Page 7 of Two Steps Ahead

She was halfway through her meal when her dad’s assistant, Gwendolyn, came through the kitchen doorway. “There you are. I thought that jet lag might really take you out this time. How was Indonesia?”

Kayleigh smiled at the older woman. She was the most bearable of all Dad’s employees.

“I liked it. It was a lot more rugged than I was used to. Perfect for the theme of the shoot.”

“What was that again?” Gwendolyn snatched a bottle of water and came to sit next to her at the island.

“Surviving nature. Showcasing different plants that can kill humans and how dangerous they can be if they’re not respected.”

It had also been perfect to add to her secret personal project about how certain plants survived even when they shouldn’t. It was a passion project she’d been working on for years. Kayleigh hoped to someday make a book out of her collection of shots.

She spent a couple of minutes explaining her Indonesia shoot to Gwendolyn. She wasn’t sure the older woman was truly interested, but she was at least pretending enough to make it seem so.

Indonesia had been amazing, even under the circumstances she’d been traveling, which definitely weren’t luxurious—mostly camping in the wild. That was how Kayleigh preferred it. She would rather be alone with her camera and wildlife than in this giant mansion full of people, none of whom were actually listening or talking to one another.

“We’re glad you’re back, dear,” Gwendolyn said. “Your father worries whenever you’re not around.”

Kayleigh somehow refrained from rolling her eyes. “Dad worries when I am around. The only time he doesn’t worry is when I’m sitting right next to him.”

Gwendolyn shook her head. “We can’t blame him for that, can we, after everything that happened to you as a child?”

Given that Kayleigh was still having nightmares about it nearly twenty years later, blaming her father for still being overprotective felt hypocritical. “I guess not.”

Gwendolyn had been working for Leo for three years now. She was a big improvement over the much younger assistants he’d tended to hire for the past couple decades, who may have been a pleasure for Dad’s guards to look at, but weren’t nearly as organized or as friendly as Gwendolyn. Kayleigh had hopedthere might be some sort of romance between the older woman and her father, but that had never transpired.

Their conversation was interrupted by Jasper, Leo’s head of security, storming into the kitchen straight to the coffee maker, pouring himself a cup without a word to either of them.

Jasper wasn’t Kayleigh’s favorite person on his good days. Jasper in a snit was completely unbearable.

“Everything all right?” Gwendolyn asked him. “You seem to be a little flustered.” Part of her job was sometimes unruffling the feathers that Leo was quick to ruffle.

Jasper took a sip of his coffee then crossed his beefy arms over his chest. “Leo makes it a lot harder to do my job when he cuts me out of the loop.”

The older woman raised an eyebrow. “I’m sure he’s not cutting you out of the loop on anything. You’re his head of security.”

“He is in there talking to some bigwig from a private security company. If he’s got a problem with how security is being run here, he should let me know.”

Kayleigh understood why her dad kept Jasper around. They both were very old-school, shoot-first-ask-questions-later type of men. Jasper reveled in asserting his power over others, and tended to hire men for his security team similar to himself.

Kayleigh concentrated on eating the rest of her food while Gwendolyn attempted to talk Jasper out of his pout—there was really no better word for his behavior. Kayleigh stayed out of it; she preferred talking to him as little as possible. At least now, after eating and shaking off the grip of the nightmare, she was feeling better.

“Ms. Delacruz, your father would like to see you if you have a moment.”

Kayleigh was midway through one of her last bites as another member of the security team showed up in the doorway.

“Me too?” Jasper asked.

The man shook his head. “No, sir. Only Ms. Delacruz.”

Kayleigh glanced over at Jasper, pretty sure she could see steam coming out of his ears. He followed behind her as she left the kitchen, despite not being directly invited.

She knocked on her father’s office door. “Hi, Dad. You wanted to see me?” Jasper followed her inside but she didn’t say anything about it.

“There you are, honey. How are you feeling?” Leo came from around his desk to give her a hug and she hugged him in return.

“A little jet-lagged, but otherwise not too bad.”

She wasn’t about to mention the nightmare and fear of the dark. That would lead to more arguments about security.

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