Chapter 5
CHAPTER FIVE
“Why do you look like someone killed your dog?” Calloway asked Adriana inside the elevator at the hotel in Charlotte.
“I don’t have a dog.” And Calloway knew that. He was the only one from work she’d ever dated.
“And why do you wear shades inside an elevator?” Chen asked Calloway. “Don’t be a movie cliché.”
Rodriguez, her friend and the agent in charge, barked out a laugh. “He’s right, man.”
“Chen’s always right.” Adriana rolled her shoulders back, trying to loosen up. To free herself of the nerves even Calloway had noticed with his sunglasses on.
“You’re from Atlanta, Foster,” Rodriguez said. “You know the Bennetts?”
This wasn’t really a question. Rodriguez knew her background. He knew her history, which meant he wanted to hear the words from her mouth that her relationship with the Bennetts wouldn’t interfere with the job.
“She knows him,” Calloway grumbled, clearly still bitter about how things had ended between them a few months back.
“You ever date the senator’s son?” Rodriguez interrupted her thoughts.
If Rodriguez wasn’t in charge of their assignment, and his girlfriend didn’t cook delicious food for her, she would’ve probably told him to mind his own damn business.
She had to remind herself he was doing his due diligence. Not overstepping boundaries even if it felt like it.
“You would think they dated.” Calloway jammed his hands into his pockets, irritation springing through his words.
“There a problem I need to be made aware of?” Rodriguez shifted to the side to get a good look at both Adriana and grumpy-as-hell Calloway.
“No, sir,” she quickly replied.
“Calloway?” Rodriguez asked.
Calloway remained quiet but shook his head as he removed his sunglasses.
“So, it’s Hummingbird for the wife and Hawk for Senator Bennett,” Rodriguez announced.
“I remember. You checking to make sure I did my homework?” She painted on a smile, trying to suppress the pressure of this moment—the winging around of jets in her stomach.
“This is a big day for you all. Just making sure you’re ready.” Rodriguez turned back around, and she did her best not to bump into the agents standing behind her.
Seven guys. One woman.
But this was her moment. It was the closest to the White House she had ever come.
Chen and Calloway had the best chance of rotating to protection detail for the next POTUS since they had the most experience, but maybe someday she’d have a shot.
And maybe one day she’d make her mom proud even though she wasn’t there to see her. And she’d stop worrying about her dad slipping off the wagon.
And, oh yeah, maybe Knox would kiss her again.
So many maybes . . .
“Stacey told me you canceled your blind date but didn’t reschedule,” Rodriguez said as the elevator doors opened and they all moved into the hallway.
Calloway shot her a quick look at her boss’s words. Great. The last thing she needed right now was a jealous Calloway. The second he and Knox were in the same room . . . she shuddered to think about how things might play out between them.
“So, you gonna tell me why you canceled?” Rodriguez asked, toying with the ends of his handlebar mustache.
“We’re here, aren’t we?”
“But why not reschedule?” He wasn’t going to let this go, was he?
“And why are you and Stacey so interested that I date this friend of yours? Is he third in line for the crown of some incredible country I haven’t heard of?” she teased. “I mean, if he cooks as good as Stacey, I might marry him now, but—”
“Because I know the kind of men you date, and we’d like you to meet a nice guy.”
Nice guy was usually code for boring. Bland. Probably a few more B words she could come up with, too.
Nice guys were also safe. But she didn’t need safe. She had Knox to keep her safe. And she’d done a fairly decent job of protecting herself as well.
No, what she needed was someone who gave her that spine-tingling-weak-in-the-knees type of feeling. And she knew who that was, but . . .
“You are thirty-five,” Rodriguez went on, his steps slowing as if to ensure they had time to continue their talk before the job started.
She stopped and faced him, and a touch of red met his cheeks.
The movies always depicted agents as humorless and bland. Not true at all. The men and women who worked for the Secret Service were human. They had to rein in their emotions like everyone else during working hours.
“I’m not that old.” She hid a nervous smile.
His hand raced over the top of his perfectly styled black hair. “Stacey wants to see you happy. Me, too. Sorry to pry.”
“Thank you, but I’ll be fine. I promise.” She turned back toward the direction of the presidential suite and regretted it because now she had to focus on what was about to go down—a meeting with the Bennetts.
The second Knox or his father set eyes on her she’d have to stand her ground and demand she remain on the assignment. But her nerves were getting to her at the thought, and her heart rate inched higher.
“You okay?” Rodriguez was near the door, but at the sight of her glued in place, he strode back her way.
Maybe there was a way for her to stay without a one-punch knockout from the Bennetts at her presence. “A few of us are assigned to work the investigation. Can I do it? I have the most experience in that area. It makes sense.”
“I thought protection is what you wanted. Didn’t you practically beg me for the chance if it ever arose?” Rodriguez cocked his head. “I put in a good word for you, Foster. There are a few bigwigs from Homeland here, and we really can’t screw this up.”
There’s a lot more on the line than looking good at our jobs, but . . . “Yeah, of course.” Her gaze lifted as the Bennetts’ door opened ten feet away.
Knox was there, and he was blinking as if seeing a mirage.
The man was tall. Six-two. Muscular but lean. Handsome as ever. Even more so with age. The kind of sexy everyone seemed to notice but himself. In her opinion, one of the most appealing traits in a man was a good-looking guy who didn’t seem to know it.
He checked off all her boxes, even ones she didn’t know she had until him.
Knox stepped aside as another man exited the suite. And now Knox was looking somewhere other than at her.
Shit. He’d spotted Calloway. The two men had met in the spring when Knox had crashed her date. She’d been on date five with him that night. She had an eight dates before sex rule. Well, eight didn’t guarantee sex, but she refused to have it any sooner than that.
But when Knox had shown up that night, she’d actually thought he’d finally admit he wanted to be her date instead. A real date. Not a friendly one.
But she’d been dreaming. Living in her head. The part of her that still believed in fairy tales and happily-ever-afters.
Of course, who was she kidding? She still believed in happily-ever-afters, even now with Knox’s eyes dead set on her.
“I’m FBI Director Mendez.” The man who’d exited the suite a few moments ago pulled her attention his way and back on her job where it needed to be.
But her heart continued its intense climb with Knox so close.
“Good to see you made it,” Mendez added. “We’re about to head to the office to interview some possible witnesses.”
Rodriguez shook the director’s hand and then introduced the rest of the team.
“Glad to have you here.” Mendez added a phony smile.
The director was a lousy liar, and she had the distinct impression he was anything but glad they’d joined the case.
“Let’s have you meet the Bennetts, and then I assume you’ll want to assign some of your people to the investigation? They can come with us.”
“Sounds good.” Rodriguez followed Mendez, but Adriana remained stuck in place.
Knox wasn’t moving either. His eyes were pinned to her. His jaw set in a hard line. A noticeable clench there. On second thought, maybe she should get him and Calloway together and divert Knox’s energy away from her.
Because.
He.
Was.
Pissed.
“Can we have a minute?” She peered at Rodriguez with a plea in her eyes. Her puppy dog eyes, as Knox liked to call them.
“One minute,” he said before heading into the suite.
Knox didn’t waste a second once they were alone. He lunged forward, wrapped his arms around her, and pulled her in tight for a hug. Not what she’d been anticipating.
“I thought you’d be mad,” she murmured into his chest, hugging him back. Hell, she was clinging for dear life.
“I am.” His warm breath tickled her ear. “But I need to hold my best friend for two seconds and hope, when I open my eyes, this shit day will have been a bad dream.”
Her shoulders sagged.
This wasn’t just a case.
This was Knox. Her go-to on the bad days and the good.
“I’m so sorry,” she whispered with regret.
His big hands moved up to grasp her shoulders, and he held her slightly away from his body, his eyes running over every inch of her. “How are you? Are you okay?”
Of course he’d worry about her, too, even though this day should have been strictly about his parents, his family.
But he knew her well. Each time she’d closed her eyes during the flight from D.C. to Charlotte, the painful image of the coroner covering her mother’s lifeless body appeared in her mind.
“I’m fine.” And she had to be. “How are you?” she asked when he palmed her cheek as if he were relieved to see her alive, and she’d been the one to nearly take a bullet.
“I feel better knowing my people are here and looking into things. But you appearing out of nowhere,” he said with a shake of the head, “and finding out you’re on the case . . . well, it’s like getting hit in the nuts with a baseball.”
“You don’t play baseball.” Okay, so humor probably wasn’t appropriate right now, but she needed to take some of the edge off the shock of her presence.
“Okay, a basketball.” He shifted farther away and observed her again, allowing his hand to fall to his side. “You don’t actually think you’re going to stand in front of a bullet for my dad, do you?”
“You know it’s a myth. We never actually sign our names in blood and promise to die for POTUS.”