Page 28 of The Bodyguard

And that was when she knew—the leak wasn’t just inside her campaign, it was much closer than that.

6

ANDI

The following day they headed to the campaign office—Mitch ensuring there was no one there that shouldn’t be. Andi waited until Mitch turned his back. Thirty seconds. That was all she needed.

Maya had just stepped into the supply alcove at the edge of the campaign office, pulling her phone out like she needed a breather. Andi didn’t blame her. The atmosphere had been thick all morning. Half the staff tiptoed around like they were afraid to breathe too loud, and the other half looked like they expected Mitch to jump out from behind a filing cabinet and start waterboarding interns.

Which, to be fair, wasn’t entirely beyond the realm of possibilities. Andi cut across the room under the guise of grabbing her notepad, brushing past the door to the alcove. She slipped in, quiet and fast.

Maya looked up, brows raised. “Trouble?”

Andi kept her voice low. “You need to check access logs again. Every sign-in. Every open file. Look for off-hour entry to the comms folder—campaign routes, talking points, anything we’ve sent out in the last week.”

Maya frowned. “You think it’s one of ours?”

“I think someone got inside without tripping a single alarm. That takes intel. Internal intel. Just… don’t run it through the mainframe.”

“Andi…”

“I need you to do this quietly.”

Maya hesitated, then gave a sharp nod. “I’ll start pulling names.”

Andi turned to go, and found herself face-to-face with Mitch’s chest. He was standing there. Silent. Blocking the doorway, arms crossed, eyes unreadable.

Andi felt that stare as her stomach dropped.

“Maya,” Mitch said evenly, not taking his eyes off Andi, “give us the room.”

Maya bolted.

Andi brushed past him and stepped into the hall like nothing had happened. “We’re in the middle of a walkthrough…”

“No. We’re done here.” His voice was low. Controlled. But she recognized the steel in it. He wasn’t making a suggestion. He was issuing a command.

She clenched her jaw. “I’m not finished.”

“You are now.”

They didn’t speak on the walk to the SUV. The silence stretched so tight it made her teeth hurt. When he opened the passenger door, she paused, looking him square in the eye.

“You’re pissed.”

“I’m furious,” he said calmly.

She climbed in. As soon as he rounded the front of the SUV, closed the doors and the vehicle pulled away from the curb, the explosion came.

“What the hell were you thinking?” Mitch growled, turning toward her in the seat. “You staged a covert meeting with your chief of staff inside a building I’ve already flagged for internal compromise.”

“I staged nothing. I had a conversation.”

He scoffed. “You waited until my back was turned, hid behind a corner wall, and whispered instructions as if you were passing classified intelligence. That was deliberate concealment.”

“Because you won’t let me breathe unless you’re watching it happen.”

“I’m watching because someone is trying to put a bullet through your skull, Andi.”

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