Nothing Left to Lose (Guarded Hearts 1)

Dean nodded, so I pulled my cell phone from my pocket and dialled Maddy’s number. “Senator Spencer’s office,” she answered cheerfully.

“Ma’am, it’s Agent Taylor. I need to speak to the Senator, please.”

“That’s not possible, Agent Taylor. He’s in a meeting at the moment,” she replied apologetically.

“Ma’am, please put me through immediately and tell him I need to speak to him,” I ordered sternly.

“Um, okay, hold on,” she answered nervously. I was put on hold for a minute then he came on the phone, sounding slightly panicked.

“Agent Taylor, what’s happened?”

I took a deep breath. “Sir, we’ve received a letter from Carter here at the college. It was addressed to the college offices, thankfully, and not the apartment, so there’s a good chance he doesn’t know our exact location. It’s another love note, not a threat,” I stated.

He drew in a sharp breath. “Oh God. Do you think she needs to leave school and come home?”

“No, sir, I don’t. I don’t think he wants to hurt her at all. He refers in his note to seeing her at the trial; I honestly don’t believe that he would actually strike against her.”

He sounded like he breathed a sigh of relief. “Okay, so what do we do?”

“Well, I’ve already tightened her security. I’d like your permission to authorise overtime payments for times when I want to take extra agents out with me. Like tonight, for example, it would be helpful to keep Agent Michaels on for an extra couple of hours because we’re going out in public. That kind of thing,” I explained.

“Yes, yes of course, you authorise whatever you need. Do you want me to send you another agent as well?”

“Not at the moment, sir. If a threat comes in then I may request one, but at the moment I don’t believe the danger is any greater than it was,” I admitted. Sure, he knew which college she was in, he obviously had someone keeping tabs on her because he knew that she’d been here for a couple of months – but that didn’t mean that he was going to do anything about it.

“Okay. Let me know if there’s anything that you need,” Senator Spencer sighed heavily.

I cleared my throat. “Sir, I really feel that now is the time to tell Anna about these letters. It would make her safer if she understood why we’re always being so cautious with her security,” I explained, closing my eyes and hoping he would say yes. I knew she’d worry, but at least she would be more responsive to us guarding her.

He was quiet for a minute, obviously thinking about it. “No, I really do think it’s best if she’s kept unaware. She doesn’t need to be worrying that he’s coming after her.”

I sighed and ran my hand through my hair. Part of me wanted to argue the case that it was morally wrong to keep this information from her, but the part that loved her and wanted to shield her from everything bad, was actually a little relieved that she would still be in the dark. Her reaction to me drawing my gun on Nate was in the forefront of my mind. She’d been terrified that Carter had come back for her. I didn’t want her to start to worry about that now. I decided not to push him to change his mind.

“Okay sir, it’s your decision. I’ll have this letter forwarded to you and keep you apprised of the situation.” I couldn’t help but feel slightly annoyed with him because he was making the wrong decision. As just her guard though, it wasn’t my place to make that kind of decision and I had to go with what he said.

“Okay, thank you, Agent Taylor.”

He disconnected the call and I sighed, looking over to Dean. “We still can’t tell her. Let Peter know that we’re going out at seven. If you could both be ready, that’ll be great. If this gets too much for you two then let me know, I’ve been authorised to bring in another agent,” I stated, grimacing, because I had no idea how I would explain another agent to Anna.

“Right, I’ll see you at seven then,” he nodded, and headed over to take his position in front of the elevator again.

I took a few deep breaths to calm myself and went back into the apartment, praying that nothing would ever hurt my girl. In the kitchen, I sought out an envelope, shoving Carter’s note into it and addressing it to the lake house. Peter could arrange for it to be sent special delivery tomorrow.

I hung around in the kitchen for a while, trying to calm my nerves. Anna was like a mind reader at times, she could tell just by looking at me if something was wrong. When my body relaxed, I made two coffees and went into the lounge, watching her work on her project for college. My heart was throbbing painfully with the need to wrap her in my arms and keep her safe and never let her go, but I refused to make this any harder for her than it was every day. She needed to have fun, and tonight I would give her exactly that.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

~ Anna ~

At six o’clock, I went for a quick shower. I dried myself quickly and straightened my hair, putting on a bit of make-up. Then the long process of choosing something to wear to our date started. Casual and warm, he’d said. I chewed on my lip as I settled on a pair of jeans and a fitted black shirt, pairing it with some black converse.

Once satisfied with my choice, I made my way out to the lounge where he was already waiting for me. “Wow, you look incredible,” he purred, looking me over slowly. I smiled and blushed under his intense inspection. “You’ll need a sweater though, it might be cold.”