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“I’m off today. Just wanted to check on you in person. Maybe catch you up on the latest.”
Andrew was always so sweet to me. I liked a lot of the security team who worked for my dad, but Andrew had always been my favorite. He seemed to treat me more like a real person than a job than any of the others did.
“I appreciate it, Andrew. Do you want to come in?”
“Actually, would you like to go out? Let me buy you a coffee, or lunch if you’ve not had any.”
“Just ate, but a coffee out sounds fantastic. I only get out when we go for runs. Let me grab my purse.” I sent a quick text to Blake to let him know I was getting coffee with Andrew and shoved my phone in my purse. Then we left for town.
We went to a small deli that served breakfast all day and had a bottomless cup of coffee. It was a beautiful day, so we sat in their outdoor seating in front of the restaurant to enjoy the sunshine.
“We have a suspect,” he said, his smile growing. “Some creep burned a photo of your dad in front of the capitol, protesting his stance on immigrants and fracking. There’s nothing concrete to tie him to the threats yet, but it fits.”
“So he’s been arrested already? When?”
“About two this morning he started making a ruckus and pulled his stunt. It hasn’t been in the news yet. So few people knew that we managed to suppress it until we can figure out whether he’s behind the threats.”
“Two in the morning. I got some threats over text nearly six hours after that. He couldn’t have sent them from jail.”
“No, but if there’s more than one, it makes sense. What kind of threats?”
“Oh, nothing really. They want me to get my dad to resign and I’ll be sorry if he doesn’t, that kind of thing. Blake’s got it covered.”
Andrew dipped his head in a nod. I realized I should check my phone. I didn’t have the volume up loud, and it was in my purse.
“I could come more often, Cal. Get you out of the house for pie and coffee. Or whatever you want.”
“Thanks, Andrew. But I know it’s a two-hour drive. That’s a lot. And you don’t need to work on your day off.”
“I’m not talking about work.” He glanced up at me, then reached out and put a hand over mine on the table. “I’m happy to get you out of the house and-”
“Callie!” A booming voice shouted my name from down the sidewalk behind me.
I turned to see Blake, his chin down, his hands fisted at his sides, stomping toward us.
Shit. He looked pissed.
14
BLAKE
This unauthorized tripout with Andrew would have pissed me off on a good day.
On a day when she’d just gotten a couple of dozen threatening messages, it made me want to punch a concrete wall.
I knew she was with Andrew. I saw them leave. I just didn’t know why. I checked the tracker app that followed the signal put out by her necklace, and the second I could get out of the office, I headed toward it.
I saw them at the table on the sidewalk before they saw me. He had a hand over hers in a way that set my teeth on edge.
That explained the hand on her lower back at the airport. I hated that even more now.
Andrew stood before I reached them. “Blake. I realize this is—”
“Why the fuck would you break protocol, Andrew? Today of all days? She had several threats against her this morning, so what do you do, come and set off my proximity alarms, then take her out of my direct surveillance without so much as a head up.”
He put his hands up, palms toward me. He knew he’d fucked up too.
“You’re right, Blake. But I didn’t know about the threats until we were already here. And I should have given you a heads-up. But I wanted to surprise her,” he said softer than the rest, glancing at her and, I fucking swear, blushing.
