Chapter 3
CHAPTER THREE
Overall, the assignment in Fiji wasn’t bad.
Most of the women at the competition were wholly focused on the pageant and didn’t pay much attention to the seven big men who were constantly around.
So far, the Delta team hadn’t had any complications. But they’d just received intel that hinted at something brewing. Something big.
Now the team was on high alert and Vice President Roling had been informed that if there was a need to evacuate, he and his wife and daughter would be removed from the area without delay.
Ayla was a beautiful kid. Shadow said “kid” because at eighteen, she seemed incredibly young to him.
Certainly much younger than his forty-year-old self.
Even though she must be deeply entrenched in the world of politics because of her father, she still seemed na?ve.
Completely focused on things like makeup, shoes, handbags, and, of course, fancy ball gowns.
Shadow didn’t understand the alure of pageants.
Yes, the women were considered beautiful, but they were all too…
perfect for his taste. Untouchable. He couldn’t imagine any of them doing anything like riding an ATV through the mud, getting on the floor to play with shelter animals—as he loved to do, when he volunteered at the local shelter back in Fairbanks—or going sledding in below-zero weather, hanging around a large fire to warm up afterward.
He might’ve been brought up in Phoenix, but he’d embraced living in Alaska. Loved being outdoors. Even the arctic training he and his team conducted was fun for him.
This? Standing around watching women gossip, and talk about the other contestants’ clothes, and try to interpret the judges’ every look and gesture, all while not allowing one hair out of place and with fake smiles on their faces—just in case they were critiqued while not on stage—made Shadow ache to have a conversation with a real person.
The very few women who’d approached him spoke as if reading from a script.
Reciting words that someone else, probably a pageant coach, clearly thought they should say, not what they actually thought.
Shadow didn’t engage, partly because he was on the job…
and partly because he preferred the people he conversed with to be more genuine.
And while hunting down terrorists and HVTs might be dangerous, at least those people were honest about what they wanted. Even if that desire was his death or the end of those who didn’t have the same ideologies as they did.
Pageant treachery? Next. Level.
“You’re thinking really hard over there,” Echo mused, as they stood in the back of a cavernous room while contestants took turns practicing for the talent portion of the event.
They were on guard for anyone who looked as if they didn’t belong.
Who didn’t have the right credentials. For trouble.
They’d been assigned to Ayla for the day, and since she was in the room waiting for her turn to practice, that’s where they would remain.
“I’ll just be glad when this is over,” Shadow told his friend.
The rest of his team was with the VP and his wife, who were on a private tour of the island.
The Secret Service members were sprinkled around the area as well, constantly gathering data and staying on the lookout for anything hinky that might be happening or in the works.
“I can’t believe you!”
The four simple words were filled with hatred and loud enough for just about everyone in the big room to overhear.
Shadow turned his head in time to see one of the contestants get all up in another women’s space.
She was jabbing a finger at her repeatedly, almost poking the woman’s face as she spoke.
He could no longer hear what was being said, but it obviously wasn’t anything good.
The contestant’s face was red, and she looked ready to explode.
But the woman on the receiving end of the tirade was calm. Simply stood there staring back with an almost blank look on her face.
At first glance, it was easy to see that the woman wasn’t participating in the pageant herself.
She wore a pair of jeans and a T-shirt, clothes none of the other women would be caught dead in, even though the competition hadn’t started yet.
She also didn’t look like she was wearing any makeup, her hair was pulled back in a messy bun, with wisps of red curls escaping their confinement and framing her face.
And she didn’t have the overly polished look of a woman who competed in beauty pageants.
Shadow thought she was…striking. Unique.
Her features were sharp in a way that wasn’t classically pretty.
She had the kind of face people probably described as…
a little off, especially when they couldn’t think of anything nicer to say.
Her nose dominated her features just slightly, her jaw was square, her ears protruded a bit, and her complexion seemed very pale—especially when surrounded by all the fake tans of the contestants.
Nothing about her probably invited a second look for most. Except Shadow, who couldn’t take his eyes off her.
Outwardly, she looked completely unfazed by the woman berating her. But as the rant continued, even from across the room, Shadow saw her wince almost imperceptibly before wiping all emotion from her face once more.
He was on the move even before the beauty queen reached out and shoved the other woman’s shoulder.
Echo was on his six as they converged on the pair. No one else was intervening, the women nearby happy to listen in and watch the spat.
When the woman in the red leotard—which showed way too much for Shadow’s taste—got in the other woman’s face once more, he shoved himself between them, making the pageant girl stop in her tracks.
“Enough,” Shadow said firmly.
“Excuse me?” the woman barked haughtily.
“I have no idea what the issue is here, but there’s no need to get physical.”
“The issue is that Brinley is trying to sabotage me!”
Shadow looked over his shoulder just in time to see the woman in jeans roll her eyes.
“Give me a break, Callista. I’m not sabotaging anyone. I’m here to do a job. That’s it. Nothing I do has anything to do with you.”
“Bullshit! You’re a jealous, ugly cow, and you came here to do whatever you could to make me look bad!”
“Wrong. I was flown in by clients who paid my way. So here I am, doing my job by making sure their outfits fit properly and showcase their assets in a classy way that reflects the integrity of this pageant. And I’m not jealous of you or anyone else.”
The other woman—Callista—laughed. Except it wasn’t a humorous sound. It was vicious and harsh. Much like the woman herself. Shadow didn’t know her, though he recognized her name as being the second contestant from the US. And it was more than obvious she wasn’t a nice person.
“You’re so jealous it’s ridiculous! Being around all these gorgeous women is probably making you feel even more like the hideous troll you are. Why don’t you do society a favor and crawl back under whatever rock you live under and stay there?”
And with that, Callista turned on a heel and stomped off like a little kid throwing a tantrum.
Shadow slowly turned and looked at Brinley. It was a pretty name. Unique. Just like the woman herself.
“Sorry about that,” she said, wrinkling her nose a little. “Callista has always been overly dramatic.”
“Are you okay? She wasn’t very nice.”
“I’m used to it.”
His confusion must have shown on his face, because she clarified for him.
“She’s my sister. Her insults don’t faze me anymore. And yes, I know, we look nothing alike, but I’m not lying.”
Shadow glanced over to where Callista was standing against the wall, talking with two other women.
She was gesturing wildly, a nasty scowl on her face.
But now that Brinley said something, he could see the resemblance.
Callista had long auburn hair, and her green eyes matched Brinley’s.
But the other woman was almost half a foot taller and slender, and her facial features were…
more muted. He could see why she’d been chosen to represent the United States, and why she was probably successful at beauty pageants.
Her outward appearance was, by society’s standards, flawless.
Long legs, big boobs, high cheekbones, sleek hair, small waist…
But it was all ruined by her nastiness.
“Different fathers,” Brinley told him. “Mom took one look at how ugly I was when I was born and refused to take a chance on having another weird-looking kid with her then-husband. She left him and got another, so she could try again for a pretty baby.”
“You aren’t ugly,” Shadow told her.
“Thanks. But I have a mirror. I know what I am and what I’m not.”
“I don’t think you do. I just met you, and I have no doubt that you’re twice the person your sister is. If I had to choose, I’d go out with you a hundred times out of a hundred, rather than someone like her.”
Brinley said nothing. She looked too stunned to speak.
“There’s nothing wrong with the way you look. Has no one ever told you that you’re the quintessential girl next door?”
She shook her head, her big eyes looking even larger as she stared at him as if she were seeing a ghost.
“Real men would much prefer someone like you…soft, kind, curvy…a woman they aren’t afraid to muss if they kissed or touched.”
Where the words were coming from, Shadow had no idea.
All he knew was that he wanted—no, needed this woman to understand that the insults her sister had thrown her way weren’t even close to the truth.
And he hadn’t missed the comment she’d made about her own mother thinking she was ugly.
People like that pissed him off. All little girls were supposed to feel like princesses.
Pretty. Her mother should’ve defended her, not made her feel as if she was weird-looking or unattractive.
His voice lowered, so Brinley was the only one who could hear his next words.