“We’re going to do this, so you can just suck it up,” Evyn said.

“Fine.”

Ever so carefully, Evyn drew the collar of Wes’s shirt aside with two fingers, careful not to touch skin, until she could see her shoulder. “Big bruise.”

“Feels like it.”

Evyn rocked back on her heels as far as space would allow. “I’m going to range it. Tell me if it hurts.”

“Go ahead.” Wes watched Evyn’s face while Evyn gently cupped her elbow and manipulated her shoulder. Evyn’s eyes were storm-cloud blue, but her touch was sure and steady. A streak of dirt over her cheek made her look unexpectedly vulnerable, and Wes brushed it away before she had time to stop herself. Evyn flinched and Wes dropped her hand. “Shoulder’s okay. Sore, but no worse than at rest.”

“You’ll need to ice it,” Evyn said.

“I will. Thanks.”

Evyn looked away. “You’re welcome.”

“That was a pretty impressive sim.”

“You didn’t seem too bothered by it.” Evyn pushed to her feet and moved back to give Wes room to dress. She resisted the urge to ask her if she needed help. She didn’t want to touch her again. Not at all.

Wes looked up at her. “Did you expect me to be?”

“Well, seeing as how you’re a paper pusher and all.” Evyn grinned, realized she was falling into the habit of bantering with Wes, and skidded away from the friendly exchange. Relaxing her guard around Wes was just too easy, and she couldn’t afford to get familiar with her. Even if she wasn’t supposed to be training her, there was the little matter of Wes probably being on Lucinda Washburn’s private security payroll just now. Hell, for all she knew, Wes was evaluating her. And didn’t that just throw cold water on her libido. “I’ll meet you at the cars. We’re done for today.”

*

They didn’t speak on the trip back to the House, and Evyn disappeared as soon as they disembarked. Wes couldn’t figure out what had put that cold distance in Evyn’s eyes after the warmth that had been there just minutes before, and the more she thought about it, the more frustrated she became. She shouldn’t care—didn’t want to care. Since the idea of sitting around her hotel room until the next day waiting for her next exercise held no appeal, she went back to her office and spent the rest of the afternoon setting up a schedule to review various protocols with the team members. When she’d gotten everything organized to her satisfaction, she turned to the last detail on her list and made a call.

“This is Captain Masters,” she said when a young man answered. “Is Ms. Washburn available?”

“One moment, Captain,” he said pleasantly and put her on hold.

Lucinda answered. “What can I do for you, Captain?”

“I wanted to follow up on my request to schedule the president for a baseline physical examination.”

“Yes, I have that on my list. Can you hold for a moment?”

“Of course.”

A minute passed, and Lucinda returned. “Are you free right now?”

“Certainly.”

“Five minutes in the clinic?” Lucinda said.

“I’ll be waiting.” Wes hurried to the clinic and commandeered the PA, a man she knew by name but hadn’t formally met yet, to assist. “Hernandez, you’ve got the duty. Set up a room for a complete physical, will you? The president is on his way.”

Hernandez, a navy corpsman, snapped to attention. “Yes, ma’am. And welcome aboard, ma’am.”

“Thanks.”

Three minutes later, the president arrived, followed by a military aide carrying nuclear codes in a secure briefcase. Wes saluted.

“Thank you for interrupting your schedule, sir.”

The president returned her salute and extended his hand. “Good to meet you, Doctor.”

She indicated an exam room. “Right in here, sir. This shouldn’t take very long.”

The military aide took a post just outside the door, his expression neutral. Hernandez had laid out equipment on the counter next to the exam table and had draped an ironed white gown on the end of the chair. He stood at attention to the left of the door.

“I’ll leave you to change,” Wes said and stepped out to wait until Hernandez signaled the president was ready. Two minutes later he called her in, and she quickly worked her way through the exam, checking vital signs, listening to heart and lungs, testing reflexes. Everything was fine, which she had anticipated.

“All set, sir,” she said when she’d finished. She stepped out while Hernandez assisted the president, and returned when Hernandez called her.

“What’s your verdict, Doctor?” the president asked as he knotted his tie.

“We’ll want routine bloods again in four months and an EKG in six. But you’re cleared for duty.”

Andrew Powell smiled. “Glad to hear it. How are you finding the post so far?”

“I’m honored, sir.”

“I promise it’s not always this quiet.”

She laughed. “In medicine, sir, quiet is not bad.”

“True about my job too. What are you doing for the holidays?”

“I have the duty, sir.”

The president opened the exam-room door and paused. “Well, be sure and make the staff Christmas party.”

“I will. Thank you, sir.”

“I’m sure I’ll be seeing you again soon,” he said.

“Yes, sir. Happy holidays, sir.”

“Happy holidays, Captain Masters.”

Wes stayed in the hall until he disappeared. Today she’d been part of a simulated rocket attack aimed at destroying this man and what he symbolized to the nation and the world. The idea that someone close to him might be a traitor made the urgency of her job even more acute. She understood—at least rationally—a little bit better why Evyn didn’t yet trust her, and as much as she resisted the idea, she couldn’t totally trust Evyn either.

Chapter Fourteen

Evyn woke with Ricochet draped on her left ear. “Get off.”

Ricochet stretched, shifted, and settled around her forehead like a fur hat. His belly reminded her of feathers dancing on her skin. Feathers. Fingertips. Wes’s thumb tracing over her cheek. A shot of adrenaline spiking her pulse, her clit instantly hard. Her eyes jolted open. “Hell.”

She stared at the ceiling. Flat gray light. The weatherman had said more snow was coming. More freezing cold. She wasn’t cold now. She kicked the covers off. Ricochet complained and stalked haughtily to the bottom of the bed. Evyn touched her cheek and her clit did that twitching thing it had done yesterday when Wes had touched her. Wes made her so freaking hot—didn’t mean a thing, though. Just good old reflexes. Never mind the way Wes had looked at her when she’d been moving her shoulder around—so serious, so right there. Wes looked at her—looked into her, and okay, that freaked her out too. She’d grown up in a houseful of men she wanted to be just like—tough, competitive men who taught her to win. And any fear or uncertainty—and, God forbid, tears—that cropped up along the way, she hid. And eventually she didn’t need to hide those things because she didn’t feel them any longer.

Except when Wes touched her, she felt the doors opening and light leaking into the closed rooms where she kept her secrets. Not good. Didn’t matter, though. She had a handle on it. She slid her hand down her belly. Had a hand on it too. She was hard all right, and wet, and damn if she couldn’t get Wes’s scent out of her head. So she closed her eyes and let the green of Wes’s gaze and the piercing winter-bright scent of her fill her mind as she came.

*

“Morning,” Wes said when she found Evyn in the ready room at 0730. A box, empty save for a lone white powdered doughnut, sat in the middle of the round table. Evyn was dressed for fieldwork again—khakis and a blue polo shirt with the USSS logo on the chest.

“Hi,” Evyn said, rising abruptly and dumping the remains of her coffee in the sink. “Ready?”

“Another sim? Sure.”

“Nope. Today we go live.” Evyn raised her left wrist and said, “Team One, ready to move out.”

Wes followed her out into the hall, waiting for Evyn to fill her in on what was happening. They’d reached the south exit before she finally asked, “Isn’t it customary to brief me?”

“There is no customary.” Evyn reached the door first and held it open. “The only thing you can count on in this detail is that plans always change. Today’s already have.”

“Am I the only medic?”

“You’ll have the usual backup in the follow car.”

Wes caught the door and followed Evyn outside. A limo idled with the three black SUVs on the circular drive. Gary waited by the open rear door of the first vehicle, sunglasses on, earbud just visible behind his left ear. He nodded briefly to Evyn, and Wes thought she saw his eyebrow quirk before his stony expression returned. Several other men and a woman stood waiting by the other vehicles, and the profiles of additional agents were visible inside each one. She hadn’t expected so many people to be involved in a training scenario but said nothing. Evyn obviously wasn’t planning to answer any of her questions.

“We’ll be in the first follow car,” Evyn said. “Eagle is on his way.”

Wes hesitated. “I thought this was a training scenario.”

Evyn met her gaze, no trace of humor in her eyes. “Did I give you that impression? This is as real as it gets.”

Wes adjusted her expectations and reassessed the situation. “Then shouldn’t I ride with the president?”

Evyn opened the rear door of the SUV directly behind the limo and gestured for Wes to climb in. “Under most circumstances, no. You’re part of the secure package now—we need you out of the kill zone. You can’t treat Eagle if you’re dead.”

“Makes sense,” Wes muttered. She accepted the reasoning behind safeguarding the first responder, but in light of the sim the day before, she didn’t like it. If the vehicles were separated or the president’s vehicle took a direct hit, she wanted to be closer than she would be in a follow car.