Page 3 of Stand By Me

Something unclenched in Clay's gut.

Maybe this whole thing would be even better than expected.

* * *

An hour and a half later, they were all in the conference room for what Clay had already learned was a Monday tradition—everyone from the field and comms personnel who was available had to be there for a status report on all the ongoing and upcoming assignments.

"Okay, let's move on to the new projects." Kalei stood up. "We have a Smithsonian gala up for grabs, since Jeremy wants to experience things from the other side for a change."

People laughed, and Clay glanced at Jeremy, who shrugged.

"'Wants' is a bit of a stretch here," he said. "But yeah, Pascal would kill me if I was working on this one, as well."

"The man wants to celebrate his success. As he should." Martinez raised his hand. "Anyway, I'm available, so all I need is a partner to get this show on the road. It's expected to be bigger than the benefit gala we'd covered last time, and it's likely we'll need more people later on, but that's TBD."

Just like that, Clay found his perfect opening.

"I'm game," he said, not expecting all three dozen people present to turn their heads his way.Damn. "It's been a while, but I have experience with these kinds of things."

He swallowed back a groan. Why the hell did he feel like he had to explain himself? He was pretty sure most of the others knew his background at this point, so expanding on it could be seen as bragging. The only way he could prove his worth was on the job, with time.

Kalei nodded at him, though.

"Great. Martinez, Clay, you're on the Smithsonian gala, then. We'll talk on Wednesday, let Vic know he needs to fit you in. Now, the last thing—"

Martinez reached out over Jeremy sitting between them, his fist raised.

"Let's do it," he whispered. "I hope you're ready to piss off some of your former Secret Service colleagues, because they usually hate us."

Clay chuckled, but bumped his fist with Diego's. "Oh, I'm ready."

He doubted any of the agents he'd worked with were still there, but it didn't matter. He hadn't looked back even once since he'd left the Secret Service to take on the private assignment of protecting Jake Wilkinson, the president's son who was about to lose the agency's protection and who had been Clay's charge for years at that point.

He hadn't stopped being Clay's charge until around six months ago—at least officially. If someone was to ask Troy, Jake's partner, he'd say they were still working on severing that relationship.

Clay could already picture Troy's face when he learned that Clay's first official assignment would lead him to Jake's workplace. There was no way he'd believe it wasn't on purpose.

As if.

Clay really was trying, and while he was still messing up at least half the time, he couldn't afford to fail at work, too, that was for sure.

He needed this, Smithsonian or not.

He needed a new start.

CHAPTER TWO

Mario de Silva should have been at his desk right now, going over the graphics for the dinosaur trivia game the museum was developing for the kids. Instead, he'd been tasked with showing around the security team for the upcoming gala.

Shouldn't they know all of this already? There'd been two benefits here in the last six months.

"Don't frown so much, it's not a good look on you," Carina, the front desk manager and his friend, told him from her seat on the other side of the counter.

"Wasn't it you who told Andie last week it's not her job to look pretty for other people?" Mario tossed back, his gaze fixed at the entrance. They were supposed to be here any minute now.

"It was, and it isn't. But you're going to scare off the visitors with that brow game you have going on. You don't have to be pretty, but you don't need to come across like you're ready to murder someone, either. You're a part of our PR team, after all." Carina reached out and nudged him in the shoulder. "Come on, spill. What made you so cranky?"

Mario only needed to send her a look for her to figure it out.

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