Page 9 of Dangerous Mission

“The club closes on Mondays. I try to pick up as many shifts as I can because I need the money.”

“There’s a gym called Center of Strength. Mondays, they have a self-defense class at six p.m. Take as many friends as you want, and don’t worry about the cost. If I have time, I’ll try to be there. It’s a great class you’ll learn a lot.”

The girl threw her arms around Terri and squeezed her tight.

Someone yelled the waitress’s name, and she turned to go help another customer.

“That was nice of you,”Axel said.

She shrugged. “Any person would do the same.”

It was still early, and most of the bad crap never happened until later, but she was drained. “Can you take me home?”

Axel stared at her for a couple of seconds. “Yes.”

She followed him out of the club. At the front entrance, the security guards were holding the man who’d touched the waitress. He started to charge after Terri, but a bodyguard threw him to the ground.

“Don’t think I don’t know who you are.”

Terri kept walking. It wasn’t the first time she’d heard the threat and knew it would not be the last.

Axel opened the passenger door for her, and she crawled into his Range Rover. As he drove through the city, she didn’t say a word. She was lost in her thoughts until he passed by her street. Her other place was on the other side of town. So he wasn’t heading toward any of her homes.

“You’re going the wrong way.”

“No. You agreed I would be your bodyguard for the night.”

“Which could happen at my place if needed, and my condo is under high security, no threat.”

“T, it’s late. Can we not argue?”

“Don’t call me that.” The nickname brought back memories she didn’t want to think about.

“Fine. Let’s get some sleep and talk in the morning.”

He pulled the SUV into a hotel near the White House. He was right. It was late, and the man was stubborn. She got out of the SUV and followed him to the back entrance. At least there wouldn’t be a story about the president's daughter showing up at a hotel with an unknown man. Honestly, she really didn’t know him anymore.

Axel held the door open as she stepped through, then he led her down a back hall to an elevator and up to the top floor. She’d been in the hotel before. Many of the people who came to see her father stayed there. The security was over the top, and the top floor was reserved for people visiting her father.

After Axel slid his key in and pushed the room’s door open, she slid by him. “I still can’t believe my father or my mother thought having you be my bodyguard was a good idea.”

“Can’t we have this conversation in the morning?” Axel asked, running his hand through his red hair.

“Once again, the big, bad Axel doesn’t want to talk.”

“I thought what I did was best for both of us,” Axel grumbled.

“And here I thought we were a team back then. You easily walked away from me years ago. This floor is secure, so you can just as easily walk out again. I’ll call security in the morning.”

“If for one second I thought you would actually call security, I might, but I can see it in your eyes—you’re on a mission that I don’t understand. Tell me how you found out the woman tonight was in danger.”

Terri glanced out the floor-to-ceiling window. The city was beautiful at night. She walked to the sofa and sat down. “I have people who give me information.”

Axel glared and paced in front of the TV, clenching his fists. “You should have turned over the evidence to the police. What would’ve happened if I hadn’t shown up? Dammit, T. He had a fucking knife. You could have easily been stabbed or worse.”

“Really? So you turn info over to the police when someone is in danger? Or do you handle the situation? Because it seemed tonight, you had a quick backup plan that went against law enforcement.” No matter how much self-defense training she had, it seemed men couldn’t get past her looks. She hated how the people around her thought her life was worth more than others’.

“But you’re the president's daughter. You need to live by a different set of rules.”

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