Page 1 of An Impossible Love
Chapter One
Three a.m.
Washington DC
Inauguration Day
Emerson Sati rolled over in bed, groaning at her alarm clock.Who the hell gets up this early?She turned onto her back and tried to blink herself awake.The Big Day. Inauguration.And in a few hours, American’s third bachelor president—and only the second one to win office as an Independent after George Washington—would be sworn in, and she, Emerson Sati, Special Agent, would be standing by, waiting to take a bullet for him.
She slid out of bed in her tiny apartment in Georgetown and padded to the shower. At four-thirty a.m., President-Elect Orin Bennett would be ready to go for his usual morning run along the Washington Mall and on the path that ran alongside the Potomac, and she would have to run beside him. Not that she minded—it got the exercise for the day out of the way so she could concentrate on her work. Just… why the hell did he have to get up so damnearly?
The hot water helped, and she massaged shampoo through her long dark brown hair.I need a haircut, she thought while drying it. It fell almost to her waist now, and she had to resort to ever more elaborate hairstyles to keep it neat and tidy. She glared at her reflection in the mirror. She knew people regarded her as beautiful, but Emmy couldn’t care less. She wasn’t in her job because she was good looking. She was the first female agent to protect the president—selected personally by him after he consulted her boss. If Emmy had still had her family around, they would have been proud. Zach had been proud.
Of course, Zach would have been proud if she breathed in and out. He had been her partner in the Secret Service, pure business at first, but she soon learned that underneath the gruff exterior, he was the kindest, most brilliant man she had ever met. They had never let their love interfere with their work, but it was obvious to all how crazy they were about each other. Zach had wanted her to do well in the Service; he had transferred to Virginia right before their wedding and was tasked with protecting the then-Congressman Bennett’s campaign manager, Kevin McKee. Three days before Emmy would have become his wife, Zach was shot and killed by a man with mental health difficulties who wanted to ‘punish’ McKee for some random crime he thought the young politico had committed.
He might as well have put a bullet in Emmy’s heart as well. She was in shock, broken, and full of rage. Her boss Lucas, head of the presidential detail, had told her to take a sabbatical.
“Take it or you’re out of here, Emmy, and you know that’s the last thing I want for you.” His voice had been kind but firm.
She’d fought him, of course, but her need to grieve for Zach overtook everything. She went to India, her dad’s homeland, and spent time trying to find peace. Everywhere she went she saw Zach: his dark blonde hair, choppy and messy when not working; his dark blue eyes twinkling with merriment and love for her.
Eventually, real life crept back in, and her need to return to her work overwhelmed the grief. Lucas had welcomed her back, delighted to find that her passion for work was still as intense as it had been before Zach’s death.
In his office that November day, as the rest of America still reeled from the shock of the impeachment, Lucas told her about her new role.
“Obviously, we can’t have the same agents protecting President-Elect Bennett who protected former President Ellis. President Ellis’s entire team is now under investigation by the FBI, so we have to assume that they have all been compromised.” Lucas smiled at her. “President-Elect Bennett handpicked his new team. You were the first person to be selected.”
“I was?” Emmy looked astonished. “I’m honored.”
“But?”
“President-Elect is what? Six-foot-five?”
“And change.”
“And I’m five-five. He knows that, right?”
Lucas grinned. “Em, you’ve proved over and over that height doesn’t matter. With your record, why should Bennett care?”
“What’s he like?”
Lucas considered. “A good man. A little bewildered that he made it to the Oval Office. I don’t think anyone expected that, least of all him. He said he was running simply to make a point about having a fresh start outside of partisan politics, but I think he underestimated the country’s thirst for honesty.”
“Sing it, brother,” Emmy rolled her eyes. “I’ve never questioned my country more than in the last few months—not that it affects my commitment to the job,” she added hurriedly, and Lucas laughed.
“Em, don’t worry. I don’t figure you for a dissident. One thing,” he said, meeting her eye. “You know as well as I do that Orin Bennett is fiercely loyal to his team, and he has a small but select group of people he trusts implicitly. Kevin McKee is one of them. I know that your personal life has nothing to do with your job, but still, I have to ask the question.”
Emmy had anticipated this. “Sir, I have no ill feelings or resentment towards Mr. McKee. He was no more to blame for Zach’s death than anyone else. The man who killed Zach was sick, and I cannot imagine what hell he was and is going through.”
Lucas was impressed. “You are one hell of an agent, Emmy. The very best.”
Emmy thought about her boss’s words as she drove through predawn Washington DC. No, she would never waver from the commitment she had made five years ago when she joined the Service, but like her countrymen, she had been shocked by the scandal that brought down the Ellis government and elected an Independent congressman from Oregon to the highest office in the land.
Brookes Ellis, once revered as a forward-thinking, inclusive Progressive, had betrayed his voters when it came to light that he was using the office of the president to further his own agenda and had spent millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money to do so. And when some of his minions had been found guilty of human trafficking, Ellis’s incumbency was ruined, even though he strenuously denied any links to such atrocity.
Ellis hadn’t gone quietly and was still railing against the system and the new president. Just yesterday, he had gone onThe Today Showto besmirch the fact that President-Elect Bennett was an Independent, the first since George Washington.
It wasn’t Emmy’s job to get involved with the politics, but she knew there were a lot of disgruntled Ellis voters, some of whom were vocal about their desire to see Bennett dead.Always the crazies,Emmy thought now as she parked her car.
