“Oh,” Miles said. “I didn’trealize.”
What the hell did this guyexpect Miles to do about it? He wasn’t the security company.
“I didn’t want to make afuss.” John shrugged. “Just thought I’d check in.”
“Sorry I don’t have betternews,” Miles said.
He sounded about twelve, andI didn’tlike that at all. Sometimes he was a little nervous, but normally he was prettyconfident talking to people. This guy, apparently, was a special case.
“Should we go inside?” Imurmured, covering Miles’ hand on my arm, drawing him a little closer to mybody. My job was to protect him, after all.
Even if I was onlyprotecting him from an awkward social interaction right now.
“It’s a little cold outhere,” Miles agreed.
“And all the champagne’sinside,” John added. “You two have a nice night, y’hear?”
“Thank you.” Miles tugged metoward the door. As we put some distance between us and John, I could feel therelief in Miles’ frame.
“Sorry about that,” he said.“John is… well, he’s…”
“Seemed like an asshole tome,” I said. “Couldn’t put my finger on why.”
Miles sighed. “No one ever can.He’s ruthless. The kind of man who’ll smile at your face while he’s stabbingyou in the back, as my grandmother used to say.”
“She sounds wise.”
“She was,” Miles agreed. “Youwould have liked her, I think.”
“I think I would have.” Ifshe’d been anything like Miles and Emily, we would have gotten along. Heclearly missed her.
“No cameras?” I asked. Thathad piqued my interest, since it seemed strange. On the other hand, I hadn’tnoticed any. I’d just assumed they were well-concealed, instead of literally notthere.
Thatdidexplain whythey hadn’tinstantly known who’d broken into Miles’ office, though.
“We have them in reception,”Miles said. “So we can see who’s coming and going if anything ever happens, butthere are a lot of trade secrets hidden in those offices. If there’s footage ofthem…”
“There’s the potential for aleak,” I finished, understanding dawning over me.
“Exactly. We learned thatone the hard way… geez, maybe seven years ago? It cost the company millions inlost intellectual property. So. No cameras.”
“I did wonder why you hadn’tcaught whoever broke into the office. None in the other parking lot either,huh?”
Miles shook his head. “But more becausemanagement is cheap than for security reasons. We lease out the second lot,since it’s bigger than the company needs and we don’t really want to get intothe private parking business. But obviously, there are drawbacks to that.”
“I can throttle a managerfor you, if you want.”
“No.” Miles laughed. “No, it’sfine. Too late now.”
“Can’t help but feel likeyou could use a drink,” I said. “Since you’ve got a designated driver for thenight and everything.”
“I’m not gonna say no. But Iamgonna hide overby that pot plant.” Miles nodded to a fern nearly as tall as he was in the corner.
“I’ll handle the drinks,” Ipromised. I hadn’t missed that Miles hadn’t introduced me to John as hisbodyguard, and for reasons I didn’t really want to examine, that had lifted mymood more than I felt it should have.
Even if it was just becausehe hadn’thad achance, I liked that hehadn’tjumped in to correct the obvious assumption.
“You go hide until I getback,” I said, nudging Miles toward the plant.
