“They wouldn’t shoot me,” I attempt to reassure her. “I’m one of their best.”
She’s back to tensing in my arms. “You are?”
I guess she gleans the subtext. I’m good at killing people.Maybe she’s feeling weird about being in the arms of a coldblooded killer.
No, she’s still worried about me, I realize the next second. “You’re not just saying that, are you?” she asks, biting her lower lip.
I hug her to me even closer, basically crushing her, but she’s holding onto me just as fiercely. “You don’t have to worry. I’m their best soldier, and you’re my best girl. Myonlygirl. I’ll always protect you. Believe me.”
“I don’t care about me,” she murmurs. “Only you.”
“Same thing.” I draw myself up so I’m sitting straight, still hugging her for dear life. “I will make sure nothing ever happens to me, because if it did, I couldn’t protect you. And Iwillprotect you. I will spend the rest of our life together being your silent protector.”
“You’re not all that silent anymore,” she mumbles against my chest, sounding like she’s about to fall asleep. And I guess she is, because that session was definitely intense.
“Chatterbox yourself,” I grin, but she’s already snoring.
31
Piper
Present Day
“Well, here we go again,” I mutter, sliding my visitor’s badge over the screen, and the elevator button glows bright orange.
Josh is at the front desk, distracting the receptionist with the biggest bonsai tree I’ve ever seen. I have no idea where he found that monster, but he slid it straight onto the counter, shielding me as I crouched toward the elevator door behind them.
“You’re in a whole lot of trouble, mister,” sniffs the receptionist. “I got yelled at for those visitor badges.”
“I know,” smiles Josh. “I felt so bad when I found it in my pocket. Here you go.” He slides the badge on the counter. “And this is to make up for that.”
She eyes the tree in confusion. “What the hell…”
“I want you to take it as a token of my appreciation,” he insists. “Here you go. Oh, crap!”
Pushing the tree over to her, he lets it fall, and a mountain of dirt tumbles into her lap.
“Fuck!” she screams. “Fuck, my dress! It’s a fucking designer dress! Hey!”
In the moment it takes for her to react to the dirt now coating every inch of her, Josh has joined me, and the elevator doors open just as she turns toward the front door. She must think Josh left that way.
“Hey, come back, asshole! And bring me back the other badge!I’m still missing another badge!”
Reassured she hasn’t seen either of us, we collapse into the elevator, laughing.
“That actually did feel like a sketch straight out of Nancy Drew,” I declare, wiping the tears of laughter from my eyes. “So ridiculous. Where did you even get that bonsai thing?”
“My mom collects them,” he chuckles.
“Your mom… what?”
I’m gasping, my sides hurting from laughing, as I imagine his mom with hundreds of massive potted trees in her house. Fuck, it feels so good to laugh. I can’t think of the last time I did. The weight in my chest has eased, and though I know it’s temporary, I cling to that feeling as the doors slide open onto the executive floor.
“I can’t believe the badge works up here,” I whisper, my sides back to clenching from nerves, instead of laughter.
Josh nods. “It’s insane how badly protected this whole place is.”
We kept my badge—Jen Potter—and I grasp it, my palm coating the plastic object with my sweat as we step out of the elevator and look around.
