Lisa Phillips - Security Detail

Jan Barton was the priority now. Kayla had seen bruises like that before, and the residue of what looked like a bad night. Way worse than the one she’d had this evening, even considering her office was toast and she smelled like smoke.

At least she could help Jan Barton, and then something good would come out of this night. Kayla had been through too much to settle for an old crush reappearing and taking up all of her thoughts and emotions. Conner had been everything she’d ever wanted.

Now all Kayla wanted to do was help other women so that none of them ever had to feel scared again. She knew what real fear felt like, and it had nearly crippled her—until someone had shown up to help her. That was who Conner was to her, the hero he’d been all those years ago.

She didn’t need him in her life now. Kayla was too busy being that hero to others.

* * *

Conner waited outside Jan Barton’s house. Kayla was helping her pack her things, but only after Conner had checked that the house was clear. The woman seemed nice enough, if beaten up and exhausted from a life lived in fear of her drug-addicted boyfriend. Now Conner was outside in case one of the boyfriend’s friends showed up.

The two women exited the house, and Conner followed them to the truck. If not for the lack of a suit and earpiece, he’d have looked exactly like the Secret Service agent he was. But the casual clothes Andis’s men wore meant they would never trust an expensive suit. That was Andis’s dress code, not theirs. So Conner wore jeans and a shirt, like he did on a lot of his assignments. To blend in with the riff-raff.

Conner settled in the front seat and started the engine. He glanced back at Jan, just for a second, to make sure she was all right, but without scaring her by being an overbearing male.

His gaze snagged hers. Conner looked out the front windshield again. Something was very, very wrong.

“Ready?”

Conner glanced at Kayla and put the car in Drive. “Sure.”

She frowned, probably at the fact that his smile was completely fake. But Conner couldn’t do anything else. This was the kind of person Kayla wanted to help? Conner couldn’t decide which he disliked more, Kayla’s being in the car with someone as off as Jan Barton or the fact that the sheriff brought these people to her.

“So where is this place?” If they were taking Jan to the property Kayla had bought, he needed to know where he was going.

“The motel on Fourth Street.”

“A motel?”

“For tonight. I gave Jan a phone number, and she’ll call the house manager tomorrow. That way, I’m never directly connected to the place.” Kayla smiled. “Plausible deniability.”

And yet if Andis had found out that Kayla was helping women...

His wife and daughter. Of course. Conner wanted to kick himself. Andis’s wife and daughter had “moved away” a few months ago. What if Kayla had, in fact, helped them escape? The man might have lied to save face even while he began a search for them.

Was it that search that brought Manny to Kayla’s office? Had that same hunt meant Conner had blown his cover tonight? She couldn’t have known exactly how dangerous of a man Andis Bamir was. And if she had helped them, it gave the man a reason to want her dead. Andis wasn’t bothered at all that his wife and daughter had left. In fact, it had only given him the ability to do what he did overtly instead of hiding it for their sake. If Andis felt anything, it was likely only that he’d been bested by Kayla because she had successfully helped them escape. He could want revenge.

Could he have been looking for them and kept it under the radar?

Conner needed to find a photo of Andis’s wife and daughter online and show it to Kayla. If she had helped them, it would at least solve one mystery of the evening.

Kayla walked Jan to her motel room, and the two hugged. Still, even with that display of solidarity, Conner couldn’t help thinking something about Jan Barton was...out of place. He shook off the idea. It had been a weird day for sure. Now it was the middle of the night and he needed to get Kayla home. She could get some sleep and he could sit outside in his truck and keep watch. Just in case.

After she’d buckled herself back in, Conner said, “Long day ahead of you tomorrow.”

She nodded. “I’ll have to make that statement to the sheriff and call my insurance agent, see how much work I can salvage. I back up at home, but my laptop is at the office. Maybe I’ve lost all my files from today.” She sighed. “I really didn’t need this. It’ll be expensive to rebuild.”

Conner pulled out onto the road. “I’m sure your father will help you out.”

Kayla was his only daughter, and despite her wildness as a teen, he did dote on her. More so given that her mother had passed away. Some men distanced themselves from their loved ones after a loss. Conner had seen it in others—whether the loss was death or divorce didn’t matter. It was all a type of grief to admit it was the end of what they’d thought their lives were going to be.

Kayla’s father had been no different, though he had been an excellent president. Professional. Cordial to those who worked under him. Some presidents either ignored their Secret Service agents or treated them with outright disdain. It had been nice for Conner that the first president he had served under was a man who had respect for everyone, even those who could be construed as “beneath” him.

Conner hit the highway and pressed down on the gas, eager to get where they were going.

Kayla sighed. “Is it wrong that I don’t want my father to help me?” Her voice was softer than it had been. “I mean, I’m a grown woman. If I told him what happened tonight, he would send a detail of Secret Service agents my way and insist they didn’t leave my side until the threat against me had passed.”

Conner didn’t think that was a bad idea but got the feeling it wasn’t what Kayla wanted to hear. “What do you want to do?”

“I’d like to live my own life and make my own decisions. I have to be strong enough to get through this on my own, or when a stiff wind blows through, I’ll fall over and my life will disintegrate.”

“I don’t think a lack of strength has ever been your problem, Kayla.”

She shifted in the seat. “Do you really mean that?”

Conner shrugged. “Of course.”

Kayla slumped back down in her seat. “Sure, I guess.”

“You don’t think so?” He’d seen her weather things that would have broken most people, and yet here she was. A lawyer. A beautiful woman who could hold herself together when her office was burning and people were coming after them. Why couldn’t she see that?

“You of all people know that what we show the world is usually not what’s underneath the surface. No one wants to know the dark things, the parts of us that are terrified to show themselves.”

She thought there was darkness in her? “Kayla—”

“Don’t worry about it, okay? I do what I can for women who need help, and I like my job. I make a small difference, but it’s still a difference.” She glanced out the window. “It just has to be enough for me. That’s what I’m struggling with.”

Conner frowned. Perhaps it was fatigue making her doubt herself. He didn’t see where she got the idea she didn’t do enough. His whole existence right now consisted of pretending to be a bad guy—which meant he had to do bad things so they wouldn’t figure him out—all for the chance to catch a real bad guy. He wasn’t a force for good in the world, just justice.

Lights in his rearview mirror.

Conner switched the angle down so they didn’t glare in his eyes and distract him.

The lights moved to the left and shone in his wing mirror. Some guy with a problem. Conner slowed a little and moved to the side of his lane so the person could pass if he wanted to. But he didn’t.