CHAPTER 4

BLAINE

THEY SAY your best friend should be your backbone. Should be your right hand man. Should take your side all the time. Why did mine feel like he was sent by demons to torment me?

"Jordan, I will beat you to death with a stick and dance on your grave if you don't get off my case," I glared at him.

The threat bounced off his impeccable grey Armani suit and he matched my glare. "If you don't do what I tell you to, it'll be your grave I'll be dancing on. Not a single tear, because you didn't listen."

I sighed. "For the last time, no one is out to get me and even if someone was, it won't be the first time an attempt has been made on either of our lives and you've never reacted this way."

"If I'd done this sooner, then maybe we wouldn't have had so many close calls with death," he retorted. He wasn't wrong. But what was life without the thrill of imminent demise?

I narrowed my eyes at him, suddenly seeing right through him. "You've gone soft," I smirked. His gaze grew colder while my smile widened.

"What are you talking about?"

"It's quite obvious, really. You can no longer afford to live your life on the edge because your fiancée will kick your ass if you got killed. Love has made you soft.

" I made kissy noises at him, making sure to stay far from the reach of his arm.

"Melanie has nothing to do with this," he said but I just laughed at him. "Oh she has everything to do with it but, sadly you're the one engaged to her and not me. So you should be beefing up your security, not mine."

"I wasn't the one shot at that night. The shooter had several openings to shoot me but he didn't. If that lady hadn't pushed you down, we won't be having this conversation."

Jordan was still talking, but my mind had drifted at the mention of the lady. I thought back to the moment our hearts seemed to beat in sync when she lay on top of me, saving me from a bullet.

I thought about her eyes, and the shock I'd seen in them as well as something else. Something cold. What was behind those eyes? What was her story?

I dragged my mind away from the cold-eyed girl and tuned back in to whatever Jordan was saying even though I didn't need to hear it.

"The general public might not know this, but you and I are aware we are still recovering from the last saga we went through," Jordan said.

I had to agree. After the imprisonment of our most recent rival, we'd decided to thoroughly look through all our staff to unearth any fellow conspirators.

Not an easy task, as we had over two hundred people in our employ at the headquarters in Puerto Rico alone, not to talk of the other companies around the globe.

When we made our move to the US headquarters in Manhattan, we'd taken only those we'd vetted and approved and more were being flown in as they passed the security checks. We had enough on our hands without an additional threat to my life.

"Still, I don't need a dozen people following me wherever I go. I'd draw too much attention," I argued back.

"Celebrities have people follow them around all the time. Consider yourself a celebrity," was his reply.

"A dozen is overkill and an unnecessary expense."

"You won't have a dozen. Six would do."

"One," I stated.

"Don't be ridiculous. Five."

"One."

"Four."

"One."

"That's not how bargaining works. You're supposed to slowly increase your figure while I decrease mine," Jordan looked slightly annoyed.

I didn't budge "One."

His answering sigh was one of pure frustration. "Two, and that's my final offer."

I considered it. Two wasn't too bad. "Fine, but I get to drop one later."

"Now, was that so hard?" Jordan raised a brow and opened a drawer in his desk as I slowly came to terms with the fact that I'd just agreed to have people shadowing me for an indefinite amount of time. Ugh.

"What's this list you were talking about?"

He dropped the folder he'd retrieved from the drawer and turned it around so I could read. "It's a list of potential candidates for your new security."

I studied it for a while then looked at the crazy man I called a best friend. "Jordan, why are mercenaries and hired killers on this list? I thought the objective was to protect me, not speed up my demise."

"That's why they are only potentials. If they pass the tests, then you'll be stuck with them."

"Tests? What tests? And why didn't you just put word out that you need trained personnel?"

"If I did that, then the world would presume we're weak. We'd also be bombarded with hundreds if not thousands of applicants," he replied.

Of course. It was all about the image. Speaking of images, one of a cold-eyed girl crept into my mind.

"Hold that thought. I need you to run a check on someone."

Jordan looked up at me "Abigeal Starr?"

Why wasn't I surprised? "How did you know?"

"Because I already took the liberty of doing so. A woman shows up twice just in time to save your life? She either knows something or is part of it," he said calmly...clicking something on his computer.

My best friend's cynical nature had often come in hand, but sometimes it was just annoying.

"What if there isn't anything to it and it was just a happy coincidence?"

"Once is coincidence, twice is a pattern." He replied.

I was sure there was an inaccuracy in there somewhere, but I let it slide.

"Well? Did you find anything suspicious?"

He sighed and turned his computer to my side. "No. she wasn't lying about her name or being in the military, which are the only things we knew about her before."

I scanned the data as he spoke, letting my eyes rest on her bio data and rank before leaving the military. When I got to the reason why she left, I raised a brow. "It says Classified."

"Yes. I was only able to get a surface level run on such short notice. But a contact said she was injured on a mission," Jordan said.

She didn't look injured to me. An idea started to form in my head.

"Well, we know enough. So why don't we invite her for the interview?"

I saw the 'no' in Jordan's eyes but kept talking.

"She's clearly qualified and trained, and she's saved me twice already. I'd say we should just hire her on the spot and not waste all these people's time, but she'll go through your tests so there would be no doubt."

Jordan sighed and rubbed his temple like he had a headache. "The only reason I'm agreeing to this is so I can watch her for suspicious behavior. I don't trust her."

"That's not surprising. You don't trust anyone." I smiled at my victory.

"And for good reason. What happens if she doesn't pass the tests?" Jordan asked.

"She will," I said with conviction then paused. "Wait. What exactly are the tests?"

I tensed at the smug expression on his face. "Just a little something that I put together to filter out people during the selection process."

I didn't like his tone. "Filter out? You're not going to kill anyone, are you?"

He met my gaze, folded his arms, gave me the tiniest of smirks. "I'm not making any promises."