“If that had been our wedding, the staff would have been thoroughly searched before starting their shifts. Sure, Agents Day and Bernard had done a sweep, but it’s easier to keep you safe in a controlled environment. Like at school, you will have agents posted inside and outside of your work. We could search each person who walks into the building, if that would make you feel safer.”
“Oh, great. That’s exactly what clients want.” I rolled my eyes. Rhett was trying to help, but having bodyguards still felt like a burden. Also, it didn’t escape me that he’d said ‘our wedding,’ but I didn’t draw attention to it.
“Let’s see what happens.” Rhett gave me a hopeful smile. “If anything, we can put a metal detector up at the doors to the building or the specific office you work from.”
“Okay.” I turned to Declan. “Where are you thinking of interning?”
“Well”—he grinned—“I’m going to apply to all criminal law offices, but I’m hoping to get into Ashford, Nolan & Torrance.”
I blinked. “My dad’s old firm?”
When my father was still practicing law, the firm was called Ashford, Donnelley & Nolan. Since he became a senator and more or less retired from being an attorney, my father’s former partners added a new partner and changed the firm’s name.
“Yeah. I figured if it was good enough for someone who became president, then it’s a stellar law firm.”
“You know my dad doesn’t still work there, right?” I chuckled.
“I know, but a lot of other people at Hawkins Law want to intern there, so it has to be the firm to work at.”
“I hope you get it.” I smiled.
“Can you pull some strings?”
I barked out a laugh. “You mean, have the president call his old colleague?”
Sean Ashford was more than a former partner of my dad’s; he was like an uncle to me. I always thought I would work for him, but my heart wasn’t in criminal law.
“Yeah.” Declan grinned.
“Sorry, buddy. Don’t think I can make that happen, but I suppose I can give Uncle Sean a call and put in a good word for you.”
* * *
Seven days later,I was finally released from the hospital. It had been a long ten days, and I was eager to go home and sleep in my own bed, and with Rhett. He never once left my side, and sometimes we cuddled in my small hospital bed, but he usually slept on the pull-out couch. I wanted to wake up next to him now that our relationship wasn’t a secret anymore. He was still on leave from his duties, so there was no reason he couldn’t stay the night.
“Why is it taking so long to get discharged?” I whined as I paced the room.
My doctor had taken me off the morphine the night before, but I wanted to be hooked up to it again. My chest hurt like a motherfucker, and the pain pills I was taking weren’t even close to the liquid stuff, but the condition for going home was I needed to get off the IVs and see how I would do. I wasn’t going to tell anyone how badly I really hurt; I knew I would heal eventually.
“I don’t know, but I can go check,” Rhett said and walked toward the door.
My cell rang, and I slid it out of the pocket of my jeans. Agent Day had brought me clothes to wear home, and I had no idea what happened to the tux I had been wearing the night of Tyler and Hayden’s wedding.
Glancing at my screen, I saw it was my father. “Hey, Dad.”
“How are you feeling?”
“Great. They’re discharging me, and I can’t wait to go home.”
“About that.” He paused for a second. “Your mother is getting ready to head to Boston on Air Force Two to bring you here.”
I blinked. “Here? As in the White House?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because we have doctors and staff to take care of you around the clock.”
