Donny checked the time, and he rolled his eyes. Of course, the newest charge he was going to be protecting was late. No one in Hollywood was ever on time for things unless it was a big event, and even then, it was fantastically late. He hadn't been given the name, just that she would be there with her current guard for the swap off. Donny was glad the agency seemed to be taking this seriously, given that there were death threats. He would look at the full scope when he was down and settled. He had been pulled off another bodyguard detail to do this because the owner had downright thrown a fit at the last guard who had been assigned to her, which Donny wasn't shocked by because the man was a womanizer, and he had little regard for the life of women at all. He was better covering football stars and the like, maybe hockey. However, the hockey players might just punch him if he said something that pissed them off.

The doors opened, and Cabrera was the first one out the door. She was eight months pregnant, which was why she wasn't being allowed to work this case full-time. She needed to have a lot more rest than was going to be needed for this, so she would support Donny working the case.

Behind Cabrera was Tommy's new charge, and he blinked as he took her in. She was beautiful, but Tommy had no idea what her name was. He swallowed and then looked at Cabrera because staring at his charge was the way to get himself booted from the case.

"Sorry, we are late. There was an incident in the hall I was using to get her here, so I went and doubled back and went a different way. Molly Hicks, this is Donovan Rocker, I call him Rocker, but you can call him Rocker or Donovan. Sometimes he allows people to call him Donny. Rocker, this is Molly. She's under threat and is not cowed by it."

Donny held out his hand, and he shook Molly's when she offered it. It was a firm grip, and she did look like she wasn't that scared of what was going on, which was good and bad. If she wasn't scared, that meant that she might do something stupid. If she were too scared, that would mean freaking out. He wasn't sure what was better, but he would take being brave over being scared.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, even under these circumstances. I have my car over here for the swap. If there's anything else that we need to do before we head back to your place?"

"No, I'm done on the studio lot for the day."

Donny nodded, and he waved for Cabrera to go first, and then he settled in at Molly's back to head to the SUV. The vehicle wasn't bulletproof, but it was bullet-resistant. The glass wasn't supposed to allow bullets through, but Donny had never tested that himself. He never wanted to know if he was honest.

"How long have you been doing this?" Molly asked.

"Since I was medically discharged from being able to be a SWAT member anymore after just a few years."

Molly stopped in her tracks and turned to look at him. "Where?"

"Metro, why?" Donny asked.

Molly said nothing, but she got into the back of the SUV and settled in there.

"I'll drive," Cabrera said.

"Your car?"

"I have someone else coming to get it because it's at the other entrance that I was going to go out before I extended you the change of pick up location. I didn't feel right."

Donny nodded. He got into the back just as Molly was lifting her phone to her ear. Donny tried not to grumble at her about making calls to people.

"Hey, Dad. No, I'm good. I have a new guard now. He's pretty good so far, but I wanted to ask you about him."

Donny glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, and he saw the way that she pursed her lips, and he realized that he knew her. Not like he knew her, but he had been around someone related to her, and the last name only clicked then. Hicks. His former commander at LAPD SWAT. Who had gotten him hooked up with this agency to make sure that he didn't go nuts after his injury kept him from being able to qualify for SWAT again, and he hadn't been one to sit on the sidelines, and he wasn't going back to patrol, which he could have qualified for.

"Donovan Rocker," Molly said.

Donny expected to get a text from Hicks because the man still had his number. He sometimes sent him the names of those who were retiring and could use something like this to keep themselves fresh. Now it was going to be used for a wholly different reason. Donny prepared himself for the calls that were going to happen.

Molly gave away nothing as she listened to her father talk about him. Donny wasn't shocked that she was not giving away anything. It was like a Hicks genetic trait. Donny had never met her while he had been at SWAT, but he had heard about her. She hadn't been this big yet, and he had forgotten about what she did for a living.

"Thanks, Dad." Molly hung up, and she looked at him. "Dad said that you were one of the best, and I should not second-guess what you tell me to do while we are out here."

Donny was at least glad that Hicks had said that. He might be able to keep her alive until the LAPD could actually catch the fucker who was threatening her.

---

Donny was professional. He had never once been tempted, and he had worked with celebrities a lot. There was something different about Molly, though, but he also knew that he wasn't going to allow anyone else to cover for him because Molly might do something stupid if that happened. Cabrera was the one who covered for Donny when he needed a small break, but she and Molly got along well enough. The house that Molly lived in was well protected; the system was one of the best, and Donny knew that her father had been the one to push all of the things in the house that were used for protection. The safe room was a shock, but really not. It seemed that it had been part of the house before Molly had bought it, given what he had seen on the plans. There was no aspect of this life that wasn't something that Donny didn't have access to.

It was going to be hard to deal with what was going on if he allowed himself to want her more than he already did, and he wasn't going to allow that to happen. The movie The Bodyguard wasn't a romantic tale that was meant to be aspired to. Yeah, Tommy had seen it here ago; he was a sucker for romances, but he also knew it was stupid to fall for a charge, so he was stopping himself from doing it. Or at least he was stopping it as much as he could.

"Can't sleep?" Molly asked as she came into the kitchen in her pajamas, which covered more than Donny thought. Molly seemed to have a steady head on her shoulders, and so she didn't try to seduce him, at least Donny didn't think that she was. She also wore clothes she liked when she was in her house, things that were too sexy but stuff that was comfortable. The stone wall around the place made it harder for the paparazzi to get in and get anything of her there, but the normal guards that she had hired to check the grounds were keeping the rest of them out. The cameras everywhere were also good at catching all angles.

Donny had added another camera to the system and shifted things around to cover the single blind spot there had been, but it had been barely noticeable, and he was trained to notice those things.

"No, I got the sleep I needed. I just figured that I would come down and drink some coffee while waiting for you to get up. I swept the house already, and nothing is out of the ordinary. The guards will be leaving in about an hour, and then it'll just be the single guard while we are out for the day. They will make sure that the cameras are watched and will swap out at the time that I have picked."

Molly nodded. She headed over to the coffee pot and filled up a cup, added in her creamer, and a little more milk to make it creamier but not too sweet. Donny knew she liked everything by now. Even if he hadn't been there to look through everything that had been delivered by the service that they used to get all of their clients' things delivered, it was a bonded place. They went to different places to get things and then would meet up and split up what they had from several clients, and then each of them worked out who was delivering to whom. It worked because it was harder for someone to get their hands on something that would get to one specific person. There had been threats to them and that kind of thing, but those things were reported right away, and the people who worked there had no pressure points beyond the ones that everyone had, like family. There were no additions or issues that came up in the background checks for them.

"What is on the agenda for today?" Donny asked when Molly settled across from him.

"I have to get to set by two, and then it'll be an after-dark shoot until about two am. It's going to suck, but I'll be on set all day, and we won't be going anywhere else, so that part will be easy."

"Okay, so no change, that's good." Donany liked to check in because things could change at the drop of a hat. One of the on-site filming sessions from the week before had to be moved because of an accident that knocked out the wall in a place where they were planning to shoot, and made it unstable. They had to scrap that and go back to set to do some filming there in place while the scouts looked for a new place to go. It was the life of filmmaking in LA when small things messed up big things.

"No, no change. I want pasta for lunch, though, before we head out, and I'll make enough for dinner for both of us if you want. I will be eating it no matter what because the craft tables have been lacking in pasta lately."

"That will be fine." Donny had added to the shopping list for him, so he didn't feel bad about it because he needed to eat here since he spent a good chunk of time here. Molly wasn't doing anything outside for filming and was going home at that moment. She thankfully had no appearances on her schedule for the next while.

A gunshot that was too close had Donny looking at Molly. She took the cup with her and headed for the safe room. She looked at him one last time before she turned the corner. Donny couldn't figure out if that was an ask for him to join her or not. He wasn't going to, though. He had no idea what the code for the room was, just in case. She was the only one with the code. Well, her father could know.

Donny picked up his phone, and he checked his gun in his hip holster. He drank more coffee. He dialed Hicks.

"Rocker?"

"Gunshots too close to Molly's place. She's getting into the safe room right now. I'll check her in a second to make sure that she's in there, and then I'll go and see about the guards."

"I'm rolling a team now."

Donny knew that this could turn into a hostage situation with one of the guards or him. He wasn't going to allow that to happen if he could stop it because this sick fucker wasn't going to be allowed to hurt Molly again. Donny drew his weapon, and he slipped his phone into the pocket of his pants before he headed toward where the gunshot came from, just as three more sounded. He hoped that whoever was on the other end of those shots was making sure to get out of the way or at least wearing a bulletproof vest. There was nothing that Donny could see when he looked outside the window, but then he saw a guy inside the little guard house.

This was coming for her. What the fuck was up with the person stalking her that they paid for a whole unit to come and take her? Donny had no idea what the fuck was going on, but he was going ot make sure that she was safe. He went to the safe room and pressed the button for the intercom three times, and then it crackled to life from her end.

"Donny?" Molly asked.

"There is a team coming onto your grounds. I have already rolled SWAT. You don't answer this or listen at all unless I tap in the other code, do you understand?"

"Yes," Molly said. She took a shuddering breath that even the intercom picked up. "Be safe and come back to me."

"I will. Shut this off now." Donny let go, and he stepped back. He saw the light go red. That meant that Molly couldn't hear what was going on outside. She had control of that. So that no one could come in and try to trick her, it was something that Donny had changed about the safe room. It was the biggest thing that got his clients out of those places, even if it ended with their death.

The sound of more gunfire had Donny heading away from the safe room. He shut the door, covering the room behind him to make sure that if they didn't know about it, then they couldn't know it was there. He went to the kitchen, getting himself settled into a corner. He could see the area where the door was with a mirror that was placed just right, and then he waited to see if they breached the house and where they were coming from. There was so much that he didn't know about these people. He wanted to think that he could take them all, but he knew that if they got a few good hits on his shoulder, he was going to be down an arm, and if they knew anything about him, they would know that he had made him have to retire from SWAT. There was more than enough time for Donny to start to freak out a little bit, but he made himself calm down as he heard the creak of the one board in the entry hall. They were inside the house using the front door. He hadn't heard it go down, so they had to have picked the lock. That meant that the only safe place was the safe room, and Donny wasn't having her open it for any reason.

"What the fuck!" someone called out loud enough that Donny knew the persona had messed up.

"What?" Another whispered just a little softer.

"SWAT just came through the gate, busting it down."

"What?"

It was chaos for the next few seconds, and Donny waited for the door beside him to open, a few moments later for him to ready himself for action. A vest was slid over the floor, a much better vest than the one he had had before, because this one came with bells and whistles. Then two men and a woman came and got him in front of him to allow him to get the vest on. He hadn't been wearing one because that was part of his leaving his house uniform, not the one that he wore when he was eating breakfast. There was also a radio attached, and he slipped that into his ear.

"Rocker, how many?" Hondo asked once Donny had activated the radio.

"I saw at least one, but what might have been up to five more. The cameras would have caught more, and I can access that on my phone now that I have cover."

"Do that."

Now that there was backup, Donny knew that Molly was going to be safe.

---

Donny didn't like to lie down on hospital beds, and the nurses fought him, but it was just his arm that had taken damage, and if he lay down, it was going to hurt like a bitch to get up again without pulling on that side of his body. He didn't want to have to deal with that, so he stayed seated. Donny looked around at what he could see. He asked to keep his curtain open because he didn't need someone sneaking up on him. He hadn't seen Molly since he had used the code to get her to open the door to the safe room. Her father had arrived by then, and she went right to him.

The blood loss had been minimal as he had been able to get his arm wrapped as soon as the bullet had gone through it. He knew that things were going to be hectic for a while until the person who was responsible for this was taken in. Since this had moved from stalking and a few threats to a full-on team hired to take her or kill her, the LAPD was more into dealing with this because it was a weak point for Hicks.

The more Donny thought about it, the more he thought it had to do with her father anyway. He wasn't sure what it was, but he hoped that things weren't going to be that bad off. He wanted to make sure that Molly was safe, but he also wanted to make sure that he was safe and able to do what he needed to do.

There was an uptick in noise, and then he saw Molly as a nurse directed her over to him with Hicks on her heels.

"Sir," Donny said, but he didn't slip off the bed to stand up because that was going ot suck. Once they were sure that they weren't going to do surgery, they would give him something stronger for his medication.

"Settle," HIcks said.

"It was traced back to someone who has a grudge against my father," Molly said.

"A grudge? Not a kidnapping to make you do something?"

"So you went where I went. And no. They blame me for the death of their daughter from years ago, and I was working as an actual police officer. They only recently found out that I had kids and that I was closer to Molly than I was to JP."

"The stalking was to make you feel like you had no control."

"Yes. It was the same people who breached who did that as well, different faces, which wasn't something that we ever looked for because stalking is historically not done by a group like that. We never looked for more than one face in the footage from the cameras when things happened to her. So there was no ball being dropped there. The FBI has already been notified because things crossed state lines with the person orchestrating this from New York; the guys that she hired were more than willing to tell their side of things and get a reduced sentence or a better place, like going closer to their family in another part of the state. The DA was more than willing to play ball for those who didn't actually pull a trigger that killed someone. We found out that it was only two of them who killed the guards. The rest had stun weapons. They were to take Molly and then make a show of killing her and send that to me."

"They didn't expect her to get security?"

"They didn't expect me to get good security who has been SWAT trained. The teams of security in the city vary a lot, and I'm a star but not that big of a star, so they didn't expect this."

"Ah, they didn't expect the agency to make sure that you had the best for the price that is being paid. I get it."

"Flesh wound?" Hicks asked.

"Yeah, through and through, and I think I'm fine, but they are making sure I don't need surgery to repair anything in there before they do anything else. I'll be out of here soon, though, as I know I shouldn't need anything more."

"And correct you are," the nurse, Betty, said as she came over to him. "We will get it cleaned out again and then stitch you up. I'll get you numbed up so that you feel none of it. Only one of these two can stay here."

"Me," Molly said.

Donny looked at Hicks to see him roll his eyes, but he didn't seem to mind her staying. Donny knew why she was staying because he had seen her when she had come out of the room and saw him with the blood on his arm. He didn't like that she saw him like that, but he knew that she wouldn't rest if she hadn't seen him. He had given his statement already because he had been there while, refusing service until others were taken care of first, like the kids in the room. He hadn't wanted to be an asshole, but a screaming kid wasn't something he wanted to listen to because they put his flesh wound above the kid. So he had made them work on them next. It got the kid out of there, and the ER was quiet, at least as quiet as it could be.

"I have a unit outside that will take you both back to the hotel that your company has rented. Until we are sure that it's all done, everyone is going to watch you both."

Donny wasn't fighting that because he had already been told that he was now being watched in case there was retaliation. They had no idea what the person who ordered the hit had planned in case she was caught, and wouldn't until she was in FBI custody and made to talk.

"We packed up clothes from the house since the bedrooms hadn't been breached and are not part of the crime scene. You'll find it all at the hotel." Hicks left, and he never looked back at them.

Donny looked at Molly, and he tried to figure out what to say.

"Three weeks from now, you are going to take me out on a date."

"Two," Donny said.

Molly laughed, and she sat down beside him on the bed and tucked herself into him. It felt good. It had been a while since Donny had someone with him like this. He had mostly been doing one-night stands with others who were more than willing to take a ride and never get anything else. It was going to be strange to have someone in his life, but he could do it for Molly. He would do anything for her.

The End