O Lord & the Queen (Grace Grayson Security Book 3) Page 3

  It was the love between Geralt and Jaskier good.

  “I need to go and see if Janice has bought any more vibrators,” was a way better thing to say than what I’d stopped myself from saying.

  For a split second, I thought he looked intrigued. But I knew I’d been mistaken when he – yep – just nodded and headed for Duncan’s office.

  Duncan rose to meet him as Nico closed the office door. I watched the two men shake hands and get into what looked like some pretty serious talk.

  I did my best Nico impression and nodded to Jackson before scurrying to my desk.

  As I tried to pull my eyes off Duncan’s office and go back to my work, I felt a sense of dread settle over me.

  Duncan’s face was serious.

  There was seriously a security guard being paid to keep me safe. To protect my actual life, if all accounts were to be believed.

  It was suddenly all kinds of real, and I was starting to feel a little bit concerned about the whole thing. I pretended I didn’t as I went back to my day job and got lost in that for a little while.

  But, eventually, I snuck another look up from my computer and saw Nico and Duncan were still sequestered away in his office. Nico was standing over Duncan’s shoulder and watching whatever Duncan did on his computer monitor. Every now and then, his eyes would flick up at me.

  It felt less like he knew I kept watching him and was retaliating, and more simply the practised art of his profession. Did he actually expect that I was going anywhere? Let alone that I’d be capable of doing such a thing in the five second interval between glances?

  Quite aside from the fact that I wasn’t about to leave anyone down in the Dungeon at the mercy of Duncan and Jackson if it wasn’t necessary, there was also my health to consider. Or lack of health, as it were. As in death.

  As Angella Dravid said: unhealth is dead.

  Now, I wasn’t going to say that I totally believed my life was actually in danger, or that I was going to be targeted by human-trafficking mobsters. That sort of thing only happened in books and movies. Or maybe overseas. It certainly didn’t happen to insignificant IT techs in little old Adelaide, Australia’s murder capital and city of serial killers though we might be.

  Some people might not think my life amounted to much, but I was quite attached to my current level of health so I was going to let the buff-but-lean, sexy security dude in the suit look after my person. It’d frankly be rude not to.

  “Rage!” Jackson hissed and I thanked his timely intervention.

  My brain had been about to dive down a dangerous rabbit hole

  I looked at him. “Yeah?”

  “Who’s the guy in the suit?”

  I chewed my pen as I tried to think of something. Nothing remotely plausible came to mind. “Uh…some security thing Mr Olafson organised.” I shrugged.

  Jackson frowned. “And why did you have to go and meet him?”

  This was why I called him Pillock in the privacy of my brain. I was all for everyone living their quirkiest life, but the dude could be super annoying.

  4

  Nico

  My eyes were already irritating me, and I’d only been wearing my contacts for a few hours.

  It just added to the general irritation about my person.

  Listening to Duncan prattle on about their security system had been one thing. Understanding it intimately when he first showed it to me, but still having to listen to him ‘explain’ it all had been another. But I was a good role-player. Not that I’d go to the extent to allow myself to be called a LARPer, despite how live action this whole thing was.

  Also adding to the general irritation about my person was the call to Chaos as I followed Raegan and her little yellow Beetle 2.0 back to her house. It had to be a yellow Beetle, didn’t it? It couldn’t have been something more covert, less conspicuous. Couldn’t have been a white Toyota. It had to be a Beetle. It had to be yellow.

  I’d said nothing when I first saw it and I was putting that in the too hard basket for now.

  “What’s she like?” I heard Rollie’s voice.

  Because, of course, Chaos had decided to make it a conference call.

  “None of your business,” I replied.

  “Come on, she’s some tech nerd.” That was Hawk. “Think female Nico.”

  I stretched my neck. “She’s nothing like me,” I answered stiltedly.

  “Ooohhh!” Hawk and Rollie teased.

  “Sounds like someone’s got a crush on the target!” Rollie sang. Shame he put such a good voice to such poor use.

  “Please. Unlike the rest of you, I’m plenty capable of keeping it in my pants.”

  “No one said anything about sleeping with her,” Hawk said slowly and knowingly, and I inwardly cursed.

  “You were all thinking it.” Correct, but also obviously covering up my previous tell-tale words.

  “Sounds like we weren’t the only ones,” Rollie chuckled.

  I rolled my eyes as Raegan turned a corner and I followed suit, thankful the team couldn’t see my face and give me even more shit. “Whether I’m thinking it or not is irrelevant. I’ve got a job to do and I’m doing it.”

  “Doing her more like,” Rollie stage-whispered.

  I chose to ignore him. If I didn’t, there was a potential figurative danger I’d think too long about doing her and forget there was an actual physical danger to her life, which was far more important than whether I got laid or not in the foreseeable future. There was, at least, one benefit to the call then.

  “I’ve gone over the building’s security. Physical and electronical. The physical isn’t brilliant, but the electronic is passable. Have we got any details as to what I’m meant to be looking out for? Can I expect to be jumped by the mob? Foreign intelligence? Just some other security detail?”

  “On that front, Olafson has very little,” Chaos said and I could hear shushing noises in the background, followed by a distinct thump and an ‘ow’. Chaos continued like nothing had happened, “I assumed you’d be able to find out more.” It wasn’t a question.

  “The IT head went over the full system with me. Finding the back door in shouldn’t be a problem. If I can find some trace of–”

  Rollie – I knew it was Rollie – gave an exaggerated yawn. “You’ll nerd out and find the wankers, got it.”

  “Remind me why these arseholes had to be involved,” I said dryly.

  “Because we’re a team,” Rollie said, sounding half-injured and half-peppy.

  “Because,” Chaos corrected him, “the more of us abreast of this the better. We’re mostly paid so our clients look even richer. If there’s a life on the line, we’re pulling out all the stops.”

  I stretched my neck as I watched Raegan pull into a driveway and I slowed to a stop at the curb in front of the house. “I get that, I’m just not sure what having them sit in on phone calls is accomplishing.”

  “It accomplishes a lack of inter-office memos,” Hawk said.

  Hawk had an aversion to inter-office memos. Mainly because he had a habit of losing them. It wasn’t my fault if he sucked at filing and organisation.

  “We could be thirty-seven percent more efficient if we used them,” I told him for the thirteenth time.

  “We would not because I’d spend thirty-seven times as long trying to find anything.”

  “Maybe that whole personal secretary thing isn’t such a bad idea?” Rollie’s voice suggested far more than his words.

  “The last thing we need is for Flo to be interviewing new secretaries for you every week because you lacked professionalism,” I snapped.

  “Putting aside memos and secretaries for the moment,” came Tank’s voice, always the voice of reason. “Is there anything we can be doing to help you at the moment, Nico?”

  I sighed, watching Raegan get out of her car.

  Even getting out of her car, she had this…energy to her. She practically bounced. On any other woma
n, it was the first ‘wrong way, go back’ sign I’d been known to ignore. When it’s only one night, a little extra energy is never a bad thing.

  “Just…reach out to your contacts and see if there’s anything circulating. Surely there’s some mutterings about this somewhere, which should give us more idea of what to expect.”

  “Can do,” Tank answered.

  “Let us know if there’s anything else,” Chaos said. “If you get a moment, the next Ultiron thing is ready to go when you are.”

  “And when am I getting this moment while I’m on round the clock detail?” I asked, looking pointedly but uselessly at the screen in my dash.

  “If you’re suggesting we should look into hiring another resident nerd–”

  “It’s fine!” I huffed. “I’ll do it overnight.”

  Raegan was hovering next to her car with her satchel and shielding her eyes against the sun as she looked at my SUV.

  “I’ve gotta go and check out what kind of shitstorm I’m walking into now,” I muttered. “O Lord out.”

  Old habits die hard.

  I hung up on them with my call sign, deciding I didn’t need to wait for them to say goodbye. We might have used mostly different tech these days, but comms were still comms and I was technically in the field.

  I pulled myself together, picked up my gear, and got out of the car. I pushed aside all thoughts about what she looked like, what the expression in her eyes might say, or what the neighbours would think if I just threw her against that horrific Beetle.

  “Good. You made it,” Raegan chuckled nervously. “I was starting to think you’d just camp out in your car all night. You know, covert stake out or something.”

  Not knowing what the hell to say, I just waited for her to lead me to the front door. I wasn’t so devoid of social mores that I was going to go to the door first.

  Raegan started up on her rambling again. “It’s Wheaton Road. Did you see?” she said as she started rummaging in her bag as she walked. “It’s kinda big for just me, but I took the place just so I could make the joke when people asked my address.” I looked at her blankly. “You know, it’s like… ‘Wheaton!’” was cried the way Sheldon yells it then, at no input from me, her smile dropped and she cleared her throat. “Never mind. Good talk.”

  I felt bad. My nerd senses were tingling and I was actually kind of impressed with her. But I wasn’t being the guy who appreciated a Big Bang Theory joke. I was being the guy who didn’t know what that was.

  “Do you need to open this door as well or am I allowed to unlock my own home?” she asked, holding out a bunch of keys.

  My eyes scanned quickly and efficiently as she jiggled the keys in her hand.

  Based on the case notes, it was unlikely any of her personal information had leaked. But it never hurt to be overly cautious. In my world, it meant more than a loss of income.

  I kicked my head towards the door, indicating she could do it herself.

  “Gee, thanks,” she muttered as she unlocked her door.

  I could tell she was the sort of girl to make this a lose-lose situation. Whether I gave her a continuous rundown of all the pertinent information or said nothing, whether I opened every door or none of them, it’d be wrong.

  It irked me.

  As she opened the door, I rearranged my shoulders in my suit. It was tailored to my body shape perfectly, but it was still uncomfortable. Restrictive and uncomfortable. Add that to my eyes feeling itchy and dry, and the fact I was shackled to this woman for the foreseeable future all made for one extra prickly Nico.

  Raegan led me in. Her nervous waffle was drowned out as I took everything in. And not just because the place was a nerd’s perfect home.

  I could do my job and appreciate her sense of interior decorating.

  The house was typical for just out of the Adelaide CBD. A little double-fronted cottage, all stone and English garden. The interior was to be expected as well. The layout. The décor should have been expected but still pleasantly surprised me.

  Part of me felt like I’d walked into the ultimate comic store. There were books everywhere and Pop Vinyls everywhere else. Where the walls weren’t covered in bookshelves, there were fandom prints. The Marauder’s Map. Marvel and DC characters. The Death Star. A collage of Doctors. The door under the mountain. And that was just what I could see from the front door. Even my eyes couldn’t scan quickly enough to pick up all of them.

  She noticed me looking as I was staring at a Twilight poster. Can’t say it was my thing, but it gave me all the information I needed to know that’s what it was.

  “Uh,” Raegan chuckled self-consciously. “Heh, that’s uh… Guilty pleasure from my teens. Nostalgia and all that, you know.” Another chuckle.

  She looked down as she closed and locked the door again. I stood to the side of the hall. My gear was heavy. Tank had spent hours training all of us, but I was still more lanky than muscular, and dead weight was dead weight.

  “So…” One more self-conscious chuckle. “This is my place.”

  I spared her a nod out of sheer politeness.

  “Okay. Uh, well, I don’t know if you have stuff to set up. Do you have stuff to set up?”

  I nodded.

  She gave me a less sure nod in return. “Then feel free to set up wherever suits. I’ve got a study. There’s the kitchen table. I only use that for parties. I guess that’s off the table if someone might be trying to kill me.”

  There was hope in her voice, so I gave her another nod to dispel any fantasies about what this was. We had no real evidence – just advice from the authorities – that her life was in direct danger, but the team from Grace Grayson took a certain pride in our work for the money we were paid. The only good thing about this job was the extra money I’d see for it.

  “Right. Thought as much.” She nodded and started leading the way down the hall. “Um, so yeah. Help yourself…to whatever. There’s tea and coffee – just the instant kind, I’m afraid – bread for toast, spreads and that are in the fridge or pantry.”

  The hall opened up into the open plan back; kitchen, living, dining. The windows were large. What I could see of the yard looked secure, but I’d have to check to be sure.

  As I was taking everything in from a solely security-minded angle, she was hovering.

  “Is…everything okay?” she asked.

  I nodded, finally bringing my eyes back to her.

  “So, what have you got to set up? Cameras? Perimeter sensors? Heat detectors?”

  I felt my eyebrow rise of its own accord.

  “No. Sure. Someone’s been watching too many spy movies.” She looked around the house. “But honestly, what kind of intrusion are we talking here?”

  Had no one briefed her on the mission parameters?

  “You drive me everywhere, I wonder what you get up to night and day without me, then we pop back into each other’s lives for a couple hours? Something like that?”

  I took a deep breath and aimed to sound as polite as possible. “I’m on round the clock duty,” I explained.

  She looked at me. Her eyes narrowed as her mouth twitched like she wanted to ask me what I meant, but wanted more to figure it out for herself. I was an impatient man.

  “I’m not leaving your side until the threat is passed.”

  She blinked. “Oh. Uh. Right.” Her hands waved between us. “Not like…same bed…or?” She paused to look at my face then nodded. “No. Not that. Okay.”

  I didn’t know if she was pleased or disappointed. I didn’t know if I was pleased or disappointed. I thought it best not to try working it out.

  “Uh. So, where are you sleeping?”

  “Couch is fine,” I told her.

  She frowned. “I have a perfectly acceptable spare room.”

  “I don’t sleep much.”

  Lies. I loved sleep. I slept as much as possible.

  But, aside from the fact I was playing a role here, I also did
n’t want to get too comfortable. Comfortable made for less alert.

  She nodded again. “Okay, cool. What do we do now then?”

  “Just go about your business. You can pretend I’m not here.”

  She spluttered a laugh. “Yeah, no,” she said as she sobered and I saw her eyes run over my whole body. “I can… I’ll just… Yeah, I’ll do that.” She looked around. “So, I will do that then. Do you eat? I planned chicken for dinner but…?”

  I didn’t know the protocol here. Not first hand. There were jobs you agreed to dinner, there were jobs you didn’t. I just didn’t know what kind of job this was yet. I didn’t know if accepting dinner stemmed more from other ideas I entertained of her, or if it was the innocence of needing to eat while working. I could always pretend it was the latter.

  “Chicken is…good.” I gave her a nod. “Thanks.”

  “Okay. Then I’ll go change.” She gave a small smile and started heading for the hallway.

  “Where do you spend most of your time?” I asked quickly, totally not thinking about the fact she was about to get at least partially naked.

  She blew a strand of hair out of her face. “Couch, mostly. Unless I’m in bed.” A look crossed her face that suggested she was thinking nothing pure. “Sleeping, that is. I didn’t…”

  “Sure. I’ll take a closer look around.”

  “You do that.”

  And I did. I started outside. It was the furthest possible I could get to her while she was changing.

  As far as jobs went, it was standard. The fences were high enough that a grown man would have trouble jumping it without help. Problem was, help abounded. There were gardens and trees sprawling all over the backyards in this suburb. Big, old trees. The garden just in this yard alone was busy enough someone could hide here without being easily seen, particularly at night.

  Cameras might not be the stupidest idea after all.

  I finished my survey of the outside, judging it passable, though not ideal. I could work with it, especially while the threat was high but not as immediate as some other jobs. I’d look at setting cameras quickly.

  When I got inside, she was in the kitchen prepping food. I did my best to ignore her singing to herself as I looked over the interior. Mostly windows and doors. Potential weak spots. I logged them all away. Inside matched outside; I’d worked with less.