“Mack, do you copy?” the voice in my earpiece asks again.

I groan and push off the wall I’ve been peacefully leaning against for the past half hour. “Give it to me one more time, Gilly, I’m hoping I misheard you.”

I hear him chuckle. “Don’t be like that; she keeps things interesting at least.”

Interesting. That’s one word for it. I can think of a shit load more colourful ones, none of which will actually help me in the slightest when it comes to removing this particular problem.

“You better get ready, man, the cuckoo is about to fly right into the nest, I repeat, right into the nest.”

“Location?” I bark as I round the side of the building.

“North west corner, same as the week before last.”

“Someone call security,” I mutter.

“You are the security, Mack,” He replies, clearly amused.

“Well this security needs its own fucking security; this bitch is crazy.”

“Maybe you should try spanking that ass.” He chuckles.

I grind my teeth together in frustration.

“Go and do something else, Gilly.”

“Like what, boss?”

“I don’t care. Do literally anything other than talk to me,” I snap as I approach the north west corner just in time to see a foot with a blood-red high heel on it swinging over the top.

She might be a giant pain in my ass, but I’ve got to give her credit, I have no idea how she manages to scale that fence in those shoes.

I cross my arms across my chest and wait, my already-waning patience thinning further.

The other shoe follows, and I let my eyes trail up her legs and over her ass as she lowers herself down over my side of the fence.

There’s fuck all to her, and she’s got quite a drop to make it to the ground, but I’m not about to offer her a hand down.

She peers down at the ground over her shoulder, her now-orange hair – it was purple last week – blowing in the breeze, before she lets go of her hold and sails to the grass beneath her.

I raise a brow as she lands on the balls of her feet elegantly, and brushes down her black pants before turning, her eyes landing on me instantly.

She pouts when she sees who’s here to meet her. “What are you doing here?” she demands.

Shit. She’s even more beautiful in person than she is on the monitor.

“This is my job, sweetheart. I think a better question is, what are you doing here?”

“The other one is meant to be on garden duty today.” She pushes those big puffy lips out even further, but what’s clearly been working on Hugh – the ‘other one’ she’s referring to, isn’t going to fly with me, no matter how god damn sexy she looks.

She’s going to have to do a hell of a lot better than that.

Weak men are the very reason this little hell raiser is here in the first place, and the reason she keeps getting past our defences.

The boss was weak for sleeping with her in the first place, and half the men on my staff are even weaker for letting her distract them with a flash of her thigh or a pout of those lips.

She’s nearly breached the house three times in the past month, and that shit is stopping right now, even if I have to get my own hands dirty to make it happen.

“Sorry to inconvenience you,” I drawl.

Her eyes drift lazily over my shoulder and past me to the huge building housing the people I’m here to protect.

“Don’t even think about it.”

“Oops.” She smirks and shrugs her dainty shoulders. “Too late.”

“He’s not here.”

She runs her tongue over her bottom lip, a mischievous glint in her eyes.

“Oh, c’mon now, big guy, we both know that’s a lie. If he wasn’t here, you wouldn’t be either.” She takes a step in my direction – a prowl that’s designed to make men weak in the knees.

Not me though. It doesn’t matter how hot she is, these knees are holding strong, for now at least.

She’s right about one thing though. It was a lie. William is right inside. But she’s wrong about the last part. Thanks to her, I’m stuck here nearly twenty-four seven, keeping an eye out for her next break-in attempt.

“You want to go back up and over, or is going out the front flavour of the day, fruit loop?”

“Thanks, but I think I’ll just pop inside.”

I chuckle darkly. “Sure thing, want me to hang up your coat for you?” I ask, sarcasm dripping from my tone.

She narrows her eyes at me and sets her hands on her hips. “You’re going to be a problem for me, aren’t you?”

“Every god damn day of the week,” I reply.

She huffs out a breath. “I’m not going to make it easy for you to get rid of me.”

“Wouldn’t dream that you would,” I drawl.

She pops one of her dark brows at me. “I don’t go quietly.”

“Oh, believe me, sweetheart. I’m aware. You might not have met me before, but I know you, Cristal… and trust me, your reputation precedes you.”

She gives me a look, and I can’t tell if she’s pleased I know how she operates, or if she’s pissed about it.

She’s about to start, I can feel it.

I count down in my head.

Five, four, three, two, one…

Right on cue, she starts. First, she makes a break for the house, and when I catch her around the waist, the yelling and cursing begins.

“Crazy fucking bitch,” I mutter to myself as I sling her over my shoulder, her ass only inches from my face.

I can just imagine Gilly watching on the monitor, howling with laughter I bet. I glance at one of the security cameras and flip the middle finger – just for good measure.

“Put me down, you big hulk!” she screams at me, taking a break from her incessant yelling at the house for a moment.

“Gladly,” I announce as I cart her out the now-open front gate and deposit her onto the road side.

She stamps her foot in frustration and glares at me.

“I’ll be back, you know that, right?”

“I’m sure you will be,” I drawl as I step back inside the gate and watch it close between us. “And just so you know, your crazy is showing.”

She considers making a break for it, but she must realise she hasn’t got a hope in hell of getting past me because she stays put on her side of the solid iron gate.

“My crazy is always showing.” She growls in frustration before stomping off down the road, back to that flash-ass, shiny black car she’ll have parked somewhere nearby.

It makes no sense. She’s clearly not after the boss for the money – it seems she has plenty of that already, from some other poor sucker if I had to guess.

“Gilly,” I demand through my mic.

“Mack,” he replies, and I can hear in his voice how much he’s enjoying this.

“I want an electric wire around the top of the boundary fence… and I want it yesterday.”