Chapter 1
Chris
I fought my way through the crowd gathered in the Syntagma Square. Lifting my hand to shield the blinding midday sun from my eyes, I focused on the Greek ambassador taking his place at the microphone in front of the Old Royal Palace. We’d heard some chatter online about the attack planned by foreign enemies wishing to stir trouble for the U.S. and its allies. Several strikes were planned in low-risk countries to show the United States and anyone who allies with us that nowhere was safe.
“Mason, you on standby?”
“Not yet. This crowd is impossible to get through.”
“Hunter, you see anything?”
“Nothing yet.”
“We need to get up there. The shooter could be anywhere.” I pushed my way to the front of the crowd gathered, ignoring the scowls of disapproval at my rudeness.
“Are they sure about the location and time? This is the third event we’ve crashed with no shooter so far.”
“This is it. I’m sure.” I used my arms to spread the crowd, struggling past the mass of people gathered to hear the U.S. ambassador speak. “Out of the way. I need to get through.” I pushed a large man out of my path and he turned around swinging his fist toward my jaw. I dodged his blow and restrained his arm behind his back in one smooth move.
“Whoa, big guy. I am here on official U.S. business. Do you understand? I’m police.”
He quit fighting to get out of my grip and I released him so I could move on.
“Why do I always seem to get the violent ones?” I chuckled into my mic and could hear Mason laugh on the other end.
“Maybe you just have one of those faces,” Hunter's voice came through my headset.
“Very funny.”
I rolled my eyes before looking over my shoulder at every possible perch but there was no sign of a shooter. I pushed my way farther through the crowd, making my way toward the podium. Every few steps I took a look around, trying to find some sign to show me where a shooter might have perched. My path cleared when I made it to the stairs where the public wasn't allowed. I glanced around again and the smallest glint of metal in a fifth-floor window caught my eye.
“Gun!” My legs propelled me up the stairs of their own accord, I reached the podium and lunged at the ambassador. We tumbled to the ground, me landing on top of him. Cries from the crowd sounded distant and my arm burned from the impact.
The voice of one of the men on my team came through my earpiece. “We got him. I repeat, the threat is neutralized. Threat is neutralized.”
I lifted myself off the ambassador and spotted the blood covering his right shoulder. “Shit, sir. Are you hit?”
“It’s not mine.” He inclined his head toward my left bicep and for the first time I felt the full extent of the pain pouring into my arm.
“Damn it, you’ve been hit,” Mason ran to me and clasped his jacket over the bloody spot on my arm to stop the bleeding.
I gritted my teeth and spoke through the pain, “I’m okay. I don’t think it’s that bad.”
“We’ll let the medic determine that.”
“Fine. But first, get the ambassador inside.”
***
“Hey, Chris. Welcome back,” Several guys called out as I walked through the office.
“Thanks, Andrew, Dom, James.”
“How’s that arm?”
“Still stronger than yours,” I teased Dom as I walked past him toward Wendy's desk.
Wendy was Director Applegate's secretary and though she wasn't that many years older than most of us, she acted almost as mother hen to all us guys.
“Hey, Wendy.”
“Chris. I'm so glad you're back. It just isn't the same around here without you.”
“Thanks. It's good to be back.”
“How are you feeling? Fully recovered?”
“Yep. I'm back and ready for action.”
“Always so anxious to jump into an assignment.” Her warm smile was a nice change from the cold agency medical staff poking and prodding.
“It's what I live for.”
“Well then, you're in luck. The Director wants to see you in his office.”
“Uh oh. Am I in trouble?”
“I'm sure you'd never do anything to get in trouble for.”
I gave Wendy a wink and reached for the door.
I knocked on the heavy wood that stood between me and my boss. It was never a good thing to be called to Director Applegate’s office. The experience gave me flashbacks of my junior high principal's office. I hoped it was just to check in on my recovery and insure I was ready to get back in the field. The doctors had cleared me three days prior.
“Come in,” his voice boomed from behind the door and I opened it slowly.
“You wanted to see me?”
“Yes. Come in. Sit,” Director Applegate appeared solemn from across his desk as he hung up his office phone.
I took a seat, never letting my eyes leave him.
“How’s the arm?”
“Better, sir. Doctors say I’m good as new.”
“Good because I have an assignment for you.”
My shoulders relaxed as a rush of air left my body. “Oh. Okay.”
“This is a special assignment. You won’t have a regular handler for this. You will report directly to me.”
“Yes, sir.” I leaned forward in my seat, waiting to hear what exciting mission I’d be going on that the Director wouldn’t even let his trusted secretary pass along the assignment details.
“As the whole division is well aware, we’ve had to go into high alert after that hacker made it past our security and into personnel files. They accessed several employees, myself included.”
“Yes, sir. Do we have a lead?” I couldn’t wait to find the assholes who dared break into our computer network. It was an embarrassment to have part of the government’s security compromised.
“Tech is still combing through things. We are looking into the ring Olivia was part of, trying to find out how high the corruption goes.”
“You think they’re connected?”
“I’m not ruling it out but at this point, we just don’t know. It’s not like the agency hasn’t made its fair share of enemies over the years.”
“Just point me at them. I can’t wait to take those guys down.”
“I’m afraid it's not that simple.”
“Oh?” I sat back in my chair, partially deflated by the Director’s discouraging tone.
“Tech has been scouring the web for any chatter on who might have done this and what their objective was. Last night they picked up an exchange on the dark web that leads us to believe that whoever these people are, they were targeting me specifically and used the other files to throw us off.”
“You? Who are these men? I’ll take them out—”
“We don’t know who they are and until we do, my family and I will all be under security watch twenty-four-seven. I want you on that security team.”
“You want me to be your bodyguard?”
“Not me. O'Neill will be watching my back.”
“Then who?”
“Caroline.”
“Your daughter?” I’d never met the Director’s daughter. I only ever saw the professional headshot of her that sat on the Director’s desk. She had a pretty face but there was something in her expression. She looked annoyed or unhappy. Like taking the picture was beneath her. The same picture had been in his office for the past four years and was taken when she graduated high school. I was sure she’d changed a lot in the last four years. Hell, I probably wouldn’t even recognize her if I saw her in person. Other than the single picture, I wouldn’t have known she even existed if it weren’t for Wendy. The Director’s secretary liked to chat. I’d heard stories about the Director having to go get his daughter out of trouble from time to time.
“They could target Caroline to get to me. You know that’s how some of these people work.”
“So, you want me to babysit your daughter until we catch whoever’s behind this?”
“She’s almost twenty-three. It’s hardly babysitting. But, yes. I want you to act as her twenty-four-seven security detail until we are sure she’s safe. I wanted to send her out of town to stay with my in-laws out in Wyoming but she wouldn’t have it.”
She wouldn’t have it? The fact that a twenty-two-year-old girl was calling the shots over the Director was not lost on me.
“Sir, if I may speak frankly...?”
“Of course.”
“Am I being punished?”
“Punished? Why on earth would you think that?” Director Applegate sat back in his chair, studying me with narrowed eyes.
“It’s just—being put on babysitting duty...” I didn’t want to offend him but with an assignment like this, it seemed as though somehow, I already had.
He laughed. A deep belly laugh I’d only heard on rare occasions. “No, you’re not being punished. Although I can see why it might feel that way. Caroline is the joy of my life. She’s my little girl. I want my best watching her until this threat is taken care of and after your actions in Athens, I can’t think of anyone I’d rather watch after her.”
I should be honored by this assignment. The Director was trusting me with his only child. But somehow it still felt more like a punishment than a reward. “When do I start?”
“Immediately. I had an agent pick her up early this morning as soon as the threat was verified. She’s waiting in the council room. I wanted to talk to you about the mission before bringing her in on it. I'll need you to stay with her whenever I'm not home and anytime she is out and about even if she is with me. The house has a well-equipped security system to help keep her safe but when we are out, I want someone whose only job is to keep her safe.”
“Yes, sir.”
Director Applegate pressed the call button on his office phone and spoke into the speaker. “Wendy, please send Caroline in.”
“Yes, sir,” Wendy’s voice came through the speaker with a mix of crackling white noise.
Moments later there was a quiet rapping on the door.
“Come in.” With the Director’s command, the door slowly opened to reveal Wendy. She held open the door and looked behind her as she stepped out of the way.
“Right this way.”
“Thank you.” A sweet sultry voice came from just beyond my view.
Every thought of babysitting was knocked out of my mind once my gaze landed on the knockout who walked through that door. I stood in silence taking in every lush curve of the tall, goddess of a woman. Her v-neck showed just enough cleavage to leave a man wanting more. Her legs went on for miles before disappearing under the black skirt that led somewhere, I imagined was as close to heaven as a man like me would ever get.
I'd always been a shallow man when it came to my dating life. I made no effort to hide that fact. But, as the Director cleared his throat, I realized it was his daughter I was leering at like the wolf in the nightclub cartoon. I rolled my tongue up off the floor and sucked my eyes back into my head before turning my attention to the Director who hadn’t missed a thing. He eyed me with a knowing look and drummed his fingers on his desk.
I cleared my throat and rose from my seat to offer her my hand. “I’m Chris.”
“Caroline.” She barely took time to shake my hand before heading straight to her father’s desk. “Dad, I don’t need some bodyguard following me around all the time. I barely get any freedom as it is and now you want to have me under guard?”
“It’s just until we sort out the validity of this threat.”
She didn’t back down, mounting her hands on her hips. “How am I supposed to go out with my friends or on dates with a babysitter tagging along?”
Things were getting pretty uncomfortable in the office. I felt like an intruder on a private moment between father and daughter. As hard as it was, I had to say something to get myself out of there. “Maybe I should go let you two have time to discuss this.”
Director Applegate shot a glance in my direction but quickly returned his glare to his daughter. “This is not up for discussion or debate. I may go easy on you and let you have your way most of the time but I will not compromise when it comes to your safety. You will go along with this or I’ll put you in protective custody until this is all over. That would make it even harder to hang out with your friends or that future inmate you call a boyfriend.”
“You can’t control me forever.”
“No, but I can damn well try.”
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