Page 10 of Kissing Kayley
I’d seen that exact scenario play out countless times over my years on protective details. Not just at a presidential family level, but family of senators, congressmen, cabinet members, SCOTUSjustices, and others. The problem children were usually grown, single, childless children of those main protectees.
Someone used to going wherever they wanted whenever they wanted. Someone not used to hearing the words “no” from anyone regarding their movements or decisions. Someone who usually thrived on drawing attention to themselves who was then forced into remaining low-key and out of the public eye as much as possible.
Even high-level protectees who understood and agreed they needed a detail frequently chafed under the burden.
But not Kayley. She never tried to sneak out or duck her agents, even though I knew she hated the disruption. I wished I could take credit for that, but it was more accurately attributed first to her intelligence, and secondly her devotion to her brother, heeding his wishes for her to be safe.
Meaning one of our stops today was having brunch at a small road-side diner nestled against the back side of one of the national forests.
She hadn’t enjoyed a “private” meal in public since being assigned a detail and I knew she’d enjoy the treat.
Being a weekday, and midway between breakfast and lunch, we were two of only five patrons in the place, and the food was as delicious as the online reviews I’d scoured promised.
The playful smile Kayley flashed me from across the table threatened to thicken my cock in my jeans. “No hidden snipers, huh?” she softly asked as she picked up her coffee cup. “No shadows? No unmarked cars? Not a single suit in sight for real?” She took a sip.
“We are alone,” I assured her. “Other than the people here.”
“How’d you manage to get me here without the press catching on? Don’t they usually track plane transponders for people like me?”
Not just the press, but any whackadoodle with an internet connection and knowledge of the publicly available flight tracking apps.
But I didn’t say that.
“They do,” I said. “But you were ticketed commercially on a commuter flight to Las Vegas. We had an agent from your detail pretend to be you. That’s who went on ahead of you to the airport. Airport security there met her at the TSA checkpoint, took her to the plane, and in Las Vegas they escorted her off the plane. Far as anyone knows, that was you. Plus, we salted a couple of tips that you were heading there.”
“How’d you manage that? With IDs and stuff?”
“You had a ticket, and she also had one under her legal name. But we pulled strings so they also scanned your ticket at the boarding gate, as if you got on the flight, just in case. To keep the SOB count accurate an air marshal flew with her, unticketed. We arranged that, too.”
“SOB count?”
“Souls On Board.”
I loved the little dimple that appeared on her left cheek when she smirked. “Sneaky. So I’m all alone with a big bad wolf in the woods?” She tipped her head toward the windows, where we had a breathtaking view of the lush forest. “Should I worry about being eaten?” She softly laughed. “Actually, I think I’d worry more if I wasn’t eaten by you.”
I reached across the table and took her free hand in one of mine, turning it over, and with my other I traced my fingers across and up her palm to her wrist, my index finger brushing against the delicate stainless steel chain bracelet with its small, round pendant.
“Leo can always find you, don’t worry,” I said. “You know that.”
She sighed as she looked at the bracelet. “Yeah, that was the compromise. I told him I didn’t want a tracker but he said he’d tranq me and make me wear one of those radio collars like the wolves and bears at Yellowstone if I didn’t wear this.” She met my gaze again, her brown eyes full of mirth and mischief. “And damned if I don’t believe the rat bastard wouldn’t do exactly that.”
“Oh, he absolutely would.”
And I would help him do it, too, but I was smart enough not tosaythat. I didn’t actively track her but I had an arrangement with Leo that if I asked the head of her detail for her whereabouts, they’d tell me.
Professional courtesy.
However, I’d never taken advantage of that because I trusted her, and before now I’d never had to worry about her safety.
I had confidence in my coworkers assigned to her detail, all of them personally known to me and Leo. And I trusted her not to sneak around behind my back with anyone, even though her detail was obliged to keep her activities secret if she requested it, short of her engaging in anything illegal.
If I didn’t trust her, I had no business being in a relationship with her. And I trusted her completely.
I also held no illusions that if she asked Leo to find exactly where I was, she could and would do it.
The benefit of me having faith in and taking comfort from the skills and training of my coworkers meant that I could devote my focus tomyjob and not be constantly distracted worrying about her being somewhere I wasn’t able to protect her.
If Leo’s arrangements couldn’t keep her safe, no one could keep her safe.
