This one isn't exciting and it doesn't really explain how Jayden feels, but it certainly raises some interesting questions about Trey. I'll put Jayden in the next one!!!
[6] I'm Body Guarding the President's Jerk Son...Who Is HOT...FML!
Jayden's sapphire eyes stared at me in shock and something akin to accusation. For whatever reason I couldn't explain, I felt ashamed to have him see me like this. But it was an inexplicable feeling. After all, I certainly owed nothing to him and I didn't belong to him in the slightest. And yet, his father had trusted me to keep him safe.
I broke away from his piercing eyes when I heard the sound of footsteps racing somewhere farther down the hall. I leapt off the desk. It'd be perfect if someone kidnapped my charge while I was slacking on my job.
But thankfully, it was only the Men in Black, no doubt chasing after a charge who had escaped from their clutches. At the sight of the two guards, Jayden's expression changed from one of vulnerability to nonchalance.
His chin tilted up in that familiar look of arrogance and he looked lazily at them. "Don't be alarmed, I was simply checking up on the missing members of this little posse. It seems I needn't have worried. They seem to be getting along fine without us."
I was surprised to see that Trey didn't seem the slightest bit alarmed that our jobs might be in jeopardy. He raised his hand and lightly brushed back a strand of my black hair. I caught a smirk on his face that no one else could see. It made his face look alien to me and I pulled back abruptly.
Jayden turned to face us, his lip curling in a slight show of contempt. "Are you two just going to stay here? As for me, I'm hungry and I want to get back to lunch."
Trey flashed Jayden a look that shocked me. It was a look of pure loathing. Jayden and the other two, being in the light of the doorway, didn't see it. But I, in the darkness, caught it. The hate Trey showed seemed inextricably tied with his pain, but there was no gentleness in it. In that brief glimmer, I saw something uglier than all the pain and hate I'd ever felt in my entire life.
Why would a Secret Service agent who obviously had some bad history with the President's son be assigned to such a charge?
On the other hand, why was this animosity one-sided? If anything, Jayden seemed utterly oblivious to it.
More importantly, would I not only have to protect Jayden from external forces, but perhaps his own guard? That question worried me the most. It was the most daunting. It led to another one that was equally as frightening. Could I trust Trey when I didn't know his motives? I wasn't naive enough to believe that all government organizations were without their own agendas-even ones created for the sole purpose of protecting the First Family.
With this in mind, I quickly strode over to Jayden. He was studiously ignoring him, which was okay with me, since I didn't really want to face those accusatory eyes of his either. I examined the two Men in Black. Their faces were blank and I could glean little from them. I nearly sighed in frustration. I suddenly had the impulsive wish that Dad was here. He'd be able to tell if they were lying. Or perhaps he'd just kill the lot of them simply based on my suggestions. I shuddered inside. Maybe it was best I didn't get COBRA involved in this.
Jayden turned around when I got nearer in an unmistakable gesture of defiance and rudeness. I motioned for the Men in Black to be close guard.
The fan formation we had utilized earlier had been good for a crowd. But the hallway we were in was empty and it was much more convenient and useful to change strategies. The formation we now held was a commonly used one among guarding circles. It involves one close guard to block the Principal immediately at the first sign of danger with his or her own body. The far guard keeps a look out for potential danger to prevent it from getting any closer.
I didn't trust Trey to be a close guard. I should have been by Jayden's side, but I was afraid of what he might say, what he might threaten me with. What if he told his father what he saw? Or worse, my father?
I motioned for Trey to stay close to me. He obeyed with expressionless eyes. He looked awfully calm for someone who had just been caught fraternizing with another guard while on duty. There seemed to be something smugly defiant about him that I couldn't figure out.
"Do you think he's going to say anything?" I whispered my insecurities to him.
Trey shrugged, his eyes roaming around the hallway. "I don't think so. Even if he does, it hardly matters. He's only a child."
I turned angrily to him, irritated by his irrational calm. "Does that make me a child, too? I'm the same age as him, which makes what you just did to me practically illegal!"
He was slightly startled from his routine sweep by the anger in my whisper. He turned to look at me, his jade eyes impassive. "No, I don't regard you as a child. You have training. He doesn't. You've faced difficulties. He's a spoiled boy. But that brings me to something else...just how old do you think I am."
I flinched slightly at the cultured venom in his voice towards Jayden, but I locked my gaze with his. That meant I wasn't performing my duty by keeping a look out for danger, but I wanted to figure Trey out. I looked at his face and body, trying to come up with a good estimate. "At least twenty-one, perhaps twenty-two or three?"
He laughed softly, but it still drew some attention. Jayden turned his head slightly to look at us. Our whispering had brought Trey and I closer together. I realized what this must look like to my Principal. I immediately jumped away from Trey, but Jayden's eyes narrowed anyways before looking away with disgust.
His disgust made me feel more ashamed than I had ever felt. I had failed my duty, and on the very first day too! It would have been better if he had been angry and yelled at me, in the very least, if he had threatened me. But all I could feel was hollowness at his disappointment. I gritted my teeth against this feeling. I hated how he could make me feel this way. Why should he make me feel bad? He was nothing to me. It was my father I should be more worried about.
"Do I really look that old?"
Trey's whisper brought me away from my thoughts. I looked at him again. He seemed genuinely surprised at my estimate. Had I really aimed high? Low, I might have thought possible, but high? Really?
I didn't say anything, so he continued, "I'm nineteen, Carly."
My eyes widened in surprise. I looked him over again and realized my mistake. What I had taken for an older age was truly just his maturity-the seriousness in his eyes and the set of his jaw. It must be his training, and probably his own personal experiences as well. The thought of that brought me back to the strange pain I had seen in his face moments earlier. What was it that pained him? That made him so serious?
Then I realized that I probably was the same way. Why had Trey considered Jayden a child, but not me? Jayden was physically more mature than I was. But Trey was right. I knew pain that Jayden never could, not while he lived so comfortably and oblivious to the dangers around him. I rarely smiled and it must have made me look older than I was, too.
I protested, "But you're too young to be working in the agency."
"So says the girl younger than me who is also working for an agency, albeit a freelance one."
I shook my head. "It's different. My dad owns the whole thing. Me becoming a bodyguard would be the only natural thing to do."
He gave me a smile that looked unnatural, like the painted smile on a clown. "Whoever said you were the only one whose daddy is pulling strings?"
He said "daddy" like it was a dirty word. Had his father coerced him into the Secret Service? It seemed a bit harsh. I worked for Dad, yes, but I knew he loved me, that he would keep me safe if I really needed him to.
And his words revealed more insights to me. This was why he wasn't really concerned. He had ties with some higher-up, who would cover for him should some fiasco really arise.
"And what exactly does that mean?" I probed.
His eyes immediately became guarded, as if he had said too much already. He just simply shrugged and continued on his surveillance.
I let it go for now. Perhaps I'd get Rick to do some digging. But then I remembered that I didn't have my best friend with me. Gosh darn it! I really needed him. Especially with my Principal hating me and my temporary partner having just kissed me in a completely unprofessional manner...ah, my life really sucks.
I decided to move onto a different line of questioning. "Why did you kiss me?"
I knew the question was blunt, but it seemed best to get it out of the way so as not to leave ambiguous the possibility of a follow up kiss.
He raised an eyebrow. "Do you really have to ask?"
I waited for him to continue.
He gestured to me and said, "For the physical attraction alone, you're very pretty and that should be a good enough reason. But perhaps you're asking me why risk it all?" I nodded curtly and he smiled a little. "Perhaps I couldn't resist the temptation of forbidden fruit?"
I stared at him in shock. To have him find me pretty wasn't all that shocking. That sounds pretty conceited, but I knew with my exotic racial blend, I was certainly nice and interesting too look at. What really surprised me was his motive for breaking the rules. Trey didn't seem like the type that would do something just for the possibility of getting caught. That seemed more like Jayden's thing. No, Trey was much too controlled for that. The curve of his smile suggested not happiness or naughtiness, but a kind of grim satisfaction. I sensed that there was something he wasn't telling me...a lot of something.