Chapter 19. Ace
Ace
Two days of “vacation” was two days too many. Mav had taken Haley home after our night together, and I spent the rest of the day beating myself up for taking her to the hotel at all.
Was it amazing? Yes. Was it something I’d always fantasized about?
Yes. Did I want to do it again? In a heartbeat.
I’d had sex with a lot of women, but I’d never had the kind of connection with them that I had with Haley.
We had a history, shared experiences, and she understood me in a way no one else did.
Haley could make me laugh and draw me out of the darkness like no one else.
She was wild and uninhibited and free and could make the most ordinary activity exciting and new.
Sex with her had been out of this world.
It had also been wrong on so many levels. I’d pretty much ignored every rule in the bodyguard handbook. I’d also dishonored my fallen best friend and broken my promise to his father. I was supposed to be her protector, and I’d taken advantage of that duty.
The more I thought about it, the worse I felt, and after only half a day alone, I found myself back in the basement with Chad and Theo, trying to assuage my guilt by teaming up with them in their online game.
Chad, especially, was easy to get along with, and he and Theo had no issues with me secretly hanging out with them while Mav roamed around upstairs.
It was almost like I was back in Riverstone with Matt and Rafael, shooting bad guys and yelling at the screen. It was almost like I had friends.
“I got a lead on that incident on Michigan Avenue,” Theo said, his thumbs flying over the controller as he pumped the “boss” full of lead.
“I’ve got a hacker friend who can get into the CCTV database.
Everything that happened on that corner of Michigan Avenue from fifteen minutes before the attack until fifteen minutes after is gone. ”
“What do you mean gone? I thought there were fifty thousand cameras in Chicago. Not only that, the head of our Chicago office said that local businesses can feed their surveillance into the system as well, doubling the coverage area.”
Theo brought down the low-level boss without any assistance and pumped a virtual fist. “It’s been erased, dude.”
“By who? The police? Maybe it was just a glitch.” It didn’t make any sense. The police would have checked for the footage. Wouldn’t they have noticed it was missing?
“Maybe, but it’s a specific blackout period, which makes me think it was deliberate and done by someone with serious hacking skills. I almost didn’t catch it but the time stamp was off, too.”
“What about surveillance footage from nearby businesses?”
Theo shook his head in time to his shooting. “She was on the park side. Business surveillance cameras were too far away to catch anything.”
“But people must have videoed it on their phones,” Chad protested.
“Haley’s mother talked to the detective in charge and he said there weren’t many people around and it happened so fast that the ones who did see it didn’t have time to film it.”
Chad rolled his character down a hill and then leaped over a bridge.
“I think something bigger is at play—something political and connected to Haley’s mom.
I’ve been looking into her work over the last year and she’s spearheading three very controversial bills, but what I think is most interesting is the rumor that she is being considered as a candidate for vice president.
If John Ellison wins the nomination and partners with her, they would be a powerful ticket.
Maybe someone doesn’t want him to have that edge in the next election. ”
“Or maybe someone wants her place in the Senate,” I said. “But why go after Haley and her stepfather?” I shot a legion of bad guys to clear Chad’s path. I hadn’t played video games much after Matt died, and I’d missed it for both the camaraderie and the catharsis.
“To scare her out of the Senate race.” Chad ran to catch up with us and switched out his weapon for something with more power.
“Ellison won’t appoint her as VP if she’s not a senator, and if it’s about the bills, they won’t go through if she’s gone.
Threatening her family is much more effective than threatening her directly. ”
“You know your politics.” I took a header off a cliff and waited to respawn.
Chad grinned. “I need to know all this stuff if I want to be a news anchor. I’m not going to be the guy who just reads the news. I’m going to offer commentary, and for that I need to understand what goes on behind closed doors.”
“I’ll talk to her mother again,” I said. “My boss isn’t supportive of an investigation. Our job is to protect people; not catch the bad guys.”
“Theo and I are still on the case.” Chad covered me when I reentered the game.
“I even got approval from my journalism prof to use this as my investigative journalism credit for the year if I dig up some good dirt, so I’ve got an incentive to keep going.
Theo just likes the challenge of getting into systems he’s not supposed to see. ”
Theo was entirely focused on the game but nodded in agreement. “Gonna hack the Chicago PD next. Should be fun.”
Aside from an easing of the tension, nothing outwardly changed between Haley and me in the week after our night together.
I followed her to class, her clubs, and her work at the coffee shop.
She slept in her room, and I slept in mine.
We talked about neutral things like the weather or what the professor had said in class, but the bigger issue of what had happened at the hotel was one we didn’t touch.
We’d crossed a line and there was no going back. But we didn’t know how to move ahead.
Friday morning, Haley walked into the kitchen and smiled. “Ace…”
I knew that smile and that tone of voice. She wanted something that she knew I wouldn’t like.
“No.” I scrolled through my phone. “Whatever it is must be dangerous or you wouldn’t have waited to tell me until after I’d had breakfast when you think I’ll be more amenable to whatever it is you have planned.”
“Okay then.” She folded her arms and leaned against the counter.
“I’ve been offered a gig at Bin 46 tonight.
It’s an upscale rooftop bar in the Loop.
I have a deal with the owner. When one of his acts cancels at the last minute, I get time on the stage, and in return I work the rest of the evening for tips. ”
“Definitely no.” I sipped my coffee. Theo had an espresso machine the same size as the one at Haley’s coffee shop and the coffee was almost as good.
“I have to go,” she said. “Music producers sometimes show up. It’s a chance for me to get discovered.”
“No point in being discovered if you’re dead.” I didn’t even look up from my phone. Not because I was trying to signal that “no” was the end of the matter, but because I knew that if I looked at her, I’d give in.
“No one will know I’m there until I’m actually on stage,” she protested. “I’m not on their regular schedule, and I won’t advertise on social media.”
“What if you’re being followed?”
“Then you wouldn’t be doing your job,” she retorted.
I made the mistake of looking up. She was wearing a low-cut, tight red T-shirt that accentuated her beautiful breasts. Her hair was loose over her shoulders and if I wasn’t mistaken her lips looked redder and fuller than usual. “You aren’t being followed.”
“Then we’re good to go.” She gave me a happy smile. “I work from six until ten and then I’ve got the stage from ten to eleven.”
I had to tear my gaze away. “Still no.”
“I believe I’m the boss, and the boss says we’re going.” She put a hand on her hip and struck a pose that drew my attention to the curve of her hip and the dip of her waist. Fuck. How was I going to keep it professional when all I wanted to do was rip off her clothes?
“You’re mistaken. I’m the boss, and rule one is you do what I say.”
Her face flushed and she spun around and yanked open the cupboard. I made a mental note to use that tone of voice the next time we were in bed together—if there was a next time, which would be a terrible idea, but maybe not that terrible.
“You work for me,” she pointed out.
I leaned back in my chair and folded my arms. “I work for Stellar Security and they work for your mother. She’s paying the bills.”
“Should I call her and tell her you’re interfering with my music career?” She glared at me over her shoulder.
“She’d probably give me a bonus for keeping you from making a terrible mistake.”
Her back stiffened. “I’m not missing this gig. Either you come with me or I go alone. You can’t stop me.”
“I could tie you to the bed,” I said casually.
Big mistake. Huge. My mind was instantly flooded with images I shouldn’t be having after I’d spent the last week beating myself up for my total and utter lack of professionalism the previous weekend.
She turned away again and gripped the counter. I watched her shoulders rise and fall.
“You like that idea,” I said quietly.
“It doesn’t matter what I like,” she said, taking a mug from the cupboard.
“It’s not happening again. I never imagined that we’d cross paths, or that you’d wind up being my bodyguard boyfriend, or that I’d be able to get over the past enough to spend the night with you, but I did and it’s done, and now that we have that out of our systems, I need to look forward and focus on what’s most important to me. ”
I leaned forward, elbows on the table, relieved that we were finally going to hash this out but also afraid of how it might end.
“We can’t keep pretending it didn’t happen, Haley.
Or that we don’t have insane chemistry. I never imagined being in this position either.
But now that we are, we can’t go back. You will never be out of my system.
I was hired to protect you, but now it’s also so much more and I can’t let you take that kind of risk. ”