Page 105 of Passenger Princess

"I love you, Ava."

"And I love you, Jaime."

He stares at me for long moments before he nods, presses his lips to mine, sweet and gentle, then steps back.

Without another word, I turn to the door where giggling and girlish squeals are coming and open it, stepping into utter insanity.

FORTY-SEVEN

JAIME

I walk back down to the lobby of the building, escorted by the security we encountered at the front, and stand there, waiting for one of them to order me to leave. But to my surprise, they let me hang in the lobby and wait, fully planning to stay here the full six hours until Ava is done.

In the meantime, I make some calls.

First, I try Miles, who doesn't answer before I dial Five Star.

Upon calling the Five Star Security offices, I don't get through to Greg, fucking coward that he is, but I do talk to his assistant, who sounds apologetic, at least, as she gives me options for dates to come in and set up a meeting with Greg where, I assume, I'll be fired. I tell her I'll call back and make an appointment when I have a better idea of what we're doing in the next week before hanging up and trying Miles again.

Unfortunately, I get his voicemail this time too, so I hang up before dialing Hank and explaining everything that's happened since I last saw him.

"What I don't get," he says after I fill him in, "is why did they send a new man out from the same agency?"

"Well, I've been fired, so?—"

"If I still owned that place, I'd be annoyed, and I might be planning to fire the man, but with only one more event on the job, I wouldn't reassign the position. A waste of time, a waste of resources."

"What are you saying, Hank?"

"Look, I don't know how this man does business. Maybe this is just his style; maybe he does things differently. But it doesn't make sense to send a man across the country for one event, not when you aren't putting Ava at risk. If it were me, I'd have you finish the assignment, come back to the office to explain, and once I heard your story,thenI'd either fire you or put you on probation."

"Meaning..."

"Meaning, in my opinion, the Miss Americana organization requested a new man be sent out."

My brow furrows in confusion as I try to put those pieces together.

"Why would they want to retain the same agency, though? Why not just hire someone local? Or, even more, since they were never really worried about her safety at all, why even bother? There's event security here, that should have been enough."

"Those are the questions, aren't they?" Hank asks, and nausea roils in my stomach with these new thoughts.

Before I can say anything more, my phone rings in my hand, and I pull it away, seeing Miles's name on the screen and letting Hank know I have to take it.

"See if he's found anything. You have him digging into Regina, right?"

I sigh, then nod. "Yeah."

"Good. Call me back if you learn anything."

"Will do," I say, then hang up and answer Miles’s call.

“Hey, man, have you—” I start, but he cuts me off.

“Are you with Ava?” Miles asks without any introduction, his voice brusque and abrupt.

“What?”

“Do you have eyes on your girl, Jaime?”

---