Fearless Hero: A Military Bodyguard Romance (Savage Soldiers Book 3)

by Nicole Elliot

  Wallace could remain on Autumn’s detail, as long as she was safe.

  But as I sat across from Jordan, none of those words seemed capable of leaving my mouth. All I could think about was the night I’d spent with Autumn at the pool, the last time we’d made love, and that fateful day in the library when I not only confessed my feelings to her, but had even acted on those feelings right on the spot.

  I thought about the first time we’d met, all the way back in Turkey…

  How last night, she had looked me right in the eyes and told me that she loved me, and how like an asshole, I hadn’t even responded.

  Jordan cleared his throat, clearly not in the mood to be on the other end of the waiting game.

  I sighed and rubbed the back of my neck. “I guess you can say some things went wrong during my assignment at the safehouse with Autumn Harper. She would now feel more comfortable if someone else was placed on her detail. I think her wishes should be granted.”

  “Something went wrong like what?”

  I swallowed. “I think there was some confusion about…about the nature of…the work I was doing for her.”

  “I’ve also heard there was some confusion about the shifts between you and Wallace. Can you tell me why Wallace informed me that the two of you had occasionally been switching locations, after I clearly stated you were to stay with Speaker Harper? Wallace stated that he was under the impression that you had been given official word that such switches were authorized. But that’s funny—because I certainly never gave any orders on such a thing. So where did you get these orders from, Mr. Logan? And don’t tell me Speaker Harper put you up to it. Speaker Harper is not your captain.”

  I lowered my head, ashamed. “It was my idea, sir. I told Speaker Harper that I could switch with Wallace to check on Autumn from time-to-time.”

  “Do you have any idea how irresponsible that was of you?”

  “I do. And I’m sorry.”

  “I’m afraid sorry isn’t going to cut it. Not only did you disobey orders, but you blatantly lied on the job to cover your tracks. And based on reports I’ve heard from people who have spotted you in the presence of Autumn—or should I say the way you behaved with Autumn—I have reason to believe that your lies had nothing to do with the seriousness of your job, did it?”

  When I didn’t answer, he narrowed his eyes at me. “If you do not speak up, I will have no choice but to take your silence as a sign of your confession.”

  I nodded. “Yes, sir.”

  Jordan sighed and leaned back in his chair. “Unbelievable. I really cannot express how disappointed I am in you right now, Brady.”

  “I’m sorry, sir.”

  “If only ‘sorry’ could fix things. But it can’t.”

  Once again, a long silence stretched through the room. The sound of the ticking clock on the wall seemed to grow unnaturally loud. I swallowed again despite my mouth being dry as I waited to hear what my fate would be.

  But the longer the silence continued, the more I realized that I knew perfectly well what I wanted my fate to be. All the stress and frustration I’d been feeling began to dissipate with each passing second marked by the ticking clock on the wall.

  I thought about all the attempts that had been made on Speaker Harper’s life. Terrifying as they were, if anything, it had made me realize just how short life could be. None of us were promised today or tomorrow, and in reality, there was nothing anyone could do about it.

  And with life already being so short, didn’t we all deserve a shot at happiness?

  If we knew without a doubt what would make us happy, it would be absolutely foolish to let it slip away.

  Fucking stupid, actually.

  I didn’t want to be stupid anymore. I had already made enough mistakes in my lifetime.

  I cleared my throat. “Jordan, I’m sorry for the inconvenience that I’ve caused. And after a lot of consideration, I want to make your decision easier. Therefore, I would like to let you know that from this day forward, I officially resign.”

  CHAPTER 17

  Autumn

  “There you go,” I said, putting the finishing touches on the tie my father was wearing. He beamed and pulled me into a hug, which I gratefully returned. It felt like ages since I’d seen my father in person, and I had missed him so much.

  “I’m so glad you could be here today, sweetheart,” he said. “I know it’s been rough. Hopefully we’ll have some time to catch up once this rally is over.”

  “Yes,” I said with some hesitation. While I would have loved nothing more than to catch up with my father, I knew he still didn’t know the full story regarding what had happened with Brady and why I had requested to permanently have another guard on my detail. It was a conversation I wasn’t looking forward to, to say the least. “Are you nervous?” I asked, changing the subject.

  Dad laughed. “Not nearly as much now that you’re here! You know you’ve always been my good luck charm!”

  “Really? I was afraid that I’d lost my place to Ms. Peters!”

  “Oh, you hush up now,” Dad said, a slight blush coming to his face. It warmed my heart to see it though. Ms. Peters was the waitress from the restaurant we’d been at before the gunman ruined everything. I hadn’t been aware that she and my dad had stayed in contact afterwards, but I was certainly pleased to learn that they did. Things had been so stressful for him lately; he deserved someone to help him unwind every once in a while.

  The backstage curtain cracked open, and a young woman poked her head through. “Speaker Harper, you’re on in two minutes.”

  “All right,” he said. “Thank you.”

  Not before long, we heard the polite applause from the crowd as the opening speaker finished delivering Dad’s introduction. “Are you staying back here?” he asked before preparing to take the stage.

  I nodded. “Yeah. I’m not up for being in the crowd today.”

  “Okay. I’ll see you in a little bit then.”

  “Break a leg,” I said as my father disappeared behind the curtain and out onto the stage. His presence was greeted with thunderous applause, which made it overly abundant how popular he had become over these past few months. We didn’t want to celebrate prematurely, but all signs were pointing to him being in the lead as the vice-presidential pick. His popularity would undoubtedly give a much-needed boost to the presidential ticket; he connected with voters in a way that most politicians never managed to achieve.

  I had a feeling it wouldn’t be long before we looked back to these days as the simpler times…

  It was a bittersweet feeling indeed.

  I retreated farther backstage, where various people from my father’s political team smiled and offered me warm greetings. I politely said hello back, and made my way to the television room, where I could watch the live broadcast of my father’s speech and see how he worked the crowd. I’d heard him practice this speech before, he had recited it in the car, so I would know when he was nearing the end of it. When he got toward the end, I would meet him out on the stage, and we would wave at the crowd and shake as many hands as possible before leaving. It would be tiring, and times like these made me wish my sister was more actively involved so that I had someone to share the burden with. But I knew there was really no time for such laments now.

  Settling onto the couch before the television, I couldn’t help smiling as I watched my dad pace the stage, speaking to his riveted audience. He was a natural, and his charisma leapt off the screen. I knew he had to look even more impressive to those actually in the audience.

  As I sat there watching my father’s speech though, I began to wish I had gone out to watch from the crowd when my mind started wandering in ways I didn’t want it to.

  If I’d been out in the big crowd, it would have been easier to keep thoughts of Brady at bay…

  But as usual, whenever I sat idly for too long, he popped into my mind, particularly the last time I had seen him.

  Every night, I’d been tossing and tur
ning, thinking about him and convinced that he hadn’t truly meant those hurtful words he’d said to me. But I didn’t want to be in denial; I refused to be one of those girls who couldn’t accept what was right in front of their faces.

  Brady had openly resisted me that night. He hadn’t even wanted to be in my presence. And most of all, he hadn’t been able to say that he loved me back. After all we’d been through, he just didn’t feel the same.

  In his words—it didn’t matter.

  My heart broke a little more each time I thought about it, but I knew the only thing I could do was move on and wait until time mended my heart back together again.

  I just wished it wouldn’t take so damned long.

  “Autumn…”

  I jumped at the sound of someone calling my name in a sing-song voice. Turning around to the sound of clicking high-heels, a smile spread across my face. “Elise!” I cried out.

  She skipped toward me, her arms outstretched and ready for a hug that I gladly returned.

  “Girl, it feels like it’s been forever!”

  “I know!” I said. “What are you doing here?”

  “My dad and I flew over in support of your dad, of course!”

  “Well, I’m so glad you’re here. I haven’t seen you since Turkey!”

  “Well, you’ve understandably been busy—future…what would you be called? Second-daughter?”

  I laughed. “Let’s not count our chickens before they’re hatched.”

  “Your dad has this in a bag,” Elise said confidently, taking my hand as we both sat on the couch and turned to the television to watch the rest of the rally. Dad was now taking questions from the audience, explaining the ideas and policies he would like to someday see implemented in our government.

  “So…” Elise said, a grin on her face, “the last time I saw you, you were in the company of a very handsome stranger. Anything ever become of that?”

  I hung my head and pinched the bridge of my nose. “Yeah—a headache.”

  Elise’s brow furrowed as if she hadn’t been expecting that response. “What do you mean?”

  “Things didn’t work out.”

  She pouted. “Are you sure?”

  “Yes,” I said. “Would you believe he ended up on my dad’s security team?”

  “Hmmm…” she said, and then grew quiet, clearly waiting for elaboration.

  “Yeah…And uhm…Well…things started happening between us. My father ended up wanting him to be exclusively on my security detail. And we tried to keep things professional between us at first. But then, things grew into something more. Or at least I thought they had. I was wrong though. First, he claimed to have feelings for me and that he would basically be with me no matter what. But then, he suddenly changed his mind and said he wanted to keep things strictly professional between us.”

  “He said that?”

  “Yes. I…I was so angry. I thought that maybe he’d just been lying to me all along. Using me. That he was done with me after he managed to get what he wanted a couple times…I felt so used. So disgusted with myself for falling so hard for him. I should have known better. Guys like him are nothing but players and always will be. I don’t know why I expected him to be different. I made a fool of myself, Elise. I kept coming on to him, thinking that he privately must have felt the same way and that he was just resisting me to be noble. But now I see that he was resisting me because he was never serious about me to begin with. He just wanted to whisper sexy words in my ear until he was done with me.”

  A silence stretched between us. My eyes had gone out of focus, clouded with tears as I stared at the TV.

  “Did you give him a chance to explain himself?”

  “There’s nothing to explain,” I said with a sigh.

  “I wouldn’t be so sure about that. Sometimes—like you said—you can’t count your chickens before they’re hatched.”

  “I think those chickens hatched and ran away already,” I said. I thought I saw a secretive smirk on Elise’s face, but as I heard my father’s words drifting from the television, I didn’t have time to think any further about it. He had finished the question-and-answer segment and was giving his final words. That meant it was time for me to report to the stage with him and put on my happy face to greet the crowd.

  I stood from the couch. “Well—it’s about that time,” I said, turning toward Elise. “Hey, what are you doing tonight? Wanna to hang out?”

  Again, as I looked at her, I got the feeling she was holding back on something. She tried to arrange her face back into a neutral expression, but I knew her well enough to know she was concealing a smile. I narrowed my eyes at her.

  “Let’s take a rain-check on that, all right? You never can know what will be going on tonight. I’ll be in town for a while though, so trust me—we will definitely get a chance to hang out again soon.”

  “All right…” I said. “Text me.”

  With that, I turned around and headed back toward the front, until I reached the curtain. I stood there for a moment, waiting for my cue to go out on stage. Once Dad said his last words, music would start playing and that would let me know it was time.

  Approximately ten seconds later, the music started.

  Taking a deep breath to control the nerves that always arose at times like this, I pushed the curtain aside and stepped out, plastering a smile onto my face.

  The crowd erupted into even louder cheers at the sight of me, as they always did for some reason. My father had joked a time or two that I was popular enough to enter a career in politics myself. But I couldn’t imagine such a lifestyle; I preferred law.

  Dad turned toward me, holding his hands out. I grabbed his hand and together, we took a bow toward the crowd. The music continued blaring and the crowd continued to cheer excitedly.

  I was taken aback by the sheer volume of the crowd. It seemed that with each rally Dad gave, the turnout kept getting bigger and bigger. This was certainly the biggest crowd he’d had to date. I glanced sideways at him, wondering if he found it as overwhelming as I did. But just as I suspected, he was handling it all with expert poise. Still holding my hand, he headed toward the edge of the stage with me in tow, where he began leaning over to shake people’s hands. Security guards followed behind us, and moved to the front of the crowd as well, making sure nothing got out of control.

  As I shook people’s hands, I glanced around the crowd, spotting Ms. Peters toward the front. She smiled warmly and waved at me, and I waved back.

  I then began looking around at the various signs being held into the air. The signs were always my favorite part. Dad’s supporters were full of creativity and often came up with great slogans to show their support. I had mentioned to him before that if he secured the nomination, he should consider asking supporters to help come up with a campaign slogan.

  My heart stopped at the sight of one sign though. I stared, wondering if I was seeing correctly. It wasn’t a sign for my father. Instead, it read: Autumn For My Heart.

  I looked at the person holding the sign.

  It was none other than Brady.

  Tears welled in my eyes, and in that instant, I knew I had been stupid for all the wrong reasons.

  I knew I shouldn’t have believed it when he claimed he wanted nothing but a professional relationship with me. We had made too strong of a connection for that.

  Smiling and laughing through my tears, the instant I made it across the stage and close enough for him, I dove right into his arms.

  Loud cheers erupted all around us as our lips met.

  CHAPTER 18

  Autumn

  I couldn’t have planned it better, but the last few months had been pure bliss.

  I had even passed the BAR exam. I couldn’t put into words how much of a weight off my shoulder that was.

  Needless to say, there was a lot to celebrate.

  I turned my head sideways, smiling at Brady in the driver’s seat. Perhaps sensing my gaze, a slow smirk spread across his handsome f
ace. “What is it?”

  “Nothing,” I said. “I’m just…happy. Everything worked out in the long-run.”

  “As I told you it would,” he said.

  “Even your cocky attitude has been restored.”

  He laughed. “So, your dad is meeting us at the pub, right?”

  “Yes. He might even be there already.”

  “Or he might stand us up in favor of celebrating a night in with Peggy. Maybe you’ll wind up becoming a big sister.”

  “Okay, stop it. That’s just gross.”

  Brady laughed, pulling into the parking lot of the pub. He gave a low whistle, glancing around at the parked cars. “Looks like quite a crowd.”

  “Yeah…” I said, growing slightly apprehensive.

  “Well, it’s not like you’ve got much to worry about, right?” He glanced into the rearview mirror at the secret service agents in the car behind us.

  “I guess you’ve got a point,” I said. “That’s certainly going to take some time getting used to.”

  “You’ve had a lot of practice already. First with me trailing your every move, and then Wallace.”

  “Yeah, but this is different.”

  “I guess,” Brady said. He cut off the car engine. “Ready?”

  “Yep.”

  We exited the car and headed toward the pub, with the secret service agents trailing quietly behind us.

  Just as we had expected, the place was crowded. Immediately upon entering, a huge sign was on display, reading, ‘CONGRATULATIONS, VICE PRESIDENT HARPER.’

  I felt like smiling and cringing at the same time. I was somewhat superstitious and didn’t like seeing my father referred to as the Vice President already. There was still a very long time until election day. Nevertheless, I did feel that probability his team winning was pretty high.

  Brady took my hand in his, and we entered the pub to an outburst of applause. We actually had become quite famous in our own right, and it was still taking me some time to work out how I felt about that. News cameras across the country had captured perfect footage of Brady and his sign, as well as me jumping into his arms. Now, there was constant speculation about when the wedding bells would be ringing. While I didn’t like the pressure and attention this put on us, Brady didn’t seem to mind. And as for various campaign strategists—they all pretty much thought it made my father’s ticket a shoe-in for the win.