Page 11 of The Bodyguard

She arched an eyebrow. “Define terms.”

“We clear every location in advance. You don’t step outside without me or another Cerberus asset. You don’t argue in public. If I say it’s time to go, we go.”

“You left out the part where I have to ask permission to use the bathroom.”

His eyes cut to her sharply, but she was already smiling around her coffee.

“You want to be difficult,” he said evenly, “that’s your choice. But don’t mistake tolerance for weakness. I’m not one of your interns, Donato. I’m here to keep you alive. I’m not here to ask nicely while you risk your neck for the sake of image.”

She blinked, the smile fading. Then, quietly, she said, “You really don’t intimidate easily, do you?”

“No,” he replied. “But I do have a limit.”

She stared at him for a second longer than necessary. And he knew that underneath the sass and bite and layered defenses was a woman well worth having… he shouldn’t, but liked it and her.

The loft buzzed back to life when Maya arrived just after eight, laptop bag slung over her shoulder and coffee in hand. She barely waved at Mitch before she dropped into the open desk space at the far end of the room. Andi joined her there, leaning back in the leather office chair and booting up her tablet.

Mitch kept his distance, leaning against the pillar near the windows, arms crossed, eyes scanning. He didn’t have to be in the middle of the conversation to keep control. He just had to listen.

Maya pulled out a printout. “Here’s the rundown for today. We’ve got a meeting at the campaign office at ten, a luncheon speech for the downtown business coalition at noon, and a donor fundraiser at the Lakeview Club at six.”

“Locations?” Mitch asked without missing a beat.

Maya handed him a copy of the schedule. “Addresses, venue security contacts, estimated crowd size, all marked. I worked with Cerberus operations on it.”

Mitch nodded once, already planning the day in his head. “I’ll arrange transport. We’ll go tinted, armored, secondary route.”

“Cerberus has a vehicle?” Andi asked, glancing over at her tablet.

Mitch met her gaze. “I do.”

“You drive me now?”

“I drive you everywhere.”

Andi rolled her eyes but said nothing more.

Maya packed up her bag, clearly catching the shift in Andi’s posture. “I’ve got calls to make. I’m going to go out on the balcony to make them until you’re ready to leave.”

When she left the two of them alone again, the quiet wasn’t quite as comfortable.

Andi turned to him. “Do you do this with everyone?”

“What’s that?”

“Invade their space. Take over their life. Stare like you’re always five seconds away from giving orders they don’t want to follow.”

“Yes.”

“Do they always follow them?”

Mitch gave her the smallest hint of a grin—tight, restrained. “Eventually.”

The vehicle Cerberus issued him was exactly what the situation called for—black, armored, unmarked. No vanity plates. No flash. It looked like a delivery SUV with government secrets buried under the floorboards.

Mitch opened the passenger side door and waited. Andi stopped at the top of the short set of stairs outside her loft building, squinting into the sunlight, a file folder tucked under one arm and her phone in the other.

“You know, this ride doesn’t exactly scream campaign glamour,” she said.

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