Chapter 1
Sierra took a subtle sniff of her upper arm as she rode the elevator up to the fiftieth floor of the new Serafina hotel and casino—owned by billionaire Wyatt Christiansen. As head chef at Cloud 9, one of the restaurants at the Serafina, she sometimes smelled like food at the end of a long shift even though she’d changed clothes. Okay, she always smelled like food. Which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, but she’d cooked a lot of seafood today. She didn’t scent anything too strong but was sure her friend Hayden would tell her when she saw him. At least she’d changed out of her work clothes and chef’s coat so she was comfortable in jeans and a fitted T-shirt.
He’d started work at the Serafina the same time she had. It had officially opened a year ago. She’d been brought over from one of Christiansen’s other hotels to work here and Hayden had been hired after retiring from the Navy. Christiansen’s wife Iris ran all the security at the hotel, but Hayden was directly under her as her second-in-command. Sierra didn’t know how they handled the stress of security at such a mammoth hotel. She’d go cross-eyed trying to watch all those cameras at once. But, they had a good team with minimum problems.
As the elevator dinged, announcing her arrival to the security floor, damn butterflies took flight in her stomach. It always happened when she was about to see Hayden and she hated it. When she’d first met him, she thought he was a big jerk. A big, scary jerk. Okay, a sexy-as-hell jerk with tattooed sleeves covering both his arms. His tats added to that whole tall, dark and intimidating thing he had going on. As a former SEAL, Hayden certainly had the training for his current profession. But she’d come to learn that he was one of the sweetest men she’d ever known. For the last year they’d hung out constantly as friends and Thursday nights they had a standing ritual of dinner, drinks and sometimes she coerced him into going dancing with her and her friends. Usually he just stood guard by one of their tables and growled at any males who got too close. Which made her adore him even more.
God, she really was a masochist. Hayden was never going to be interested in her romantically but that didn’t stop her from wanting him more and more every day. Hayden could have any woman he wanted and she knew she didn’t fit the mold of his type. It was her freaking curse in life. Growing up and in college she had a lot of male friends because of her ‘friendly’ personality but she never dated any of them. One of her college friends had told her that she was way too ‘the girl next door type’, the type of girl you brought home to your mother—which was freaking annoying. She wanted to be the type of girl who got a man’s pulse pounding out of control. The kind who got him so hot and bothered that he couldn’t think straight. But not just any man. Only Hayden.
Her flat sandals snapped softly against the marble as she entered the security floor. A giant glass wall greeted her. Behind it she could see desks, and too many television screens to count. Some huge, some small, focused on dealers’ hands, patrons, the various bars and pretty much anywhere legal a camera could go. The array of them still astounded her. Stopping at one of the glass doors, she placed her hand on the biometric scanner. Once it scanned her palm, the door immediately opened with a whoosh. She had no business up here but about eight months ago Hayden had programmed her into the system so she wouldn’t have to bug him every Thursday. Sometimes she got off earlier than him and preferred to wait in the security room as opposed to the bar in her restaurant. She was there enough during the week; she didn’t want to hang out in her off time too.
Stepping inside she was inundated with noise and frantic chatter. Men and women were talking into their headsets, some clearly worried. There was normally a fast pace up here but today it seemed different.
Glancing around, Sierra didn’t see Hayden anywhere but assumed he was in his office. Before she’d taken two steps in that direction, Marty, one of the tech guys, jumped up from his desk when he saw her. “Hey, honey. What are you doing up here?”
She normally didn’t like nicknames but Marty called every female honey. She smiled. “Just stopping by to see if Hayden could sneak away early.”
Marty’s eyes widened slightly. “Oh…he’s not here. He said something about a date.”
A date? The word was like a punch to her gut. For a moment she was totally stunned, but she wasn’t going to show it in front of anyone, especially not a coworker. This place was worse than a middle school when it came to gossip. So she pasted on a smile. “Oh, right. He mentioned that, I totally forgot.”
Marty started to respond but Iris Christiansen strode through the glass doorway looking fierce in black pants, a crisp white button down shirt and a sleek, clearly custom-made black jacket. Everything about the other woman was, well, fierce. She was gorgeous but also a little scary, especially since Sierra knew the former Marine was always well-armed. The tall woman gave Marty one look and he scampered away.
Luckily she gave Sierra a bright smile. “What’s up, Sierra? You got a problem at the restaurant?”
Still struggling to find her voice, she shook her head. “No problem, just leaving. See you tomorrow.” Sierra tried to hurry away, but Iris followed her to the elevators.
“What’s going on? You don’t look okay.”
Sierra swallowed hard. Lord, was she that transparent? “Just had a long day. Busy, you know?” Gah, why wouldn’t the elevator hurry up?
Iris raised a dark eyebrow. “Do I need to kick his ass?”
Staring at her, Sierra frowned. “What? Who?”
“Hayden. What’s he done now?”
The mention of his name made Sierra’s stomach flip-flop. It also pissed her off. If he’d had a date he could have had the decency to tell her. Shrugging jerkily, she breathed out a sigh of relief when the elevator stopped and dinged. “Hayden hasn’t done anything.” And she wondered why Iris would assume this had anything to do with the man. It wasn’t like they were dating.
Iris didn’t respond, but her lips pulled into a thin line as the doors shut behind Sierra. Once she was alone, Sierra didn’t bother to keep up a happy face. Hayden hadn’t mentioned dating anyone in the past year, though she knew the man had to be dating. He was walking, talking sex appeal. Absently she rubbed the center of her chest. So, he was dating. No big deal. Right? Ugh, yeah right. Swallowing back the traitorous tears threatening to overwhelm her, she hurried into the below ground parking garage. Normally Hayden or someone else walked her to her vehicle but she didn’t want to bother asking anyone else. Not when she felt like crying. No way was she embarrassing herself and becoming a source of casino gossip.
Picking up her pace, her sandals slapped quickly across the concrete. As she reached the second row of cars, a tiny scream escaped her lips as a man wearing a mask jumped out from behind her Jeep. The guy was huge, maybe six feet tall, and when she saw the flash of metal—a knife!—in his hands, her chest constricted as a hundred horrible scenarios raced through her mind. Knowing she’d only get one chance she let out a blood-curdling scream at the top of her lungs as she backtracked and started running in the other direction.
Blood rushed in her ears as she continued screaming and digging in her purse for her pepper spray. She knew she wouldn’t be a physical match against anyone and—pain exploded in her scalp as he grabbed her by the hair and jerked back.
Instinctively she reached back to try to stop him and quickly realized her mistake. Using a lot of force, he slammed her forehead against a nearby car. Another burst of pain launched inside her skull as she tried to shove away from the vehicle. He pulled her head back again and she struggled to find breath—suddenly she was falling.
“Hey! Stop!” An angry male voice ricocheted off the walls of the parking garage and she heard multiple sets of footsteps pounding against the pavement as her palms hit the ground.
Rolling over, she raised her hands instinctively to fight off another blow but found Jay, Hayden’s brother, racing toward her. It was hard to see because of the tears blurring her vision but he was hard to miss.
She struggled to stand but stopped and just sagged against the vehicle, thankful someone had been there to scare off her attacker. The side of her head ached but she didn’t even care. Closing her eyes, she let her head fall back against the vehicle and didn’t bother to fight the tears that poured out. When she thought about what could have happened…a sob wracked her body as she wrapped her arms around herself.
Chapter 2
“Come on,” Hayden muttered to his computer screen as it powered down. He wanted to get the fuck out of here and meet up with Sierra. Glancing at his cell, he frowned when he saw the time and started to text her. Normally he didn’t bother her during working hours because she was just as busy as him and could barely look at her phone, but she should be off by now. As he started punching in letters, the glass door to his office opened.
Iris, his direct boss, stepped in looking pissed. At him. His eyebrows raised. He’d seen Iris angry at a lot of people, namely jackasses who’d tried to rob the place, but her ire had never been aimed at him. Before he could ask what was going on, she turned and snapped the shades down on the window to his office. It overlooked part of the security area, giving everyone open access to him and vice versa.
After giving them privacy, she dropped into one of the chairs in front of his desk. “What’s going on with Sierra?”
That stopped him cold. Had something happened? Ice chilled his veins. “What do you mean?”
Iris’s dark eyes narrowed accusingly. “I just saw her leaving and she looked upset. She tried to cover it, but she wears her emotions right out in the open. I swear if you hurt that girl—”
Hayden held up his hands. “What the hell, Iris? I’d never hurt Sierra.” He’d rather cut off his own arm than cause her pain.
Iris immediately relaxed. “Okay, I figured you didn’t do anything but had to be sure. We can’t afford to lose her—I’d kill you for that alone. That woman can freaking cook.”