Page 78 of Danger Close

I watched him from over Cobra’s shoulder.

“Perhaps she’ll be more amenable to your advances if she knew how much money was in the account.”

My eyes widened, my face flushed. My mouth hung open as my heart raced. Not because I was offended, but because of the tic in Cobra’s jaw. He was holding on by a thread.

“Should I tell her?” Jericho pulled a paper from his pocket. It looked like a bank statement. “It’s more money than she’s had pass through her fingers in a lifetime–”

Cobra put me down. He carefully waited until I was settled on my high heels. Then, he turned around and punched Jericho across the face. I squealed, covering my mouth.

Jericho burst out laughing, even as his jaw changed from a light tan to a swollen red. Jericho’s own wife, the redhaired siren, looked sharply at her husband as if he was a misbehaving child.

“Don’t listen to him,” Cobra said as he bent down to pick me up again. “Sorry you had to see that.”

“You didn’t need to do that,” I gasped.

Cobra walked on, but looked at me. The fire of anger was still in his eyes, but it didn’t scare me. I knew it wasn’t directed at me.

“You have no idea how much I needed to do that.” We got past the gravel, to a path that led to the red barn. “No one—no one—gets to say that about you.Especiallynot to me.”

There was that feeling again… the feel of being exactly what he called me. A princess.

I placed my head on his shoulder, accepting his kindness. My white knight. My sweet, sweet, Joe.

The barn was decorated in what I could only call “country chic”. There was a paradoxical combination of white tulle, gossamer, and lace with the roughness of burlap, exposed and rough wood, mason jars and Edison lights. Men in black suits and well-dressed women mingled in the cold air.

“As I live and breathe! It’s the Ghost.” The black mass of suits parted, and a man whose face waseverywherestared back at me. “I heard the agents gush about you.”

“President Lau!” I said in a gasp, then grabbed Cobra’s collar, shaking him to get his attention. “Put me down, for God’s sake!”

I kicked my feet to make him put me back on my feet, whining when it tweaked a sprain at my hip.

Cobra sighed, placing me on my feet, but kept his arm around my waist.

“How romantic.” The First Lady Lucia Jimenez-Lau smiled. She was wearing a velvet maroon dress that grazed her ankles. “Joaquin Guerro, I didn’t think you had it in you.”

Her thick, tightly curled black hair was in a coif at the nape of her neck. She had a rose in her hair, her plump lips painted the same deep red as her dress.

“Why don’t you ever do such sweet things for me?” the First Lady asked, wrapping her arm around the President’s elbow and leaning into him.

“Because the Secret Service don’t let me carry things while I walk, amor.” He winked at his wife. “And while Guerro and I might be the same age, time has not affected our backs the same way.”

“Greetings to the Father of the Bride!” Another man, the father of the groom, came to give Joaquin a handshake, holding out his open palm. Cobra stared at his proffered hand for a long, long time.

With a grunt of agitated reluctance, he finally shook it.

“You’ve met Kamilla, I’m sure. And my other son, Kaleb.” The man had slicked black hair, a prominent nose, and slender face. He would have been handsome were it not for a certainsomethingin his eyes that unsettled me. “I’m Roland Griffith, Kai Griffith’s father. And this is…?”

He gestured to me.

“Mrs. Teresa Guerro.” Cobra didn’t give me a chance to answer. There he was, emphasizing themissusagain. His hand tightening around my waist, as if pulling me back from the hand Roland reached out. “Mother of the Bride.”

“Oh.” Roland looked surprised, his eyes darting between me and Cobra. “Well, it’s clear your daughter gets her good looks from you, eh?”

That, of course, was a lie. Trinity looked like a female version of her father.

I tried to smile at the fake compliment, leaning into Cobra because something about him was… strange. Uncomfortable. I wished I could put my finger on it, but I couldn’t.

Whatever I felt Cobra silently validated with a gentle squeeze of my hip.