That had startled him. “It’s flattering, but ridiculous. I’m not qualified,” he’d replied, rejecting the idea. The JJRTC was the James J. Rowley Training Center, also known as the Secret Service Academy. It was a good posting, and one known to be a springboard for higher office within the organization. But he wasn’t interested in a desk job. And never would be.
White took another sip of his coffee.
In the distance, a bolt of lightning split the night sky. Seconds later, heavy drops of rain hit the windows of the coffee shop. The few pedestrians brave enough to be out at this maddening hour were hurrying down the sidewalk, doing their best not to step into a puddle. White looked at his phone. Still no reply from Veronica. He resisted the urge to text her again. He’d done so too many times already. He had tried to call, too, but they had all gone directly to her voicemail. He missed her, but he was mostly worried. He was still shaken by what had happened at the Ritz-Carlton, and it hadn’t been his first rodeo either. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and then his Secret Service training, had prepared him well for these kinds of situations—as much as one can be prepared to take another man’s life, that is. But for Veronica, a brilliant archaeologist who’d spent most of her life sheltered from violent experiences, today’s events must have been traumatizing.
That said, she had conducted herself with courage and valor he had rarely seen in a civilian. Not that civilians didn’t possess those traits; they simply didn’t have the training to respond adequately to life-threatening scenarios.
And her courage almost cost her her life, White reminded himself. She almost died trying to save me.
He didn’t know what he would have done if he had survived and she had not. Cold shivers ran up and down his spine, and he almost dropped his coffee mug. He put it down and opened the bottle of water, tilting it to his lips.
His phone vibrated against the scuffed wood of the table. Veronica’s number showed on the screen.
“Veronica?” he asked. “Are you all right?”
“Hey, baby. I’m okay,” she said. “Sorry I didn’t get back to you sooner. My phone was off. Where are you?”
Relief flooded through him. “Don’t worry about it. It’s so good to hear your voice,” he replied. “I’m still in San Francisco. And you?”
“Fort Worth,” she said. “My dad’s here too. I think that’s why they diverted the plane here. He wanted to see me.”
White knew the place well. “Until we know what’s going on, it’s the right move. You’ll be safe there.”
“Yeah, I guess,” she said. “They put me in a house on base. Half of my dad’s protective detail is here with me. They’re on four-hour shifts, I think. They’re using the guest bedroom as their break room.”
“They’ll take care of you,” White said. “They’ll even cook for you if you ask them.”
“Really?”
“No, but I would.”
He heard her laugh, which was good news. But he still worried about her.
“How are you doing, Vonnie? Really.”
He heard her take a deep breath. “I don’t know, Clay. It’s weird. I feel like I should be shaken, and I am, but not as much as I thought I would be, or should be. Does that make any sense?”
“Not everyone has the same reaction to traumatic events, especially like the one we’ve been through together,” White said. “And nobody recovers the same way either.”
“I . . . I feel fine, but my mind . . . my mind has a really hard time accepting we’ve lost so many. Every time I close my eyes, even if it’s only for a second, I . . . I see them. And I feel the weight, Clay. And it’s fucking crushing me,” she said, her voice breaking in a sob.
He hated not being with her. He felt completely powerless. He wished there was something he could do to make her feel better, but listening was all he could offer her for the time being.
“What you’ve been through tonight is way outside the range of normal human experience,” White said, remembering saying exactly the same thing to a marine he had rescued in Iraq. The young marine had been the only survivor of a helicopter crash that had killed his entire squad. “It’s normal to be confused, Vonnie.”
“I’m just . . . so damn angry.”
“Whoever did this, I swear I will do everything in my power to make them pay. I know the Secret Service and the FBI will talk to the surviving member of the assault team the minute he wakes up,” White said.