“Morning,” I greeted, eyeing the bag of coffee. Mm, French dark roast. Suddenly the early morning didn’t suck so much. “Which conference room is the meeting in?”
“It’s in Cap’s office, actually, and you’d better hustle to make it on time. He’s got a full schedule today, so be warned—he hit the ground running in Commander-in-Chief mode.”
“Your dad’s office?” I forgot all about the coffee, and belatedly it hit me that I hadn’t seen any of my fellow PSI colleagues around, which was inevitable when a big meeting was called.
Unless…
This wasn’t a big meeting.
It was a private meeting, just between me and Cap.
Well, didn’t I feel special.
“Yep, my dad’s office where he’s waiting for you. It’s eight o’clock, Luke,” she added, sliding me a mild glance. “I’ll bring you two some coffee when it’s ready.”
With a nod I headed toward Cap’s office in the back of the building. This was going to be about as much fun as getting mauled by a fucking bear, but it’d be worse if I ducked out. Not that I ever would. Even at the worst of times I wasn’t the ducking-out kind. If Cap had words for me, I wanted to hear them straight up. And if hearing them turned me into a bear myself, so much the better.
The interior of Private Security International was deliberately complicated, made up of a labyrinth of hallways that led to four conference rooms, private offices, a fully equipped gym, a locker room, an armory, a huge computer-communications hub where everyone currently under surveillance by PSI –including Eden—was monitored, and a garage that contained just about every armored vehicle that could legally be obtained by a non-military corporation. If anyone got it into their heads to attack Cap Fogelmann’s citadel of private security, they’d get lost in the hallways, trapped in one of the corners or bottlenecks, and made to be unalive PDQ.
Such was the world of Private Security International.
I loved it, it suited me right down to the ground, but at the moment it was the one place on earth I didn’t want to be.
Setting my expression into a careful blank, I knocked on Cap’s door and stepped inside when I heard him grant entry.
“Good morning, Luke. Have a seat.” Horn-rimmed glasses in place and navy-blue suit spotless and looking like it had just come fresh from the cleaners, Cap glanced up at him from busily typing on a wireless keyboard in front of three monitors. “Tell me Mary Jane’s got coffee coming soon. I’ve got a feeling it’s going to be a twelve-cup day.”
“Coffee’s on its way.” On alert, I settled into a no-nonsense seat in front of Cap’s no-nonsense desk. That was who he was, this military-hardened man who’d founded PSI, so no-nonsense was the best way to go when it came to handling him. “Thinking this day is going to suck is only going to make it a self-fulfilling prophecy.”
“So what’s the answer, telling myself that every single day is going to be filled with nothing but rainbows and kittens?”
“I’m a dog kind of guy myself, but you do you.” I laced my hands in front of me and scanned the desk’s neat surface, looking for clues. As expected, he hadn’t allowed me even a glimpse of the hand he was holding.Fuck it. “What’s going on, Cap?”
“That’s what I’d like to know, actually. Maybe you can help me out.” Entering a few more keystrokes, Cap glanced up at a monitor before he turned it on its base so that I could see it. On the screen, I watched myself in Eden’s boring stage set of an office. Even without the sound, I could feel the sexual tension radiating off that video as I watched myself approach the camera on her bookshelf. Yesterday-me waved like a smug asshole straight into the camera lens before piling a bunch of books in front of it.
At least I’d done a thorough job of blocking its view. Not even light got through my book barrier. Cool.
“I put the books out of the way of the camera when I left the office about an hour later,” I offered blandly, keeping a tight rein on my shit. But I’d be a lying bastard if I said I wasn’t pissed off. “Did Kythe show you that part?”
“That’s not the point.”
I knew that, but I had a pretty solid point as well. “The protectee wasn’t in any danger at any time during that hour, since she was with me,andhad a house full of agents completing the electronic surveillance around her place.” Yet Kythe just had to run to tell Daddy. What a little bitch.
“Don’t snow me by bringing in shit that has nothing to do with your specific actions, Luke, and don’t even think about spinning your behavior as no big deal,” Cap added when I opened my mouth to do just that. “You’re not new to this scene. Hell, you’ve been with me from the beginning. You know the rules better than just about anyone under this roof, yet you went and broke the most important rule there is.”
What the actualfuck. “Ineverput the protectee in danger.”
“When you get personal with a protectee, you put the protectee in danger because you lose perspective. That’s just about as unacceptable as it gets.”
Goddamn it. “I wasn’t even on the clock when I went over to Eden’s yesterday. Shit, I took her to the Thunder Club to meet my mother. You can’t get any more off the clock than that.”
“And you can’t get any more personal than that,” came the flat reply. “If you’re already at the point where you’re having Eden Steadfast meet your mother, you are seriously compromised.”
“I’m not—”
“As of now you’re relieved of duty when it comes to being an active field agent on the Steadfast security detail,” Cap said, turning the monitor back around with the air of a man who’d just slammed a door. “I never should have agreed to let you be a part of her security detail in the first place, since that’s not your area of expertise. When you asked for that assignment, I should have seen it for the red flag it was. Luckily I see it now, so I’m getting you out of the field so you won’t be any more of a hindrance.”
If I thought I’d been pissed off before, his words rocketed me to another fucking level. “Too far, Cap,” I growled, not even giving a shit when my boss’s head snapped around at my tone. “Way too fucking far. Calling me a hindrance when nothing has happened to Eden, or anyone around her including the PSI team, is just about as much bullshit as I’ve ever heard come out of you. You don’t want me to be around her while I’m a member of PSI? Fine. I quit.” With that, I pushed to my feet while Cap gaped at me.