Contracted Defense

by Piper J. Drake

  Stretching one leg at a time out of the water, watching the bubbles slide down her skin, she stifled a groan. Oh yes, this soak was not only an indulgent follow-up. It was a necessity.

  Her new friend Adam knew what he was doing in bed, and the challenge of meeting him pleasure for pleasure would leave her sore everywhere.

  Perhaps friend was farther than she wanted to take it. She was definitely inclined to think well of the man. He’d been fantastically responsive to her encouragements and considerate even as he’d sent them both out of their senses. But it wasn’t likely that she’d run into him again unless both of them made an effort to contact.

  Parties hosted directly by Safeguard like last evening were rare. If any of her colleagues attended formal events, it was on contract as some VIP’s private security. While she’d guessed Adam was a contractor working with one of Safeguard’s partners, she hadn’t asked for details. She’d have to expend very deliberate energy to track him down. The same went for him in regard to her.

  Neither of which was likely.

  No. Her teammate Lizzy would’ve called this a hookup. And it’d been a good one. She settled her feet back under the water and just let the heat seep into her muscles. These were the kinds of nights she was looking for in between contracts. Just enough to release the sexual tension building inside her from time to time without any of the complications that came with clingy relationships.

  Now, if she could convince Diaz to allow her to work solo rather than replacing Marc, her life would be just about where she wanted it.

  A few minutes later, she rose out of the tub and took another quick rinse in the shower. Yes, it was repetitive. Indulging in self-care like this was a ritual of sorts with many steps of pampering. In all things, she liked to be thorough, detail oriented, and happy with the end result. Her ex had always lost patience with her, but he wasn’t here to give her grief about this. Wasn’t it lovely? Refreshed, she wrapped a thin satin robe around her frame and considered her very large, very welcoming bed.

  “Tch.” She sighed and headed back out to the living area.

  If she tried to go to sleep now, which she was absolutely ready to do, the thought of the papers waiting on her desk would drive her right back out of bed. If there was one thing she disliked acutely, it was settling into a cozy bed with wondrous sheets and blankets then suddenly realizing you had to pee. This was going to be like that, but on the scale of realizing you had a urinary tract infection.

  Picking up the papers, she reviewed them carefully, reading twice to be sure she understood the legal phrasing properly. It was bad news, again. But she wasn’t surprised in the least. Her ex had been drawing out their divorce for ages now, and this was just the latest in a string of requests for evidence and excessive motions designed to tie up the official divorce proceedings ad nauseam.

  She retrieved her smartphone and opened up her task-management app. Adding several tasks to her list for the coming day, she figured it was just as well her ex lived on the other side of the country. If she wasn’t tempted to end this decisively, then one of her teammates might for the idiocy he insisted on putting her through. But that wasn’t what the Safeguard team was about, nor their parent company, the Centurion Corporation.

  Yes, they were a private contract organization. Mercenaries, to be blunt about it. But they did their best to do the right thing in every situation. They didn’t succumb to petty impulses. The actions they took were decisive and strategic, making a difference in the bigger picture of reality.

  Murdering her ex for being a buggering ass was a waste of their very elite skills.

  All she wanted was for this divorce to be finished. Her relationship with him had been over and done years ago. At this point, he’d just been making things difficult out of spite. He was convinced that she owed him a higher standard of living than what he had without her. He’d been frustrated when she hadn’t gone bankrupt paying the initial legal fees and simply taken his pathetic excuse for a settlement.

  She made a respectable livelihood without him, thank you very much. Regardless of what poison he could spew about mercenaries for hire and about her in specific. All she wanted now was to be free of him, and he wouldn’t give it to her. So the bastard could go rot as far as she was concerned. She’d continue this farce of a divorce process until he had no further resources to bring to bear.

  It took minutes to scan the correspondence and store it digitally, then drop the originals to be filed away in offsite storage. She didn’t feel peace of mind, per se, but she felt better knowing what the letter had been about and what steps she needed to take in the immediate future.

  If there was one thing she hated, it was being caught up in a situation without having a plan to deal with it.

  Chapter Three

  “Morning.”

  Victoria crossed the small area at the back employee entrance to Safeguard and paused to lean in the doorway to Lizzy’s office. “Good morning. Do any of us ever decide to take Sunday off?”

  Working Fridays and Saturdays was actually fairly normal for them when it came to the brief, one-night private security engagements. Quite a few of the Seattle elite hired Safeguard to see to the security of their weekend appearances and social engagements. Sundays were less frequent and usually some of the resources could take the day.

  “Apparently, there’s an uptick in October weddings.” Lizzy sighed. “Not that I’m complaining. There’s something satisfying about snagging paparazzi and turning them away. Some of them are really creative about trying to sneak into people’s personal space. It’s not exactly a challenge, but I don’t feel bad about keeping them out of peoples’ lives.”

  Victoria raised her eyebrows. “We’re doing weddings on a regular basis now.”

  Far stretch from the infiltration and surveillance missions they used to run in wilder places overseas. The environments had been much harsher and their objectives had been...less civilized.

  “A select few.” Lizzy pressed her lips together. “Celebrities and high-profile individuals experiencing threats. There’s established proof of danger.”

  Fair. A target was most vulnerable at moments in their lives like wedding days. It would be the best day to do irreparable harm to them, either physically or psychologically. They’d live with the memory forever, if they survived in the first place. Another reason Victoria had absolutely no dreams of the perfect wedding.

  Of course, an attack on any day was, by nature, unforgettable.

  Nuptials. Parties. These were simple to oversee. A normal, civilian-staffed private security company could’ve been sufficient. Safeguard was being hired because they’d become fashionable. But the resources within Safeguard were experienced, highly skilled individuals. They were hired soldiers, all having served with one or more militaries in some of the most volatile environments around the world. To say they were overqualified for these contracts was ridiculously obvious.

  “Is it just me?” Victoria considered her wording carefully. Lizzy had been a long-time teammate and one of the few people who could also be thought of as a trusted friend, but she was also second in command at Safeguard and they were in the office. “Or have we not been presented with the opportunity to stretch ourselves recently?”

  Victoria had been with Safeguard from the beginning, earlier that year. Prior, she’d been a part of Gabe’s fire team within the Centurion Corporation, the parent company. As part of Centurion, they’d seen plenty of action and every mission had been high risk. The objectives had been worth it though, and there’d always been a need to hone the skills they had.

  When Safeguard had been created, it’d been a change of pace and a welcome respite, a different way of thinking and applying what she knew. Now, Victoria chafed at the lack of challenge.

  The corners of Lizzy’s mouth turned downward into a troubled frown, and the worry darken
ed her gaze. “Ever been warned to be careful what you wish for?”

  Dark-haired, dark-eyed, she was lovely. Lizzy was the foil to Victoria’s golden looks. The two of them had used their striking contrast to advantage in times past, when it’d been necessary to be the visual distraction. But Lizzy’s forte lay in concealment and taking out her targets from a distance. She was a skilled sniper, one of the best Victoria had ever witnessed. To see Lizzy’s calm disturbed was alarming.

  “Something is churning,” Lizzy offered slowly. “I haven’t tracked it down yet, but Diaz is aware. There’s hesitation out there to hire us, and we’re not sure where it’s coming from. Even our connections with Seattle law enforcement and the U.S. Marshals have seen some extra red tape.”

  Those connections were recent, a direct result of Lizzy’s joint effort to provide protection for Kyle Yeun in the days leading up to his testimony in court against a huge biotech company called Phoenix Biotech. The mission had been successful. Both Seattle law enforcement and the U.S. Marshals had been interested in building stronger relationships for future collaboration. It seemed off for them to hesitate now.

  “Interesting.” Victoria pressed her lips together, thinking of Belligerent Boy’s commentary from the prior evening. Reputation was key among private contract organizations. Safeguard might be new, but they had the backing of Centurion Corporation for the time being. And Centurion was recognized as one of the best in the business, providing expert resources forged in the world’s most challenging environments to fulfill military defense contracts around the globe.

  The Safeguard Division specialized more in private protection. They were elite-level bodyguards. They should have been guarding high-profile individuals where local law enforcement or government oversight could not. Instead, they were watching over...weddings.

  “We’re still in proof of concept.” Lizzy was likely to have followed the same line of thought Victoria had, perhaps had been going over it for longer. “Centurion can back us for a while, but we need to be in the black and established in the first two years to prove out our value. It’s one thing to build a reputation from scratch, slow and steady. It takes way longer to repair a tarnished rep. It’s not worth the investment for Centurion when they can pursue other potential divisions.”

  While Centurion was a good employer, it was also run by shrewd businessmen. They’d cut Safeguard if it didn’t prove out. Victoria wasn’t sure she wanted to remain with Safeguard for the long term, but she wanted it to be her choice. Besides, there were people out there who needed Safeguard or an entity like it. Without them, Maylin Chen might be dead and her younger sister still missing. Kyle Yeun wouldn’t have survived, his sister and nephew either sent back to South Korea or lost in the system here in the United States. Safeguard needed to exist. It was more a matter of finding those clients, the ones who had a real need...and the funds to hire them.

  Even as she thought about it, Victoria recognized the whimsy in it. There were always people in need. There were even television shows and movies about soldiers of fortune helping them. But in reality, money was a harsh limiting factor.

  “If you hear anything specific from your contacts about the perception of Safeguard, let us know,” Lizzy said finally. Every professional in the private sector of the military defense and private security industry had contacts. A solid information network lasted beyond any finite contract or job with a specific organization. It was a lifelong resource. “Could be nothing but it’s probably something. We can’t afford to be caught by surprise. And to be honest, we’ve been due for a few professional challenges with the jump start we had.”

  Victoria huffed out a laugh. It went unsaid, but two names came to mind: Edict and Phoenix Biotech. Twice now, Safeguard resources had clashed with Edict, the competing private contract organization backed by Phoenix Biotech. And both of those times, Safeguard had deprived Phoenix Biotech of very valuable targets.

  “Corporate competition is not my area of expertise.” Victoria shook her head. She didn’t have the patience for the subtlety it required. Give her a straightforward plan of action any day as opposed to being trapped in a boardroom over business negotiations, pretending to be civil.

  “We leave that to minds like Kyle’s.” Lizzy nodded, though the softness around her mouth and eyes was reserved solely for when she was thinking of her lover. “He says they could be undercutting us to take up all the contracts in our business sector.”

  “There are always more contracts.” At least, in the years Victoria had been a private specialist, there had been. Sometimes it meant moving to a new hot spot. Other times, it meant compromising ethics for continued work. So far, she’d only ever had to slightly bend her own rules on the latter.

  The trick to surviving in the business was to keep in mind that tomorrow could always push you harder than you’ve been so far.

  “In any case, listen for whispers in your network. Both Diaz and I agree this is just the symptom of whatever is going on.” Lizzy rolled her shoulders. “We’re going to keep having growing pains as we get better established, and we need to be able to handle them quickly.”

  “Lovely.” Victoria was only too glad it was Lizzy dealing with all of these considerations alongside their CO, Diaz, and not Victoria. She preferred to tackle her challenges project by project. “Speaking of growing pains, I came in to meet with Diaz about a new contract.”

  Please let it not be a wedding.

  “And a new partner.” Lizzy grinned. “Standard operating procedure. We work in pairs now, and your new partner is waiting in the reception area. Why don’t you go get him and bring him back to Diaz’s office. I’ll track down Diaz for you.”

  It was the new standard operating procedure she didn’t want to follow. If she could convince Diaz to let her work solo, she’d be much more likely to stay on a while longer. She hadn’t broached the possibility with either Diaz or Lizzy, but her thoughts had been leaning toward whether to stay or go often since Marc had been injured. She needed to consider the options more first and define for herself what her deciding factors were going to be.

  She straightened and started to step away, then turned back. “You look too happy over this situation.”

  Lizzy’s eyes widened. “Who, me? Let’s just say that dating within the company hasn’t been addressed by HR yet.”

  “There’s no conflict of interest,” Victoria responded automatically. “You and Kyle have very different positions here.”

  Kyle was a program manager and head of finance for Safeguard. His was a desk position. The chances of him going out in the field with Lizzy, and their relationship endangering a mission, was slim to none. That said, at one time, Kyle had been out there with only Lizzy to keep him alive. So he had an appreciation for what the rest of them did, when they weren’t covering social events.

  “Not talking about me here.” Pushing away from her desk, Lizzy rose and came around to lean her hip on the edge. “You haven’t looked twice at the recent new hires. But this one? He’s the type to stand out. If I know you, and I do, this one is the one that’ll put your panties in a twist.”

  Victoria snorted. Maybe if she hadn’t had a chance to feed a certain need the prior evening, she’d be more curious. “Whoever he is, he’s a potential partner. That would be a definite conflict of interest. You should not be flirting with that kind of mess as an administrative.”

  Lizzy shrugged. “This is me, talking to you as a friend. It might be a good thing to make room in your life for something other than work and lame friends like me.”

  Ah, but Victoria was still cleaning up the mess of removing past mistakes from her life. Work and true friends were dependable. She needed them. What she didn’t want was any more messy, complicated, painful holes in her world.

  “I have what I need.” Victoria gave Lizzy a smile. “No worries. There’s a certain satisfaction to being fr
ee to wander if I like.”

  “So long as you don’t wander away from Safeguard, I’m good. It’d be a staffing headache.”

  It was a possibility. All their agreements with Safeguard and the Centurion Corporation could be terminated at will from either side. Victoria opted not to voice the thoughts she’d been having yet.

  “I promise I’ll train my replacement.” It was an old joke between her and Lizzy.

  “For now, just work on training your new partner.” Lizzy pulled a tablet from her work surface and held it out to Victoria. “Take this with you too. It’s his agreement to read and sign.”

  Victoria took it without another word, just a chuckle, and headed down to the reception area.

  * * *

  “Great space, but where’s the coffee?” Adam muttered.

  He’d reported in on time this morning and had been instructed to wait. He had. Plenty of his time in the military had been a cycle of hurry up and wait, so it was nothing new. But he was downright knackered from the night prior. “I could use a cuppa coffee for sure.”

  He’d have thought such a new, obviously well-thought-out office space would have a kitchen area for its employees. After all, Safeguard Division was located in a new or close to new corporate center, taking up the entire floor of a six-story building.

  The wide-open office space gave him line of sight across a majority of the floor, in point of fact. There were no cubicles to carve out space for poor bastards trapped at a desk for the main portion of their waking hours. Instead, clusters of comfortable chairs and table spaces had been placed around the space, welcoming discussion and maybe collaboration.

  Small rooms or pods lined the interior, but the walls were all glass for complete transparency. They were places to find privacy but not to hide. The glass also allowed natural light in from the floor-to-ceiling windows on the outer walls, offering sweet as views of Elliot Bay, Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains. It all depended on which side of the building he was facing.