So being told that she might have missed something as simple as a briefing over email annoyed the hell out of her.
“All right, fine. So what was it? What did I miss?”
Again with that stupid, bright, handsome smile. “I’m your bodyguard.”
3
Since bursting in on the boss was out of the question, she had to resort to calling him and hoping he would pick up.
Meanwhile, Aiden kept acting as though things were as calm and cool as they could possibly be. Since she had strictly forbidden him to enter her cubicle, he leaned in the entryway, arms crossed, watching her with interest as she dialed Jack, intending to yell at his stupid ass.
Now she knew why Jack had been so quick to run away from her when he finished with his briefing.
Important meeting. Her ass.
Badgers had a reputation for not dealing well with news they didn’t like. Jack didn’t want to deal with her reaction to a bodyguard.
And she damn sure knew no one had mentioned it over email. That would not have been something she overlooked. They’d intentionally not told her.
The call went to his voice mail. Delilah immediately hung up and started the call over again.
“Are all badgers as grumpy as you are?”
“Shut up.” Delilah wanted to remain calm and cool throughout this whole thing, but eventually, she cracked as she found herself pacing her borrowed workspace, the area that was on loan to her, like she was to the ATTF. Nothing in there belonged to her. Nothing personal. She hadn’t even brought her little aloe plant that she liked to have on hand.
She felt utterly alone there. Entirely out of her element, with no badgers to have her back, and now this was being dumped on her.
“It’s really not that big of a deal,” Aiden said. “I assure you I’m one of the best. I’m here so you don’t have to worry about anything. I’ll keep you safe while you do your job and help us nail the sucker.”
Delilah ignored the strange, warm feeling that spread inside her at his insistence that he would keep her safe. Instead, she fantasized about biting his head off. “Of course it’s a big deal. If they felt I was going to be in that much danger, why couldn’t I bring along one of my badger squadmates to guard me? Why a stranger? And why don’t they trust me to handle myself? There’s something they’re not telling me, and that’s unacceptable.”
If there were other risks to being in the Scotland office, she would have expected them to be revealed to her immediately. How was she expected to make a rational decision about taking on a job like this if she didn’t know everything?
Aiden stopped smiling. She hoped it was getting through his thick head that this wasn’t a game and she had no interest in playing around about it.
Voice mail again. That. Fucking. Asshole.
If she were back at badger headquarters, she’d have no problem busting down Chip Normandy III’s door and giving him an earful. It took all she had to restrain herself from tracking Jack Williams down and giving him the same treatment.
There was a reason the badger squad went through directors as fast as they did.
She gave up. Clearly, Jack wasn’t going to give her the time of day. He was choosing to let her stew in her anger in hope that she’d get over it.
“Look, I’m sorry this is how they made you find out,” Aiden said, still smiling a little and proving how not sorry he really was. “But this is what the boss wants, so I just want to make sure we do everything right. By the book.”
Shit.
That was her weakness. She had to do it by the book. She had to ensure everything was done nice and proper.
Suck it up. She had a job to do, and she was going to do it to the best of her ability. If accepting a stranger as her bodyguard was part of the expectations put on her for this mission, then so be it.
“Fine, tell me exactly what you’ve been tasked with.”
Aiden shrugged a little, standing straight. “I’m to keep a distance and watch over you, looking out for any people who seem a bit too interested in what you’re doing. Of course, if there is any hint that you’re in trouble, I’ll step in.”
“And why would I be in trouble? I’m not planning on going out in the field. That’s not my job. Do you really think someone would attack me inside? Here?”
“It’s highly unlikely that there would be an overt attempt on you. Which is why I’m also watching out for any potential accidents.”
Delilah shivered.
Aiden’s expression turned a little less cocky and a little more sympathetic. It wasn’t a look she preferred. “Did you really not have any idea this would be happening? You knew they were looking at an inside suspect.” He kept his voice low, even though there were no other employees in the other nearby cubicles.
“Everything moved quickly. I didn’t exactly stop to think about it.”
Aiden’s brows lifted up almost all the way into his blond hairline. “Really?”
She rolled her eyes. “I swear I’d rather be with the Honey Badgers right about now.”
“Do they often agree to missions without knowing the full extent of them?”
She glared at him. “We know we can handle whatever comes our way. I just wasn’t expecting you, some oversized tuna.” She didn’t know his exact shifter, but she knew it was something aquatic, and likely fishy.
“Whale shark,” he said, not looking the least bit insulted. “I was picturing you as the sort of person who had to follow all the rules to the letter. Meanwhile, here you are, ready to jump on planes and rush into missions when you don’t even assess the level of risk involved first.”
Her head was starting to ache. The time flying followed by immediately going into the lab and then getting into this conversation had started to take a toll on her. “I need some sleep. I’m guessing if you’re in charge of watching me, you also know where I’m supposed to be staying?”
Delilah expected Agent Reyes to make a face at her for treating him like a proverbial cab driver.
Nope. Not the case. He clapped his hands together once with a loud, booming sound that punctuated her headache.
“Great. Where’s your bags? We’ll head out now.”
So enthusiastic.
Then she realized why that might be, and her defenses were immediately on the rise. “You’re not coming into my room with me.”
The power of that grin turned up all the way to a solid nine thousand. “Oh, but I will. I have to give it a clean sweep to make sure there’s nothing untoward inside.”
Her inside boiled at his phrasing. “And what exactly will you be looking for in my room that would be untoward?”
“Someone who might want to strangle you in your sleep,” he said, the most innocent of expressions on his face. “What else would I be looking for? It’s a room you haven’t even been to yet.”
She shook her head at him but refused to crack a smile. It took every ounce of her will power to keep from looking away from him.
Breaking eye contact now would just be a sign of weakness.
“You ready to go?”
Only then did she break eye contact, but she kept her spine straight, her shoulders poised as she walked by him. She might not exactly look like a queen in white sneakers and jeans, but that wasn’t the point.