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“Many different things. Evidently I must have pissed someone off to get this crap assignment. A week ago I was in Paris.”
“Is it professional to gripe around the clients?”
“I passed professional nineteen hours ago.”
“And you think that’s the way to get reassigned to a better job?”
“Shut up.”
Bella pursed her lips and watched the lights change. There was probably something wrong with her because she liked the surly Sarah better than the stoic RBF version.
When the door opened, Bella stepped out. “Does your boss have an aversion to color?”
“Black goes with everything.”
Bella looked down at Sarah’s clothes. Yeah, she was definitely asking the wrong person that question. The space was unquestionably male and well-maintained, because this level of gleaming black would show dirt and smudges immediately. And the building, hell, the sidewalk had been immaculate.
Sort of scary, actually.
They rounded the corner and she stopped dead at the top of a short set of stairs. War Room was accurate. A huge black—shocker—conference table dominated the room. She followed Sarah down the stairs to the half dozen over-sized leather chairs and set her bag and briefcase in one. A huge map dominated the wall across from the entrance. Two massive televisions played news channels. The wall across from that had a third, larger screen that looked to be attached to their computer system.
Two frosted glass offices flanked the back of the room and looked down upon the sunken conference area. There wasn’t a single window in the place, somehow making the huge space claustrophobic.
A man came out of the office marked with an M, cut into the glass. He wore a tailored suit that accentuated his long, lean body and surprisingly wide shoulders. A closely cropped beard framed his strong jaw and friendly brown eyes. He held a black folder with a white embossed RD in the top corner.
He came down the stairs with his hand out. “Pleased to meet you, Ms. Grace.”
“I doubt it.”
His smile widened. “I’m Marcus Roth. My brother, Aidan, and I run this company. He’s been detained.”
“I want to talk to whichever of you two who will actually tell me why a woman like me—a book curator for all intents and purposes—needs security?”
“Please, sit down.”
Bella drew in a deep breath and tried to tamp down the impatience that had been growing steadily through the day. “I don’t want to sit down. I want to understand. Because none of this makes sense.”
“We were hired by a third party that wishes to remain anonymous. It’s purely a preventative measure. We’ve tried to be as invisible as possible.”
“Without my consent though? That’s the part I don’t understand.”
“And it’s an unusual request, but it was warranted. Over the course of the six months we’ve ascertained that while we still need to be vigilant, it’s no longer an urgent matter.”
She slowly lowered herself into one of the chairs. It dwarfed her, making her feel like a little kid. “There was an urgent matter?” She shook her head. She was starting to talk like this man. He was ultra-professional and obviously had some sort of military background. “I demand to know who would need your—” The little voice in the back of her head got really loud. Idiot. Six months ago? “How close to six months?”
Marcus’s gaze stayed steady on her face. “Late August.”
She looked down at the folder in front of him. The RD logo with the back-to-back facing letters so the R was backwards. The security that had been used at the festival. She remembered when they’d arrived and how professional they’d been. How militant.
“Logan.”
Marcus’s face never changed. “As I said, we were retained anonymously.”
“Why?” She slumped back in her seat. She’d spent a week with Logan King. There was no reason that he should be adding her to his security detail. It was just ridiculous.
“It was a preventative measure. We didn’t involve ourselves in any of your business other than—”
Her spine straightened. No, there was no way she was going to just take the stock answer that this man was feeding her. “Other than the fact that you were following me all over the country? I took over fifteen flights this month alone.”
