Page 76 of Protecting his Secrets

“Here you go.” Dominic handed him his coffee.

“Thanks.”

Then he was left to his own devices. Emmy said goodbye as she left, but the corridor was quiet. Maybe he needed to request that music could be played. Instead, he focused on his phone, checking his emails and catching up with anything he needed to before taking the tablet Emmy had given him and completing the reports he’d been neglecting. Sitting there was relaxing compared to what he had been through recently, and he took several long minutes to let everything flow through his head and just breathe.

They would find out who it was. They always did. But sometimes it took time. And it didn’t always feel like that time was on their side.

Dominic stuck his head out of the door. “He’s almost ready.”

Nick nodded and downed his coffee, handing the empty cup to him. “Okay. Ready when you are.”

“Colt and Viola should be on their way.”

“We’re just having the four of us?”

Dominic nodded, though his expression was grim. “Landon and Emmy are off shift. I wish he’d increase us to eight again because then we could have five or six at a time, but he still refuses.”

Nick could understand it, but it would make their lives easier if there were more eyes on him when he visited places. “We’ll be fine. We need to keep our eyes open, though.”

“Why?”

“We’re visiting a military base.”

“They wouldn’t dare try anything there, would they?”

Nick shrugged. “They’re not getting desperate, but who knows? They can easily take us by surprise for any reason.”

“I sometimes hate this job.” Dominic grimaced. “No, that’s not true. I love this job. I just hate the people who hate us.”

“I agree with that.”

Dominic disappeared again, and Nick readied himself for their visit. He had no idea if the asshole was going to try anything, especially after the most recent shooting, but he wasn’t going to take that to heart. He’d assume something was going to happen until it didn’t.

He adjusted his earpiece, and when Colt and Viola arrived, he let Dominic know, and the king exited. He greeted them all, and then they all headed for the car. Though how Andrew could face getting into a car after what happened to the late queen, he didn’t know—car bombs were no joke. If something like that happened to him, he doubted he would even be able to look at one, let alone sit in one.

As he sat in the front of the car ferrying the king, his mind wandered, thinking over everything that had been happening. For some reason, pieces of the jigsaw began clicking into a different pattern. Why was everyone around him being targeted and not him? With Dominic, he’d been shot. With Owen, he’dbeen shot and blown up. With him, everything was focused on Malachi, Malachi’s family and Nick’s family. Nothing remotely focused on him directly. Why? Why was that time different? What had changed the pattern?

It was a question he couldn’t figure out the answer to, so he pushed it aside to think about later. He couldn’t be distracted when he was working. As they pulled up to the military base, a shiver went down his spine. He doubted they would be unlucky enough to visit the very base of the person doing this, but knowing Nick’s luck… Regardless, the person or people were probably out of the military already.

Someone came out from a building and strode in their direction, so Nick climbed out to greet them. When they came closer, Nick had to stop his jaw from dropping.

“Good morning. I’m Lieutenant Colonel Venus Cage. It’s nice to have you here.”

Nick licked his lips, wanting to ask the obvious question, but he didn’t. Instead, he took her hand and smiled. “Thank you for having us.”

While she had been greeting him, Dominic had climbed out of the car with the king not far behind.

“Lieutenant Colonel Cage, it’s nice to see you again. Brett sends his regards.”

She chuckled. “I doubt that, but thank you for your optimism.” She waved her hand towards the building. “Shall we?”

“Lead the way,” Andrew said.

They fell into their usual formation while Andrew and Brett’s sister—whom Nick still couldn’t believe he hadn’t known about—spoke about the topics they wanted to cover during the visit. Nick tuned out but kept his eyes on their surroundings. Being within an army base was both the safest and most dangerous place. The safest because they had more weapons than they could ever need to protect the king should someone attempt toattack, but the most dangerous because they had more weapons than anywhere else in the country. If someone decided to take them out, they would have an almost unlimited supply. But hopefully, if that did happen, there would be enough allies to help them.

Several people waited for them inside, and Andrew was introduced to them. Nick checked them out, looking at their body language, facial expressions, word choices and other ticks to see if they were a threat. No one seemed to be—or they could be good at hiding. He glanced at Dominic, who caught his gaze and shook his head minutely; he couldn’t see any threats, either. It relaxed him a bit, but not enough to drop his guard completely.

“Shall we move on?” the Lieutenant Colonel said. There was no denying that she was his sister; they looked like twins. Why had Brett never mentioned her? Was there bad blood between them?

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