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He nodded, looking about as pleased by this as she felt. At least there was the dog, she consoled herself. That was one friendly face.
Kane was thinking a similar thought, sending a prayer of thanks for Bud who would make this job somewhat tolerable.
As much as he didn’t want to be on her detail, she was the main target. He’d have to keep close to her at all times.
Oh, what joy that was sure to bring.
10
Against the rising sun, Kane took off on his morning jog along the beach.
With the near silence of the world and nothing but the waves lapping on the shore, breaking dawn was his favorite time of the day.
Out here, he could release whatever stress the day ahead might bring.
After he’d left Lexi, he’d spent the rest of the night crewing up. Wilson had a database of men he’d previously vetted, a handful of whom Kane knew from working the same events with them. He’d called up a dozen or so of them, explaining the job until he’d sourced the ten men he needed.
Despite the lateness of the hour and the lack of notice, it hadn’t been as much of a hard sell as he’d expected — turned out, there were a lot of Mandy Gray fans in the world — many of whom, couldn’t wait to help her. A few were curious about the daughter too, possibly wondering if she would be half as gorgeous as her mother though of course, they knew better than to ask.
He’d gone over his security plans then packaged up the soda can he would be sending for analysis. He’d wanted to unflatten the can to examine it further, but not at the risk of rubbing off any potential prints. That was best left to the experts.
Wilson had a forensic lab he contracted for moments like this, though Kane wasn’t sure how helpful it would really be. Even if they managed to pull prints off the thing, they would only be useful if a matching pair were already in the system. Still, it gave them something to work on and bigger cases had been broken on lesser evidence than this.
With his team sorted and security plans revised, he had finally fallen asleep. At some point in the night, he had woken up as he usually did. Sleep was something that didn’t come easily anymore. As soon as he closed his eyes, the memories would inevitably come and with them, the emotions he’d managed to bury during his waking hours raised their ugly heads.
Maybe one day he’d sleep through the night. Until then, he took each day as they came, one breath at a time.
His feet pounded the cool sand. He ran until his chest heaved and sweat dripped down his face. Part of his obsession with working out came from a need to keep his body in its prime. After all, a man was only as capable as his body.
When the sun was over the horizon, he called it quits and took a short swim in the sea to wash off. The shower was one of the worst things about living in the trailer, and he much preferred the refreshing coldness of the ocean to wake him fully.
He guzzled down a protein shake while Bud demolished a dish of raw food he’d prepared the night before. Less than an hour later, they were at the Rockefellers’ home with his team already at work patrolling the property and laying the groundwork for the new cameras and alarms.
At precisely eight AM Lexi appeared at the security base.
Her hair had been pulled back into a pony, her face scrubbed free of makeup. She wore a pair of old jeans, a faded T-shirt with Converse sneakers yet somehow she still managed to look like the prettiest girl alive — if not a pretty grumpy one. She didn’t seem too happy to see him, though she managed a smile for Bud.
“Morning.”
She seemed to have directed the greeting to his dog, who apparently wasn’t picking up on the negative vibes. His tail thumped on the floor with abandon.
“Are you ready to leave?” Possibly he should make more of an effort, though where would he start? Small talk was never his forte.
“Yes, though I’d prefer to go alone, without all this fanfare.”
I’d prefer that, too.
Wisely, he kept the thought to himself. He nodded at one of the members of his team, a wiry Asian man in a chauffeur outfit pulling up in a black Mercedes.
“This is Johnny. He’s going to be our driver from now on.”
“Nice to meet you, Miss Alexia.” Johnny’s voice held a twinge of an accent that he hadn’t quite shaken off. She guessed he must have moved to the US in his teens.
“Call me, Lexi. I’m only Alexia on my passport.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Please don’t ‘Ma’am’ me — we’re literally the same age.”
