Page 26

CHAPTER 26

Victor

I stood next to the Beast, my gaze scanning the crowd. I’d personally escorted Kayley to the airport yesterday, where her detail took over. She’d have them until Inauguration, then would likely no longer need them.

That wasn’t something I was happy about, but it wasn’t within my control, either.

Now I was on duty, awaiting President-Elect Bardales to emerge from his kids’ school with his wife. They’d stopped by this morning to listen to reports the kids were giving on plants or something in their biology class. Not just their own kids, but to listen to all the kids read their reports.

I was… struggling.

Kayley and I had spent two days together, mostly in the bedroom, but it felt…

Wrong.

I’d texted her good morning, but she hadn’t replied yet.

She’d seemed happy when I told her I now had a definite retirement deadline. Or sooner.

Realistically, it’d probably be sooner. But I knew I could spend at least the first term as lead agent, barring any unforeseen circumstances.

I walked down the motorcade to check in with the other agents, speaking into the microphone concealed at my wrist under the cuff of my blazer to make sure everything was going according to plan.

This was what I needed to focus on in this moment, not my private life.

Still, it was nearly two hours later when Kayley finally returned my text and I breathed a sigh of relief.

This was exactly why I hadn’t set up protocols for us yet. I didn’t want there to be a miscommunication and we ended up in a fight over something inconsequential. She had a busy schedule, too.

I thought I’d be able to spend time with her at Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s, but with the transition planning and the Bardales’ family travel schedule, ironically I was in California for all three holidays with them while Kayley was in the White House with her family.

We managed phone calls on those holidays, but the busier my schedule got the closer to Inauguration Day, the more often I found myself checking my personal phone at the end of the day to realize I’d missed texts and hadn’t replied.

Or that she hadn’t replied to one I’d sent her.

The busier I got, the less sleep I got, and the more stress I bore under the weight of my new responsibilities, and…

Well, I’ll admit I didn’t keep up my end of texting.

It was two weeks after Inauguration and I was at the White House, in the residence, when Elliot, Leo, and Jordan arrived.

I hadn’t expected them to come up here, although I knew they were supposed to visit the West Wing for a photo op regarding an environmental conservation program from Elliot’s term that President Bardales was continuing.

Leo walked over and shook hands with me. “So. Looks like you’re still alive, huh? Haven’t dropped off the planet, or forgot how a phone works?”

I’m sure I looked confused. “Uh… what?”

“Don’t ‘what’ me,” Leo said. "How long are you gonna keep being a dumbass?”

That confused me even more. “What are you talking about?”

“He means about Kayley,” Jordan said. “Why haven’t you dropped to your knee and proposed yet?”

This wasn’t a conversation I wanted to get into. Not when I was at work.

And doubly especially with the two men Elliot Woodley would do anything to please.

Like asking President Bardales to nuke me where I stood.

Not to forget that one of them was the insanely protective big brother of the woman who owned my heart, the other man being that man’s viciously overprotective and wildly underestimated pet.

“I’m…” I didn’t have a good answer and realized now I sounded like a douchebag. “I’ve been busy, and so has she. I won’t ask her to quit working,” I added. “I refuse to do that to her. She loves her career.”

“Who says you have to do that?” Leo asked.

“Because if I’m here in DC, it makes it kind of hard for her to teach in California. Unless you’re rich enough to help her commute on Angel every day, which I’m certain you aren’t.”

Jordan rolled his eyes. “Ever hear of virtual teaching, dumbass? Besides, you’re eligible for retirement. Why are you still here ?”

“Uh, because I’m working The Shift? And I’m on duty? What are you getting at?”

Jordan tsked and shook his head at me. “That’s not what I mean, dumbass. Why ? Why are you here ? Who cares if you worked The Shift? Literally no one but you. I guarantee nobody in the history of ever was on their deathbed and said, ‘Gee, I wish I’d chosen working The Shift over true love’.”

Jordan had a point. Why did I care?

“And if you’re going to retire,” Leo added, “don’t wait. Every day you wait is one day less you could be retired and enjoying life. One day less you’ll have to enjoy being retired and doing something other than working.”

I had served a long, distinguished career in a very exclusive, demanding job, and had a jacket full of awards and commendations for it.

Except those didn’t cuddle up to me at night and give the best blow job I’d ever had.

What did I have to prove? I’d never aspired to run the PPD, much less the entire Secret Service.

I was already part of an elite echelon of agents who’d worked The Shift with POTUS and VPOTUS.

I wasn’t getting any younger.

It was too easy to delude myself that there was always time to have it all when, in fact, there wasn’t always time.

Stella Woodley’s murder was grisly proof of that.

Even though I was at work and had vowed I wouldn’t let my personal life bleed into it, I had to ask. “What’s going on? Did she say something? Is she breaking up with me?”

Jordan shrugged. “I mean, didn’t you kinda do that by dropping the ball? You claim to love her and then turned around and turned your back on her and seem to be happily ignoring her.”

Leo glanced around. “Jordaaaan,” he darkly whispered. “I warned you about?—"

“ No , Daddy. I’ve held my tongue long enough. Spank the crap out of me later.” He refocused on me, nudging his glasses up his nose, and I struggled not to take a step back from the absolute rage I felt washing off of him.

Like I said, people always underestimate the man, but he’s far more terrifying for that very reason.

“She didn’t have to say anything,” Jordan continued, “but I know from painful personal experience that the Cruz kids tend to be dumbasses when it comes to speaking their true minds because they overthink not being domineering assholes. They’re malignantly self-sacrificing, too much for their own good.”

He hooked a thumb at Leo, who now covered his eyes with his hand while slowly shaking his head. “Take Daddy here, who let me walk out the damned door and return to Florida when he didn’t want me to. I thought he didn’t want me when communication died between us, when in his mind he thought he was doing what was best for me and what he thought I wanted and had asked for. When the truth was I was miserable. All I wanted was for him to fight for me. To demand I not leave in the first place, or to come drag me back to DC by the hair. Thank god Elliot’s as stalky and possessive as Leo or we might all still be miserable.”

He leaned in, dropping his voice to a dangerous hiss. “So deass your fucking head or prepare to have your life fucked completely up. If you can’t be a man and outright end things with her, and you leave her spinning in the wind, I will make your life a living hell. Don’t think I can’t, because if you know anything about me—and as head of Bardales’ detail you damned sure should—then you know people have always underestimated me.”

Leo reached out to haul Jordan back to his side, but the smaller man deftly avoided him and continued. “I love her—she’s my sister. Maybe by marriage, but still, if you don’t nut up one way or the other and either get her back or definitively end things so she can at least get the fuck out of limbo, you’ll wish you’d never entered the Secret Service.”

He jabbed a finger at me as Leo finally got a grip on his other arm. “And don’t think I can’t, because you have no clue who I am. I’ll take whatever spanking I get from Him on the other end of it.”

Nooo, I had a pretty damned good idea of who Jordan was. Like I said, he had a scary rep among the PPD agents, specifically those who’d worked The Shift protecting Woodley, first as VPOTUS and then as POTUS.

But this also gave me hope, surprisingly enough. “Do you think I have a chance to win her back?” I asked.

Jordan shrugged. “Took Elliot years to get his shit together.” He poked Leo in the arm. “Then six months after this dummy let me leave, Elliot came after me. On Air Force Two , mind you. Sent two Secret Service agents to my office and metaphorically dragged me back. Let that be a lesson and don’t waste time. Take action . Life’s short, you fucking moron.”

I heard a woman clear her voice behind us and turned to see Ily Bardales standing there.

She walked over. “Let me get this straight,” she said. “You love Kayley, and you’re eligible to retire, and yet here you are… why , exactly?”

I stammered to answer but she let loose, pelting me with a rapid-fire string of Spanish peppered with some very colorful swear words. Then she poked me in the chest. “Listen to me. That woman is the best thing that ever happened to your ass. And she’s waited around all these years?”

She lightly smacked me on the side of the head, which I wasn’t expecting. “Get your head out of your ass, conyo !”

Stunned, I stared at her. I knew that the president and Ily Bardales had a relationship dynamic where she was in charge, but this was something beyond that.

“Do you love her?” she asked me.

I nodded.

“Do you want to fix this?” she asked.

I nodded again.

She smacked my shoulder with the back of her hand. “Then let’s figure out how you can fix this before it’s too late.” She shook her head as she turned to Jordan. “Why didn’t you tell me what this idiot did?”

He smirked. “Why do you think I insisted on coming with Daddy and the pet today?”