My New Bodyguard

Milo’s Pov

The sound of heavy pounding on my front door felt like a hammer hitting my aching head. I groaned, wrapped a blanket tightly around my shoulders, and dragged my feet across the wooden floor. 

After the strange, sleepless night I had, my mind was already a tangled mess. I pulled the door open, ready to yell at whoever was disturbing my peace, but the words died in my throat.

It was my older brother, Adrian. He looked pale, stressed, and completely frantic. Before I could even say hello, he shoved past me and walked right into my living room, looking around nervously as if a ghost was hiding behind my sofa.

"Adrian, what on earth are you doing here?" I asked, rubbing my tired eyes. "It's barely eight in the morning."

"Milo, shut the door and lock it," Adrian snapped, his voice sharp and shaking. He turned to face me, his hands gripping his dark jacket. "Someone has been watching this apartment. For days, Milo. You are not safe here."

I let out a harsh, disbelieving laugh. "Watching me? Are you kidding me? Who would watch me? I draw cartoons and logos for a living, Adrian. I'm the most boring person on earth."

"This isn't a joke!" Adrian yelled, stepping closer. "Our family name isn't as buried as you think it is. People are sniffing around, and they know where you live. 

I had to pull every string I could find to make sure you didn't end up like..." He stopped himself, swallowing hard, but I knew what he meant. He meant our father.

A cold shiver raced down my spine. Whenever Adrian brought up our dad, it meant trouble. 

Years ago, my father died under mysterious, ugly circumstances, leaving behind whispers of dark secrets and dangerous crowds. My mom always told me to look away, to keep my head down and pretend we were just a normal family. But Adrian's terrified expression told me our quiet bubble had finally burst.

"I don't need protection," I muttered, crossing my arms over my chest. "I can take care of myself."

"No, you can't," a deep, rough voice echoed from the doorway.

My heart completely stopped. I whipped my head around. A man was stepping into my living room from the open hallway. He was tall, built like a wall of solid muscle, with messy dark hair falling over his forehead and sharp, dangerous eyes. 

He wore a heavy leather jacket over a plain black t-shirt. It was Kade.

The man from the bar. The man who had kissed me in the shadows, whispered in my ear, and left me sleeping alone in a strange bed with only his jacket behind.

My breath caught in my lungs. My mouth opened, but no words came out. My brain short-circuited. What was he doing here? How did Adrian know him?

Kade looked right at me. His dark eyes met mine, cold and totally blank. There was no flicker of recognition, no hint of the heat we shared just hours ago, and no sign that he had any memory of my skin against his.

 He looked at me like I was a complete stranger—a total client he had never laid eyes on before in his life.

It made my blood boil. “How can he pretend?” I thought, my hands clenching into tight fists at my sides. “He held me, he kissed me, he made me feel like the only person in the world, and now he's acting like a ghost?”

"Milo, this is Kade," Adrian said, completely missing the absolute shock written all over my face. Adrian turned to the biker with a serious nod. "Thank you for coming. I trust you can keep him alive."

Kade kept his cold, steady gaze locked on me. "I handle what I'm paid to handle," he said, his voice deep and rumbling like distant thunder. 

"He won't get hurt."

"Wait a minute!" I finally found my voice, pointing an angry finger right at Kade. "Hold on! Back up! You're just going to bring a total stranger into my house and tell me he's moving in?"

"He's not a stranger, Milo. He's the best protection money can buy," Adrian argued, throwing his hands up in frustration.

"Kade is the vice president of the Devil Riders motorcycle club. Nobody messes with him or his crew. If anyone tries to get to you, they have to go through him first."

The words hit me like a splash of freezing water. “Devil Riders.” The very name sounded like a nightmare from my father's past. My dad had gotten mixed up with people just like this, and now my brother had hired a literal biker gang leader to babysit me.

"I don't care who he is!" I shouted, glaring at Kade. "I don't want a bodyguard! I don't want a criminal watching my every move! Get him out of my house right now!"

Adrian sighed, looking exhausted. "Milo, I don't have time to argue with you. I have to go deal with the people tracking us. Trust me. Stay here, listen to Kade, and do whatever he says."

Before I could scream another word, Adrian grabbed his keys, rushed out the front door, and slammed it shut behind him. The lock clicked into place.

Silence fell over the apartment, heavy and suffocating.

I stood in the middle of the room, breathing hard, my chest rising and falling in anger. Kade didn't move an inch. He slowly walked over to the door, locked the deadbolt with a sharp click, and slid his heavy boots against my clean floorboards. Then, he turned and looked at me, a tiny, knowing smirk touching the corner of his lips.

"You're very loud in the morning, Milo," Kade said softly, his deep voice wrapping around the room.

My face burned bright red with a mix of fury and embarrassment. I couldn't hold it back anymore.

 "Don't you dare play games with me," I hissed, taking a step toward him. "You act like you don't know me? After last night? After everything that happened in that room upstairs?"

Kade's smirk vanished. His expression turned deadly serious. He took a slow, heavy step forward, closing the distance between us so fast that I had to tilt my head all the way back just to look into his eyes. He towered over me, radiating a raw, undeniable power that made my breath hitch.

"Last night was a mistake," Kade whispered, his voice dropping low, his dark eyes burning into mine with a sudden, intense hunger that contradicted his cold words. "And right now, my only job is keeping you breathing."

"I didn't ask for you!" I shot back, though my voice trembled just a little bit when his hand came up to rest lightly against the wall right beside my head, trapping me in his space.

"It doesn't matter what you asked for," Kade said, his face inches from mine, his eyes dropping to my lips for a split second before snapping back up.

 "Whether you like it or not, you are under my protection now. And I don't plan on failing.”