“Oh, well, excuse me forforgetting,” I rolled my eyes. I knew he wasn’t really serious, that he wasactually making fun ofhimself, and that was a surprise.
So therewasa senseof humor buried somewhere under that pure wool suit that looked like it’d cost me amonth’s rent. Unfortunately, that only served to make him cuter.
“We’re not defense contractors,”Miles clarified. “We research healing. Some of our secrets are valuable, butnone of them are particularly dangerous. And this one was neither. It wasn’teven a secret, really. Preliminary results of a new study. Promising, but noteven ground-breaking.”
“I’m glad you’re notthrowing medical jargon at me right now,” I said. “What I’m understanding hereis that these files wouldn’t have meant much to anyone but you.”
“Myself and a select fewother people. I have a suspicion, but I’m not going to share it withoutevidence. Not yet, in any case.”
Huh. Thiswasgettinginteresting.
But I still didn’t understand whyIwas here.
“You know, the guy who workswith me is a real live private investigator. Maybe I should send him instead?”
That was the smartsuggestion. I wasn’t a mystery-solver. I just stood around and lookedintimidating.
… okay, there was a littlemore to the job than that, but notmuch. This definitely soundedlike a job for Fox.
“I’ll keep that in mind, butyou’re here because my father thinks I should have personal security until weknow there’s no more danger to me.”
Right, okay,nowIwas beginning to understand. This wasn’t Miles’ idea.
“And you called someone youhooked up with over the weekend because…?”
“Because I don’t personallyknow any other bodyguards and you’re not entirely offensive company. And I likethe way you look.”
Oh.
Right.
Well, there was that. Atleast he wasn’ttelling me he’d read great reviews of the company, or anything. I had to startasking clients to leave Google Maps reviews. They were the first thing thatcame up when someone searched for us, and we only had two.
One of them was for theaccountant who’d been renting the office before us.
“So, will you do it?” heasked.
“What do you want me to do,exactly? Twenty-four seven security? Show up in the morning and leave when I’vedropped you home? Public events only?”
Judging by the look on Miles’ face, he hadn’tgotten that far. Which was fine, everyone had their first bodyguard sometime.
Or at least, the kinds ofpeople who ended up with bodyguards had their first bodyguard sometime. Mostpeople never had one.
People like the Emersonsdid, though. Especially when there was something weird going on in their life.
“I’d like to consider youon-call,” he said eventually. “We’ll pay you a retainer. Name your price, it’snot my money.”
“Standard rate’s fine.”
I’d come up with a standardrate later. On-call wasn’t something I’d done before, since most people whohired me did actually care about their personal safety.
Miles seemed to look at theidea of a bodyguard as an inconvenience, which I guessed was why he’d picked apretty one. If I was going to be in the way, at least I’d look good doing it.
I’d had worse compliments inmy life, and I needed this job, anyway. Even if I was insulted, I probablystill would have taken it.
“Then I think we can dobusiness,” Miles said, standing and offering his hand. “Amanda will need you tosign some paperwork on the way out. Standard waivers and non-disclosureagreements. I assume that won’t be a problem?”
“No problem at all.”
