Page 1 of Kissing Kayley
CHAPTER 1
Kayley
Then
Huddled and cowering in the pitch-black depths of a supply closet in my office while hand-to-hand combat took place in the lobby was not my idea of a good time on any day of the week.
Goddammit, Elliot.
You would think having the President of the United States as your future brother-in-law would be kind of cool.
You would also be wrong.
I heard shouting and the sounds of a door being flung open and hitting the wall behind it, followed by jumbled, shouted orders. Then unintelligible radio traffic before things went disturbingly quiet.
Finally, a knock on the supply closet door that made me jump andmeepin terror.
“Dr. Cruz? Special Agent Hynes. It’s safe to come out now.”
Special Agent Andrea Hynes was the same agent who, several minutes ago, when the yelling started in the waiting room, had picked me up and practically carried me to the closet, tossed meinside and pulled the door shut behind me while ordering me to bolt it from the inside.
That she was shorter and smaller than me and yet possessed that much strength was quite impressive.
I stood and used the flashlight on my phone to locate the closet’s light switch. Then I unlocked the sturdy barrel bolt on the inside of the steel-reinforced door and opened it to find two other Secret Service agents from my detail standing behind Hynes.
“Is anyone hurt?” I asked.
“No, ma’am,” Hynes said. She was my lead agent today, and second in charge of my detail. “We’ve neutralized the subject and taken him into custody. He’s been removed from the office.”
I slumped against the door frame. “I think I’ll cancel the rest of my appointments for today and go home early.” I only had two more, and they were long-time clients who weren’t in crisis. I knew I could switch them to telehealth visits if they didn’t want to reschedule, and the charting I still needed to do I could finish at home.
“Is that a schedule change request, ma’am?” Hynes asked.
I considered it and nodded. “I think so. I mean, yeah, it is. Sorry.”
“No problem, ma’am.” She spoke into her wrist mic and called for my driver and the rest of the detail to prepare to move out once I was ready to leave.
Even though their literal job was keeping me safe as I went about my life, I still hated throwing unexpected changes at my detail if I could avoid it. I felt… guilty.
Theydidn’t make me feel that way—that was totally amething. My tax dollars at work, amirite?
Goddamn you, Elliot.
I finally stepped out of the closet doorway and peeked out my office door to look down the hall. Several of my office staffand fellow practitioners stood in their respective doorways, all staring toward the waiting room area.
“What the hell happened?” I asked.
Dr. Brian McDermott, one of my partners, turned at the sound of my voice.
I spotted the playful smirk gnarled across his grizzled features. “Maybe you have a not-so-secret admirer, Kayley.”
“I doubt that,” I said. “What did he want?” I asked Hynes.
“He said he wanted you to deliver a message,” she said. “He’ll be interrogated but he appears to be working alone and probably has a serious mental-health issue.” She stepped around me and headed down the hallway to speak to another agent in the lobby.
“Well, not like that’s what we deal with here on a daily basis,” I drawled.
Brian snorted. “Yes, but most of our clients don’t bring sharpened cutlery with them to make their point.”
