Contingency Plan (Blackbridge Security #3) - Marie James Page 0,3

the grounds. He comes in handy sometimes when she gets an idea to take off. She seems to like him, and he’s been able to convince her to go back inside more than once,” he says as we make our way across the house.

The security room, complete with a wall of monitors displaying the various camera angles from inside and outside the residence, is down a hallway past the dining room.

“Ten cameras on the inside, a dozen on the outside,” Phillip explains as he shifts through the system.

Ten cameras inside and four of those on the pool area. Only an idiot wouldn’t find that suspicious.

“And these?” I ask, holding up a thick stack of letters, several of them looking like something you’d see in a police procedural on television.

Some are on regular paper, letters from various magazines making words to convey obsession, many with threats. Most are addressed to Remington, but as I flip through them, I notice several to her parents as well.

“Threats?”

Phillip shrugs again, and I wonder just how long ago the man decided he didn’t want to be here and just gave up.

“None that we found credible. Celebrities get them all the time. It’s very common. People are jealous of those who have it all.”

I nod even though I don’t agree with him. I think I’m going to find that Remington Blair may act like a wild card, being mischievous to get attention, but in the end, she’s missing all of the things she really needs.

Chapter 2

Remington

“It’s where?”

I grind my back teeth when I hear Sasha’s attempt to cover the mic on her phone so she can complain about me. Why I still interact with this girl, I don’t know. She’s hateful, and more often than not, she uses me for clout.

Then again, I don’t have any true friends. It doesn’t happen often when someone grows up in the industry. Everyone wants something. Everyone is either too busy or too self-centered to spend any real amount of time to get to know anyone.

“The party is at Theo’s house. Amber wants to know if you have any blow.”

And there it is, the request.

I get them often, and there was a time when I’d be the first one to offer, but eight months ago, I landed in the hospital from an overdose and my face ended up on the front cover of a half a dozen gossip magazines. Apparently, any celebrity having to get treatment for drug use is a big seller. The daughter of America’s Golden Couple? That was a huge payday for them. Paparazzi have been hounding me ever since, just waiting to catch my next bender on camera.

As much as I’d like to ruin the perfect image of family and dedication my parents have been working toward, that trip to the hospital was the most terrifying thing that ever happened in my life, and I’m not looking for a repeat ever again.

“I don’t have any blow,” I inform her.

“No big deal. Just swing by Brent’s and get some before you come.”

“I’m not—”

“Yeah,” Sasha says, her voice distant because she’s no longer talking to me. “She’s going to grab some on the—”

Her words just stop because she hung up on me, and this is what it’s like to have friends in my life.

I don’t want to go to a party. I don’t want to be in the presence of people who talk about me behind my back, but I also can’t stay here.

I knew the second Flynn showed up. Phillip warned me that it was his last day, so I was watching the security feed on my tablet. On camera, it was easy to see that the man was good-looking. He carried himself like every other security detail person had when they walked into this house.

Seeing him in person? That made me pause.

The way his eyes never darted down the length of my body? That made me lose most of my confidence.

The British lilt to his voice? That nearly had me stumbling over my own two feet.

I recovered quickly, keeping up the ruse of seducing him, but a few minutes is all I could manage. I never anticipated the electrical charge I felt when I touched him. I never expected my body to respond in such a carnal way. I’ve been using my body to seduce men into doing my bidding for a while now. Phillip never crossed the line by touching me, and for the longest time, my ego took a hit because of it. Two