Chapter 1 - FOURTEEN SECONDS
My daughter’s stuffed rabbit went flying before my security tryout even started.
Grant Holloway kicked it.
Not accidentally.
He looked directly at eight-year-old Ava, saw her reaching for the worn gray rabbit beside the blue training mat, and drove the side of his polished shoe into it.
The toy skidded nearly twenty feet.
Ava started after it.
Grant stepped in front of her.
“Pick up your kid and leave,” he said. “You’re embarrassing everyone here.”
Thirty applicants heard him.
So did six corporate executives watching from the glass balcony above.
My name is Rachel Monroe.
Thirty-nine.
Former Army intelligence.
Single mother.
And apparently the only applicant at Northstar Advanced Systems who had arrived that morning with a child.
Ava wasn’t supposed to be there.
Her school had called at 6:12 a.m. after a water main broke.
My babysitter was already working.
My sister was three states away.
The recruiter told me children were not permitted inside the assessment center.
Then Victoria Sloan herself approved a temporary exception.
“Your daughter can sit beside the observers,” the CEO’s assistant told me.
Grant clearly hadn’t received the memo.
Or had chosen to ignore it.
Ava stopped in front of him.
“Please move.”
Grant looked down.
Then back at me.
“She yours?”
“Yes.”
“That explains the distraction problem.”
A few applicants stared at the floor.
One man didn’t.
Cole Mercer.
Thirty-five.
Built like a linebacker.
Former private security contractor.
He folded his arms and watched Grant carefully.
I walked across the mat.
Grant smiled.
“You have something to say?”
I stepped between him and Ava.
“No.”
I bent, picked up the rabbit, brushed its ear once, and handed it back to my daughter.
“You okay?”
Ava nodded.
She always nodded when adults were watching.
That bothered me more than tears would have.
I stood.
Grant was still smiling.
“You’re here for executive protection, Monroe.”
“I know.”
“Not daycare.”
“I know that too.”
His expression tightened because I refused to become angry on command.
That was the first thing Grant learned about me.
May you like
The second came forty minutes later.
I noticed his security system was lying.
