass entryway, she was alone. Which could be explained by a possible bathroom break for the guard…if she ignored the tingling inside her that had begun with Chris’s panicked, dropped call.

  She had to see for herself. She swiped the card that let her past the metal barriers and headed into the elevators that took her to the fourth floor, where her lab was located. The doors opened to a quiet, empty floor. This was never a busy hallway during the week, so the silence didn’t alarm her on the weekend.

  She rounded the corner and reached her workshop. She glanced through the window and was struck dumb by the sight. Her computers on the countertops were gone. Experiment tables with microscopes and other equipment for her research, missing. Stark white walls and clean countertops gleamed through the glass, mocking her.

  Her heart began to pound hard in her chest, and she debated what to do. Chris was nowhere to be found, and suddenly going inside the lab didn’t seem smart, so she backed away from the door, just as the elevator around the corner dinged.

  A man’s voice sounded from around the corner. “I know she’s here. Maybe I can trap her in the lab.”

  Shit. She had to get out of here. She started down the hall, in the opposite direction from the elevators, checking over her shoulder as she made her way to the stairwell. She pushed open the door just as the man’s voice sounded again.

  “No, I don’t see her yet.”

  She stepped into the protection of the hall by the stairs and peeked out, but she didn’t recognize the man in the dark suit. Fear rushed through her and perspiration dampened her skin beneath her shirt.

  Talia ducked out of sight and listened because she needed some kind of information to know what the hell was going on. What she was dealing with.

  “I still don’t see her,” he said from his position at the lab. “But she’s in the building. Send backup.”

  Talia didn’t wait another second. She eased the door closed without letting it make a sound, then ran down the stairs, treading lightly, grateful she had her ballet slipper shoes on to muffle the noise.

  She needed to get the hell out of here. This staircase led to an exit on the side of the building near the parking lot. If the guy looking for her was the only one here now, she could run to her car and be gone before anyone else showed up. Opening the door would set off the alarms, but again…she had a chance of escape.

  She had to take it.

  Talia dug for her keys and held them in one hand. Then she drew in a deep breath and pushed open the door. Security alarms began blaring, but she ignored them, bolting for her car, not breaking stride as she fled across the green lawn and then onto the black asphalt.

  She didn’t look back the way she came or toward the front of the building, and she didn’t hit the open button on her key fob until she was right next to the car door.

  Climbing in, she locked the doors, started her small BMW, put the car in drive, and tore out of the parking lot, her pulse racing, sweat pouring down her neck, and panic rushing through her veins.

  She forced herself to calm down and think for a minute. If everything was gone, someone had stolen her research. But they’d only get the final piece of the formula that comprised the treatment for a heart defect that would result in early death if not treated. She knew firsthand.

  Absently, she rubbed the heart pendant she never took off, a gift from her mom, who had suffered with the congenital defect and died when Talia was only fourteen. She’d lost her dad to a heart attack when she was nineteen and away at college. To say treating heart ailments was her life’s passion would be an understatement.

  Talia’s mentor had begun the work on the treatment, but ultimately he had retreated to his hermit life, and she had taken it over. But she’d listened to him and learned from his experience. She never kept all the pieces in one place. Just in case.

  She and Chris had had a major breakthrough last week, and she’d informed her boss. Now everything in her lab was gone. She blew out a breath. Whoever had emptied her work space would soon find out they didn’t have the whole formula… Or they already knew and wanted the rest of her research. The pieces she’d hidden.

  She needed to figure out what to do. She’d spent many years working on the treatment for this congenital defect and had believed that Newton Laboratories, who subsidized her research, would bring it to market with a reputable pharmaceutical company. One that would do right by the people suffering.

  Keeping one eye on the road and another on her rearview mirror, she drove, no destination in mind. She couldn’t go home… If people were looking for her or the pieces of her work, they’d go there first. Not that they’d find anything, but she needed help.

  She reached out one hand and dug through her purse for the familiar feel of her phone. A quick look down and she pulled up her favorites and hit the first person listed, her brother, Tate.

  Tate and Talia. Her mother had loved the alliteration, bless her soul.

  Talia hit send, fully aware it was twelve hours ahead in China, where he was visiting a client. Tate worked for Alpha Securities, a firm in New York, and he’d know exactly what she should do now.

  He answered on the third ring. “Talia, what’s wrong?” he immediately asked, knowing she wouldn’t wake him unless it was an emergency.

  She swallowed hard, glancing again in the rearview mirror as she drove. “I was at my lab and someone’s after me. I’m driving aimlessly and I—”

&
nbsp; “Listen to me carefully,” he said, and she could picture him sitting up in bed, hair sticking out, and barking orders.

  His commanding voice soothed her frazzled nerves, as did the fact that he didn’t ask for unnecessary details. He knew her job came with risks and certain dangers due to the high monetary stakes involved in drug development.

  “Ditch the phone as soon as you hang up with me. Hop on 75 to Mockingbird and drive straight to Love Field,” he said of the nearest airport. “Leave the car in long-term parking and take a cab to Shane Landon’s house in Richardson.”

  The name conjured up all sorts of memories, some of them good, the last one between them utterly humiliating. She hadn’t seen Shane since high school, but he and Tate were still friends. Since leaving the LAPD, Shane was a bodyguard. In fact, he sometimes freelanced for the firm where Tate worked in New York when they needed a hand.

  Her brother had mentioned that much in her presence, and silly her, she’d catalogued any information on the sexy guy she’d stupidly pushed away in a teenage panic.

  “Tali, are you listening?”

  “Of course. Ditch the phone and leave the car in long-term parking.”

  “Take a cab to Shane’s.” He rattled off the address, knowing with her memory she’d caught it the first time. “And do not use a credit card. Cash only. Call me as soon as you get there so I know you’re safe. Once Shane has details, he and I will make a plan.”

  “Got it,” she said.

  “I mean it. I’ll worry, so make sure you call me.”

  “I know,” she murmured, grateful for her older sibling’s caring. Since losing both parents, they were all the family each had left and were extremely close, even with him living in Manhattan.