The Walls Of Troy Part 27

The admiral c.o.c.ked his head. "Why not?"

I glanced at Troy. Then, "Permission to speak freely, sir?"

He sighed. "Yes, yes. Go on."

I swallowed. "I think Troy would be safer with a female bodyguard."

"Female? Why?"

"Because I believe..."

Troy fidgeted beside me, tension radiating off him.

I cleared my throat. "I think whoever is stalking Troy can't cope with the idea of him being with someone else. A woman would clearly be a friend and not something more."

"And a uniformed, armed guard wouldn't?"

"Apparently not." I took a deep breath. "Someone vandalized my car this afternoon, and I'm thinking it's-"

"What? Where did this happen? Have the police been notified?"

"Yes," I said.

"And this happened on campus?"

I resisted the urge to rock from my heels to the b.a.l.l.s of my feet. "Uh, no, sir." I glanced at Troy, eyebrows up. A little help here?

Dalton inclined his head. "Where, then?"

"Um." I coughed into my fist. "It's-"

"Dad." Troy shifted uncomfortably. "Just a.s.sign someone else. Please."

The admiral's eyes darted back and forth between his son and me. "What the h.e.l.l is going on here?"

"Dad, please. We-"

Dalton cut Troy off with a sharp gesture. Eyes locked on me, he stepped closer until he was in that s.p.a.ce generally reserved for drill instructors in boot camp-way too close, right up in my face. "MA1 Ayhan, now would be a very good time to tell me I'm completely off base in thinking that you and my son were somewhere you shouldn't have been when your car was vandalized."

I gulped.

Troy put a hand on his father's arm. "Dad..."

Dalton didn't break eye contact and didn't even seem to notice Troy's hand. "Explain yourself, MA1. Don't try to bulls.h.i.t me."

My heart was going a million miles an hour. I couldn't lie to the admiral, but I couldn't break Troy's confidence either.

Come on, Troy. Help me out here.

The admiral rubbed his chin. "Where exactly were the two of you when MA1 Ayhan's car was vandalized?"

Troy shifted uncomfortably. So did I.

Dalton's expression hardened, and it was focused completely on me. "What's going on, MA1?"

I moistened my lips. "Sir, we..." I couldn't lie to an admiral, but what the f.u.c.k was I supposed to say to the father of the man I'd been in bed with an hour ago?

Finally, Troy broke in: "We were at Iskander's apartment."

"At..." The admiral turned to his son, eyes wide. "Why?"

Oh s.h.i.t. Oh s.h.i.t, I am so, so f.u.c.ked...

"Dad, the point is, this idiot is getting riled up because he thinks Iskander and I are together. If I have a female guard, then he won't-"

"Is this stalker on to something?" Dalton growled, narrow-eyed gaze sliding toward me. "Or is it just wild speculation based on nothing?"

Troy sighed. "Yes, it's based on something."

Yep. f.u.c.ked.

Dalton's features hardened, and he clenched his jaw. "Are you sleeping with my son, MA1?"

Troy stepped closer. "Dad, the point is-"

"Did you f.u.c.k my son, MA1?"

"I..." I glanced at Troy. Help me?

"Yes," Troy said, sending my stomach into my feet and my heart into my throat. "We're seeing each other, all right?"

"When did this start?" Dalton snarled. "What the f.u.c.k is the matter with you? Either of you?"

"Dad, it's-"

"Troy, step out for a second."

Troy set his jaw. "This involves me. I'm staying."

Dalton's gaze slid toward him. Troy still didn't move.

When Dalton looked at me again, it was all I could do not to gulp. This was a man who was accustomed to being obeyed, and he could rain a s.h.i.tload more h.e.l.l and fury onto me than he could his adult son.

"Dad, just listen to me, all right?" Troy stepped between us and looked up at his father. "I'm an adult. It was my choice."

"And he's under my command to-"

"To protect me. Which he's been doing."

"But now his presence is attracting the threat instead of deterring it." He glared at me. "You knew d.a.m.n well there was someone trying to harm my son. You've got the marks to prove it." He gestured at my face.

"Yes, sir. I know."

"Then why the f.u.c.k are you fooling around instead of doing your G.o.dd.a.m.ned job and keeping him safe?" Beneath the booming rage, his voice carried an undercurrent of desperation. Panic. If not for the anger, he'd have sounded like a man who was a step away from dropping to his knees and begging me to protect Troy.

Because I've seen the side of him he tries to keep hidden.

And I let myself get too close to that side.

And I f.u.c.king fell for- "I'm not going to let anything happen to him, sir."

"How can you look me in the eye and say that?" he snapped. "Look at yourself. You've already been beaten up and Tased right in my driveway. Your car was vandalized while you were..." He waved a hand, making both of us flinch. "What the f.u.c.k are-"

"He has been protecting me, Dad." Troy's tone was firm but still a little unsteady. "More than anyone else on the security team. We just got..." He glanced at me, then lowered his gaze. "Closer than we should have."

"That's an understatement," Dalton growled. He turned to me. "MA1, the only reason I'm not having you hemmed up and transferred to some remote place in the Pacific is that you're the only one who's taken this seriously from the beginning." He raised his chin and narrowed his eyes as he stabbed a finger at me. "Mark my words, if you take your focus off protecting him for one second, and anything happens to him on your watch, I swear to G.o.d, MA1, I will have every stripe removed from your arm and I'll take your crow for good measure. Am I clear?"

I gulped. If he took even one stripe, never mind the black eagle designating me a petty officer, my career was over. "Yes, sir."

He picked up the phone off his desk and hit one of the speed dials. Troy and I glanced at each other, eyebrows up.

"Chief Fowler? My office, please."

Oh f.u.c.k...

Chapter Seventeen.

Max stepped into the den and eyed me, Troy, then Dalton. He cleared his throat. "You wanted to see me, sir?"

"Close the door, Chief."

Max's gaze darted toward me, and the door creaked quietly as he toed it shut.

Dalton leaned against his desk, arms folded across his chest. "Chief, were you aware that a member of your security team has been involved with my son? On a...personal level?"

Max stiffened, eyes locking on me. "Uh, no, sir. I wasn't."

Dalton turned to me. "Would you care to enlighten him, MA1?"

The ground can open up any time now. Right under my feet. Come on...

Max's puzzled expression turned to a full-blown glare. "Really, MA1? You two are..." His eyebrows rose.

I exhaled. "Yes."

The eyebrows came down, and he set his jaw. "You're kidding me."

"Apparently he's not," Dalton ground out.

Max's lips pulled tight. "Are you f.u.c.king serious, MA1?"

My face burned and my gut was doing somersaults. Before I could speak, though, the admiral cut me off.

"MA1 Ayhan has some suggestions for more effective security for my son. I'll leave that to the two of you to work out." Dalton waved a hand toward the door. "Now get the f.u.c.k out of my office. Both of you." He turned to Troy. "You stay here."

Neither of us said a word on the way downstairs to the security office, but I could feel the rage radiating off Max. It only intensified with every step, until I thought he was going to blow up and kick my a.s.s right there in the hallway.

The door had barely shut behind us before Max grabbed my arm. "What the f.u.c.k is the matter with you?" Before I could answer, he shoved me back a step. "Are you insane? You're f.u.c.king Dalton's kid when you're supposed to be protecting him? What the f.u.c.k are you-"

"If you want to write me up, then write me up." I put up my hands. "Nothing I can say is going to-"

"You're d.a.m.n right it won't!" He stepped away, raking his fingers through his short hair. "Christ, Iskander. You were hand-selected to be his bodyguard. Yeah, they wanted someone who was gay, but that wasn't so you could-"

"Look, he and I were spending hours on end together. There was..." Chemistry. Attraction. Jesus f.u.c.k..."We were attracted to each other, all right?"

"So the f.u.c.k what?" Max narrowed his eyes. "You're a cop. What were you thinking?"

"Would explaining it change anything?"

"Uh, yeah. Might make me less likely to-"

"We got carried away, all right?" I threw up my hands. "I spend all day with him, one-on-one. We...we got to know each other, and there was..." Chemistry. Emotion. So much. "I realize it's inappropriate and-"

"Jesus, Iskander. You're here to protect him, not sleep with him! This is the kind of s.h.i.t that gets cops in trouble with officers' wives."

"Except it wasn't his wife."

"No, it wasn't. It was his son, you idiot. That's even worse!"

"Troy is of age. He's a consenting adult."

"It doesn't matter! He's the son of a two-star motherf.u.c.king admiral who could make a few phone calls and have you cleaning toilets at Gitmo by Monday." He threw up his hands again. "Look, man. I don't give two s.h.i.ts where you put your d.i.c.k unless it happens to be in the admiral's son, who we're supposed to be protecting."

"Yeah?" I stepped closer, locking eyes with him. "That the same kid you didn't even think was worth protecting because he was just trying to get some attention from his old man?"

Max drew back, eyebrows lifting. "You're out of line, MA1."

"Am I? Look, I'll admit my involvement with Troy was inappropriate and unprofessional. But since the day I got here, no one but his father has been more concerned with his safety than I have. Yeah, I got too close. I crossed a line. But don't act like you've bent over backwards to make sure he's-"

"I've done my job," he snarled. "It didn't matter if he was really in danger or just thought he was. I still guarded him just the same." He stabbed a finger at me. "You put him in more danger than-"