Basement Level 5: Never Scared by L. R. Wright Page B

your fault.”
    “ You’re getting a guard.”
    “ A guard?” She frowned. “What? No.”
    “ I’m not taking any more chances,” he told her. “I’m going to get someone to protect you.”
    “ I don’t need a guard,” she yelled. “And don’t treat me like I can’t defend myself.”
    “ Will you just shut the hell up and take the damn guard?”
    Her eyes widened then narrowed with intent. “Did you just tell me to shut the hell up?”
    “ Is that what you heard?”
    She nodded.
    He lifted his hands up to his sides. “So what part don’t you understand?”
    Fury radiated from her, flushing her fair skin a dark shade of red. “First off, you don’t tell me to shut up. Second, you need to trust me and my ability to take care of myself.”
    “ This isn’t about you anymore. Your father and my father trusted me and Lei to handle security for all of us. None of us want guards, but we’re going to have them now.”
    She glared at him. “Yeah, right. Kendrick will never agree to a guard.”
    “ He will if I tell him to. This isn’t up for discussion. Do you realize what could have happened tonight? We were involved in a drive by shooting in front of our fucking hotel. Any one of us could have been shot and killed. I’m not willing to take any more chances with our lives. This has nothing to do with whether or not I think you can handle yourself. I know you can, but you’re still getting a guard.”
    “ Dro, I’m still in high school. What do I look like having a guard shadow me all damn day?”
    He shrugged. “I couldn’t care less. Our parents are on their way here, and this is the only thing I can think of to appease them. We don’t know who came after us tonight. It’s not like we lead pristine lives here. My father made his fortune off the misfortune of others. And your father...he’s basically a hired assassin.”
    She turned away from him and he immediately felt guilty. He knew her father was the most important person in her life. But she knew who he was and what he did, even if she didn’t feel like hearing it.
    Dro grabbed her shoulders and turned her to face him. “Alexa, don’t turn your back on me. We both know how our parents got to be so powerful. My father is a criminal. And yours...” He couldn’t finish his sentence. “They’ve done many things in their lives to cause someone to want to gun Lei down. I mean, we tell ourselves your father is different because he works as a CIA operative. But he’s done plenty of jobs that didn’t have anything to do with the government.”
    Dro sighed. As much as he loved Leiland Sr., or Pop, the man was a cold-blooded killer. At a young age, he’d enlisted with the marines and quickly gained the respect of more than a few high ranking officials. These same officials thought it was a good idea to send him out to complete some “hard tasks.” He excelled and eventually began doing jobs for other government agencies.
    When Pop was discharged from the marines, he immediately went to work for Martinez Organization and formed Martinez Security with Enrique’s blessing. While the security branch specialized in training bodyguards for celebrities and politicians and developing security systems for high profile companies, it was mainly was a cover for Pop’s work with the CIA. And he’d made a lot of enemies over the years.
    “ It’s not forever,” Dro assured her. “But I do need you to stand by me, Alexa. Don’t give me a hard time with this.”
    Kendrick stepped into the kitchen “Dro?”
    “ Did you get the truck out of the garage?” Dro asked him, keeping a grip firm on Alexa.
    “ What was left of it,” Kendrick said. “Someone did a nice job vandalizing it.”
    “ Probably trying to make sure we had no transportation out of there,” Dro mused. “We need to figure out who did this.”
    “ I’m trying to gain access to the hotel’s security cameras to see if someone in the hotel looks suspicious,” Kendrick told him.