AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Whatever’s gonna happen is gonna happen.”
“Those forces of evil?”
She shrugged. A sense of calm had descended on her after she’d left the hospital. Maybe it was knowing Joe McVie was on her side. “I forwarded the guest list to the FBI.”
“Recently?”
“Today.”
“Hate to break it to you, but they don’t work that fast. Don’t tell Agent Porter I said that.”
“My lips are sealed.” She drew a finger over the seam of her lips. “Do you want me to give you a tour of the ballroom now?”
“Dinner at eight?” Joe rubbed his stomach. “I’m starving. Let’s eat first and then I’ll check it out.”
“There are a couple of great restaurants in this hotel.” Hailey reached for her purse.
“Room service.” Joe bounded up from the bed and slid the embossed leather folder on the desk toward him. “We’re eating in. The less exposure you have, the better. The danger is not over, Hailey, just because Ayala’s on the run.”
“I know that. It’s coming. I feel it coming—but now I’m ready.”
* * *
THE REST OF the afternoon passed with both of them working on their laptops. As day shifted into night, Joe stretched and rubbed his eyes.
Hailey looked up from her screen. “Are you in trouble?”
“What?” Folding his hands behind his head, Joe kicked his feet onto the desk next to his laptop.
“You’ve been awfully busy over there, typing away. Are you writing out your defense?” Hailey stretched out her legs on the bed and wiggled her bare toes.
“Answering some emails and, yeah, explaining myself.”
“I repeat. Are you in trouble?”
“No.” He spun his cell phone around to face him. “But we will be if we don’t start getting ready for this damn gala.”
“We have over an hour. I don’t know about you, pretty boy, but I don’t need that long to get ready.”
Joe swung his legs off the desk and stalked toward the bed. “I do, when I plan to shower with my protectee and ravish her in the process.”
Hailey shoved her computer off her lap. “Then what are we waiting for?”
Just about an hour later, completely sated and clean in the bargain, Joe faced the mirror in his monkey suit.
Hailey came up behind him, her shimmery silver dress floating around her legs. She reached around him and straightened his bow tie. “You look very handsome.”
“You look—” he flicked the skirt of her dress “—stunning.”
She kissed the side of his neck and then twirled away to snag his jacket from the back of a chair. “I’ll help you into your jacket.”
“First things first.” He slid open the closet door and retrieved his shoulder holster. “You can help me into this before the jacket.”
She sighed. “Poor Tony.”
“It’ll be fine.”
After he strapped on his holster and secured his weapon, Hailey held out his jacket for him. He slipped into the jacket, and Hailey patted his chest.
“More than fine, Red. You’re going to have to stick by me when we walk in, because I don’t have a ticket for you. Gretchen sent one over and I thought I printed it out at the house, but with the sniper fire and bomb blast, who knows what happened to it?”
“I plan to stick very close to you.”
As soon as they left the safety of the room, all of Joe’s senses went on high alert. If someone wanted to take out Hailey or make some kind of statement about the war, this gala provided the perfect venue.
Damn that de Becker. What was he waiting for? The longer he kept quiet, the longer Hailey faced danger.
The guards at the door of the ballroom patted him down after Hailey told them he was with her and was providing personal security, so they skimmed over his weapon.
Joe blinked at the dazzling decor of the ballroom. This place couldn’t be farther from that Syrian refugee camp. Maybe after the keynote address, all the wealth and comfort were supposed to make the guests feel guilty.
Hailey understood that.
Joe declined the champagne floating around on waiters’ trays, but Hailey grabbed a glass of the bubbly and downed half of it before coming up for air.
