Suspicious Activities. Tyler Anne Snell

stared at his phone for a moment as if it would explain who lived at the addresses, why they had been sent to Nikki and who had sent them. His phone didn’t answer him, so he decided that a more personal search might yield better results. Like a dog after a bone, he grabbed another cup of water and tried to look casual as he walked into the lobby. Kelli looked up and smiled.

      “Taking a break or done?” she asked.

      Jackson made a show of stretching his muscles.

      “A break,” he answered. “I thought I’d come up here and say hello again.”

      Kelli’s smile seemed genuine as she said hello again. She offered him a seat in one of the plush chairs, which he declined with the excuse that he was on the sweatier side of comfort. She laughed and rubbed her belly. Absently Jackson wondered if she knew about his past, too.

      “Sorry again about sending you after Nikki this morning,” Kelli said, expression truly apologetic. “I heard the two of you didn’t get off on the best foot when you met and Jonathan made the point that maybe the ride would help. But honestly, I don’t think Nikki is in the best of moods today.”

      Jackson arched an eyebrow. He could get somewhere with this conversation now.

      “So it isn’t just me that’s gotten her wound tight?” he asked, half laughing.

      Kelli shook her head. “To be fair, her job requires her to be somewhat tightly wound but, no, I don’t think it’s wholly you.”

      Jonathan found he was a bit relieved at that.

      “I imagine running your own security agency can’t be easy,” he said, already gearing up to aim for a specific question. “You make friends, sure, but I bet you make some enemies depending on each bodyguard’s success.”

      The expression on Kelli’s face seemed to darken momentarily, her eyes unfocusing enough to make Jackson believe she was thinking of the past, before her happy disposition snapped back into place.

      “Understandably, this job can be very dangerous,” she said. “And understandably, that has made some people very angry.”

      “I’d imagine some hold a grudge,” he added on. “You think any of them might act on it?”

      Kelli gave him a questioning look, one that didn’t seem to be suspicious, but he knew that wasn’t far behind. He’d been an Orion employee for only a day and here he was, asking about the bad side of things.

      “Sorry, I just don’t know much about this place,” he admitted. “I just want to know what I’ve signed up for, and like you said, I got off on the wrong foot already with the boss, so I’d like to not ask her about the people who might dislike her and her company.”

      Kelli seemed to like his answer and smiled.

      “To be honest, all the people I think would hold grudges and act on them are mostly locked away in a prison somewhere with no hope of leaving,” she said. “At least not for a very, very long time. Believe me, I’ve personally seen some of those people put away.”

      Again, Jackson felt his eyebrow rise in question. At some point he’d need to sit down and ask Kelli what she meant by that, but now he wanted to push the question he’d really been targeting. “So there’s no one who could really mess with Nikki, then?”

      As Kelli shook her head, Jackson saw a new thought seemingly pop up behind her eyes. She furrowed her brow, about to voice it, when the door behind them opened. Jackson turned, feeling weirdly guilty, but stopped when he saw Nikki and the expression across her face.

      She was angry.

      “Is everything okay?” Kelli asked, but the redhead was already moving past them at a fast, determined clip.

      “You two go to the conference room and tell the boys to wait,” she called, halfway down the hall. Jackson shared a confused look with Kelli, who merely shrugged. They followed orders as the boss disappeared into her office.

      “Is this normal?” Jackson asked the receptionist.

      “No,” she whispered, “it’s not.”

      He followed Kelli as she knocked quietly on the conference-room door before letting them in. Jonathan was sitting at the table, leaning over a file, while a man’s voice came through a phone speaker in front of him. The bodyguard looked up, curious at their intrusion.

      “Hey, honey?” Kelli said out loud as she took a seat across from Jonathan. For a moment Jackson thought the nickname was directed at Jonathan, but then he realized it was directed at the man on speaker. “Sorry to interrupt, but I think something’s wrong.”

      The man who must have been her husband, Orion Agent Mark Tranton, quickly took on an edge to his voice, alert.

      “Are you okay? Are Grace and the baby okay?” he asked, clearly concerned about his daughter and pregnant wife.

      “Oh, yeah, we’re fine,” she hurried, placing a protective hand over her stomach. “I meant something seems wrong with Nikki. She just told us to come in here and make sure you and Oliver were still on.”

      Jonathan looked to Jackson, who gave a half shrug.

      “Who’s ‘us’?” asked another man’s voice, which Jackson assumed belonged to Oliver Quinn.

      “It’s the new recruit,” Jonathan added in.

      “Jackson, right?” asked Oliver.

      “That’s right,” Jackson answered.

      “Nice to meet you,” Oliver continued. “Well, you know what I mean.”

      Jackson was about to say he did when Nikki showed up. She walked into the room with such a fierce mask of concentration that for a moment all the other people in the room could do was stare wordlessly.

      “Hello?” asked Mark into the silence.

      “Mark, Oliver, it’s Nikki,” she greeted. She didn’t sit down and instead handed Jonathan a piece of paper. From Jackson’s post against the wall, he couldn’t tell what was on it. Apparently Jonathan didn’t understand it, either.

      “I want to preface what I’m about to tell you with the fact that I think it’s no big deal,” Nikki said, “but this job has shown me the importance of being cautious, so I feel like I should bring you up to speed. You deserve at least that.”

      Jackson didn’t understand the change in tone. Kelli looked at Nikki while Jonathan was focused on the paper. Why did she owe them anything? Wasn’t she the boss?

      A thick silence blanketed the room. Nikki certainly had their collective attention.

      Finally she spoke. “Last night I ran into Andrew Miller.”

      * * *

      LIKE SHE’D THOUGHT, Jonathan, Oliver and Mark had instantaneous reactions of anger. Nikki had half a mind to mute the speakerphone but knew she couldn’t do anything about the trainer in the room with them. So she let them all talk at the same time, words jumbling together. She was able to pick out three questions.

      “Why?”

      “Where?”

      “What did he want?”

      Nikki’s eyes traveled to Kelli, whose brows were pulled in together as she seemed to be trying to place the name, which she was sure sounded familiar to her new recruit. Jackson leaned against the wall, giving Nikki a stare she could only describe as puzzled. Like Kelli he was trying to put together pieces of information that he didn’t have.

      Nikki wasn’t sure why she’d asked him to come into the conference room in the first place. Very few people knew about Andrew, even fewer knew why a visit from him was so startling. Kelli had probably heard the name from her husband, but Jackson? He was as new as they came. So, why had she let him in?

      She tried to keep her eyes from moving across his bare