* * *
Boston wasn’t nearlyas cold as it used to be even a hundred years ago. The wintery Arctic wind brought with it a chill that still required a coat, but the snow in old pictures rarely fell as thick and as often as it used to. Jamie ducked his head against a particularly strong gust as he stared at his tablet, the cold breeze slipping beneath the collar of his knee-length wool coat. The difference in weather between here and Los Angeles was stillextreme.
He’d been on the ground at Boston Common since 0600, working with the private security company his family employed, the Secret Service, and the Boston Police Department to secure the open-air public park. That was after a sleepless night of conferencing with far too many people who had opinions they wanted to voice and which Jamie didn’t want to hear. It was aggravating to know the Secret Service and Boston PD, while dedicated to their jobs, seemed to be humoring him when it came to his military background. Apparently,The New York Times’ exposé on him back in January and numerous attack ads against his father since then had colored their opinion of his record—and lack thereof, depending on the story—and the patronizing tone people had taken with him over the night had pissed him off more than alittle.
Luckily, he hadn’t received any pushback from their private security who knew the family and had worked with the Callahans for years. It helped a good number of them knew his true identity. While those men and women wouldn’t breathe a word about him, they made their preference known to the other groups handling security—Jamie’s orders came above everyoneelse’s.
He’d probably be in a better mood if he hadn’t taken a call from the director at 0730 regarding the missing members of his team and needing to act like this was thefirsttime he’d heardaboutit.
Which, honestly, wasn’t difficulttodo.
It had been a short, if ugly,conversation.
Jamie could understand why the director would want him to keep his focus on Boston, but it was getting harder by the minute to stay. The campaign rally was scheduled to start at 1200 sharp, less than thirty minutes from now. People had been arriving for the past couple of hours, and the crowd of supporters had filled in nearly all available space within the barrier fencing Boston PD hadsetup.
Protesters had vowed to stage a demonstration against Richard during his speech, and had begun gathering some distance away at Boston City Hall just as early as his father’s supporters. They were set to start marching soon down Beacon Street since Tremont Street was closed to the general public for securitypurposes.
The threat of the two groups meeting and turning violent was in the back of everyone’s mind. Keeping everyone separated during the rally timeframe was a tough job Jamie hoped they would be successful at. He’d done all that he could on such short notice. Jamie knew he needed to watch over his family, but his team needed him just asbadly.
“Shit,” Jamie muttered as the smart-glass screen of his tablet cracked beneath histhumb.
He rubbed hard at his forehead with his free hand. Jamie couldn’t remember the last time he’d broken something because he lacked control. When he’d first been changed into a metahuman, sure, he’d had a difficult time getting control of his enhanced strength, but by now it was second nature to moderate his grip. The stress of the situation was definitely gettingtohim.
“You look like you’re about to killsomeone.”
Jamie raised his head, watching as Leah was escorted by a group of Secret Service agents past the gathered security to where he stood near the Parkman Bandstand on the southeast side. The old, open-air structure was no longer so open, the gaps between the support pillars filled in with temporary bullet-proof plas-glass panes. Richard would be giving his speech from within its safe confines while holoscreens projected his three-dimensional image amongst the crowd at digital receiving platforms. Those were just one of many security features Jamie had brainstormed and ordered be implemented in the face of his father’s refusal to move or cancel the damnrally.
“Would if I could,” Jamie replied flatly. “Are you wearing your Kevlar-linedvest?”
Leah wrinkled her nose at him and tugged at the front of her stylish coat dress that was just slightly too large for her slim frame, though no one except the fashion blogs might notice. “It’s makingmehot.”
“Don’t takeitoff.”
“Iknow.”
Jamie swallowed the urge to snap at her. He knew the campaign was wearing on Leah as much, if not more, than it weighed on him. She’d shouldered the brunt of the family facetime required during the early months of the campaign while he went on missions for the MDF. Jamie had long fought against splitting his focus for this exact reason. He couldn’t clone himself and be in two placesatonce.
Leah sighed, bumping her shoulder against his arm. “I didn’t mean to snap at you. I know you had a longnight.”
From flying in extra manpower at the last minute to getting authorization to place Boston PD snipers on the surrounding rooftops by waking up the superintendent-in-chief to get approval,long nightwas an understatement. Jamie had chewed his way through private, local, and federal security groups to put in place all the extra protection he could around his family. His efforts felt hollow, though, with the knowledge that Alexei and Sean were still missing andpossibly—
Jamie cut thatthoughtoff.
Don’t go there,he toldhimself.
The fear scratching at the back of his throat kept wanting to choke him. That clawing, chilling panic was held at bay by sheer will and teeth-grinding determination. Jamie knew if he gave in to that old nightmare made new again, he’d lose his desperately-fought-for focus, and that was something he couldn’t affordrightnow.
“Jamie?”
He blinked, training his gaze on his sister’s worriedface. “What?”
Leah frowned at him, reaching out to gently touch a hand to his elbow. “What’swrong?”
“Besides theobvious?”
“You being in captain mode isn’t unusual. You not paying attention when I’m talking? That’s cause forconcern.”
“I waslistening.”
