Page 10 of Spencer


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“You’d better get changed,” she said. “We’ll be there in about an hour.”

“Right.” Spencer forced his tense muscles to relax and unclenched his fists. He grabbed his garment bag and his polished dress shoes. This case would put him in the public eye more than usual, as he would need to stick close to Toni’s side during her appearances, so he needed to look the part. Plus, he didn’t get many opportunities to dress up in his line of work, so he liked to make sure he looked fine as hell when he did. He opened the door to the airplane bathroom. “Be out in a bit.”

“Take your time,” she replied. “We won’t land for at least an hour.”

He stripped and took a quick shower in the tiny space provided, then shaved before pulling on a crisp black suit. There wasn’t much room to maneuver, especially for a guy of his height and build, but Spencer had dealt with worse. Finally, he knotted his emerald green tie in a perfect Windsor knot and gave himself one last once-over before exiting. Not exactlyGQcover model, but he’d do.

He put away his garment bag, then returned to their seats, doing a quick mental rundown of all the things he needed to handle once they landed. Assess the area, coordinate with local security, contact Kyle to let him know they’d landed safely and get the location of their team’s next rendezvous point.

Spencer glanced at Toni and bit back a grin at her lingering appraisal of him. Her gaze traveled over him from head to toe and left a trail of awareness in its wake.

To distract himself from the pink rising in her cheeks and the way she was biting her lower lip, he pulled down his carry-on bag from the overhead compartment and strapped on his waist holster, only to hear Toni gasp. Spencer swiveled to face her, frowning. “What’s wrong?”

“Is that necessary?”

“What?” He scrunched his nose. “You mean my gun?”

“Yes.”

“Considering the possible circus we may walk into down there and the fact that terrorists have ramped up their attacks in this area recently, I’d say yeah. It’s necessary.” He pulled out his Desert Eagle and chambered a round before clicking the safety back on and returning it into the holster. “Don’t forget, someone was taking shots at you just the other day. If anything like that happens again, I need to be prepared to respond and take out the assailant.”

She winced at that, and he frowned.

“Let me guess,” he said, “you don’t like the idea of me shooting someone, even if they’re attacking us.”

“I don’t,” she admitted. “Look, I read your résumé—I know you’re a sniper. I’m sure that means you’ve been in situations where the gun in your hand was the difference between your teammates making it back to the base at the end of the day or…not.”

“Y—” He tried to answer, but his throat caught, remembering the friend hehadn’tbeen able to save. “Yes,” he said after a moment. “I have.”

“Okay. Now think about whatmyexperiences have been. I run a charity. I go to areas that have been devastated by war—and by all the awful things that happen when the war is over and people are left to try to rebuild their lives around bombed buildings, smashed power grids, and way too many empty chairs at their tables, if they’relucky.If they’re not lucky? They get dead bodies piled up in the streets and the risk of IEDs underfoot every time they step outside. You’ve been trained to fight violence with violence, to stop the bad guys by force. But all my training and experience makes me want to stop the violence before it starts. Because once shots are fired, it’s a lot harder to keep things from escalating.”

Her eyes were wide, full of sincerity as she pleaded with him to understand. And in spite of himself, he felt his respect for her rise another notch. He didn’t agree with her attitude, didn’t think that putting his hands up and refusing to fight would end the violence in the world—but he could understand where she was coming from.

Still, he had a job to do. “I get where you’re coming from,” he said gently. “But you hired me to protect you, and that’s exactly what I intend to do, by any means necessary. I can promise you that I won’t use violence indiscriminately. I’m better trained to use this gun than ninety-nine percent of the people on the planet. I only pull the trigger as a last resort, and only after weighing the cost of the sacrifice I’m making.” Some of the shots he’d taken still lingered with him, even years later. It was never a simple or painless decision, even when it was a necessary one.

“Taking a life is never easy,” he said, stepping forward and taking her hand, relieved when she let him. “Never. I wouldn’t want it to be, because that would mean I’d lost my humanity. But if that’s what I have to do to keep you safe, then so be it.You’remy team here. You’re the one I’m going to make sure comes home safe, no matter what. If you don’t like the way I handle some aspect of your protection, we can definitely talk about that, and I’ll try to make accommodations—but at the end of the day, it’s going to have to be my call. I won’t let anyone keep me from protecting you. Not even you.”

Her eyes met his, wide and dark and startled. The moment felt charged, intense, as she stared into his eyes as if she’d never seen anything like him before. Her lips parted, and he found he was holding his breath, waiting to hear what she’d say—

“Please fasten your seatbelts and stow all of your mobile devices,” the pilot announced cheerfully over the PA system. “We’ve been cleared for landing at Al-Hambra International Airport and should be on the ground in Jubail in approximately twenty minutes.”

The moment was broken. She looked down and to the side while he awkwardly dropped her hand, stepping back toward his seat. They didn’t say anything more as the plane continued its descent, but he caught her sneaking looks in his direction every minute or two.

Of course, he caught them because his eyes stayed on her the whole time.

* * *

Hot wind smacked Toni’s cheeks, and the air smelled of baked asphalt and jet fuel. Nervousness had her heart slamming against her chest as she stood at the top of the stairs to descend from the plane. Masses of people swarmed below on the tarmac. Near the bottom of the steps stood Spencer, keeping an eye on the crowd from behind his dark sunglasses. Every rigid line of his body, from his tense shoulders to his resting military stance, screamed “Don’t mess with me.”

Despite her earlier words, she found his overt show of strength oddly comforting. Especially considering it looked like even more people had shown up than the sheik’s assistant had led her to expect. They’d cordoned off a small area around the podium from which she would make a speech. From there, a long red carpet cut a swath through the crowds to their waiting limo. She swallowed hard and took a deep breath.

Everything was riding on this trip. In a few days, she would give her big presentation—but this initial intro speech would be the one that would either get people’s attention or not. There were a slew of dignitaries in attendance, and their assessment of her here and now would determine whether they’d come to her presentation. That would, in turn, determine whether she could drum up enough donor interest to get the funding she needed to continue her program after this scheduled delivery. If she failed at any step along the way, her foundation would fold and children around the world would lose a resource focused on helping them out of poverty.

No pressure at all.

She made her way down the steps, the wind making her glad for the slim cut of her dress and the fact that she’d decided to tie her hair back beneath her prim sun hat. It wouldn’t do to flash this crowd or show any impropriety.

Near the bottom of the staircase, Spencer stepped in beside her, the warm weight of his hand at her lower back reassuring as he guided her forward to the podium. His movements were a bit stiff and cold—playing up formality for their audience, which would expect it—but at the last second he leaned in and whispered, “You got this.”

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