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Even though he wished that he was at home with her, he had to admit he liked knowing that she would be there when he got back. He was also happy that he had her number now. The night she’d stayed he’d given her his number but the only number he had for her was her manager’s. He’d only met the guy briefly, once, when Ginny had performed at the reopening but he didn’t like the prick. No way would he ever go through him to get to her. Now, he didn’t have to.
“Morning handsome, what has you smiling from ear to ear?” Darla asked as Dax walked through the front door. The office manager was in her eighties but still going strong and ran Elite Security with military precision.
“I always smile when I see a beautiful woman.” He winked.
“Nice try.” She raised her left brow. “Whoever or whatever it is, it looks good on ya.”
It didn’t surprise Dax that Darla noticed his demeanor. Nothing got past her. Since he knew denial was pointless he went with “Seth in his office?”
She nodded as the phone rang and she tapped the side of her headset and answered the call. As he headed down the hallway towards his boss’s office he listened to Darla’s raspy voice. He’d never seen her smoke, but she sounded like she had had a pack-a-day habit for decades. She was small in stature but ran this place with an iron fist. Almost all of the men and women that worked at Elite Security had served in the armed forces and Darla was no exception. She had been in the Army in the fifties in what she described as a “pink collar” job. She worked in administration. Dax knew that opportunities were limited for women at the time, but he really felt like the country had missed out on an incredible drill sergeant.
As he turned the corner he remembered telling Ginny about Darla and what a character she was. It hit him then that he’d never told any other woman he’d dated or hooked up with about Darla. He also had never told any of them about his dad passing away or how he’d become the man of the house overnight. In the eight hours that he and Ginny had spent together, he’d told her things he’d never told anyone. The time they’d shared had been so intimate, so personal. In those moments he’d felt closer to her than pretty much anyone else ever and yet he’d never even kissed her. Hell, up until a few minutes ago the only number he’d had for her was her management. And now he had the chance to get to know her better and he’d left her at his house. Alone.
The entire thing felt so off balance. He’d missed her every second of every day since he’d woken up to find the note that she’d left him. The months had dragged on and felt like an eternity. But then, in the blink of an eye she shows up on his door and is staying at his house. How could things feel like they were standing still and moving at warp speed at the same time?
When he arrived at Seth’s office, he lifted his hand to knock on the open door and Seth shifted his attention from his computer screen to Dax.
“Take a seat,” Seth instructed as he handed Dax an iPad.
As he slid into the seat he did his best to turn off his brain and block out his inner turmoil as he pulled up the risk assessment data for his next assignment. He blinked twice when the name he saw at the top of the file was not the senator’s name they had previously discussed.
Virginia Valentine.
He had to be reading this wrong.
Seth started going through the file and Dax sat, speechless, thinking this must be a joke.
“Ginny?” He just couldn’t believe that she hadn’t said anything before he’d left. “Why is Ginny’s name on here?”
“Ginny?” Seth’s left brow rose.
“Virginia,” Dax corrected. “Why is Virginia Valentine’s name on here?”
“She’s your new client,” Seth explained. “I pulled you from Riley’s team. This is an executive protection ghost assignment.”
An EPG (executive protection ghost) was a bodyguard that was undercover. Not drawing attention to yourself. You escort the principal to locations that you have completed site assessments on. Then once they are back at their residence you are off duty.
None of this made sense to Dax. Why hadn’t Ginny mentioned any of this? “When did she hire us?”
“She didn’t. Her mother, Mona Valentine did. Ms. Valentine contacted us yesterday. She’s going to be out of the country for the next few weeks and Virginia will be in Harper’s Crossing working with Chase. There’s been a lot of media coverage of Virginia’s personal life lately. Apparently there are several paparazzi that have been particularly aggressive. Ms. Valentine feels like it would be best if her daughter had a security detail while she was in town.”
“So Ginn…Virginia has no knowledge of her mother contacting us?”
Seth scanned the documents on his computer, clicking through several screens. “No. It looks like she is due in town today. Her mother is going to call with the final details, her schedule, where she’ll be staying, etcetera by this afternoon to let us know how to contact Virginia once she gets settled.”
“She’s settled.” Dax knew there was no reason to keep her whereabouts from Seth. If there really was some kind of a threat, he wanted to be totally upfront with Seth.
“She is?” Seth’s face remained neutral but he could see the question in his boss’s eyes. “You know this, how?”
“She’s at my house. She showed up about half an hour ago.”
“Oh.” Again there was no hint of what Seth was feeling from his emotionless expression. Dax was fairly certain he wasn’t happy about this new development. “I wasn’t aware that you had a personal relationship. Ms. Valentine requested that you be put on the detail but I can pull Bobby or Ace off of what they’re working on and reassign—”
“No. That’s not necessary. We don’t have a personal relationship.” The thought of Ace or Bobby on Ginny’s security detail in place of him made his shoulders tense and his stomach knot up. The fact that both were madly in love with their significant others did nothing to lessen his unease. If anyone was going to be protecting Ginny, it was going to be him.
“She’s at your house and there’s no personal relationship.” Seth’s monotone delivery didn’t conceal his doubt. He might as well have skipped the niceties and just called bullshit.
“She’s staying in my guest room and we’re friends.” Dax hated that that was actually the truth. He wished there was something more going on between them, but that wasn’t the case.
