“Yeah, let’s plan for her to come here.Whattime are you supposed to meet her?”Iasked.
“Three o’clock,” she responded. “I’lltext her tonight and let her know.Aftertomorrow,I’moff work untilWednesday, butI’mmeeting up with some colleagues onTuesdayfor curling.”
“For what?”Iasked.
“Curling,” she replied. “Youknow, the sport where they have rocks slide on ice while people sweep in front of them with brooms.”
“I thinkI’veseen that in theOlympics,”Ruthiesaid.
“It’s a highly underrated sport and one built of champions,”Axelchimed in with hisSwedishaccent. “Ivolunteer for this mission of curling while bodyguarding.”
Of course he would.
“You play?”Aceasked him.
“Not sinceImoved to this country, but yes,Iplayed a lot back inSweden.”
Ace smiled at him—the first genuine smileI’dseen on her face sinceIpicked her up—andIfelt a bit of jealousy roll through me.
“Alright, we’ll both go with you to curling,”Itold her, so she knew she wouldn’t have to give up everything just because of this threat.Plus,Iwanted to butter her up a bit because there were going to be changes.
“Your friend already offered to go,”Aceinterrupted. “Youboth don’t need to go.Onebodyguard will be fine.”
“I don’t mind going,”Itold her.
“Look,Archer,” she said, her hand going to her hip. “Justbecause we were married once a long time ago does not automatically make us besties again.”
There were a few snorts from the room before she continued. “Iunderstand staying here is safer than my place and having you tag along for some things is going to be required, but you don’t have to be the only one.I’mperfectly fine using any one of your qualified men or women if you have any…”
“We do,”Ruthiechimed in excitedly. “Hername isDelia.”
“Great,”Acereplied, clapping her hands. “Ifwe’re going to make this work, you’re going to have to spread the load becauseI’mnot spending every waking minute with you.”
Jesus, this woman was going to be the death of me.
“Let’s figure out the next twenty-four hours first, and then we can circle back on all the other days,”Itold the room.
We spent the next hour talking out how we would plan to coverAcetomorrow at the event.Shealso agreed to give me her news director’s and general manager’s phone numbers soIcould talk to them both about security measures at work.
“I don’t want them knowing all the details,” she added.
“It’s better if they know what we’re up against so they can give me the freedom to do whatIneed to do to protect you,”Iexplained.
“No.Itisn’t.”Hervoice started to pick up and get heated.
“Ace,Ican’t do my job properly ifIdon’t have everyone on the same page with all the facts,”Iargued.
“Then you aren’t very good at your job if you can’t be flexible,” she snapped back.
Damn,Iliked this side of her.
“Can we just tell themIhave a stalker who threatened me instead of adding in the mafia elements and the bounty on my head?”
“Do you think they’ll believe that?”Diegoasked.
She gave a dark chuckle. “Youshould see some of the emails that come in to our staff every week.Yes, they’ll believe it.Theyhonestly won’t even bat an eye at it.Ifit’s a stalker, it’s not only believable, but oddly common.Butif it’s the mafia and they want to kill me—I’mafraid they’ll want to cover that as a story, andIdon’t want that.”
I didn’t want that either.Themore contained this was, the easier it was for professionals—like us and the cops—to handle it.
