Page 1 of Redemption
CHAPTER ONE
Graham smoothed a hand down his tie. “I know you don’t want to talk about this?—”
“You’re right.” I cut him off. “I don’t.”
“Sloan,” Jasper said from his seat on the couch, his tone a mix of concern and exasperation. “We’re trying to help. We’re worried about you.”
My face flushed with frustration, but I waved a hand through the air, determined not to appear ruffled. Instead, I concentrated on the feel of the plush carpet of the Huxley Grand Los Angeles Presidential Suite. It was soft beneath my feet as I padded across it.
“What’s new? You’ve always been overprotective of me—all of you.” I swung my gaze to encompass all four of them, my family.
My eldest brother, Graham. Stoic and definitely overprotective. Probably the most so, even if he wasn’t always as vocal about his concerns as my other siblings. Perhaps the fact that he was so adamant this time should’ve been enough to scare me, but I refused to live my life in fear.
Graham’s stern expression was nothing new. I simply wasn’t used to having it directed at me. Sure, there were times we argued. We were siblings. We ran a billion-dollar hotel empire together, along with Jasper. We were bound to have disagreements.
But Graham typically stayed out of my personal life, and I stayed out of his. Not that he had much of one. Apart from his dogs—a pair of Irish Wolfhounds named Queen V and Prince Albert—he was a solitary creature of habit.
My other brother, Jasper, could be just as overprotective, even if he was generally more diplomatic about it. And Knox and Nate—my cousins whom I considered my siblings—had always treated me like their kid sister.
It didn’t matter that I was thirty-seven. That I was the Senior Vice President of Operations for Huxley Hotels. The four of them would only ever see me as their little sister in need of protection.
Though, this time, they might be right.
I sighed and sank down on the sofa. I didn’t want to admit it, but the threatening notes frightened me. At first, I’d brushed them off as a mistake or a prank. I didn’t have any enemies that I knew of. I mean, yes, my family was wealthy, which made us an easy target. But I was the only one of the five of us who’d received any threats.
And now… I sighed. Now that it had happened several times over the span of six weeks, I could no longer ignore the fact that someone was trying to send me a message. I just couldn’t figure out who it was or why. And why now?
Their nasty vitriol floated through my mind once more.
“End your subscription to life,
you TOXIC BITCH.”
I’d found that one on my desk at the office one morning. It had my picture on the front, my face covered with a large skull and crossbones. When I’d asked my executive assistant about it, Halle had been confused and upset on my behalf.
“You are poison, and you will pay.”
That lovely gem had arrived at my home inside a Christmas card. Jasper and Graham had immediately flown to London and insisted on staying through the holidays.
Jasper took a seat next to me, rubbing circles on my back. As children, he’d always been the one to comfort me. I think he needed that touch, that connection, more than my other brothers. Definitely more than Graham, who had always shied away from physical affection.
“I talked to Maverick Hudson,” Knox said, referring to the owner of Hudson Security, a company known for elite executive security, among other things. “He offered to send a team back to London with you.”
“I have a security team,” I gritted out.
Graham narrowed his eyes at me. “Sloan, the Huxley Grand staff is not your personal security team.”
“I know that.” I dug my nails into my fist until I felt the bite of them against my skin. “I would never expect them to be. But all residents are entitled to security while on the premises. Thus, I’m protected.”
“Are you?” Knox asked. “These threats suggest otherwise.”
“I definitely question the staff’s competence in light of these threats,” Nate said, and I had to agree, even if the idea of it being one of my own employees twisted my gut.
“Hudson suggested leaving those employees in place in case one of them is in on it,” Knox said.
Great. Just great. That definitely did not help me feel more secure.
Even so, I grimaced. “I don’t want to be surrounded by a protective bubble of bodyguards.” Hell, that was how I’d felt a lot of my childhood. Suffocated by nannies and staff and four protective older brothers.
