Page 56 of Cooper

Erik scowls. “Dammit, man. When my wife finds out, you’ll be making me look bad.”

“Don’t even think about it,” Sandor warns him.

Erik shakes his head. “Last time I checked I was your boss, not the other way around.”

Sandor doesn’t seem impressed. “Yeah, but my job is literally to keep you alive and dinner at the Eiffel Tower is a huge security risk.”

“My wife hates you,” Erik deadpans.

“Whatever,” Sandor shrugs. “As long as the two of you are alive you can hate me all you want.” Then he turns to me. “This is the reallyfunpart of the job,” he says.

I chuckle. “I see that.”

“I have a proposal,” Joe interjects. Everyone looks at him. “How about we do a trial run in Paris?”

“I like it,” Daniil says, nodding.

“Good idea,” Erik agrees.

“What exactly does that mean?” I ask.

“It means we fit you with a weapon and an earpiece,” Sandor says, “and you work security along with the rest of us the night of the ball.”

“You and Natalia will still be a couple out on a date,” Joe adds, “but you’ll get an inside look at how we handle security for events like this and a feel for what we do in the real world.”

“I’d like that,” I say. “And I really appreciate you giving me a chance to prove myself. I’m still not one hundred percent physically, but I’m getting there.”

“Don’t worry about that,” Sandor says, shaking his head. “Even if we officially hired you today, you wouldn’t get any kind of duty shifts until multiple doctors have cleared you.”

“Thank you. All of you.”

“If you were to decide to sign on, when do you anticipate officially separating from the military?” Sandor asks.

“As soon as I’ve secured another job.”

“We probably won’t make a decision until we’ve had multiple meetings and you’ve had time to take it all in,” Joe says. “Remember, you’d be pledging fealty to the leader of a foreign country for life. We only want people here who want to be here.”

“I understand,” I respond.

“We’ll be in touch,” Erik says. “Thank you for meeting with us.”

Looks like I’ve been dismissed.

I nod and head out.

I have a lot to think about.

Dual citizenship.

Alifetimecommitment.

Learning a new language and spending the rest of my life putting the royal family’s safety before anything else.

As crazy as I am about Natalia, this may be more than I bargained for.

If I move here to be with her, but don’t become a Royal Protector, she’ll never put me first. The job will always be her priority, and I’m not sure how I feel about that. And if I do decide to take the leap, and both of us are Protectors, what kind of relationship will we have knowing our priority will always be the royal family?

It’s problematic, but the bigger problem is how I feel about her.

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