Page 10 of Her Older Protector

Just as I’m about to ask if I can come in, an insistent buzz sounds from my pocket. Two short buzzes and a long one. It’s a special pattern, and it means that I can’t ignore the call.

“One second, beautiful,” I whisper, and drop one last kiss against the tip of her nose.

I reach around and fish my phone out of my back pocket and hold it up to my ear. “Beaufort.”

“This is Front Desk. We need you in the office in an hour,” a voice says in my ear.

“Shit. Can it wait?” I look back at Leah and smile.

“Negative,” she says. “See you in an hour.”

The other end of the line goes silent. I turn back around to face Leah, and her face immediately falls when she sees the grim line on my face. I reach out and run my fingers through her silky hair, then lean in to kiss her lips one more time.

“Work emergency,” I say gruffly. “I’m so sorry, but I have to go.”

She sighs. “I understand. Will I see you tomorrow?”

I brush my lips against hers one more time and breathe deeply, savoring the smell of her shampoo and the red wine. “Nothing could keep me away.”

Our lips meet one more time, hungry and wild, but it’s all too brief, and I pull away just a few seconds later before I can get carried away.

“Call me if you need anything,” I say over my shoulder as I head back down the steps. “Anything.”

I guide my car through the multiple checkpoints guarding the entrance to the Agency’s compound and leave it in the underground garage.

“What’s this all about?” I ask as I stride into my supervisor’s office. “I’m on sabbatical. It couldn’t wait until morning at least?”

My boss, Hunter, shakes his head. “Sorry, Jake, we have some new recruit testing and we were short a couple of evaluators. It was either bug you to come in or reschedule the entire recruit class, and I knew you would be just slightly less of a pain in my ass about it.”

I drop into a seat in front of his desk and wave a hand dismissively. “It’s fine, shit happens.”

He turns away from his blinking bank of monitors, a lot like my setup at home, and faces me fully. “While I have you here, I wanted to talk to you about that promotion you put in for.”

My promotion? Before my current sabbatical, I decided that I wanted to do a little less traveling and oversee other field agents instead. Something more stable.

Something that would let me put down roots.

I try to keep my tone neutral. “And what was decided?”

“We’re giving you the promotion,” Hunter says. “No more field assignments. You’ll start back up here with admin once this sabbatical ends.”

I blink in disbelief. “Thank you, sir.”

“F.D. will get in touch with you about the details soon. For now, you have that trial to sit through, and then you can head back home.” Hunter waves me off, and I stand and walk away, still shocked about the sudden news.

I could really put down roots here now, I realize. Something with Leah, if she was open to it.

But what was the point of that if she still had her shithead ex around?

I checked my watch. The evaluations wouldn’t take all that long, and then I could avail myself of the on-site resources to do a little more digging and follow-up on Patrick. It only took F.D. about thirty seconds to come up with a huge pile of suspicious information, and with a little more digging, who knows what i can come up with? Enough to convince him to find a new fucking hobby, at the very least.

It was time to put this shit to bed. One way or another, Patrick was going to be out of Leah’s life for good.

Chapter 7

Leah

I hum contentedly as I raise the mascara wand to brush the thick black liquid on the last few corner lashes, then smile at myself in the mirror as I examine the results. I look great today, I decide. Glowing, but I’m not sure it’s from the makeup as much as it is from the warmth in my chest that expands every time I think about my handsome neighbor.

---