Calder’s office loomed ahead, and I started that way, ready to let him have a piece of my mind about the heat. Sure, he couldn’t control the weather, but what motherfucker moved to the South? On purpose?
He had the world available to him, and he picked Satan’s butthole to set up shop.
I stopped as a horn honked on the other side of the road and stared out at the water. The mighty Atlantic stretched out in front of me as far as I could see. Okay, fine. It was pretty. I might have a mountain view of Fairplay Mountain, but there definitely weren’t ocean waves anywhere close. It had a certain appeal.
The wind blew, blasting me with another hit of heat. You couldn’t even get a moment of reprieve from the wind.
I scoffed and turned away, starting toward Calder’s again.
Sure, it was pretty to look at, but screw the humidity. They could keep it.
“Hold on! Don’t move!” A woman’s voice rang out to my side.
I twisted, unprepared, as a woman in a bright blue jumpsuit crashed into me. The lens of her heavy black camera zoom crushed into my jaw, and we both stumbled backward. I recovered in seconds, guaranteeing neither of us hit the wooden deck.
“What the hell?” she asked, pushing away from me. “Great. Now I lost them.”
I stared in shock as she threw her hands in the air and looked out at the ocean as if searching for something. But I’d just been looking that way, and nothing was there.
“What the hell?” I asked as she turned around and started walking away.
She tipped her head back quickly. “Next time, be more careful on the dock and watch where you’re going.”
“Excuse me?” Who was this broad? And how dare she? “You’re the one who hit me.”
“Yeah, because you didn’t get out of the way. I thought you SEALs were supposed to be in your prime.”
The door to the Salt & Steel headquarters opened, and Calder, in all his stoic, no-nonsense charm, stepped out onto the little area in front of his office. He smiled at the woman and caught himself on a laugh.
“I see you’ve met Emerson.”
“Who?”
“The woman you’ll be protecting this week.” Hell, no. He’d lost his mind. Cal never said the local in distress was a woman. Besides, how much trouble could a five-foot-two-inch blonde woman get into?
Emerson tilted her head to the side. “Absolutely not.”
2
*EMERSON*
This guy had to be a joke. Right?
He turned away from me to talk to Calder, the cranky old guy who ran a security firm on the docks and continued to mess up our operations. You couldn’t save sea life when you had boatloads of beefy guys coming in and out all day. One of them was going to take out a manatee one day, and then they’d have a real problem on their hands.
Me.
The two men chatted, their heads tucked together as if they were sharing secrets. I didn’t like it.
“What’s this all about, Calder?” I asked, storming up to the two men with my hands on my hips. Just because they were taller than me, older, and had more muscles didn’t mean they got to stand around talking and leave me out of the conversation. I didn’t have time for problems. We had to prepare for the possible storm and get my data uploaded.
Calder ran his hand through his slightly graying hair and shook his head. “I probably should have warned you…”
“You think?” I cut him off. “Calder, I don’t know this guy. I don’t like this guy. And I certainly don’t need anyone protecting me.”
The man in question turned toward me with his mouth slightly ajar. “You don’t even know me. How can you not like me?”
“I know your type,” I answered quickly.
