Chapter 1
“You seen her yet?” Trigger asked Lefty as they leaned against the wall and watched the politicians entering the large room being used that morning as a meeting place.
“No,” Lefty said without elaborating. He knew who his friend was talking about. Kinley Taylor. She was the assistant to Walter Brown, the Assistant Secretary for Insular and International Affairs.
As part of their job, the Delta Force team was sometimes sent overseas to protect important political and military figures.
They’d even been sent to the last Olympic Games to help make sure the American athletes were safe.
Babysitting political figures wasn’t their favorite assignment, but Lefty was more than happy to be in Paris, France, today.
There was a large gathering of officials from around the world.
Lefty wasn’t exactly sure what they were discussing, and honestly, he didn’t really care.
He wasn’t a political man, which some people might think was odd, considering the President of the United States could ultimately decide his fate, but he simply didn’t care.
Whatever job he was assigned, he did the best he could. Period.
But this mission felt different. He was antsy and fidgety and for the second morning in a row, he was hyper alert—and it wasn’t because of any danger the man they were tasked to protect, Johnathan Winkler, the Deputy Secretary of Agriculture, might be in.
“Maybe she didn’t come with Brown this time.”
“She came,” Lefty replied. He knew Brown wouldn’t go anywhere without Kinley.
Even though Lefty had only been around her for a few days all those months ago when they’d met in Africa, he knew she was vitally important to the politician.
She was smart and organized. She did what Brown asked her to without complaint and without hesitation.
Even if that meant putting herself in danger… as it had back in Africa.
Brown had insisted he didn’t like the coffee at the government building where he was attending meetings, and had sent Kinley back to the café at their hotel to get him another.
At the time, however, there’d been a protest forming, and Kinley had found herself right in the middle of it.
Luckily, Lefty had seen her slip out of the building.
He’d followed her and prevented her from being harassed and abused at the hands of the revved-up natives.
Lefty knew from talking to Kinley that she frequently went above and beyond for her boss. She never questioned Brown when he asked her to do things that might be outside the realm of her job duties. Because of that, Lefty was fairly sure Brown would take Kinley with him everywhere he went.
Also…at the moment, the hair on the back of his neck was standing straight up, a reaction he’d had around her back in Africa too. It was as if his body knew she was close and acted accordingly.
“You took guard duty last night,” Trigger said. “I’ve already talked to Grover and Doc…they’re ready to take over for us while the meetings are in session so you can concentrate on finding and talking to her rather than worrying about protecting Winkler.”
Lefty looked over at his friend in surprise.
He’d thought he’d done a pretty good job in hiding how much he wanted to talk to Kinley.
How much he wanted—no, needed—to find out why she hadn’t kept in contact with him after Africa.
He’d thought they’d connected, and when she hadn’t answered any of his emails or texts, he’d been disappointed.
He had the best friends anyone could ask for.
He’d known some Deltas who didn’t really get along with their teammates.
Luckily, Lefty knew he could count on Trigger, Brain, Oz, Lucky, Doc, and Grover for anything, no matter what time of day, no matter what it was.
They’d worked together so long they could almost read each other’s minds as well.
Which was both a blessing and a pain in the ass.
“Come on,” Trigger said with a chuckle. “You think it’s not obvious that you’re chomping at the bit to pull her aside and talk to her?”
Lefty’s lips quirked upward. He should’ve known his friends would see through his bullshit. “I am, you’re right. But I won’t put the mission in jeopardy to do so.”
Trigger shook his head. “You know that none of us would, either. We might not like bodyguard duty but that doesn’t mean we’re not going to give it one hundred percent.”
Lefty nodded. He did know that. “I’d appreciate it. I think she’s avoiding me, honestly.”
“She knows how protection duty works. Brown has his own team on him, right?” Trigger asked.
“Yeah. Merlin’s team is on him.”
Trigger nodded. Merlin and his four teammates were stationed out of Washington, DC, so they were frequently used for these kinds of missions. “They know about what happened in Africa?” he asked.
“Yeah. And they weren’t happy,” Lefty said.
Assistants weren’t officially included in protection details, but most of the teams sent on these jobs did their best to protect everyone traveling with the person they were sent to guard.
In Africa, the Delta teams had been spread pretty thin because of the unrest outside the building where the meetings were taking place, and Kinley had been able to sneak out almost undetected.
Not for the first time, Lefty was very glad he’d seen her at the last second and had followed.
“Right. Anyway, I’m just letting you know that when you do catch up with her, we’re willing to give you some time and space to talk,” Trigger said.
Lefty knew his friend truly meant that, and there would be no hard feelings about it picking up his slack. Now that Trigger was living blissfully with Gillian, a woman he’d met while on a mission, Trigger wanted everyone to be as happy as he was.
“Thanks,” Lefty told him. He was pretty sure he and Kinley weren’t meant to be, not with the way she’d ghosted him, but he did want to find out why. Find out what he’d done to turn her off so completely.
Ten minutes later, the woman he’d been thinking about nonstop ever since he’d heard Walter Brown would be at the conference walked around a corner in the hall. She came to a halt when she saw Lefty and Trigger standing against the wall.
She quickly regained her composure and continued walking toward them. She had a handful of folders in her arms and looked delightfully disheveled.
Her shoulder-length black hair was a bit mussed, as if she’d been running her hand through it in vexation.
She never wore much makeup, and this morning was no exception.
Lefty thought she had on lip gloss and a bit of mascara, but that was it.
She was petite, only standing at around five and a half feet tall.
He felt as if he towered over her, and he’d never been so glad for her slight stature as he’d been that day in Africa.
He’d easily been able to wrench her away from the asshole who was trying to stick his hand down her pants and carry her out of the worst of the protests to safety.
Today, she had on a pair of small heels that gave her a bit of height.
She also wore black slacks and a short-sleeve heather-red blouse.
A pair of gold hoops adorned her ears, the only other jewelry a watch on her left wrist. Lefty silently approved; it was never a good idea to wear a lot of flashy jewelry when overseas, even in Paris…
a city that had a higher-than-average percentage of expensive stores for its citizens to shop in.
Kinley refused to meet his gaze, which frustrated Lefty.
He had a million questions for her, but here in the hall, when she was obviously in a rush, wasn’t the place or time.
He really didn’t like that she couldn’t even bring herself to say hello to him.
He wracked his brain trying to figure out what it was he’d done or said that had made her want nothing to do with him, but couldn’t come up with one damn thing.
She slipped inside the meeting room without even once looking up at him.
Sighing, Lefty’s jaw tightened. Ignoring him wouldn’t make him go away. She was going to have to talk to him sooner or later.
“Wow,” Trigger said under his breath. “That was the coldest cold shoulder I’ve seen in a very long time.”
“I’m going to take you up on your earlier offer,” Lefty told his friend. “I swear to God, I didn’t say or do anything to warrant her acting so skittish around me.”
“I know you didn’t,” Trigger said, putting his hand on Lefty’s shoulder in a gesture of support and understanding. “Out of all of us, you’re the most congenial.”
Lefty nodded, his determination rising. If Kinley thought she could ignore him and pretend they hadn’t shared a connection in Africa, she was sorely mistaken.
He hadn’t been able to forget her. She was pretty, soft-spoken, hadn’t treated him deferentially just because he was a Delta Force operative.
He’d had more than his fair share of women throw themselves at him after they’d learned what he did in the Army.
He liked that she treated him as a “normal person,” that she wasn’t impressed by his job.
He felt protective of her because of her size, and because she literally didn’t hesitate to do whatever was asked of her.
Her vulnerability also struck a chord in him. Made him want to hold her in his arms and protect her from the big bad world.
Kinley Taylor breathed a sigh of relief when she’d managed to slip inside the meeting room without having to talk to Gage Haskins.
Lefty.
She knew he’d received the nickname in basic training when one of the drill sergeants found out he was left-handed. It seemed rather discriminatory to her, but he’d reassured her that he’d been relieved to get such an innocuous nickname.
But she couldn’t imagine calling him Lefty. As far as she was concerned, it didn’t fit. He’d always be Gage to her.