Fire Point Read Free Page A

self-obsession and egomania, albeit temporarily, when they became parents. Around their children, they were different people. Sometimes for the better, other times for the worse.
    Becoming a parent increased your surface area, and made you more vulnerable. A child’s pain was yours. Its failings tracked back in many parents’ minds to some failure on their part. Was there something you could have done differently? Had you been too harsh when a softer approach would have worked better? Had you been too soft when a little discipline was needed?
    There were no easy answers. People did their best. It was just that sometimes their best wasn’t enough. Tarian Griffiths was just a mom trying to do her best. When the dust settled, and the body count had been tallied, that fact would be lost. But it was the truth.
     
    Ryan Lock handed the keys of his new car, a custom up-armored, metallic grey Audi S6, to the valet parking attendant standing outside Café Del Rey. Along with the keys he also palmed the man his usual hefty gratuity, along with the instructions that went with the cash: ‘Keep my car up front, parked facing out and ready to go.’
    The valet accepted the cash with a smile. ‘Certainly, sir.’
    Lock walked into the restaurant that looked out over the marina. It was early evening on a Tuesday. The place was quiet. This was a meeting he had agreed to with reluctance. From the initial conversation it had sounded a lot like babysitting. Not that a babysitting gig was unusual, far from it. Much of the time bodyguarding could be described as babysitting, but with guns.
    Over his years working high-end private security, Ryan Lock had realized that it was a hell of a lot easier to save someone from an external threat than from themselves. Stalkers, kidnappers, blackmailers could all be dealt with. Headed off. Arrested. Scared. If it came down to the wire, and they presented a clear and present danger to life, they could be killed. But a principal who was determined to screw up their life? Or to place themselves in a bad situation? That was a whole other deal.
    The challenge of the job was managing the individual you were charged with protecting, your principal, whether they be a politician who liked to plunge into the crowd or a rock star with a taste for the low-life. Then you had to factor in the wishes of the client ‒ the person or organization who was picking up the tab.
    At the restaurant reservations desk, Lock informed the hostess whom he was there to meet. She led him toward a table at the front of the long dining room that looked out over the boats in the marina. Tarian Griffiths was already seated, a glass of mineral water on the table in front of her. She tapped away at the screen of her iPhone with perfectly manicured fingers.
    ‘Ms Griffiths,’ said Lock, waving away the offer of a menu. ‘No, thank you,’ he said to the hostess. ‘Just some water, please.’
    Tarian Griffiths didn’t get up but she did extend her hand. Lock shook it. With auburn hair, bright blue eyes, high cheekbones and a perfect smile, Tarian had been a successful soap actress back in New York, before she had met and married wealthy tech entrepreneur Peter Blake. They’d had one son together, Marcus, before divorcing a few years later. Peter Blake must have fallen hard because he’d married Tarian without a pre-nuptial agreement.
    She had married again a few years ago, a fellow multi-millionaire she had met via her charity work. Teddy Griffiths came from Texas oil money, and to keep her happy he had re-located to LA, where she had continued to pursue her acting career, with mixed success. They’d had two children together ‒ a boy and a girl, both under ten ‒ and were a regular feature on the LA philanthropy circuit. But she was there to talk to Lock about Marcus.
    When Lock had spoken to her the previous day, she had been deliberately vague about the specific problem. All he knew was that twenty-year-old Marcus Griffiths was