Read Online Vulnerable: (McIntyre Security Bodyguard Series - Book 1) by April Wilson - Free Book Online Page B

shook his head. “No close bodyguards, Shane,” he said. “I don’t want to scare her.”
    “She should be scared, Tyler!” Shane said, slamming his fist on the counter. He took a deep breath. Fighting with Tyler right now wouldn’t help Beth. “Kline is a free man, and he’s looking for Beth. She needs to know that.”
    “No,” Tyler said, coming off the barstool. He began to pace. “Shane, you don’t realize what this would do to her!”
    Shane wished he could take Tyler Jamison into the ring for a few rounds. Tyler was lean and muscular, probably pretty damn tough, but Shane didn’t think he was used to the kind of intense hand-to-hand combat that he and his brothers preferred.
    “What about the roommate?” Shane said, thinking of the redhead. “Are you going to brief her?”
    Tyler nodded. “Yes. I’ll update Gabrielle. She needs to be fully aware of the situation. It’ll make her more vigilant.”
    “Aren’t you afraid the roommate will spill the beans to Beth?” Jake said.
    “No,” Tyler said. “Gabrielle won’t tell her. She won’t want to scare Beth.”
    “That’s an awful lot of pressure on the roommate,” Liam said. “If your sister finds out what’s been going on behind the scenes, she’s going to be pissed, at both you and Gabrielle.”
    “I’ll deal with that if and when the time comes. Right now, I just want Beth to live a normal life. I don’t want her to feel like she’s under a microscope.”
    “At least let me get someone inside the library,” Shane said. “Miguel can get into the library, but he doesn’t have any visibility into the Special Collections room where Beth works. I want someone in there with her, Tyler.”
    The detective mulled it over, then shook his head. “She’s perfectly safe in there,” he said. “She works in a secured area, and she has a co-worker in there with her. The threat’s not inside the library, Shane. It’s outside where she’s vulnerable.”
    “She spends eight hours a day in there,” Shane said. “That’s eight hours when we have absolutely no visibility on her. I don’t like it.”
    “No,” Tyler said. “I don’t want to risk it.”
    Shane watched Tyler pace. The guy obviously loved his sister, and he just wanted to keep her safe. Hell, they all wanted her safe. But Tyler was wrong to hide this from Beth. And now Shane was caught in the middle. He’d gone against Tyler’s wishes by making contact with Beth in the bookstore. When Tyler found out – and eventually he would – he’d want Shane’s head.
    And he will find out, Shane thought. The sooner the better, as far as Shane was concerned.
     

Chapter 7
     
    Monday morning brought pouring rain, so Beth drove her electric blue Mini Cooper to work. The Mini was her treat to herself after finishing graduate school and getting her first professional job. It was a bare-bones model, but she loved it nonetheless.
    She arrived just as another employee was leaving, and she happily scored a spot close to the library’s main entrance. Huddled beneath her black-and-white polka dot umbrella, she raced into the building dodging water puddles.
    “Hi, Beth!” Devany Roth waved eagerly from the reception desk.
    “Hi, Devany,” Beth said, trying to catch her breath. She shook the raindrops off her umbrella and folded it up. “How’re you?”
    “Not bad for a rainy Monday,” Devany said. “But I guess that’s not saying much, is it?”
    “No, it isn’t,” Beth said, chuckling.
    “Do you want to grab lunch today?”
    “Yeah, that’d be great,” Beth said. “I’ll come get you at noon.”
     
     
    Beth sat at her desk staring blindly at her computer screen. She’d been trying to make sense of the same e-mail for the past ten minutes, but hadn’t made any progress. Her encounter over the weekend with Shane McIntyre kept replaying in her mind like an animated GIF, looping endlessly, over and over. She didn’t know what to make of him. But after the way she’d