His Best Friends Daughter- BK1 TPBS 1st draft

-20-

Not edited. So um... did I mention that this is Book 1 of The Price Brothers Stories??? oops. Book 2 is Maxon's Revenge.

"Anna..."

Damon knelt down beside Anna as she sat s

haking at the table.

"Anna, your Dad will be home tomorrow and I've asked Maxon to come a day earlier than he planned..."

"Who's Maxon?"

"Your father didn't tell you anything about me at all did he?"

"No. I only know.."

Damon sighed. "It's ok. Maxon is my older brother. I have a younger brother called Grayson and another younger half-brother called Lucas... and yes for some stupid reason known only to them our parents used names ending with 'on'. Lucas didn't have the luxury because he was from my mum's second marriage."

"Wow. I don't know why but I thought that you were an only child."

"Nope" he moved to take the seat next to her "there's four of us now. We were five but our younger sister Julia was killed in a car accident on her way to the hospital to have her baby. The paramedics did an emergency c-section and the baby survived for three days. He was a fighter."

"Oh God Damon, that's horrible. I'm so sorry."

"Nothing anyone could do love but Maxon took it really hard and swore he'd never have children. Lucas was her twin brother and he went off the rails for a while."

"I couldn't imagine going through that. How did Grayson take it?"

"Grayson left home as soon as he could after our mum remarried. He never forgave her for breaking up the marriage to dad."

Anna looked at him in shock.

"Oh she didn't. Dad was a prick. Though he didn't actually beat her he belittled her in every other way and when his drinking and other women became more important than feeding his children she left."

"I don't know what to say.."

"Say nothing. If there's one thing I can't stand it's a typical cliché response to a broken family."

She licked her lips nervously "Are you broken Damon?"

He smiled softly at her "In some ways love, yes I am. In others I'm stronger." He reached up and tucked loose strands of hair behind her ear "My family means everything to me love. I protect each and every one of them... that's why I need to know everything about Gregory."He notices the expression change on her face "I want to protect you. I need to protect you. I have men from my business coming..."

"What's your business?"

"Security. Full security. My men will have this house completely covered with every technical device you can think of and some that you can't by the end of the day. They'll also know exactly how he knew we were together earlier. There'll be guards around the house and grounds and if you insist on going to school then you'll have a body guard with you at all times."

"I don't want..."

"You don't have any say in this Anna. I protect what's mine and you my dear Anna... are mine."

There was an uneasy silence as Anna made a decision.

"Damon.."

"Yes love?"

"Can... can Red tell you?"

That surprised him for two reasons. One that she was willing to let him know and the other was that she trusted Red with doing that.

"I'm fine with that love. How about you call her and get her to come over this evening for dinner and explain it all to both me and Maxon?" He held out her phone.

"Ok."

She shook as her fingers tapped the screen, Damon placed his hand over hers for a moment "You aren't alone."

Nodding, she held the phone up to her ear. As soon as she heard her best friends voice she started to sob "Red... he's back..."

"Holy mother fucker! Nooooooo! I'm coming over."

Anna couldn't speak so she handed the phone to Damon and listened through her tears as they arranged for her and Ben to come over that evening. Damon found his dominant self wanting to put Red in her place as she yelled across the phone. Her saving grace was that she was worried about protecting his girl.

Hanging up he reached for Anna and again just held her as she sobbed. His temper was taking a beating but he smirked wryly because he knew that it was nothing compared to the beating Frazer would be getting.

Once Anna was settled he'd make another call to his brother Lucas. They'd stand together as a family for his woman.