Page 41 of Covert Affair

“I have my own protection, Cody,” she reminds me.

“They work for me though, remember? And as far as I'm concerned they need some retraining. They've been reassigned in the meantime. They should have paid better attention.”

"God Lord, you're an overprotective asshole. I told you, Waylon hid it well in public. And it was never their job to be involved behind closed doors."

"I don't care. They still failed you."

Closing the space between us, I reach out and brush a stray piece of hair out of her face. “Letting you go will forever be the biggest mistake of my life. Let me make it up to you by keeping you safe. Whatever happens after that, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”

“I don’t need your guilt or pity.”

“Good, because I’m not asking you to take that on either. You get your life together while I start over and get this expansion off the ground. I’ll wait forever if I have to. In the meantime, we can work on this whole friendship thing.”

“Friends,” she tosses the word around like she’s trying to make it make sense. “I think that’s what I really need right now. A friend.”

“Then you’ve got one. You just have to let me in.”

“And is this friend going to see to it that I’ve got a new security guard with me tomorrow when I go back to Nashville?” she asks.

“Yup. I’m coming with you,” I answer with a smile.

I’m pretty sure steam comes from her ears and she wants to slap the smile off of my face.

“Sure, fuel the tabloids some more Cody. You can’t. This is where I draw the line. You find someone else to accompany me back home. You…friend zone. Not my personal body guard. And so help me God if you haven’t found a replacement by tomorrow morning since you reassigned Taylor and Stefan, I’ll be sure to find my own. Are we clear?”

“Fine. I’ll find someone to accompany you. Just know that I’ll be on the next flight, right behind you.”

Stacey throws her hands up in the air, “Ugh. You’re a pain in the ass.”

“I’ve been called worse.”

This time she flips me off then storms down the hall.

Before she can make any major plans, I pull my cell phone from my pocket and make a quick phone call to one of my favorite celebrity clients.

“Hey, Grady. It’s Cody. I need a favor, for a mutual friend.”

19

STACEY MAE

“You chartered a plane from Grady,”I grumble at Cody and kick him in the shin for good measure.

This man is maddening. Molly was right. Completely overwhelming.

I was just about to book my flight back to Tennessee when he came knocking on the bedroom door to tell me he’d already taken care of my travel arrangements.

“I need you and Taylor to make it back to Nashville as quietly as possible. I need to get to Nashville, too. So rather than all of us getting on commercial flights, I called in a favor from a friend.”

“Taylor? Christ, Cody, you’re giving me whiplash. You said he was reassigned.”

“And then we had a long talk about some things and since Robert isn’t available right now, I think Taylor is the best fit for the job.”

“Didn’t I try to tell you that both Taylor and Stefan were competent?” I remind him.

“Do you really want to argue about this right now?”

Do I want to have this argument? No. But do I feel like arguing about something, anything, to somehow distract me from the anxiety running through my veins? Yup. Sure do.

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