Page 4

CHAPTER 4

Victor

I’d planned a leisurely drive to the resort, to allow us to make use of picturesque back roads and give us ample time to stop and take in the scenery. Something “normal” we couldn’t do as a couple in our current situation.

Usually, one or both of us traveled to wherever we were meeting and, once there, we spent every second we had together making up for lost time.

And if Kayley traveled to meet me, she never did so without a detail. Meaning we never got “alone” time the way other couples did unless we were securely locked behind a door.

How she’d managed these past several years going from a completely independent woman to having a “babysitter squad”—as she sometimes privately joked about it with me—without completely losing her shit spoke to the deep level of self-control she possessed.

I’d seen that exact scenario play out countless times over my years on protective details. Not just at a presidential family level, but family of senators, congressmen, cabinet members, SCOTUS justices, and others. The problem children were usually grown, single, childless children of those main protectees.

Someone used to going wherever they wanted whenever they wanted. Someone not used to hearing the words “no” from anyone regarding their movements or decisions. Someone who usually thrived on drawing attention to themselves who was then forced into remaining low-key and out of the public eye as much as possible.

Even high-level protectees who understood and agreed they needed a detail frequently chafed under the burden.

But not Kayley. She never tried to sneak out or duck her agents, even though I knew she hated the disruption. I wished I could take credit for that, but it was more accurately attributed first to her intelligence, and secondly her devotion to her brother, heeding his wishes for her to be safe.

Meaning one of our stops today was having brunch at a small road-side diner nestled against the back side of one of the national forests.

She hadn’t enjoyed a “private” meal in public since being assigned a detail and I knew she’d enjoy the treat.

Being a weekday, and midway between breakfast and lunch, we were two of only five patrons in the place, and the food was as delicious as the online reviews I’d scoured promised.

The playful smile Kayley flashed me from across the table threatened to thicken my cock in my jeans. “No hidden snipers, huh?” she softly asked as she picked up her coffee cup. “No shadows? No unmarked cars? Not a single suit in sight for real?” She took a sip.

“We are alone,” I assured her. “Other than the people here.”

“How’d you manage to get me here without the press catching on? Don’t they usually track plane transponders for people like me?”

Not just the press, but any whackadoodle with an internet connection and knowledge of the publicly available flight tracking apps.

But I didn’t say that.

“They do,” I said. “But you were ticketed commercially on a commuter flight to Las Vegas. We had an agent from your detail pretend to be you. That’s who went on ahead of you to the airport. Airport security there met her at the TSA checkpoint, took her to the plane, and in Las Vegas they escorted her off the plane. Far as anyone knows, that was you. Plus, we salted a couple of tips that you were heading there.”

“How’d you manage that? With IDs and stuff?”

“You had a ticket, and she also had one under her legal name. But we pulled strings so they also scanned your ticket at the boarding gate, as if you got on the flight, just in case. To keep the SOB count accurate an air marshal flew with her, unticketed. We arranged that, too.”

“SOB count?”

“Souls On Board.”

I loved the little dimple that appeared on her left cheek when she smirked. “Sneaky. So I’m all alone with a big bad wolf in the woods?” She tipped her head toward the windows, where we had a breathtaking view of the lush forest. “Should I worry about being eaten?” She softly laughed. “Actually, I think I’d worry more if I wasn’t eaten by you.”

I reached across the table and took her free hand in one of mine, turning it over, and with my other I traced my fingers across and up her palm to her wrist, my index finger brushing against the delicate stainless steel chain bracelet with its small, round pendant.

“Leo can always find you, don’t worry,” I said. “You know that.”

She sighed as she looked at the bracelet. “Yeah, that was the compromise. I told him I didn’t want a tracker but he said he’d tranq me and make me wear one of those radio collars like the wolves and bears at Yellowstone if I didn’t wear this.” She met my gaze again, her brown eyes full of mirth and mischief. “And damned if I don’t believe the rat bastard wouldn’t do exactly that.”

“Oh, he absolutely would.”

And I would help him do it, too, but I was smart enough not to say that. I didn’t actively track her but I had an arrangement with Leo that if I asked the head of her detail for her whereabouts, they’d tell me.

Professional courtesy.

However, I’d never taken advantage of that because I trusted her, and before now I’d never had to worry about her safety.

I had confidence in my coworkers assigned to her detail, all of them personally known to me and Leo. And I trusted her not to sneak around behind my back with anyone, even though her detail was obliged to keep her activities secret if she requested it, short of her engaging in anything illegal.

If I didn’t trust her, I had no business being in a relationship with her. And I trusted her completely.

I also held no illusions that if she asked Leo to find exactly where I was, she could and would do it.

The benefit of me having faith in and taking comfort from the skills and training of my coworkers meant that I could devote my focus to my job and not be constantly distracted worrying about her being somewhere I wasn’t able to protect her.

If Leo’s arrangements couldn’t keep her safe, no one could keep her safe.

Including me.

“Where’d you just go, handsome?”

My gaze rose to hers. “Huh?”

Her soft, gentle smile once again wrapped me around her, heart and soul. “You looked like you were a thousand miles away for a moment.”

I never lied to her or bullshitted her. “I was once again thinking how thankful I am you have an overprotective big brother,” I admitted as my finger lightly flicked the tracking pendant that she sometimes wore on a necklace instead of a bracelet. “Because while I hate it when we’re apart, at least when we are I can effectively do my job because I don’t have to worry about you.”

Her fingers curled around mine and she set her coffee cup down to cover my hand with her other one. “I’m not ready to give up my career,” she softly said. “You know that. I won’t lie and say that I’ll think about it, or that I’ll give it a trial sabbatical. I still have things I want to do before I put myself out to pasture, and I need at least a couple more years.”

“I know.” Believe me, it was something I couldn’t stop thinking about. “I have several options I can pursue after I retire.”

“I’d rather you retire sooner than later. But you also know I won’t give you an ultimatum.” Mahogany and dark brown swirled in her eyes, which always looked darker when she was serious.

Like now.

“I know you’re literally one of the top agents in the PPD,” she continued, “but I also worry about you every bit as much as I worried about Leo. I’m terrified your luck might be close to running out. And I know damned well from Leo that you can make a lot more money working private sector and doing much safer things.”

“We’ve got three weeks,” I said, trying to deflect that conversation. “We don’t need to dig into this right now. Let’s take a day or two to decompress first.”

She cocked her head a little. “Do you think three weeks will be enough time?”

“If it’s not, we’re doing something wr—” I instinctively tensed, my head snapping up and around at a sharp gasp from the other side of the room.

Two waitresses, three of the cook staff, and one of the other customers stared at a small TV mounted on the wall at the end of the lunch counter. Before I even processed I was on my feet, I had crossed the dining room in a couple of strides to stand behind them and watch.

On it, a cable news channel had posted a breaking news alert and showed shaky traffic cam video of a large bridge.

Underneath the bridge sat a huge cruise ship, so tall it looked like it would barely clear under it. From it, flames and smoke rose from where a large section of debris had collapsed onto it.

Where the apex of the bridge should be was a ragged and smoking, gaping maw.

At the bottom of the screen a red banner blared the headline: Explosions, bridge collapse in Tampa Bay. Reports of other incidents elsewhere.

Both numb and with all my senses and training firing at once, I turned and raced back to our table, my wallet in my hand. I tossed three twenties on the table and grabbed Kayley’s hand.

“Change of plans,” I said. “We have to leave. Now .”

“What’s happening?” she asked as she grabbed her purse and let me help her out of the booth.

“I don’t know. Some sort of attacks.” I barely waited for her to stand before I draped an arm around her and raced out of the restaurant.

I waited until we were speeding away in the SUV in the opposite direction of the resort to call Ivan Maxwell, the head of Kayley’s detail, from my private cell phone.

“This is Belefonte,” I said. “I just saw a news alert. What’s going on?”

“Unknown,” he replied. “Multiple active situations in coastal areas. I was just going to call you. What’s your status?”

My mind raced and I hit on a brilliantly simple solution. “Change of plans,” I said. “I’m taking Bookworm somewhere else.”

I ignored the scowl Kayley sent me from the passenger seat.

“Where?” Maxwell asked.

“I’ll tell her brother and you can deal with him. It’s secure, and she’ll be safe. I’m taking her off-grid. Do not send a team after us.”

“I’ll have to clear that with the director first.”

“You do that.” I hung up on him.

“I hate that codename,” she said.

“Blame your brother.” I held out my right hand. “Give me your bracelet.”

“What?”

I snapped my fingers and pointed. “Your tracker bracelet. Give it to me. Right now.”

She unfastened it and handed it to me. I rolled down the window and flung it out as we crossed over a bridge spanning a valley with a river nestled some hundred feet or more at the bottom. It was a two-lane road and I watched it sail over the railing on the far side. I’d have to get her a replacement but could handle that after we arrived at our destination.

“Now what?” she asked, and I hated the fear in her voice.

I rolled the window up. “Now I make another phone call.”