Title: My Songbird
Series: Cameo Gentlemen's Club #2
Series: Cameo Gentlemen's Club #2
Author: Savvi V
Genre: Sexy Contemporary Romance
Release Date: October 11, 2019
Release Date: October 11, 2019
Blurb
Growing up
in the dive bars of Little Havana taught me three invaluable lessons.
One . . .
Men always lie.
Two . . .
The lilt of my voice has the power to bring those damn men to their knees.
Three . . .
Men always lie.
I learned
from the best and honed my skills, but even I wasn’t immune to the allure of
good looks, charm, and the strong family ties I craved. That naivety was a
mistake.
Possibly
the most monumental one of my life.
I was
sucked into a brutal lie, then forced to run from one crime family straight to
another in a desperate attempt to survive, but . . . what have I done?
Stepped right
into the lion’s den.
Not only
have I stumbled into the crosshairs of a sadistic serial killer—a psychopath
whose hunting grounds are the gentlemen’s club where I sing—but the Kane family
enforcer in charge of my security is maddening. Infuriating.
And oh, so
delicious.
Tall,
tatted, and silent, JD’s eyes speak a thousand sinful promises every time they
rake over my body. Driving me wild with lust and crumbling all my carefully
crafted walls. The broody giant gives me a reason to trust—which could make him
the most dangerous threat of all.
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Excerpt
Before I
knew it, the last applause was winding down, the lights went up, and a handful
of women dabbed at their eyes while their significant others adjusted their
crotches. A normal set. I’d be back later for the late performance, but at that
moment, as I stomped down the stairs as fast as my four-inch heels would allow,
I just felt annoyed.
Not at JD.
Well, yes,
at JD, but really at myself for being irritated that a man that wasn’t mine had
the audacity to not stay and watch me sing like he usually did. It was stupid
and ridiculous and I needed slapping—
“Oh!”
I shrieked
as my heel caught on the edge of a step and I pitched forward. Right into the
big arms of JD as he rounded the corner.
His grunt
of surprise as he caught me was the only sound I’d ever heard from him, and
that, along with his subtly spicy smell, and his hands on my body holding me tightly
against him, short circuited my brain’s wiring.
“Sorry, I—”
I couldn’t even finish that sentence as my face was just inches from his and my
arms were around his neck and I found myself lost in the depths of those
gold-green eyes.
My heart
pounded so hard against his chest, I was certain he could feel it. One hand was
hot against my bare lower back, and the other on my ass. All I knew was that I
suddenly forgave him for not listening to me sing, and I was having to mentally
tell my legs not to wrap around his middle.
Something
was off, however. After the initial surprise, and the following primal
reaction, there was something else coming back to his expression. Something
serious enough to draw his brows together and tighten his jaw.
Alarms
began to sound in my head. “What’s wrong?”
Tension
emanated off him, tightening every muscle, as he slid me slowly down his body,
setting me back on my feet. That could have been incredibly hot if the words
shooting through his eyes hadn’t already switched me into survival mode. He
wouldn’t say anything out loud, I knew that, but my brain was already checking
the boxes, running three possible plans into play. How JD would know, I had no
idea, but somehow, he did. It was all over his face. I had two emergency bags
packed for this. One at home and one in my car, but the second option left two
important things behind.
Where were
my keys? My phone? Damn it, I’d gotten complacent.
JD backed
up a step as another set of heels clicked quickly behind him. Miss Vaughn.
Looking just as worried. What the hell? Maybe it wasn’t my old life catching up
with me. Maybe another murder? But then they wouldn’t be looking at me like my
puppy just died. I didn’t know anyone well enough to—
“Brady,”
she began, her caramel blonde waves tumbling over one shoulder in a rare
down-do. Pregnancy must be making her feel all girly.
“Miss
Vaughn, what’s going on?” I asked, looking from her to JD in question. “Who
died now?”
Miss Vaughn
shook her head. “Charli,” she said, reminding me for the millionth time to call
her that. “And no one, thank God,” she said. “But JD’s security detail just
reported that your hotel room was broken into.”
“My—my
what?” The words felt stilted in my mouth as too many things in her sentence
didn’t go together correctly. “How did—” I shook my head. “Security detail?”
JD’s security detail?
He backed
up another step and crossed his arms, and for once I couldn’t read him. What
the living hell was going on?
“Everyone
here has one with all the crazy happening,” Charli said. “We have to keep
everybody safe.”
I felt my
eyes go wide. “Yes, I get walked to my car every night, and chaperoned when I
walk down the street to get a burger, but you—”
“Had to do
what it took to make sure you weren’t the next body? Yes,” she said, crossing
her arms to mirror him. “You didn’t give me a home address, Brady, I had to
have JD assign someone.”
“To stalk
me.”
I was going
to get fired. I felt it in my bones. But my mouth wouldn’t quit. JD was like my
personal protection, I got that, but it had always felt like he chose that. He
didn’t. She or Gideon Kane had ordered it. And then he assigned people to
follow me? Report back—
“To protect
you,” Charli corrected. “I don’t care about your personal life. I never asked
you why you’re living in a hotel.”
And boom, my brain circled back to the crux
of the matter.
Broke in.
No.
I was down
the hall at a run, kicking off the heels as I went, hopping on one foot to rid
myself of one of them.
“Go with
her,” I heard her say in the background. “This isn’t like the other . . .”
I couldn’t
hear anything after that because I was in the dressing room. Phone and keys and
bag in hand, I ran back out the door. I didn’t care about my bare feet or the
dress riding dangerously up my ass. I just needed to get to my car.
Everything
I owned and most of the money I had was in that hotel room, but it might be
gone now anyway. The best option was just to get in my car and go, and hope it
wasn’t rigged to blow up.
JD wasn’t
anywhere to be seen when I ran out the back exit, until headlights stopped me.
The truck turned and pulled in front of me, blocking my path, the passenger’s
side door even with me. JD’s eyes met mine through the window as he leaned over
and opened the door.
I didn’t have
a choice it seemed.
Well,
wasn’t that just par for the course.
We rode in
silence—there was no other way with him—but for the first time since I’d met
him, that pissed me off. I deserved answers, damn it.
“Obviously,
I don’t need to give you directions,” I said, glaring at his profile.
Nothing.
“And how
the hell did someone break into my room in a secure hotel with a security detail?” I asked. Okay the
hotel wasn’t that secure, but shit. “What good is someone following me if they
can’t stop that?”
Still
nothing.
“Jesus,” I
muttered, staring out the window.
I didn’t
know what ached more. The fear of what was waiting for me, the exhaustion of
what was to come if I had to hit the road, or this damn man getting under my
skin and making a fool of me.
I was out
of the truck before he even turned off the ignition, through the lobby doors,
past the empty reception desk—well no damn wonder—and up the two flights of
stairs to room 202 . . . where I stopped short at the sight of another menacing
looking man standing in my open doorway.
“Move,” I
said.
“Ma’am,” he
began, but then his gaze shot behind me. Because of course, he was already there. I spun to see him
towering behind me, jacket gone, arms bared, multiple tattoos snaking around
them.
I blinked
away, ignoring the hit to my libido. I didn’t have time for that anymore,
seeing as death was clearly more imminent.
JD jutted
his head and the guy walked off as JD slapped him on the shoulder. Great job, dude, in man-code, and all
that. All I could see was what tiny shred of life I had left in total shambles
in this dinky room, and they were simply handing me off like a baton.
The
mattress was upended and cut open. My toiletries were everywhere. Clothes were
ripped apart and thrown around. The cheap couch had no cushions left, and the
only reason it wasn’t upside down was that it was bolted to the floor.
None of
that mattered.
I went
straight to the end table and moved it out of the way, all my breath leaving me
in a giant release when I saw the emergency escape plan sign I’d taken from the
door. It was still in place over the hole I’d cut into the wall.
“Thank
you,” I whispered under my breath.
My little
bag. With most of my not-so-little money. They didn’t find it. I still had a
small portion of it in the other bag in my car, but—oh, my God they’d found me.
I backed
up, fighting away the rush of terrified tears as I turned around. I expected JD
to be hovering, observing, being a generally overprotective watchdog. But, no.
He was pacing. Distracted. Agitated. I watched in desolation as he stormed
around the room, gradually growing angrier and angrier, his expression lost to
the moment as he seemed ready to hit something, his focus hazy and somewhere
else.
“I have to
go,” I said, my voice sounding like the real Brady Rose after a long smoking
day.
JD stopped
pacing and shook his head vehemently.
I laughed
bitterly. “Yeah. Yeah, I do. Sorry to disappoint, but—”
He suddenly
dropped his head to stab out a text.
A text.
Was he
kidding me?
“You have
this all down to a well-oiled machine, don’t you?” I spat. “Shit happens, you
take care of it. Next. No connections. No anything. Wait for the next order of
business.”
Yes. As you should.
Take it and run. No men. No anything. He’s
showing you the way.
He looked
up from his phone but didn’t react in any way that showed denial. There was my
sign.
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