Playboy billionaire Aiden Grayson is being blackmailed and when he meets his handsome new bodyguard, Julian, he's slowly overcome by feelings he can't deny.
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Aiden Grayson is a child of privi...
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28. MAN DOWN
Friday Night
2 Hours Before The Charity Event
In between wondering what Lance and Julian were doing and worrying about if he'd make it to Jeremy's place in time to catch Clarissa, Aiden's brain was ready to split in two as he broke the speed limit to get to Jeremy Pine's house.
"I'd go inside with you, but I can't feel my legs right now," Cassie muttered after they came to a screeching halt in Jeremy's driveway. "With your wild ass driving, I didn't think we'd make it here in one piece."
"Listen carefully – lock the doors, stay in the car, and don't come out no matter what. I mean it, Cassie. Don't come out for anything, no matter what you see or hear. Do you understand me?" Aiden was trying to mask the nervousness in his voice, but he failed. Cassie nodded anyway before he pulled his cell phone out from his pocket and gave it to her. "If I'm not out of there in ten minutes with that crazy bitch on my arm, call Julian and the cops. Tell them everything."
Cassie's eyes grew wide as she stared at Aiden's; his facial expression matched how she felt and that was scared shitless.
"I understand," she said as Aiden turned to open his car door and on cue, screams erupted from Jeremy's house. "Please be careful, Aiden."
"I'll try," he whispered before exiting the car.
He could hear the locks click behind him as Cassie locked herself inside. Aiden didn't look back as he slowly approached Jeremy's house. All the lights were on inside and the screaming grew louder and louder as he walked towards the front door. It was only then that he could decipher that it was the sound of a woman screaming.
"You'd better not be dead in here, Pine," Aiden muttered under his breath as he placed a hand on the doorknob. Just then, the screaming stopped and before Aiden could open the door himself, someone on the other side opened it first. It was then that he came face to face with the woman who'd been causing him so much hell these past few weeks - Clarissa Bollinger.
Speechless, all Aiden could do was stare.
Clarissa looked worse than what she did in the pictures that Terrance Price had secretly taken of her during his investigation. She no longer had brown hair and a pixie cut. Currently, she sported a wig with long black hair that looked awkward on her malnourished face. She no longer wore those fake contacts either. Her real eye color, blue, shown. And the baggy clothes that she wore, black and littered with filth, were way too big for her small body. It looked like she hadn't slept, and smelled like she hadn't bathed, in days.
In a way, Aiden almost pitied her.
"What did you do to Jeremy?" Aiden asked, looking past Clarissa. He spotted Jeremy's motionless body on the floor of his living room, which was currently a mess. Things had been thrown around, broken, and tables flipped as if a nasty fight had gone down. "What the fuck did you do to him?" Aiden's voice grew louder; meanwhile, Clarissa had yet to move. Even though Aiden was bigger and taller than her, she seemed completely unfazed by his presence. "Is he... did you kill him? Is he dead? Say something!"
