Executive Protection. Jennifer Morey

followed the average-height man of a considerable girth. Fifty-three years old, he had thick, gray hair and wore glasses.

      The chief walked around his cluttered desk and sat his heavy frame down. The lighting in here was dim. Everyone joked about how Chief Thomas was a vampire. He claimed his eyes were sensitive to light and that was why he only had one floor lamp on in his office and kept the blinds shut over windows that faced the sea of cubicles where all the detectives worked.

      “How’s your mother doing?” he asked.

      “She’s going to recover. Thanks for asking.”

      He dropped a newspaper on top of a stack of folders, the headline reading something about the attempt on the former vice president.

      “Kate Winston may be your mother, but she’s also a prominent political figure. The media is going to stay on this story until the shooter is captured.”

      “I’m good at avoiding the media,” Thad said, trying to keep the sarcasm out of his tone. But then he said, “Darcy told me you’re getting some pressure from the feds.” Wade didn’t take orders from outside his jurisdiction well.

      “They’re going to handle the case,” Wade said, his voice dripping with resentment.

      “I know.” He took pity on the man. His hands were tied just like Thad’s and Darcy’s.

      “I’m concerned that you’ll try and solve it on your own,” Wade said.

      The pressure must be heavy for him to push this so hard. “Why so much security?”

      “The shooter isn’t caught. That’s embarrassing for the Secret Service. They told me hands off or else, and I believe them...as should you.”

      “The Secret Service told you that?” Thad would try to fish for information. “I thought it was the FBI investigators who were keeping things tight.”

      Frustration made Chief Thomas shake his head. “The rumor mill around here is like a bad virus. I’m sure they’re working together.”

      “But excluding us.”

      “Don’t get any ideas,” Chief Thomas said.

      “I just—”

      “I know you, Winston.” Chief Thomas cut him off. “You don’t lack initiative and that sometimes gets you into trouble.”

      He’d taken initiative to catch the man who’d tried to kill his mother. “It’s my mother.”

      “You can take all the time you need helping her recover. I hear it may take her a few weeks before she’s 100 percent. Beyond that, leave it up to the feds.”

      Thad stopped himself from arguing. Chief Thomas was following orders.

      “Are we clear?” Chief Thomas asked.

      “We’re clear.” Clear that Wade Thomas could not find out what he and Darcy did to investigate the shooting.

      Wade stared at him for several seconds, not believing. If Thad’s poker face wasn’t working, he couldn’t tell.

      “If that’s all, I’d like to go see my mother,” he said to get out of there.

      “That’s all for now.”

      Thad nodded once and turned, vowing to be extra careful not to clue Wade into anything. He’d fallen short in that duty once. He’d be damned if he’d fall short again.

      * * *

      Lucy Sinclair looked forward to coming to work every day. She loved being on her feet at Duke University Hospital, helping patients recover from whatever had put them there. Talking to them, getting to know a little about their lives. Except when they died, of course. No nurse she’d ever met enjoyed that part of the job. Today was a good day because nobody was going to die.

      Her smartphone vibrated. Stopping on her way to Kate Winston’s room, she removed the phone from her uniform pocket and leaned against the hallway wall to get out of the way of a gurney being rolled toward an operating room. Lifting one white New Balance walking shoe, she propped it up on the wall behind her and navigated to the new message on her phone, smiling when she recognized the name. Cameo Harmon. Or Cam as he called himself, the new man she’d met online who had exciting potential. She’d gone on two dates with him this week. He called and texted her every day. A man who gave a girl that much attention had to be interested. That put him on the top of her list of eligible bachelors.

      A sales director for a data management company, her first impression of him was that he was a hard worker with a vibrant personality. She supposed he got that from being a salesman. Her mother had cautioned her about that. She said salesmen couldn’t be trusted because they were like actors. They acted their lives out instead of living in reality. But Cam was nice and successful—and not bad-looking.

      How’s my new girl today? his text said.

      “It must be good if it puts a smile like that on your face.”

      Lucy looked up to see Thad Winston standing before her in the hallway, handsome in dark slacks, black leather shoes and a black leather jacket over a lavender dress shirt. The first thing that struck her was how much better looking he was than Cam. Taller. Four inches taller than her five-nine, to be precise. His hazel eyes had a powerful certainty to them. His light brown hair was stylishly messy. And then she recovered. Why had those thoughts run through her head? Why the comparison to Cam? Especially with Thad. Her first meeting with him had been nearly intolerable. He’d barked orders and snapped at her.

      “I’m glad I ran into you today,” Thad said. “About when we met...”

      Closing the text, she tucked her phone away and pushed off the wall. “Irritability is a symptom of the snake flu, you know.” She started walking down the hall.

      “Snake flu?” He fell into step beside her.

      “Swine, bird. Snake. It’s the latest strand. Haven’t you heard? It’s been in the news.”

      “No.”

      “Aside from irritability, infected victims get a low-grade fever that they don’t always notice, and that develops into a body rash and blisters. Vomiting. Dehydration. And then blood vessels weaken and rupture. Eventually, you bleed internally and die.”

      “Sounds pleasant.”

      “I treated a patient who had it. The poor man was so sick. Barking orders at everyone the whole time. He was the first fatality in North Carolina.”

      “You’re joking.”

      She sent him a straight face that flattened his near-grin.

      Before he could question her further, they reached his mother’s room. Two Secret Service agents were posted outside the door. Not everyone was the son of a former United States vice president.

      The agent closest to them gave them a nod and stepped aside so they could enter.

      “I didn’t know it was your father who operated on my mother,” Thad said as they entered the room, the door swinging shut behind them.

      Before tending to Kate, Lucy turned to Thad. “You think I’m kidding about the flu?”

      “I don’t know what to think about something called snake flu. I’m trying to apologize.”

      Seeing his humble face, with smart, sexy eyes looking right at her, a sense of humor lurking somewhere in there, she resisted the softening coming over her. “Why does it matter who my father is? Would knowing that have changed your attitude?”

      His gaze traveled down her body and back up, as though he was trying to gauge her attitude. “I was worried about my mother. I’m sorry for the way I behaved.”

      She folded her arms, tolerating him and trying hard not to be affected by his handsomeness and the macho part of his ego that he’d tamed in order to apologize.

      “I