Aced (Blocked #2) (26 page)

“Like growing up without a mother.”

My throat felt tight, and I forced a swallow. The thought of Maddie’s cheek on my chest swelled my heart with longing. I knew she was a good person. I’d have to convince Dad he had the wrong idea about her.

I respected my father. Such respect made it difficult to say the next words. “You’re not supposed to know about her mother leaving. Nobody’s supposed to know that, and it’s so unfair that you do. You realize why they violated her privacy, right? Because we’re in the public eye. Because
you
ran for president. I feel awful about that.”

“I feel awful, too.” Dad’s voice had lost its edge of anger. “I never meant to make your lives harder with all of this.”

“I know. But really, how many fathers find out dirt about their in-laws through FBI briefings?”

Dad actually laughed. “Not many.” Then he gasped. “Did you say in-laws? Is there something you need to tell me?”

“No, I haven’t run off to marry Maddie.” As I chuckled, I noticed Brad’s eyebrows almost hit the roof of the car. The next thought that popped into my head shocked me. How would Dad react if I said it out loud? I bit my lip, then blurted, “But someday I want to.”

Silence. “I had no idea it was that serious, Alejandro.”

“It’s kind of knocking me off my feet, too.”

“Well, now I definitely have to meet her.”

What?
“I know you’re busy…maybe it can wait…”

“In my short tenure in this job, I’ve learned one thing: communication is the way to resolve conflict. I want to talk to this young woman. If she’s knocked you off your feet, she’s someone I want to meet.”

My mouth hung open.

“I’ll have my people arrange it with Lucy’s agents. Okay, I need to run. Keep up the good work in school.”

“
Adiós
,” I said, but the line had gone dead. I blinked a few times.

I looked out the window and noticed we were less than a mile from the condo. My agents were quiet, and it seemed rather awkward inside the vehicle. “I guess you hear all kinds of things when you’re on duty,
¿sí?”

“We keep it private,” Brad said. “Part of the job.”

China piped up from the front seat. “Especially if we like the protectee.” One eyebrow slanted up with the hint of a challenge.

Hmm
. Did she like me? She sure didn’t seem to approve of me most of the time. Did that mean she would keep my secrets?

“Don’t worry—your father’s treated us well for the most part,” she said. “Better than some prior administrations have, from what I’ve heard.”

Brad laughed. “Broomstick One?”

China joined his laugh—it was a rare smile from her.

“That’s what they called Air Force One when a certain previous first lady was on board,” Brad explained.

“Ah.” I nodded.

“That’s Shandy’s car, isn’t it?” China said as we pulled into the driveway.

“Yeah.” Brad leaned back in his seat. “Probably just checking in.”

I tensed. The last time their boss’s boss visited, they’d huddled in my condo’s office and hadn’t let me listen in. After he’d left, both my agents seemed jumpy.

“Someone threatened my father?” I asked as the car came to a stop.

China stepped out and slammed the door.

Brad shrugged. “There’re always threats to your family, Alex. That’s why you’ve got us.”

China opened my door, and I walked inside in an agent sandwich.

“Mr. Ramirez,” Captain Shandy said as he shook my hand in the foyer of my condo. “How’re things going for you?”

“Good.” I set my laptop case on the table near the front door.

“I need to borrow officers Hallowell and Jansen for a few.” He cocked his head toward the office, and my agents sped in that direction. He turned to follow them, then turned back. “Oh, and FLOTUS, er, the first lady sent some food up with me. It’s in the fridge, sir.”

Hot tamales!
I was starved. Sometimes Secret Service wasn’t all that bad. I flipped on Fox News, inhaled Mamá’s cooking, then opened my laptop. Dr. Moore had given us a week to read the entire diagnostic manual for mental disorders, so I pulled up the ebook and got busy. Though the door to the office was closed, a few times I heard raised voices. The loudest voice was the captain’s.

Bipolar Disorder has a higher prevalence rate in artists
, I read.
Creativity, high energy, and confidence coincide with mania and hypomania.
That was interesting. Dane’s father was a painter—did
he
have Bipolar Disorder? What about Dane? He sure seemed to have high energy. I grinned. Dr. Moore had warned us not to diagnose people upon learning the symptoms of mental disorders. Yet here I went with the med student syndrome.

The door to the office blasted open, and I heard my name called. I set my laptop aside and rounded the corner.

“Mr. Ramirez, I’d like a word,” Shandy said. “Would that be all right?”

“Sure.” I shrugged. I walked in the room to find China looking pale and possibly fighting off tears. I’d never seen her come close to crying. Sitting next to her, Brad stared at the floor.

“I want to talk to Mr. Ramirez alone. Both of you, dismissed.”

Without meeting my eyes, my agents left, closing the door behind them.

“What’s wrong?” I asked as we sat, him behind the desk and me in the lounge chair vacated by China.

“I’m not here about a particular security risk, if that’s what you’re asking. In fact, officers Jansen and Halloway did an excellent job defusing a recent terrorist threat before it had the chance to materialize into anything dangerous.”

“They did?” I swallowed.

“Yes, sir. But I’m here to address the officers’ personal behavior.” He leaned forward, his hands folded on the desk. “Have you been dissatisfied by any behavior exhibited by the officers assigned to you?”

What’s he looking for?

“Anything bother you? Anything inappropriate? It’s okay; you can tell me.”

“I’m not sure what you’re talking about. Brad and China have been fine.”

He frowned. His fingers tapped on a manila folder I just noticed on the desk. He opened the folder and scooted a blown-up photo in my direction. Though the image was dark, I could make out China and Allison kissing inside the greenhouse.

“Who took that photo?” I demanded. “Can they see inside the house? Is Lucy safe?” Had they caught me kissing Maddie on camera?

“We’ve tightened up security around the house already. That’s not your problem. What I want to know is how Officer Halloway’s unprofessional behavior affects you and your sister. You say the word and she’s gone.”

I sat back, stunned. “You’d fire her over this?”

“The director may do just that once we gather all the intel. And your input is first on the list. Has her illicit affair with a coworker hurt her job performance?”

“No.” I shook my head. “She’s been nothing but professional.”

He stared at me for a long minute, then scooped up the photo and folder as he stood. “Thank you, sir. I won’t take up more of your time.” He strode to the door and opened it. “Officer Jansen!”

Brad appeared. “Walk me out,” Shandy said.

China wasn’t in the kitchen or family room. I headed to her bedroom to find her door closed. I slumped against the wall, wondering if I should knock.

Finally I tapped on her door. “You okay?”

After a beat, she said, “No.”

“I can’t believe they want to fire you.”

She wrenched open the door, her eyes puffy. “
I
can. It’s called homophobia.” Her mouth trembled, and she laced her arms across her chest. “They suspended my pay for two weeks while they ‘investigate.’”

“That’s awful—I’m sorry. You think this is about you being gay?”

“Of course it is. They haven’t shown the president the photo, but they’re scared it’ll leak out. The media will have a field day about a man who’s denounced gay marriage having his two kids protected by lesbians.”

I took that in. That
would
be quite a shiny nugget. “But the captain made the issue your relationship interfering with your duty. Which it hasn’t.” I thought for a moment. “Wait a minute. Captain Shandy doesn’t know about Brad and his supervisor getting it on, does he?”

China’s eyes flared. “
You
know about that?”

“It’s kind of obvious.”

“Right. Brad’s not the king of subtlety. The thing is, I bet Shandy knows. A lot of people know. But because it’s a heterosexual thing, nobody cares.”

“Even if it’s with a supervisor?”

Her mouth tightened as she nodded.

“That’s not right,” I said. “Something has to be done.”

She unfolded her arms as she looked up at me. “That’s not the reaction I expected from you, Alejandro.”

It wasn’t the reaction I’d expected either. But there was a clear injustice here.

I heard the front door open and the beeps of Brad setting the alarm. He came down the hall to find us standing outside China’s room.

“Well, that was a fucking shitstorm,” he said. “I think I talked him down, though.” He looked at China. “You okay, baby girl?”

“I’ll live, Brad. But you call me ‘baby girl’ again, I’ll choke you with my dental dam.”

He guffawed, and though I had only a vague notion of what she was talking about, I laughed too.
That
was the China I knew.

Chapter Seventeen

S
O
T
HIS
I
S
H
OW
T
HE
O
THER
H
ALF
L
IVES
. The private jet’s engines were so quiet I barely noticed we were in the air. I couldn’t blame the tremor in my spine on engine rattle. Its source had to be my first trip to meet the president. Who happened to be my boyfriend’s father.
Gah!

Two weeks after Braxton had referred to Alejandro as my boyfriend, I now thought of him the same way. We’d been texting throughout the days and studying together at night over video calls. On study breaks, I’d gotten him to try my favorite TV show,
Parenthood
, and he’d made me watch
The Kelly File
on Fox News.

I heard Lucia giggle and looked behind me to see Dane with a long piece of red licorice draped over his lip like a Fu Manchu moustache. His cheeks scrunched up to clamp Oreo cookies over his eyes. “Wax on, wax off,” he said with an attempted Japanese accent. His hands made circular motions.

Allison shook her head when I glanced at her across the aisle.

I turned back around with a pretend glower for Dane, not that he could see it through his cookie lenses. “Why’d you come on this trip again, man-child?”

“To take the heat off you,” Rez answered, though I’d meant my question to be rhetorical. “Dad will be so busy worrying about me and Dane that he’ll forget to worry about you and Alex.”

“Yeah, the prez loves me.” When Dane grinned, his licorice fell. He fumbled to catch it, and the cookies tumbled to the floor. “Dammit!”

Despite her initial objections to my relationship with Alejandro, Lucia had since become our biggest champion. She said Dr. Valentine had pointed out that me dating her brother meant she would get to see me more often, even after I graduated.

I’d seen Dr. Valentine three times now, and I was feeling better. My performance in class and the gym had improved, too. But on top of all my studying, she’d given me the most difficult homework assignment of my life: write a letter to my mother. I wouldn’t be able to send it, since I had no address for Mom, but writing it was supposed to help “clarify” and “process” my feelings toward her. I had no idea how to begin.

Lucia tapped my shoulder. “Bet you miss Alex, huh?”

I patted her hand and nodded.

“But you’ll see him soon.”

I grinned. His incisive dark eyes floating down my body, his warm scent…Nothing could take my mind off my complicated feelings for my mother like being around Alejandro.

One hour and countless security checkpoints later, I was in his arms, his hard, muscular arms. The ornate décor of the White House residence seemed less intimidating once Rez’s agents had shown us to the room where Alejandro waited. Rez had taken Dane’s hand and disappeared into the hallway, chattering about showing him the bowling alley and leaving Alejandro and me alone in a room colored in shades of watermelon and strawberry.

His hand stroked through my curly hair as he held me, and I breathed in his solid strength.

“Lucy told me you’ve been killing it on the court.” His deep voice reverberated in his chest.

I looked up at him. “She’s not doing so bad, either.”

“How’re you feeling about selection camp?”

I held my breath. Now that it was March, there was only one month until I went to Colorado Springs to try out for Team USA. “Nervous.”

“You’ll block like a beast. Hit like a…” He twisted his mouth, searching for a word. “Hamster?”

I laughed.