1
Rowan
“Rowan, meet me in my office when you’re done,” my boss, Price, tells me.
He doesn’t wait for my reply before disappearing into his office. After ten years of working together, Price knows notto expect one from me for something as simple as following an order.
I excel at taking orders, especially when it comes to the work at Guardian Solutions. It’s one of the first things Price drills into the trainees when they join our company. In our line of business, following an order could sometimes mean the difference between life and death.
It’s one of the reasons we’re one of the top security firms in New York City, and high-profile clients choose us over the competition.
Before heading in, I finish writing the report I’m working on. It’s one of the more tedious parts of the job, but I’m good at details, and my last assignment was a routine case that didn’t call for a complicated summary.
It only takes me a few more minutes to submit my report, and then I head to Price’s office.
He looks up from what he’s writing and nods. “Close the door behind you,” he says.
I raise a curious brow at the order, though I do as he says, nevertheless. Privacy is the core of what we do here at Guardian Solutions, but most assignments don’t require a personal sit-down like this with the boss.
“Am I in trouble?” I ask and take my place in the leather chair across from him.
“No, nothing like that,” Price replies with a slight shake of his head.
He pulls out a manila folder from one of the tall stacks at the edge of his desk. I don’t know how he knows what’s what inthe unorganized piles of documents he has throughout his office.
“New client?”
Price nods, and I open the folder and am greeted with a photo of a man who looks too ethereal for this world, with hair so blond it looks almost white. Probably bleached, I conclude.
From his picture-perfect smile and put-together outfit, I instantly peg him as a celebrity. I’ve seen it countless times while working with all the other clients we have in the entertainment industry. They are some of our primary clientele here in New York City, especially during New York Fashion Week, when celebrities from all over the world come to our city and hire local bodyguards for the duration of their stay.
I figure it’s the same for this guy. He looks familiar enough that I’ve probably seen him somewhere before. But I can’t put a name to his face, which isn’t much of a surprise since the only celebrity following I do comes mainly from my teenage niece, Reagan. She blabs to me about all the celebrity happenings as if she’s a gossip magazine. Despite my being the one in close range of these people, Reagan has better intel than I do.
“He’s a local?” I ask when I see he’s requesting a long-term bodyguard.
“Yes, and he’s hoping to find someone discreet,” Price says, sliding the NDA over to me.
I nod and pick up the pen. This isn’t anything out of the ordinary. Most clients we work with have a secret or two theyneed to keep under wraps, and it’s our job to pretend we’re blind to their dealings.
See no evil, hear no evil.
Price looks over my signature, then glances at me. I wait for him to speak and tell me the real reason he’s being so hush-hush about all of this.
“Milo is paying a handsome sum for a bodyguard, but he’s a bit…quirky,” Price starts.
There we go.
“Quirky how?” I ask and lean forward with my elbows on my knees. Is he a secret sadist who likes to abuse the“staff”? He wouldn’t be the first client to have those inclinations, but it’s always better to go into the job with full details.
“It’s nothing like what you’re thinking,” Price quickly says.
He’s used to the varied temperaments of our clients. Just recently, there was a really bad case of a celebrity client throwing objects at my coworker, causing him to cut his eyebrow open.
Because of incidents like these, Price had added a special clause in all the client contracts that prohibited violence against the bodyguard—which this client had obviously broken—and would make them liable for breach of contract and therefore open to lawsuit. My coworker hadn’t wanted all that hassle and was happy with the hefty settlement and Price banning the client for life.
If this Milo dude isn’t violent, then what sort of secret is he so intent on keeping? Price doesn’t keep me guessing for long.
“The client is very particular about whom he keeps around him. He’s passed on a handful of guards already and wants to keep you on a trial basis for now. If you pass his ‘vibe check’”—he says the words as he air quotes with his fingers—“then you’ll be kept on as his protection detail full-time.”
