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“Tonight, she and her friends are staying in so we just need to make sure the grounds stay quiet and no one gets in or out. You got that? No one enters on my watch,” he says while lifting his belt once more over his beer belly in a portrayal of self-proclaimed importance.
Smiling wide, I say, “no one gets in or out. Got it, sir.”
“All right then, let’s introduce you to the men. Get you suited up in uniform along with a Taser. All of us carry them, but the veterans have loaded weapons. The rest of us have the communication lines here, he points to his earpiece, and a receiver. “We check in with our group on the regular, and report back. If we see something we call for reinforcements. Come on.” He waves a hand. “We’ll talk and walk.”
We go outside and start walking up the path to the house. As we walk, he’s rattling on and on about the job. I half pay attention. I’m far more focused on how many windows there are, what the access entries could be, how many men are patrolling and where. And then I see her. Sitting outside in a patio chair soaking up the sun.
Templeton points to my girl. We’re a few hundred feet from where she’s reading. The sun is shining off her bright, red hair like a homing beacon calling to that place deep within me that knows its mate. She’s ethereal in a pair of jeans and a tank. A pair of sunglasses perched on her perfect button nose. I want to go to her, step up and take her.
“That’s the one I was talking about. Name’s Gillian Callahan, but she’s the soon-to-be Mrs. Davis.” He points her out, but I know where she is. I felt her the second we walked up. “Oh, and that’s Mr. Davis.” I watch with barely controlled hate as the bane of my existence exits the French doors and hands my girl a drink. Then he leans down and kisses her for long moments. She accepts his kiss, looking to be really into kissing him back. The rage swirling just below the surface turns white hot and spreads like the plague over my senses. I thought she understood her place. Her lips should not be on another man’s…ever. I’m going to have to punish her severely for that transgression.
Without realizing it, I start walking toward the couple my hand in my pocket ready to pull out my knife. A firm grip pulls me back. “Elliot, man, you can’t approach them. This is their home. We’re supposed to be on the peripheral so they know we’re here, but we never ever intrude on their lives.”
I suck in a slow breath. “Sorry, I was just thinking I should introduce myself.”
Templeton shakes his head. “Nope, we’re invisible to them unless shit goes down. Other than that, we do not make eye contact, stay close but not so close that they feel your eyes on them, but that they know you’re there and feel safe. That’s our job. We protect and serve,” he says with a heaping dose of pride as if he was a fucking officer of the law. He didn’t go through the years of training to become a civil servant to “Protect and serve” like he boasts. He’s a god damned rent-a-cop with a fat gut and a false sense of importance.
Without voicing my real opinions I look at him and nod vigorously as if he’s really got to the heart of me. “I completely understand, Sir. Do not approach. Stay close but not enough to warrant concern. Got it.”
He claps a hand on my shoulder. “Good man, now let’s go meet some of your team and saddle you up with a trainer.”
Templeton leads me along the path, and I keep my eyes glued to Gillian and that motherfucker. He’s sitting on her lounge chair with her feet in his lap. She laughs at something, and he brings her foot up to his mouth and kisses her ankle. She rewards him with peals of laughter. I miss her laugh. When Gillian found something funny she’d laugh with her entire being. It’s been a long time since I’ve heard it. Soon.
I look over at her one more time before we go around the building and she’s out of sight.
Soon my love. I’ll have you back.
Chase
Closing the door to the home office most of the way, I sit down with Thomas Redding, Agent Brennen, and Jack on the u-shaped, leather couches. I left the door slightly open so that I could keep an ear on Gillian. If she happens to look out the door, I want her to know I’m close. Being away from me has been extremely difficult for her, and I can’t complain. Having her wanting me close at all times right now works for me. Yes, it makes me a sick fuck that I, too, am having trouble having her out of my sights, but we’ve been dealing with a traumatic situation, and I have no desire to have her anywhere but near me. It will be so much easier to work through when we find McBride.
“So, what do you have?” I ask the three men.
Agent Brennen speaks first. “Not much. We expected him to go to the funeral, but our snipers didn’t pick up any suspicious activity, no one approached her who wasn’t part of her normal crowd and the ride to and from didn’t have any unmarked vehicles to trace.”
Thomas takes the pause in Brennen’s reiteration of the obvious to make his own opinions known. “We think he might have gone underground or left town to stay off the radar for a while.”
I grind my teeth, and my jaw aches with the amount of times I’ve done that very thing over the past three weeks.
“Jack,” I look at my most trusted confidant. The one man I trust beyond all others. “Do you think he’s gone underground or left town?”
His steely eyes focus on mine. The slicked back hair and his sheer width make him a very menacing individual. He shakes his head in a tight movement. “No, I don’t. If anything, he’s closer than he’s ever been.” My stomach drops. “McBride has anticipated almost every move we’ve made. Now that we know who he is, he’ll be doing more to disguise himself, but he’s confident. Overly so. He didn’t think we’d figure out who he was, or that we’d find out where he was hiding her. He won’t make that mistake again.”
“So what are you saying?” I push my hands through my hair and grip the roots.
Jack leans against the side of the desk. “She goes nowhere without the best protection.”
“We have bodyguards on her twenty-four/seven. What more can we do?” My tone is harsh but Jack knows it’s not him, that it’s directed at the severity of the situation.
“Sir, she needs the best. I’m the best. She goes nowhere without me until he’s found. Including you, sir.”
I open my eyes wide and look at him. “What does that mean? Are you insinuating I can’t protect the woman I love? I’d kill any man who comes close to her.” I mean it with every fiber of my being, and Jack just crosses his arms and tilts his head.
“That’s exactly why you are not going to be able to protect her. She needs someone on her at all times who has an eye on everything around her, not her as a person. I will be watching every move that’s made near her, the people she comes into contact with and anticipating everything. You will be focused on her emotional needs and your connection with her. I don’t have those feelings about her. For me, she’s a job, and my job is to make sure that she stays alive and within our circle of protection.”
I sit down next to Thomas and put my head in my hands. “Fine, whatever. I just want this madman found. Now. What do we need to do?”
“We need to find a way to get him to come into the light.” Thomas says.
