Contracted Defense

by Piper J. Drake

  She turned away from the board and stared at him. “Understanding the situation is foundational to deciding the next step.”

  He held up his hands. “Identifying what happened and figuring out why was important. I agree. We did that. After this latest check, what conclusions did you come to?”

  His expression was open, earnest. He was trying to work with her. She deliberately relaxed her jaw. She could try to do the same in return. “Install was done correctly. Looking over the visual feeds, I came to the same conclusions we did on the ferry. Everything is working correctly but there was nothing to trigger the alarm. Best I can tell, someone is testing the alarm for other reasons like we said.”

  Adam nodded. “So what can we do to counter someone gathering intel on our security?”

  She held up a hand. “Before we go down that rabbit hole, I want to get something out first.”

  Expression drained from Adam’s face, his animated expressions stilling to a neutral mask. “Yes?”

  This was his way of bracing. He didn’t know what she was going to say next, and he was protecting himself. Maybe protecting her from his reaction too. She wondered at the intensity of emotion this man experienced if he’d learned to bottle it all up so effectively. It must cost him so much to do it.

  “I’m sorry.”

  He blinked. “You don’t need—”

  She met his surprised gaze directly. “I do. You’ve been doing everything you can to work with me. You’ve accommodated all my working idiosyncrasies and respected what I needed to do in order to make sure we proceeded based on what I thought was necessary. I’ve made you recheck your work, and I’ve personally checked your work not once but twice. Anyone else would’ve been insulted. It is an insult, in a way, regardless of the situation. So, I’m sorry.”

  It’d been eating away at her this entire morning. She’d had good reasons for her actions and she still firmly believed she’d done the right things. However, maybe her past relationships with her ex and with her last partner had taught her a few things. She was sick of parting ways all torn up. Her divorce was leaving her in shreds and it wasn’t quite over yet. The hollowness of Marc’s decision to leave the private security business didn’t sit with her much better. This working relationship—plus more—building with Adam was different from either of those experiences. At the very least, she didn’t want to say goodbye to him feeling the way she had.

  It meant trying to make it different, now, in the middle of whatever this was between them.

  He didn’t drop her gaze, but he stood there with his weight forward on the balls of his toes and the tension in his shoulders ready to fight. After a long moment, his shoulders relaxed. “Apology accepted.”

  All right. She relaxed too. A huge weight had lifted from her chest, and knots in her belly relaxed. She hated apologies. But it was for the best, because she wanted to move forward with him as her partner and he deserved the consideration.

  It wasn’t something she’d done well in the past.

  “Let’s consider next steps, then.” Adam wiped the wall clean. “Where are we going to work from here on out? Out in the guesthouse, or here in the main building? Whichever one it is, we’re going to need to secure it for just us.”

  * * *

  Adam put a little more strength into wiping the dry-erase surface clean than might have been strictly necessary. For one thing, he didn’t want to leave the words remotely visible in even a residual ghost appearance on the wall. For another, he wanted to give Victoria a moment to regain her composure. In the moments of her apology to him, he’d seen her very exposed.

  Someone had hurt her, recently. It stoked a deep burning anger inside him. In their business, confidence was a must, bordering on infallible arrogance. They needed to believe in themselves to a point where success wasn’t a logical percentage, but instead a visceral foregone conclusion. Any shadow of doubt meant failure. So they left no room for it within themselves.

  It took a distinct strength to open oneself up and apologize.

  Every day he worked alongside her, he was finding Victoria to be the singular, most complex, powerful personality and heart he’d had the honor to meet. And he was equally certain she’d rip him to shreds for telling her so. Not because it wasn’t true or because she wouldn’t believe his statement, but because saying the words would crumble her outer defenses. She’d erected the metaphorical equivalent of a great wall around herself. It was impervious to insult, to doubt, to any of the damage a generally misogynistic world could hurl in her direction. She wasn’t equipped to handle sincere admiration.

  Which meant she hadn’t been accorded it nearly enough in her life.

  Victoria cleared her throat. “So we have someone, individual or a group, intent on breaking our security and getting to our client. They tested our outermost perimeter alarm and response time early this morning. What steps can we take to render their data useless?”

  Adam turned, a grin tugging at the corners of his mouth. He very much enjoyed the way she recovered and got back to business. Her mind worked fast, and in his opinion, it was extremely sexy. “This morning, they timed the response of the on-site security and the local police. They also timed us coming over from Seattle. We’re staying on-site now.”

  She nodded, sitting at the desk and beginning to type on her laptop. “Speaking of which, I’m going to ping Safeguard and have someone swing by my flat to pick up some supplemental clothing and additional gear. Lizzy will do it for me.”

  “Good call.” The grin slipped away. She’d been a part of Safeguard much longer than he had. There was no one he’d trusted with the keys to his own flat.

  Blue eyes stared at him, and her gaze held a knowing with a touch of warmth. “What are your sizes? Lizzy can make sure to pick up a few extra pairs of undergarments and shirts while she’s making the run. Plus some extra ammunition for the gear you have with you.”

  She hadn’t asked if someone had access to his private space. She’d simply offered him a way to get extra supplies without touching on the subject. He nodded in appreciation and told her his sizes.

  “We all have fairly standard preferences anyway.” There might’ve been a smile hovering around her lips. “Monochrome color choices and nondescript everything. When we work, we all try to pass by as unnoticeable as humanly possible. Makes for boring clothing options.”

  “True.” It was a reality made more entertaining by movies. Mercenaries and hit men in black to stand out against the backdrop of other actors in a movie but still seem plausible in the minds of the viewers.

  Adam and Victoria both tended to wear shades of grey or navy. They blended with the overcast urban backdrop of Seattle, more casual here on Bainbridge Island.

  “We were working in the guesthouse before.” Victoria paused, staring at the dry-erase wall. “I think it’d be smarter to stay as close to Roland as possible.”

  “I don’t think he’ll mind us taking over this study.” Adam lifted his chin to indicate the current room. “There’s a couch in here and plenty of floor space. We can make do.”

  The guesthouse had a bedroom, but neither of them had gone in there. If Victoria was anything like Adam, she’d prefer a firm mattress or sleeping surface anyway. Even hotel room beds tended to be too soft. Left him with an aching back in the morning and waking up with a sense of being trapped inside a marshmallow.

  “Agreed. I like being inside the inner perimeter of the area we plan to protect. We’ve established the outermost property perimeter and the inner perimeter including the guesthouse and main house and backyard pool. We’ll set up security for another perimeter directly against the walls of the main house.”

  He made notes on the board. “We can crash the project timeline some to bring a few of the other security measures online early. It’ll take us working in parallel.”

  Which m
eant she couldn’t spend as much time double-checking his work. Her eyes narrowed but she didn’t glare at him. Instead she glanced at her laptop and back at the wall. “Some. Let’s bring a few things into parallel, but not sacrifice the level of confidence we have in the system.”

  He almost chuckled but decided it’d be better not to. Today had been a big step forward in their working relationship, but he was damned sure she would always be the type to double-check both her partner’s work and her own. Always.

  “We also can’t just stay on the property all the time. Too predictable.” He had an idea, and it would keep them from going insane too.

  She raised an eyebrow at him. “What did you have in mind?”

  He turned to face her, crossing his arms and leaning back against a clean part of the wall. “It’s all about being unpredictable. We should go off-site once in a while, different times of the day. No need to decide why in advance. Don’t even need to do it every day. Just enough to break any patterns there are around here.”

  She nodded. Anyone posing a threat with enough forethought to start testing response times would be looking for patterns.

  “But you have something in mind at the moment.” She said it slowly, making her statement something between a question and an invitation.

  Oh, he’d tempt her into having fun yet, even in the middle of serious missions. In fact, having this heightened sense of urgency made things even more adventurous. It made him sharper.

  He gave her a broad grin, not bothering to hide his anticipation. “I do.”

  “Mm-hmm.” She narrowed her eyes and tapped a fingertip against the casing of her laptop. “If you can come up with enough assurances to implement here for the short time we’ll be gone, maybe I will let you talk me into whatever this is.”

  “I’m all for a quickie today.” He gave her a wink. Hell, she’d had him so frustrated, it wouldn’t take him long at all. But he had more legitimate activities in mind. “I think we can coordinate with Dante for a manual alert system via mobile phones while you and I step off-site.”

  “Dante.” She considered the security lead as she typed a few more notes on her laptop.

  He nodded. “Today, Dante. Another day? One of the others. We rotate who we work with, but to start, it’d best be Dante as their lead.”

  Always good to respect the organizational structure of the security team remaining in place. They were private contractors, after all. There tended to be friction between the contracted vendors and the full-time staff at any place if not handled with sensitivity. Diplomacy wasn’t Adam’s strong point, but he’d seen how far a little consideration could go.

  “Okay.” Victoria shook her head. “I might regret this, but the idea is worth exploring.”

  There was a wistful note to her voice. She was looking forward to finding out what he had in mind. She hadn’t made him lay it all out in detail. His lady liked surprises. He watched her with sharpening interest.

  As if realizing she’d gotten sidetracked, she shifted in her chair and resettled her laptop. “Let’s line up what tasks we’re going to complete today then, and get some work done before Roland comes down to check in with our progress.”

  “Sure.” He started to write out a few tasks from memory. He had an idea of what he could accomplish quickly and effectively and what might be better suited to Victoria’s expertise. “I’ve got a few additional ideas to layer into the design too, but let’s talk those out off-site.”

  They’d swept the study for listening devices. Still, it couldn’t hurt to go above and beyond with the caution in terms of their planning.

  “Uh-huh.” Victoria busily typed away at her keyboard. “Keep writing. I’ll let you know if there are any tasks you missed.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” He didn’t look over his shoulder to see her expression, but her muttered grumbling did his heart good.

  She was so much fun to tease, especially as she paid attention to everything.

  Experimentally, he flexed his butt.

  Her breath hitched. “Try to write legibly.”

  “Yup.” He chuckled. He had a quirky habit of flexing his ass while he was standing around thinking. It gave him something to do, and for the next couple of days, it’d give her something to watch too.

  He liked knowing she was watching.

  Chapter Eleven

  “When you mentioned going off-site, I thought you meant getting in a car and driving into town.” Victoria double-checked the spray skirt of her kayak to ensure minimal stray water was going to come in with her.

  “Surprise.” Adam bent, placing his hands on the end of her kayak and giving it a smooth shove over the surface of the water.

  She scowled at him as she drifted past the shallow water, holding her paddle in both hands. Once she was a few feet out, she dipped one end of the paddle in the water and began to propel her kayak clear of the beach. The blade cut the water cleanly, and she moved easily toward the more open water beyond Roland’s personal dock.

  “It won’t take long, and if something comes up, we can grab transportation from town.” Giving himself a few quick steps, he propelled his own kayak in the water, taking a risk as he hopped in and settled himself as it was moving. Knowing Murphy’s Law, he had about an even chance of overturning his kayak and ending up in shallow, freezing water. But then, anyone in a kayak had to be ready to flip, bail out and get back into the small craft. Adam happened to have a good mix of luck and agility, though, so he landed in his kayak and was able to settle in without getting his feet wet. “Basically, we are going into town. We’re just taking an alternate route to get a different perspective.”

  Which was exactly what they needed. Most of the security measures were geared toward intruders arriving on foot or from the road in land-based vehicles. A part of Roland’s property had direct access from Eagle Bay. Now that they understood the threat was more dire than paparazzi or angry academics, the water approach became much more important to address.

  Her training and experience were mostly focused on land, with some air and water skills. But kayaking was relatively straightforward, and it was a calm day on Eagle Bay. The sky was overcast as usual, and the breeze out over the water was more brisk than it was on land, even right along the shore. They spent a few minutes paddling, Adam in the lead, and much of the tension eased out of her shoulders and back as she warmed to the light exercise.

  Sitting low on the water like this was an interesting feeling. She could dip her fingertips into the dark water as her kayak glided across the surface. They’d left the shallows behind, and the bay was deep, leaving her with a sense of a chasm beneath her even if it wasn’t open ocean. Ominous as it might sound, her response was exhilaration, not fear. The breeze had a delicious salty bite to it, and the call of sea birds lifted her mood.

  Adam slowed to a stop out on the bay, and she dipped a blade down into the water close at her side to slow and turn her own kayak to stop near him.

  “It would be easier for Roland to leave his home, disappear.” Adam stared out over the water as he spoke. “I wonder why he’s so set on staying here. He’s too easy to locate.”

  Well, this was a very good place to have a private conversation. There was no chance of someone happening by and overhearing them. No possibility of listening devices they might’ve missed. They’d spoken about the business of protecting Roland earlier, but perhaps here, they could be more candid.

  “It would be easier for him to go into hiding.” With his funds, Roland could hire Safeguard and fund his hiding indefinitely rather than pouring his money into securing his house. Defense of a single location was a finite plan, most of the time. Eventually defenses would fail no matter how good they were.

  “His security lead is loyal, I think.” Adam had been reviewing the background checks on each of Roland’s personal security. He’d star
ted with the files Roland had but then tapped into Safeguard’s databases to delve deeper into known information on each of them. The fun of private contract work was the ever-evolving experience professionals amassed over time. Gathering data on the endless number of players in the field was an ongoing challenge. It helped that each of Roland’s men had military background in this case. It gave Adam and Victoria a place to start for them. “Dante has a solid track record for doing the right thing, making tough choices. No red flags to speak of, even if he’s made some mistakes along the way.”

  It would’ve been more suspicious if Dante hadn’t slipped here and there, made the odd bad decision. An absence of those in his record would’ve been a suspicious void. No. People who were good at their line of work took risks. Taking risks meant messing up once in a while. Dante was a good man and good at basic protection.

  “Ray and Brian are decent assets and work best together.” Adam placed his paddle across his lap and extended one end toward her.

  She took his end and mirrored his move so they could hold on to each other’s paddles and remain floating together with minimal effort. It brought him close to her, well within arm’s reach. The air was cold enough to bring color up in his cheeks and forehead beneath the brown bronze of his skin tone.

  “If they decide to work for or against Roland, it’ll be the both of them, not one or the other.” She didn’t have information to back up her guess.

  But he nodded. “I’d agree. We should watch them. They like to play themselves off as Ray being the smarter of the two, but Brian is sharp as hell. For now, they haven’t done anything. No red flags. But they haven’t been closely scrutinized so far by anyone else.”

  Well, luckily, there weren’t many resources on Roland’s staff. Even if they had to keep an eye on Ray and Brian, they weren’t outnumbered.