Chapter 3 #2
“Go ahead and pack,” she told them, following them up the stairs. “But please be quick. We can always send someone back for anything you forget. This house is a prime target, and I’d like to get you two into a secured setting as soon as possible.”
“Our home is a prime target?” Joshua asked, his voice wavering.
“Josh, it’s Colin’s residence, so of course, it’s a prime target. But don’t fret. The house is on the assigned patrol route for three different Charlottesville law enforcement agencies.” She patted his arm. “It’ll be protected.”
“Don’t fret?” Joshua repeated as they reached the top of the stairs, his voice edgy with sarcasm.
Colin pulled him into their bedroom. “Let it go, babe.”
“I’m doing my best here,” Joshua told him as he yanked a suitcase from their closet. “But if I hear one more absurd platitude from someone involved with law enforcement, I’m going to end up getting arrested myself.”
Colin tried to smother a snicker but failed.
“Not funny, Colin!”
“It’s a little funny, bud. And would you please take it easy on our bodyguards? They’re decent, honest police officers who are just doing their jobs.”
Joshua nodded and bent over their bed, leaning on both hands. His head was low, and Colin saw him shudder as if stifling a sob.
He moved to Joshua’s side and pulled him into his arms. “Breathe, baby,” he murmured, his hand moving up and down Joshua’s spine. “Just breathe through it. We’ll be OK.”
Joshua pulled away, then lifted his head to meet Colin’s eyes. They both drew in several quiet breaths, and then Joshua moved back to the closet and grabbed a second suitcase.
Officer Lopez came upstairs and handed Sarah Mitchell several large trash bags, which she passed along to Joshua. “Start shoving things in here. It’s faster and easier.”
As they packed, their agents carried the filled trash bags and suitcases to the car, storing everything in the large trunk.
After half an hour of frantic packing, Sarah called a halt.
“That’s it,” she told Colin. “Time to go. Grab what you’ve already packed and head downstairs.
If something gets missed that you can’t live without, we’ll send someone back for it. ”
Sergeant Lopez grabbed the last suitcase and moved down the stairs with Colin trailing behind him, carrying Joshua’s computer. In the bedroom doorway, Joshua paused, a garment bag draped over his arm. He gazed back into the bedroom where he had known such indescribable happiness.
He stared at their king-sized bed, a wedding gift from Colin, with its elaborate wooden frame, beautiful decorative carvings, and high headboard.
Overcome by welling grief, he bowed his head and leaned against the wooden doorframe.
“Goddammit!” he choked out in anguish, feeling certain that his heart was breaking. “God fucking dammit!”
He felt two strong arms enfold him and heard Colin’s voice low in his ear. “C’mon, bud. It’s gonna be OK.”
“Colin, I don’t want to do this!” Joshua cried out, his hand clutching a fold of Colin’s jacket. “I don’t want to leave our home!”
“Josh, we’ll be back.”
Joshua nodded his face pressed to Colin’s shoulder.
“I know,” Colin told him, his voice husky. “I feel the same way.” He kissed Joshua’s cheek, then his lips. “I love you, mo ghrá milis. And I promise you… we’ll be back.”
“Colin,” Sarah snapped from behind him. “Time to go.”
Colin nodded and took Joshua’s arm, turning him toward the stairs. “C’mon, baby.” He kept a tight grip on Joshua’s arm as they moved through the living room and out the door.
“Go now,” Sarah instructed, not allowing them time to dawdle or look back. “I’ll lock up. You get in the SUV.”
As she locked the front door, Sergeant Lopez grabbed the garment bag from Joshua.
After a moment, Sarah Mitchell’s hand on Colin’s shoulder urged him and Joshua forward until they reached the vehicle and climbed inside.
Within fifteen seconds of Colin and Joshua exiting the house, the armored limousine was speeding down West River Road, en route to the Omni Hotel.
At the hotel, the limo drew to a halt in a back alley. Colin and Joshua were hustled from the vehicle and into a large freight elevator. Two members of Omni Hotel security brought their luggage. “They’re already checked in,” one of them told Sarah Mitchell as the elevator began to rise.
“Thank you.”
“And the suite has been swept.”
“I’d like my team to sweep it again before the subjects enter.”
“Up to you, officer.”
When the elevator shuddered to a halt, hotel security held Colin and Joshua inside, while Sarah, Officer Lopez, and Officer Hayes made a final sweep of the area.
Once satisfied, Sarah allowed Colin and Joshua to enter while the rest of their security team retrieved their possessions and deposited everything in the bedroom.
Exhausted both emotionally and physically, Joshua tore off the protective vest, hurled it to the floor, and collapsed onto the couch. “Lord god,” he moaned. He clutched Colin’s sleeve, pulling him down beside himself. “Is it always going to be like this?”
Colin sighed and shrugged, tossing his own Kevlar to the floor. “Christ, I hope not.” He shot Joshua a glance. His husband’s head was tilted back, and he stared at the elaborately decorated ceiling in complete silence.
“Josh?”
“Yeah?”
“You OK?”
“Do you want an honest answer?”
There was a long silence, and then Colin spoke.
“No.” Sensing something odd about the room, he spun, glanced around, and then huffed in surprise.
They were totally alone. Their security detail had slipped out the door after depositing their luggage.
He turned to Joshua, who met his eyes, his own wide with surprise.
“Where are they?”
Colin tilted his head toward the door. “Probably have a station set up right outside.”
“My god, Colin, suddenly it feels weird not to have armed guards hovering around us!”
Colin’s shoulders lifted in a shrug.
“And now we go back to work?”
Colin glanced at his watch and sighed. “For a while, yeah. Then they’ll bring us back here.”
“It feels like it should be midnight.”
“It’s just past 11:00 in the morning,” Colin told him, his voice weary.
He took Joshua’s arm and stood, his suit jacket, shirt, and tie draped over his arm.
“C’mon, bud. Let’s get back to our offices.
Let this damned day end. Then we can crash.
” He leaned toward Joshua and kissed his cheek.
“I know we need to talk about all this.”
Joshua heaved a huge sigh as he grabbed his work clothes from the couch.“We also need to unpack. This is, evidently, going to be our new home for a while.”
“Not for long, I hope.”
“I suppose that’s up to Lexi Moreno.”
“I prefer to think it’s up to Charlottesville law enforcement.”
Joshua scoffed out a laugh. “I wish I had as much faith in them as you do.”
Colin led Joshua to the door and opened it.
Outside their door, a small desk had been set up, and two of their security team were bent over it, studying a printout of the Omni Hotel’s floor plan.
Several locations on the map had been marked with a large red ‘X,’ and Colin pointed at one of them.
“I take it we won’t be going out there.”
“Those exits are too exposed and difficult to protect, so no. We won’t be going out there.” She glanced at Colin, and her brows narrowed. “Where’s your Kevlar?”
“On the goddamn floor, and that’s where it’s staying.”
She heaved a sigh and waved in dismissal. “Fine! It’s not worth the fight. Are you two ready to go?”
“We are,” Colin told her. “What time will you pick us up?”
“Pick you up? That suggests we’ll be dropping you off, and we won’t. We’ll be with you every minute, so it’s more a matter of when you choose to leave.”
Colin nodded, and Sarah motioned them toward a door marked ‘Private.’ “Through there,” she instructed. “Emily’s waiting. The Suburban’s ready to go.”
The door led to a corridor adjacent to the freight elevator, and in minutes, they were on the hotel’s ground floor and moving toward the black Chevy.
As they climbed into the vehicle, Sarah turned to Joshua.
“Emily will stay with you at the clinic. We’ve asked your supervisor to switch you to an interior office… temporarily.”
Joshua reared back in surprise. “What?! You did… what?”
Sarah shot him a look. “Josh, your office has four big windows, two of which face the goddamn parking lot. None of them are bulletproof. If someone wanted to put a bullet in your brain, they’d have a clear shot from six different locations. I’m not giving them that opportunity.”
Colin clutched his arm. “She’s right, baby.”
“You don’t have a choice, Josh. You’ve already been moved.”
Outraged, Joshua’s eyes swung to Colin, who shrugged. “You have to be where they can protect you!”
Joshua nodded but hissed out a frustrated sigh. “Fucking, hell!”
At the Rainier Clinic, Officer Lopez parked the limo behind the building as close to the rear entrance as possible, and then he and Officer Hayes got out.
“Wait one moment,” Hayes told Joshua, then stood beside the door as Officer Lopez checked the area.
When Lopez returned to the SUV, Officer Hayes opened the SUV’s door and gestured to Joshua. “OK, Josh. Let’s go.”
Colin pulled him close and kissed him. “Another thread in our tapestry,” he murmured.
“Please be safe,” Joshua whispered. He returned Colin’s kiss, grabbed his briefcase and work clothes, and then climbed out of the Suburban.
From the time Joshua left the vehicle, Colin’s eyes constantly scanned the perimeter, watching with grim intensity as Officer Hayes moved Joshua toward the safety of the building.
He propped the limo’s door open and leaned halfway out.
His body coiled, every muscle tense, poised to spring into action the instant anything threatened his husband.
“Colin!” Sarah's voice snapped from the front seat. “Get back in the unit and shut the damned door!”
“In a just goddamn minute!” Colin spat out. He saw Joshua reach the clinic and watched as Officer Hayes ushered him inside and secured the door. He pressed his lips together and ground out an angry snarl before slamming the vehicle’s door and falling back against the leather seat.
“Colin, these are top-of-the-line security officers,” Sarah told him as Daniel Lopez started the big Chevy. “They won’t let anything happen to Josh.”
“Save your breath, Sarah,” Colin told her. “I’m sure they’re fine officers, but the only person on Earth I trust with his safety is me!”