Chapter 1 #2
Neither of us spoke as we made the forty-five-minute drive to Vincent’s house, which was deep within the same forest Shaw lived near, but on the West Virginia side.
Vincent was waiting for us in the driveway and unlike the day before, the two gates were already open, so I drove straight through.
Vincent definitely looked on edge. I scanned the property for the second man I’d seen him with the day before, but I didn’t see him.
I’d heard him referred to as Nathan, and although there was something familiar about him, we hadn’t been introduced, so I hadn’t had the chance to do any research on him.
I stayed near the car as Shaw got out to talk to Vincent. He finally began to show some animation when he began arguing with the other man.
“Don’t do this, Vincent,” Shaw said.
Vincent ignored him and went to the trunk of his car.
He placed a large black duffel bag in it before slamming it closed.
I could hear Shaw’s muffled voice as he seemed to be pleading with Vincent.
But it wasn’t until Vincent turned and began striding toward me that I stiffened.
I hadn’t removed my firearm, so I was fully expecting the man to go to battle with me over it.
But his eyes only briefly strayed to my gun where it was resting in a holster under my jacket.
“I need you to watch them both while I’m gone,” Vincent said. It wasn’t a request. The man’s jaw was tight.
“Them?” I asked.
“I’ve asked Everett to hang around for a bit. Nathan is still asleep.”
A sudden awareness went through me when Vincent said Nathan’s name. There was a slight tick in his jaw, but it was his eyes that gave him away.
They softened just the littlest bit.
God, were he and Nathan…?
“If I’m not back by tonight, take Nathan with you back to Everett’s house. Don’t let him leave. Under any circumstances.”
I should have bristled at the way the man was ordering me around, but I was caught up in the edge of fear I heard in his voice.
Yeah, he definitely had feelings for Nathan.
Was scared for him.
An unexpected shard of pity for Vincent went through me and I found myself nodding before I could think better of it.
Vincent turned to walk away, then paused and said, “You can go inside. Keep your gun with you.”
He didn’t wait for me to respond. He just hurried back to his car and climbed into it, barely sparing Shaw a glance.
The engine roared to life and then the car was tearing out of the driveway.
Shaw’s worried eyes met mine, but he remained silent.
I wanted to ask what the hell was going on, but had the sense not to.
The agent in me didn’t want to know.
Once inside, Shaw got to work making breakfast after finding a black apron in a drawer near the stove. I stationed myself in the hallway between the kitchen and the front door. Less than thirty minutes later, I heard footsteps on the staircase. A mussed-looking Nathan appeared in the door.
No, not mussed.
Well-loved.
I knew I was likely reaching, but my suspicions that there was something going on between Vincent and Nathan were confirmed when I saw Nathan’s face fall at the sight of Shaw.
He managed to recover long enough to exchange pleasantries with Shaw, but it abruptly ended when he spied the two place settings on the table.
“Where is he?” Nathan asked.
Shaw’s gaze connected with Nathan’s. “He had some things to do this morning and asked me to stop by and keep you company.” His eyes landed on me and then Nathan’s gaze did the same.
Well, not on me, exactly.
But my gun, which was visible beneath my jacket.
“Where is he?” Nathan repeated, his voice going a tad higher.
“I don’t know,” Shaw said tiredly, then he was turning off the stove and getting the coffee pot.
Because my eyes were on Nathan, I only half-listened as Shaw explained that Nathan would be coming with us if Vincent didn’t return by nightfall. I couldn’t see his face, but I didn’t really need to, since the tension in his body gave him away.
He was fucking terrified.
For Vincent.
I tried not to feel sorry for the man, because I could have told him that no good came of tying yourself to one person the way he’d so clearly tied himself to the mysterious Vincent, but I couldn’t deny the pity that I felt.
Or the little spark of envy that went along with it.
I shoved the errant emotion aside and trained my eyes on the small set of monitors along the wall that gave me a picture of what was happening outside. But when I heard a crunching sound, I turned and watched in disbelief as Nathan used a mug to destroy the watch he’d been wearing.
Vincent had explained the importance of the watch that was exactly like the one Shaw wore. It was no ordinary wristwatch. No, it was its own tracking device, and destroying it was so much more than Nathan letting out his rage.
Predictably, Shaw’s phone started ringing about two minutes later, but instead of answering it, he turned it off. I watched in shock as Nathan and Shaw casually chatted as they sat down at the table, plates of food in hand.
“Nash?”
I jerked to attention at Nathan’s voice. “What?” I asked stupidly. I could hear Shaw’s phone vibrating, but he didn’t answer it.
“Would you like to join us?” He motioned to the table.
“No, thank you,” I said as I took in Shaw’s expression as Nathan extended the offer. I knew for a fact that Grady had often shared a meal with Shaw, but it wasn’t an invitation the man had ever extended to me.
And he sure as hell didn’t look pleased about the prospect now.
I had to admit, he looked more engaged than he had earlier this morning, but I doubted it would last, especially when his phone continued to vibrate off and on for several minutes.
Then my phone rang.
“Don’t answer that,” Shaw ordered before I could even reach for the phone.
I reached for it anyway.
“Nash,” Shaw said in warning. Since I wasn’t about to ditch protocol, not to mention fuck with a guy who could likely rearrange my internal organs with one punch, I ignored him.
“Nash,” Shaw repeated, but this time his voice was different. Gone was the no-nonsense tone. I looked up at him and felt something go through me at the way he was looking at me.
He’d looked at me in a lot of different ways over the past week since I’d first arrived at his home, but he’d never looked at me like he was now.
“Please,” Shaw murmured softly, and I could tell it killed him to do it.
A shiver of awareness seeped into every nerve ending as I held the man’s gaze. His bright blue eyes were alight with some emotion I couldn’t quite name. I held my phone hard enough to potentially break the damn thing.
Follow fucking protocol, Nash. This man is not your friend!
“I have to at least check who it is,” I finally said.
Shaw sent me a nod. I quickly flipped the phone over and saw that it was an unknown caller. The need to answer it was great, but for some reason, the need to see the life stay in Shaw’s eyes for a while longer was greater.
Jesus, Nash, get a fucking grip.
I put the phone away and tried not to enjoy the spark of warmth that went through me when a small smile graced Shaw’s lips.
My phone rang a couple more times over the following few minutes, and I did as Shaw asked and ignored the calls.
I only half-listened as Nathan and Shaw began talking, but it took everything in me to keep my eyes on the security monitors in front of me when Nathan flat-out admitted to Shaw he was gay.
“Bet that felt good,” Shaw said.
Nathan let out a little laugh and said, “You have no idea.”
“Yeah, Nathan, I do,” Everett murmured.
I couldn’t stop myself from looking over at Shaw as his quiet words sank in.
No way.
No FUCKING way.
Heat flooded my entire system as Nathan expressed the disbelief I was feeling. I managed to catch Shaw saying something about his son not speaking to him when Nathan pointed out he’d been married, but I couldn’t really process what exactly that meant.
Everett Shaw, former president of the United States, is gay.
Everett Shaw is gay.
Shaw is gay.
Holy fuck.
“I knew something was wrong when I married Elanor, but I didn’t know what it was. I was in denial for a really long time…”
That was as much as I could bear to hear. Not only were his words hitting just a little too close to home, I felt like I was violating the man’s privacy by being there. Yes, he knew I’d overhear him, but still, it wasn’t right.
I quietly turned and hurried down the hall and out the front door. I began sucking in big gulps of air.
Everett Shaw is gay.
I told myself my body was shaking because of the shock, but I knew it wasn’t true. But I refused to give words to the real reason. Instead, I busied myself with walking the fence line. Twenty minutes later, I heard rather than saw the proof that all hell was about to break loose.
As Vincent’s muscle car roared into the driveway a moment later, the tires squealing as he hit the brakes just in time to keep from plowing into the garage door, my nerves got the better of me.
“They’re okay!” I shouted as Vincent got out of the car, since I was still a good hundred yards away from the house.
With his gun in hand, he sent me what could only be classified as a deadly look and then strode into the house.
Concern for Shaw had me running toward the house.
I was almost at the door when it opened.
I nearly slammed into Shaw as he came out and he quickly put his hand up and flattened it on my chest to stop my forward movement.
“Hold on there, son,” he said.
Something about him calling me son pissed me off, though I wasn’t sure why. And I couldn’t give it too much thought because heat and electricity were spiraling out from the spot where his hand was resting on my chest.
All that sensation and it was… fuck, it was going straight to my balls.
My dick hardened in my pants as Shaw lifted his eyes to meet mine.
I couldn’t make sense of what I was seeing, especially since he quickly shuttered his eyes and then dropped his hand.
He pushed past me and said, “We should go.”
I heard muffled sounds coming from inside the house, then what sounded like dishes breaking. My instinct to make sure Nathan was okay warred with my need to escape this whole fucked-up mess.
Everett Shaw was gay and my body had decided to pick this exact moment to rejoice over that fact.
“Let’s go, son,” Shaw called to me. “Those boys will be just fine now,” he added with a smirk over his shoulder.
I caught up to him right before he reached the car.
For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out what possessed me to do it, but I grabbed his arm and turned him so his back was practically pressed up against the side of the car.
“I’m not your son,” I murmured. I’d meant to say the words angrily, but they definitely didn’t come out that way.
No, they came out the way I’d been feeling them.
Not pissed that he’d been talking down to me, but more like I was desperate to make sure he in no way thought of me as his kid.
I had my body practically mashed up against Shaw’s, but I couldn’t force myself to ease off.
“I’m not your son,” I repeated.
Shaw, for his part, seemed confused at first, then something switched. I would have missed his reaction if I hadn’t been standing so close to him.
Ticked-up breathing.
A slight tremor snaking through his body.
His fingers tightening on my forearm where he’d grabbed me at some point.
Lips parting just a little.
God, those lips…
Shaw managed a nod. “The things you heard in there,” he began, his eyes shifting briefly toward the house.
“Aren’t any of my business,” I finished for him. There was no missing the relief in his eyes. Desperate to get us back to where we were supposed to be, I added “Mr. President” and forced myself to step back.
He tensed up at the title and dropped his hand from my arm. His jaw tightened and he turned his head away from me so he wouldn’t be forced to look me in the eye. “I’d like you to take me somewhere, Agent Nash.”
Agent.
That was new.
“Yes, sir,” I said as all the warmth I’d been feeling evaporated. I stepped back enough so I could open the back door for him. “Where to, Mr. President?”
Shaw straightened his clothes and then walked around me and the door. His next words were so soft, I barely heard him.
“Arlington National Cemetery.”