books in the series and thought matriarch Penny Payne-Lynch was a meddling matchmaker, wait until you meet Cole Bentler’s grandfather Xavier Bentler. Grampa X has a couple of reasons for hiring the Payne Protection Agency. One is because he wants to bring his grandson Cole back home to his estranged family and to Cole’s high school sweetheart. The second is because someone can’t wait for the feisty eighty-six-year-old to die of natural causes.
I modeled Grampa X after my father, who introduces himself to everyone he meets as Grampa Jack. At ninety, he is even more independent and feistier than Xavier Bentler. His car engine never cools off because he goes from restaurant to restaurant meeting up with family and friends—mostly lady friends. Like Grampa X, he is independent and determined and also has a heart of gold. I hope you enjoy meeting Grampa X in the pages of Soldier Bodyguard and finding out if he can reunite his family, survive the attempts on his life and play matchmaker for Cole.
Happy reading!
Lisa Childs
With love and gratitude for my biggest fan and self-appointed publicist, my ninety-year-old dad, Jack Childs aka Grampa Jack. Thank you for promoting my books with everyone you meet and thank you for setting an example in how to live life to the fullest!
Contents
Crazy like a fox. Cooper Payne had never understood that phrase until now. He stared across his desk at Xavier Bentler. This wasn’t Cooper’s first experience with an interfering grandfather; his wife’s guardian/grandfather had been a control freak who had manipulated his granddaughters even from beyond the grave.
“I can’t lie to one of my employees,” he told the elderly man.
Xavier Bentler was eighty-six years old, but he looked like he was in his sixties. Cooper couldn’t believe that he’d had a heart attack a few months ago. Had he really had one? Or just how manipulative was the old man? The heart attack had compelled Cooper’s friend and employee, Cole Bentler, to fly home for the first time
