He built the fortress. She defends the heart of it.
He built an empire to protect his daughter. He never expected to hire a weapon.
Rafael Silva built an empire on control. Billion-dollar acquisitions. Boardrooms that bow. A glass penthouse high above Denver where his seven-year-old daughter, Ellie, should have been untouchable.
Then someone photographed Ellie's empty classroom chair. And every wall he'd built meant nothing.
Soraya Baptiste has her own walls. The Norford Academy graduate and elite protection specialist has guarded heads of state, stopped assassination attempts, and learned to move through wealthy homes like a ghost. Lethal when necessary. Invisible by design. Her cover is flawless because it's real: she's an overqualified nanny.
Her assignment: protect the principal.
The principal carries a pink unicorn backpack—and a target.
Rafe doesn't trust easily. Raya doesn't stay. Ellie doesn't count on anyone, because the nannies always leave. But Ellie tests every adult to see if they're real, and Raya has never failed a test she didn't know she was taking.
When the threat escalates from surveillance to siege, the billionaire and the bodyguard are forced into isolation at his mountain estate. The enemy keeps closing in. The line between protector and partner keeps disappearing.
Raya survives by never staying. Rafe survives by keeping everything he builds.
The greatest danger isn't the enemy closing in. It's what happens if she walks away when it's over.
Tropes:
- Reverse bodyguard romance—a lethal female protection specialist who doubles as a nanny
- Single dad billionaire hero who's never trusted anyone with his daughter
- Forced proximity at a remote mountain estate when the threat escalates
- A seven-year-old gatekeeper with a pink unicorn backpack and a target on her back
- Found family built one impossible choice at a time
- He falls first. She has farther to fall.
- A billionaire brought to his knees
Book 1 of the Broke to Billionaires series—full HEA, reads as a standalone.
Low spice level—light onscreen love scenes, some swearing.
