“We’re going to figure this out,” he said.
“How?” She glanced at him. “Whoever these people are, they’re organized. They have equipment and tools. What did I do to piss them off? If this was directly related to NexGen, wouldn’t there have been something else? An attack on them? Other employees?”
“Zain will find out.”
“You think?”
“I know.” Riley snorted. “I’m glad he’s on our team because that bastard can uncover shadows under a rock. If there’s something to find, he’ll have it for us. Just give him time.”
“How’d you get into this line of work?” Erin nodded, but the weight was still firmly on her.
“I was invited to interview. Aegis Group never takes applications. They don’t do open hires. You have to know someone or be recruited by someone up the chain of command. It’s how our boss makes sure our guys are good people.”
“Guys? No women?”
“We have a few, but this isn’t the line of work many want to go into. We’ve got a waiting list for female bodyguard assignments. The plush kind. The ladies never make it onto the teams before they’re offered a fat bonus for taking one of those gigs.”
“A job like that’s sounding real good right about now.”
“You interested in switching careers? I bet I can put a word in for you.”
Erin chuckled and shook her head.
“Anyway, I was approached about the job, told them I was interested, and we started the process. I had a sit down with Zain and our boss, Admiral Crawford. He’s retired. I thought this was going to be an easy, shooting the breeze sort of thing. I’d interviewed at a few places by that point, shopping for the best salary. Zain starts trotting out pictures, records of stupid shit I did in high school. Before social media was even a God damn thing. He even asked me about my baby brother, the cop.”
“How many brothers do you have?” Erin turned to face him, her face scrunched up.
“Three. Two are still at home running the place. The youngest got out of there the day he graduated and is currently a cop down in Ransom, Texas. He went as far as he could get at the time in his POS car.” Riley shook his head.
“Were you that mean to him?”
“He hated baling season more than I do.”
“Baling...season? What the hell is baling season?”
“It comes after cutting season.” Riley shrugged and grinned. He’d managed to distract her.
“What are you cutting and baling?”
“Hay.”
“Hay?”
“You know, for livestock. We grow a lot of alfalfa hay, cut it, bale it and ship it to other places. Sometimes our dad, who is a trucker, will deliver a load down to Texas and stop in to see Casey. Totally unannounced, which drives him nuts.”
“My mom does that to my sister, and she hates it. Mom comes in and starts cleaning, putting things where she thinks they should go.” Erin shook her head.
“Family, right?” Riley grinned.
“Yeah.” Erin pushed her hand through her hair. “I have to start preparing myself to go home, I guess. No more, hey mom, the call is breaking up, when she starts harping on me to settle down.”
“I tried that on my mom once. Didn’t work. She just kept calling, talking to my voicemail, and quizzed me about it later.”
“Oh, my God. I swear, your mom would drive me nuts.”
“She’s not that bad. She makes up for her annoying quirks in cookies, cards, little things you don’t think matter until you can’t have them.” He’d learned how much he loved his rowdy family the first time he went on a sensitive, four week op. God, the box of cards and random shit he’d gotten when he made it back was the best present ever.
Riley leaned on the window and turned his gaze to Erin. The strain of the day wore on her. He could see it in the way she stood, slightly hunched, arms wrapped around herself. The weary way she stared into space.
“What’s the story with Grant and Melody?” she asked.
“Well that’s an out of the blue question.” Riley didn’t know where to start on that one.
“They don’t seem to like each other very much.”
“Grant is a control freak. Melody’s role on the team means she has to make decisions he’s not involved with and he no longer talks directly to clients without Melody being part of it. She’s barely been with us six weeks. We’re still working the kinks out, that’s all. They just need to figure out how to play nice with each other.”
“Grant wasn’t good with clients, I’m guessing?”
“I guess it depends on who you’re asking. Grant’s a good Team Leader, don’t get me wrong. We had a few clients who needed to be handled with kid gloves, but the truth is when we’re out on a job he doesn’t always have the time to think before he speaks.”
“I can see that. You’re in a tense, combat like situation and someone needs to be coddled. We had a few journalists with us who were that way.” She rolled her eyes.
“See what I mean?” Riley chuckled. “You want to shower? Get something else to eat?”
“All of the above?”
“Why don’t you look over the menu and I’ll take care of that while you shower. Then we can get some rest.”
Erin pulled the dress up over her head. She still wore yoga pants and her t-shirt underneath.
Riley was torn. He liked Erin. She was his kind of girl. Which made being her shoulder no hardship whatsoever. On the other hand, she was a client. He had no business getting involved with a woman he’d never see again.
Was he creating a problem for her by going along with this?
“Wow, wow, wow.” Erin pointed at him. “What the hell does that face mean?”
“What face? My face? It’s the only face I have.” He pinched his cheek.
Erin glared at him and crossed her arms over her chest.
Fuck it.
She was a big girl. They were adults.
“I’m wondering if this is
