24/7

Army of One

•~• Nic's POV •~•

He spared my outstretched hand a glance, turned his back to me then walked out onto the balcony.

Rude.

I looked at Samuel, my eyebrow quirked.

"Is he this rude to everybody or just to me?"

He shook his head apologetically, then followed Jay out where they continued talking to each other in barely hushed angry tones.

I walked towards the mini bar and sat on one of the stools before turning to the other men in the room. I nodded my head at them and smiled. They all bowed their heads down and started shuffling papers.

Weirdos.

I shrugged at the displayed weirdness then continued to watch Jay and Sam whisper-shout at each other out in the balcony.

After what seemed like an eternity, Samuel came back in with a rueful smile on his face.

"I'm sorry about that. Jay's quite hard to convince otherwise when he sets his mind about something. Isa pa, he still feels really guilty about—"

I held up my hand.

"I've been thoroughly briefed about what happened before. You have my word that nothing like that will happen on my watch. I'll make sure the public's impression of him being Mister Congeniality doesn't get tarnished while ensuring his safety at all times. I take it you still haven't told him everything about this set up as he still hasn't punched you. Do you want me to be the one to tell him?"

"Tell me what?"

I turned towards Jay, a scowl on his face as he stood just a little past the balcony's doors.

"Well. I have been told that it is common knowledge how you hate having a personal bodyguard and have in fact gone to great lengths to ensure that while your company and the people around you are well protected, you remain easily accessible by the people who play your games. Am I correct so far?"

He didn't say anything but he nodded for me to continue. So I did.

"Okay. So we're going to let them keep thinking that. Lull them into a sense of familiarity with everything that you do. We're going to make sure that people don't think of me as your bodyguard while still allowing me to do my job by sticking to you like glue everywhere you go."

"How the hell are you going to pull that off?"

I looked at Samuel, got a nod then looked back at Jay.

"We're going to make people believe we're in love."