Chapter 14
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Andrea ended the call and placed her phone on the seat beside Hayden, just as her phone rang. She looked down at it and snorted. “Jesus, … and that would be my father.”
She answered it, and her father barked, “Where are you?”
“In a car being driven. Just a second.” She turned to look at the crossroads, then promptly provided them.
After a moment of silence, Amir asked her, “Are you always so literal?”
“You demand accuracy,” she replied, “so that’s where I am. Whatever you do, please … do not go to my place.”
“Why not? We’re on our way there now.”
“Don’t,” Hayden snapped from the driver’s side.
“Is that Hayden?”
“Yes, that’s Hayden,” she confirmed and held up the phone for him.
Hayden explained, “Two men tried to kill her this morning,” he began.
“We took out one and apprehended the other. That happened while we were in yet another safe house. We were probably followed initially from Andrea’s apartment.
You don’t want to go to her place. You could be the next victim simply by arriving there. ”
Her father sputtered in shock and outrage, so Hayden, calm as always, went on.
“We can meet you for dinner somewhere,” he suggested, “but leave your daughter’s apartment alone for the moment. There’s always a chance somebody is watching her home, and they could kidnap you next.”
“They wouldn’t dare,” he muttered.
“Oh, but they would.” Hayden countered, not for a moment entertaining any of his fits.
Her father went silent, and, oddly enough, that encouraged her. “You were told not to come, Dad, to avoid getting me into more trouble, much less adding you into the mix,” she pointed out. “So why couldn’t you just do that?”
There was shock in his tone when he retorted, “That had better not be me you’re talking to, young lady.”
“Oh, it is,” she declared. “It absolutely is, and you need to explain why you are ignoring those direct orders from these people with specialized training to handle these matters, particularly when it’s for your own protection, as well as mine.”
A short moment of silence came, but then he snorted. “I’m at the Hilton. Come here, and we will talk then.” His tone now teetered on the brink of a fury that she could only imagine.
She ended the call, looked at Hayden, and sighed. “Now we get to face the music.”
“Interesting tack you took with him.”
“No, not interesting at all,” she grumbled. “Amir Galanis is somebody that you don’t browbeat, but, if you take his BS, it just never ends.”
“Good to know.” Hayden chuckled. “Not helping much at this point in time, but good to know.”
She burst out laughing, and he grinned. “I can’t imagine you being overrun by my father anyway,” she stated, “but I do look forward to seeing how you react to him in person.”
Hayden shrugged. “He can’t be any worse than the bulk of the generals we’ve had to deal with, and, for the most part, a lot of them were useless too.”
She started to giggle. “My father really won’t handle that well.”
“He handles what he handles, and the rest,” he pointed out, “is sheer emotion because he’s a father.”
“Yes, and that is why I let him get away with a lot of what he gets away with,” she noted, with a dry laugh, “and the other is my understanding that, in his world, women really don’t know anything.”
“Right?” He nodded. “I’m surprised you let him get away with that.”
“It’s not that I let him get away with it,” she clarified, “but, when you’re raised with it as a constant reminder, you just give in to it.”
“As long as you don’t believe it yourself,” he said, “then maybe that’s okay.”
“It’s not something I would have thought you would be okay with, and I’m not either,” she pointed out. “But, for the moment—and apparently it is just for the moment—that’s the way I’m handling life.”
“Good enough. So we’re heading to the Hilton.” He looked over at her and asked, “Are you okay with that?”
“Sure.” She shrugged. “We’ll have to meet him somewhere, so it might as well be there.”
She wasn’t really looking forward to facing her dad.
He was arrogant, brash, reckless, thought the world revolved around him, and, to a certain extent, was exactly like every other overbearing male she had ever met.
Still, it was interesting to see that Hayden didn’t appear to be threatened by her dad in any way.
She wondered if that would hold once they got in the door, and he was searched by her father’s security staff and treated like a criminal. She got her answer almost immediately while Hayden was busy smiling at the man who searched him.
“Now, I’ll return the favor.” And Hayden patted down the other man, checking the weapons that he had on him, much to the bodyguard’s absolute disgust.
As it turned out, her father found it hilarious. As she turned to greet him, he was grinning openly.
Amir noted, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen Jerome quite so nonplussed over somebody’s reaction to being patted down.”
She grinned too. “I’m so happy that Jerome is looking after you. Meanwhile, Hayden is looking after me, and that means that nobody, including Jerome, gets a free pass.”
Amir seemed startled at first, then nodded. “I won’t argue with that because that is exactly what I want Hayden to do. I appreciate that he is keeping you safe. I know Jerome is keeping you safe too.”
She grimaced. “As I have now learned, safe means various things to different people, and, from my perspective, it’s not always the one we want to believe in.”
He peered closely at her and then gave her a hug, which was so out of character for him. “You’ve finally grown up.”
“Looks as if I wasn’t given a whole lot of choice,” she grumbled.
He snorted at that and led her to his private room in the suite because her father preferred it that way. As they walked, he said, “You need to fill me in on what happened this morning.”
“I would rather not,” she replied. “I’ve seen enough violence and death lately, and I’m not keen on being reminded of that. This incident was more unexpected. But, hey, one of the two gunmen is dead, so I don’t have to worry about him anymore.”
“And who killed him?”
She nodded toward Hayden.
Immediately Amir turned to Hayden, reached out a hand. Hayden shook his hand. “Thank you,” Amir said, staring directly at Hayden.
He nodded. “I could say I was just doing my job, but that’s not quite true.”
At that, her father narrowed his gaze. “And what does that mean?”
Hayden smiled. “Your daughter and I had a relationship years ago, as I told you before. She was hiding who she was from me back then, primarily her connection to you. Now that I understand the intent of the deception I was picking up on back then, I can tell you that I will not be walking away quite so easily nor quite so fast from your daughter this time. Now that I know what the prior issue was, I’m certain we can deal with that. ”
Her father just stared at Hayden in shock. Then he snapped, “Are you telling me that, whether I like it or not, you’ll date my daughter?”
“Yes,” Hayden confirmed. “I am. If you don’t like it, … I really don’t give a shit. Her feelings are the only ones that matter.”
She stared at Hayden, glanced at her father, got a peripheral view of Jerome’s expression, then started to laugh.
It began with a giggle, building into a full belly laugh that she was helpless to stop.
She thought it may have been the first time her father had ever been taken aback over something someone said.
From the look on Jerome’s face, he wasn’t sure whether he was supposed to beat up Hayden or to congratulate him.
And, for the life of her, she couldn’t stop laughing.
When she finally got control of herself, her father and Jerome stared at her. Then she turned to Hayden, who smiled at her.
“Are you good now?” he asked.
“Oh my gosh,” she said, “I couldn’t have imagined you saying all that.”
He shrugged. “But you knew it was coming.”
“I don’t know that I knew that was coming,” she countered, with a chuckle. “It’s not as if we even talked about it.” Then she shot him a look and added, “And it’s not as if we’ve done anything to start up our relationship again.”
“Yep,” he agreed, with a shrug. “I’m on the job, and I don’t mix business and pleasure,” he explained and turned back to her father.
“You, sir, were asked not to come, and I really don’t appreciate that now, as the mantle of looking after her extends to looking after you.
Plus, you’ve now put your daughter in additional danger. ”
Her father once again opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out.
She walked over and gave her father a hug and a kiss on the cheek, finally seeing him for what he really was, …
a big, powerful man who had a soft spot for keeping his family safe.
She told him, “Hayden’s right. So, we’ll have dinner, and then you’ll pack up, and you’ll go home, in order to keep me safe,” she declared, with a smile. “Jerome, do you hear me?”
Jerome frowned at her but turned to her father. “I follow his orders. You convince him that it’s time to go, and we’ll take the plane out of here.”
Andrea shook her head. “Forget any orders. What do you think is the right thing to do?”
He winced, but her father turned and narrowed his gaze at Jerome and asked, “What do you think is the right thing to do, Jerome?”
“I already told you, before we even left, that I didn’t think you should be coming here, … sir.”
“Yeah, you did,” he muttered. He turned to his daughter, raising the wattage of his glare.
She just smiled and shook her head. “Nope, nope, nope.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“No more glares, no more nothing,” she said. “It’s absolutely lovely to see you and to share dinner with you, but you and I both know that, after our meal, you need to leave, so we can get this bloody mess cleaned up once and for all.”
“Maybe you should explain to me just what that bloody mess was.”
“Absolutely,” she replied. “Just as soon as we get food ordered because I’m hungry.”