Page 31 of My Unexpected Surprise
I review threat reports from Singapore and London. I sign off on new safehouse protocols for a client in Zurich.
All of it feels routine until I find myself thinking about Livia again. Not her work this time.
My head is stuck on her legs as she walked ahead of me during the tour yesterday. The way her skirt moved. The curve of her mouth when she argued with me about emotional language.
She talks too much when she feels cornered, the words spilling out like she can build a wall of them between us.
I imagine shutting her up with a kiss. Pressing her back against the conference table and tasting all that nervous energy until it turns into something else entirely.
I stand up abruptly and walk to the window, but can't register anything outside of it.
I’m furious at my own mind for wandering there. She's my employee. She has a child. She's Dante De Luca's daughter. Any one of those reasons should be enough. All three together should make the idea impossible.
Yet my mind is traitorous, picturing her bent over that desk, happily taking every inch of me.
I force the thoughts down. They have no place here.
Mid-afternoon my assistant forwards a new email. The Aurelius Consortium has made their decision on finalists.
Three firms including ours have been invited to a ten-day immersive evaluation at their private estate in the Hudson Valley.
Live scenario presentations. Family interaction simulations. Full access to decision makers in a controlled environment. Attendance is mandatory for key team members.
I read the details twice. This is the opportunity we need. It’s also a complication I did not anticipate.
Ten days.
Ten days inside a private estate with a hand-selected team operating under constant observation from one of the most selective clients in the world.
I lean back slowly in my chair and stare at the attached itinerary.
They’re not simply hiring a security firm.
They’re looking for people they can trust inside the walls of their lives.
Which means Griffin was right about one thing.
Livia’s revisions may have just become the reason we stay in this competition.
A knock sounds against my office door before I can think further.
Sofia steps inside holding a tablet against her chest. “You saw the Aurelius notice?”
“Yes.”
“They want team confirmations by tonight.” Her eyes sharpen slightly. “You already know who you’re bringing?”
I do.
That irritates me more than it should.
“Core operations,” I say. “Myself. Chen. Alvarez. Two analysts. Livia for compliance strategy.”
Sofia studies my face for one second too long.
She has worked with me for six years. She knows exactly how rarely I hesitate over personnel decisions.
“And Dante De Luca’s daughter attending a ten-day live evaluation with us doesn’t concern you?”
