“We’re going on a trip to a great enormous lake.” Marshall set Carter down so he could zip up the backpack.
Carter clapped and did a little dance from side to side. “Me love lakes.”
A small smile pushed Marshall’s cheeks up as he breathed a quick laugh out of his nose. Even when his blood pressure was about to soar to the sky with stress, this kid lightened his mood.
“What’s the plan?” Lena stomped in, her and Carter’s duffels packed.
He glanced at his watch. Three minutes. Impressive.
“We’re heading to the airport, then leaving for a private location.” Marshall picked Carter back up, the command in his voice sharp. “Security detail only.”
One delicate eyebrow rose over her dark, almost black eyes. “Okay.” She nodded to Carter. “If we’re keeping the premise that I’m just a nanny, I’ll need to take him.”
Marshall squeezed Carter tighter. His son looked from Lena to Marshall, his head tilting to the side in confusion. Just when Marshall had gotten his heart rate under control, it picked back up. A tightness banded across his chest as he shifted from one foot to the other.
Lena’s eyes softened a moment. Her cheek flexed, and the expression disappeared. Placing the bags on the carpet, she stepped close and opened her hands in a non-combative move.
“If my assignment has changed, I can fall in formation with the rest of your detail.” She took another step closer. “But if you want my position as bodyguard to stay on the down low, I need to appear like who you’ve set me up to be.”
It made sense. Not even Ed knew her actual identity. To everyone but Marshall, she was Elena Anderson, Carter’s nanny.
When he’d approached Zeke Greene, owner of Stryker Security Force, the ex-special force member had insisted that no one know what Lena was there for. Her assignment would be compromised if her true purpose wasn’t kept undercover. Since his friend and business associate, June Rivas, insisted Stryker was the best, Marshall agreed to Zeke’s terms.
It didn’t make letting his son go into the arms of another any easier. He swallowed, patted Carter on the back, and handed him to her. Then, without looking back, he stepped past and grabbed the bags from where she’d dropped them.
As he led them down the hall and to the waiting car, his mind raced with what still needed to be done. How could he leave and risk everything he’d pushed for the last months to fall apart? What if Ed wasn’t able to talk the remaining waffling legislators into signing the bill limiting terms?
Lena buckled Carter into his carseat as he bounced his teddy on his lap and sang a nonsense song about lakes. She smiled at him, but her eyes scanned behind them through the back window of the car. The movement wasn’t obvious, and if Marshall didn’t know why she was really with their family, he wouldn’t have noticed.
“Daddy?” Carter gazed up at him, drawing his attention. “We see fish in the lake?”
“Maybe.” Marshall swallowed as Carter’s face lit up just like Amara’s used to.
“Me loves fish.” He squeezed his teddy into a hug.
“Me too, buddy.” Marshall stared at his son.
His worries over the upcoming bill faded to a low buzz at the back of his brain as the car sped toward the airport. Even the demands of his manufacturing business slowed their constant whirl within his brain. Nothing mattered above his son’s safety. There would always be another chance to support new laws if there weren’t enough votes to get the change the nation needed this time. Even the expansions for the company in Texas could wait until things settled. First, he’d get Carter secure, then see what needed done next.