Chapter Nineteen #2
They couldn’t know that anything was wrong. That was what I was telling myself as I waved with both hands and I walked backward slowly until I smelled them and the tension in my shoulders eased just a bit.
“Good job.” Maverick’s voice was low as I stepped out of the line of sight of the crowd and into the little green room area that had been set up by the campaign tour operators.
Today he and Brooks were my body men while Zeke and Dallas were busy clearing a path back to the tour bus. Just being in their presence soothed away the apprehension that had been ratcheting up from the moment I stepped out on that stage and saw all of those people.
Up till today, all of my stops on the campaign trail had been much smaller crowd sizes and campaign dinners. Much more manageable than the estimated twelve thousand people outside today.
Historic numbers, McDaniels had told us this morning during the briefing. That just meant that everyone was on high alert. Secret Service on all of the surrounding roofs and disguised in the crowds.
It should have felt safe, but I had stumbled through my speech with my skin crawling at the idea that all it took was one person in that crowd to hurt me or one of the people I loved.
A warm hand touched my back, making me jump right out of the morbid thoughts that were swirling around in my head. I turned to find Brooks looking at me with those deep green eyes of his. “You okay?”
I swallowed hard. “Yeah, thank you…”
“Agent Wilson,” Maverick called from where he was already talking to another agent.
Brooks looked irritated, but he shot me an apologetic look before he hurried to join the other alpha, leaving me sitting on a fold out chair to wait for them.
My phone buzzed in my purse which Brooks had handed to me as soon as I got off stage and I saw my grandmother’s name on the screen.
“Hey sweetheart, you did such a great job,” she said without greeting as soon as I answered.
“No I didn’t,” I grumbled. “I was scared the whole time.”
Grandma was silent for a moment on the other end. “But at least you did it. You didn’t cower in fear, so I’m proud of you.”
I sat up a little straighter at that.
“Now, I haven’t been able to ask since Labor day, but how are things going with those hunks? Good I hope?”
I sighed.
“Oh no, that badly?”
“No…” I trailed off. Truthfully, after kissing Zeke last night, things should have been good. I should have been on Cloud-9 today.
But the earful we’d gotten from Maverick when we went back downstairs had been enough to throw ice on the poor butterflies that had been fluttering in my stomach from my kiss with Zeke.
He seemed almost angry at me for spending time with Zeke.
Which, on one hand, I understood.
They weren’t technically a pack, but on the other hand, we weren’t technically anything either. So I could spend time with whomever I liked.
Besides, Maverick didn’t seem to want anything from me at all. Ever since our kiss in the kitchen at Camp David he’d pretended like it hadn’t happened and that he was basically what amounted to a Secret Service Ken doll, perfect and professional.
The alpha had been giving me so many mixed signals that it made me dizzy.
“So it’s going well?”
“No, it’s not doing that either,” I said with a groan. “Mom gave them a warning the night of the shooting.”
“Oh,” was all Grandma said, the exhalation full of understanding. “Have I ever told you that your mom is kind of a stick-in-the-mud sometimes?”
Despite myself I smiled. “You may have mentioned it once or twice.”
“Well, I know you never did the whole rebellion thing, Lennie, but maybe it’s time to get on that. Your mom is a control freak, but if you don’t tell her what you really want then you’re going to be fifty and still attached at the hip with her.”
“She’s supposed to let me go after this election,” I pointed out but the words sounded fake even to my own ears.
“Whatever you say, my sweet girl, but if I were you, then there wouldn’t be a force in the world that would keep me from licking each and every one of those men up and down—”
“Darling?” I heard my grandfather’s voice in the background of the call.
“Oh shoot, I have to go,” Grandma hurried to say. “Follow your heart, Lennie, and maybe follow your vagina a bit too, she knows what she’s doing.”
Then the line clicked dead.
“Are you ready?” Maverick asked, making me nearly jump clean out of my skin as my face burned with my grandmother’s final words.
“What?” I asked stupidly as I stared up at him with his neat facial hair and dark eyes.
He looked good today despite acting like such an ass.
The suit he was wearing hugged his muscular shoulders and I could see the tendons in his hands flex as he held them together in front of him, assuming the typical Secret Service position.
“Are you ready to head to the bus?”
“Oh,” I said, thinking about the crowd still waiting outside. “Yeah, let’s do it.”
I half-wanted to wait to see my mother’s speech later on today, but I was due at a fundraising dinner in New York tomorrow so we were already cutting it close as it was.
Maverick lifted his sleeve to his mouth. “Flicker is on the move, you ready?”
He must have gotten the affirmative because he nodded to me and Brooks took the lead as we headed out of the side of the stage where people were already screaming.
Dallas and Zeke were there, waiting for us.
“Is everything clear?” I barely heard Maverick ask over the roar of people and Zeke nodded as we headed down the thin pathway created by short metal barricades.
“Lennon!” “Lennon!” “A picture!”
My ears rang with the voices and I tried to keep my usual smile plastered on my face as we hurried along the line.
Then I heard the clang of metal and people were stumbling into our path.
“The barricade is down!” Zeke hollered.
Panic swelled in my throat as, yet again, it seemed that everything that could go wrong on this godforsaken trip did.
Maybe I really was cursed.
I was two seconds away from crouching down into the fetal position when deft arms lifted me right up off of my feet and I was enveloped in the sweet scent of vanilla bourbon.