Page 78 of Passenger Princess

"My boss called after the issue in Georgia. The Miss Americana pageant called him and told him to have me keep you in line better, or they might have to replace me." I open my mouth to argue, but he smiles and keeps talking. "I told him I can keep you in line about as much as you can keep a tiger in line. But it means they're watching you, and they aren't happy. We've got five weeks left, and I don't want to be taken off this case."

"You want to make sure you're the only one watching my ass, huh?" His hand travels down my bare back to my ass, grabbing it.

"Absolutely. But mostly, I don't trust anyone else to take care of you."

"Youdotake really good care of me, Jaime." My hand moves to touch his cheek. "Okay," I agree. "We'll keep things under wraps until the tour is over so I don't fuck with your job. But after the tour, we revisit this. I don't want to be a secret forever."

He nods. "Great, now that that's settled, are you ready for me to take care of you some more?" He flips me so my back is to the bed, and he starts to slide down my body.

"I thought you'd never ask," I say with a smile.

I think I'm going tolovethis new version of us.

THIRTY-SEVEN

JAIME

It's been three days since I made Ava mine.

Three amazing days where I don't have to pretend there isn't something so palpable between us, I might explode. Three days where I can act on whatever impulse, tugging her into my body as she walks past me in the hotel, leaning over in the car to press my lips to hers, or sliding my hand over to rest on her leg while I drive.

While I'm still forced to remain professional and act like she doesn't exist to me outside of being my assignment in public, as soon as we're behind closed doors, she's mine, and we have a fuck ton of time to make up for.

But now I have some alone time and need to make a call. That conversation I overheard right before everything went down has been sitting on the outskirts of my mind. Something tells me the pieces of this puzzle I'm missing are absolutely critical, so I leave Ava and Peach safely locked in the hotel room as she gets ready for tonight's event, while I go on a coffee run.

On the drive back, I dial one of the smartest men I know.

"Miles," I say when he picks up, skipping the hellos and jumping right into it. "Got some time?"

Miles is a computer genius with crazy hacking and investigation skills. He worked for Five Star when Hank owned it, doing any research required on potential threats, but was let go when the business changed hands. As I've learned, Greg doesn't believe in spending time and money on preventative security.

"Well, hello to you too, how are you? I'm just fine," he grumbles.

"I don't have time for niceties."

"Does this have anything to do with this pageant queen of yours?" he asks with a laugh, and I groan. I avoided calling Hank because I didn't want to deal with his teasing bullshit, and yet here I am, dealing with it anyway.

"Let me guess, you talked to Hank?"

"He's got a big mouth, and now that he's retired, he gabs more than any chick I've ever met,” he says with a laugh. “But I'm just fucking with you. What's going on?"

Scrubbing a hand over my face, I sigh.

"I don't know. Some things aren't adding up over here, and I need to see if you can find any connections not visible to outside eyes." If there's any connection to be found between the hotel break-in, the assault, and whatever the fuck Regina and Anne were talking about, he'd be the one to figure it out. "It could be nothing, but I've got a bad feeling about it."

"I've never known you to be wrong about a bad feeling. If your gut says something is off, I'd trust it." My stomach churns because he's not wrong. I've learned in this business to trust my gut, and when red flags are waving, they're never false alarms.

"Yeah, that's kind of what I'm afraid of." I sigh. "I'm kind of stuck, though, especially since no one seems to be taking this seriously. You know Greg wants to do the bare minimum now. If I send you a list of all of the things that have happened while we've been on tour, can you try to find any kind of connection besides Ava?"

"Of course. Give me the details," he says, any hint of humor gone from his tone, and then I dive into what I've been seeing. It only takes a few minutes to give him all of the details and names I have.

"Can you make sure your search goes deep into Anne Holmes and Regina Miller?" I ask.

"Regina Miller, as in the runner of the Miss Americana pageant?" he asks, keys typing.

"That's the one. She's got it out for Ava, and I can't tell if it's just because she doesn't like her or because there's something more there. A threatening letter was sent to the organization for Ava, and they still haven't mentioned it to me. Regina and Anne were the ones who insisted I not watch Ava the day she was assaulted, and I already told you about the conversation I overheard."

"Got it," he says like he's got everything he needs now. "You're right; red flags are waving." Keys clack a few more times in the background. "I have a few projects I'm working on in the next few weeks, but I'll try and see what I can do."

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