With Clint and his father both dead, the danger to Nathan and his brother were gone, but the suffering Reese had experienced at Clint’s hands was just beginning.
Everett’s suffering, too.
My thoughts automatically drifted to the older man. I’d recognized him almost instantly, despite how beaten down he’d looked. To say I’d been shocked to learn that Reese Starr was actually Reese Shaw, son of one of the most popular presidents this country had seen since JFK, was an understatement. I was beyond curious to learn about whatever had caused the estrangement between father and son, but I was more worried about what impact their reunion would have on Reese. I’d seen his blatant fury for myself, but I’d been around Reese enough to recognize what others likely hadn’t seen.
And I’d seen it in that moment when he’d asked us all to leave the room.
The vulnerability.
It was something I’d catch in his gaze every now and again when he would be listening to me talk to my daughter on the phone. There’d been a certain level ofwantin his eyes. Like he was envious, though I wasn’t sure if he was envious of me as a father or envious of my daughter. Having now seen what his relationship was like with his father, I figured it was the latter. Despite his ugly words yesterday, I had to believe that maybe the relationship hadn’t been broken beyond repair.
As for Everett, he’d been a much easier read. He’d been absolutely devastated. I’d seen the man enough times on television to know that he exuded confidence and power, but I’d seen only a shell of a human being yesterday.
A human being who’d apparently been hiding a pretty big secret – one which his son had callously given away with his remark about Everett fucking Vincent. There’d been a comment about Vincentbeing someone’s brother too, but I hadn’t been sure what to make of that. Admittedly, I’d had the opportunity to google Vincent St. James and while I hadn’t found much on him, there’d been plenty on a Pierce St. James who’d been killed years earlier in a home invasion. If Reese’s words were to be believed, Everett had been in some kind of relationship with Pierce. Since I definitely would have remembered news about Everett Shaw coming out as gay, either during his term or after it had ended, I had to assume it was a secret he’d been keeping close to the vest. I was just glad there hadn’t been more people in the room when Reese had made the comment. I wasn’t one to judge those who weren’t ready to come out of the closet – something like that just couldn’t be forced. I’d learned that from more than one painful breakup when I’d been younger.
It was a shame too, since I didn’t pursue men who weren’t out.
I nearly laughed out loud at the thought.
As if I could actually pursue a man like Everett Shaw.
No, he wasn’t president anymore, but he was still a powerful man in his own right. I couldn’t even fathom all the connections he had. Even if I was willing to break my own rule, what were the chances a guy like him would go for someone like me?
It was all irrelevant, anyway. My focus, and everyone else’s, needed to be on Reese and his recovery. I had a plan in mind that I’d already gotten the sign-off on from Ronan, but that I needed to now get Reese to agree to. At thirty-three years old, Reese was incredibly guarded and stubborn, so I knew my plan wouldn’t be well received. I’d tried on more than one occasion to draw Reese out from the protective walls he’d built around himself, but his focus had always been on the job and he’d refused to engage with me on anything other than a professional level. But I’d always sensed that it was something he desperately needed. I’d been making some progress in recent weeks, but it was like pulling teeth with him.
Of course, some of his behavior made more sense now. While Reese had enlisted in the military shortly after Everett had won the presidency, he’d still been a kid when his father had been named vice president. He’d had sixteen long years with some kind of spotlight on him practically at all times. That couldn’t be easy on anykid. And whatever shit had happened in the years after he’d enlisted had clearly left a mark on him. He was as skilled a killer as I’d ever seen, but his trust factor was next to nothing and I suspected once you broke that trust, you weren’t getting it back.
Ever.
I’d definitely need to walk a fine line with Reese going forward, especially since I now had the added inconvenience of having to deal with my attraction to his father.
And his father’s bodyguard.
I shook my head at the thought.
Leave it to me to have gone years without feeling any kind of connection with any guy and in one fell swoop, I found myself inexplicably drawn to two men.
At the same time.
Two men who were presumably connected at the hip, considering their respective roles.
While Everett had been an open book, Nash had been quite the opposite. If his eyes hadn’t lingered on me in that moment after Everett had given me permission to address him using his first name, I wouldn’t have noticed the faint spark of interest – and confusion – in their dark, storm-cloud-colored depths. I couldn’t say for sure that Nash had a physical interest in men, but he definitely hadn’t liked the way I’d looked at Everett.
But there’d been something else there too. Something I couldn’t quite put my finger on.
I’d never been someone who had a particular “type,” but I could say without any kind of hesitation that both men ticked all my boxes, though for different reasons. While I’d instinctively felt the need to shelter Everett, I hadn’t been interested in anything remotely like that when it came to the stunningly good-looking Agent Nash. No, with him I knew it would be a battle.
Of wills.
Of bodies.
And hell if I didn’t want to engage in that battle… and not care if I came out the winner or the loser. I highly suspected I’d win either way.
Of course, I was assuming a lot. I considered myself pretty well-versed at reading people, but I certainly could be off the mark when it came to Agent Nash.
I let my thoughts about both men fade as I reached Reese’s room. I considered the younger man on the other side of the door a friend and he deserved my complete attention. I knocked as I opened the door. Reese looked much like he had the day before when I’d left. His gaze was on the window, but I wasn’t sure he was actually looking out of it. He was alone in the room.
“Hey,” I said as I entered. The padding that had been lodged around his arms to keep him from moving them too much while he was waking up from the anesthesia the day before had been removed, but otherwise he looked the same.
