Her Secret Service (Jane Roe 1), Jason Letts [story reading .txt] 📗

we don’t have to…” Dedan said haltingly while Jane stared blankly. She’d braided her hair in a way she thought would appear nice under her helmet, but he probably couldn’t even focus his eyes in his current condition. At least he wasn’t swaying or anything in an indication that he was still drunk. The president waved off Dedan’s comment.

“Nonsense. I’m good to go. Every great training regiment has to start off by toughing out a hard first ride. Let me just…I should’ve eaten more bread last night. Is there water in this thing? You guys think of everything,” he said.

Morrin went over to the bike leaning against a tree that had been prepared for him and grabbed the water bottle from the holder, seeming to suck down half the contents. After a deep breath, he went about changing his shoes and pulling the bike onto the road. Jane had spent weeks preparing for this moment, and now that it had come it was somehow nothing like what she’d expected.

While on the one hand seeing the president like this was off-putting, on the other hand her position gave her a sense of sympathy. His wife had just left him after eight years of marriage and a courtship lasting another ten years before that. That was half his life. She could only imagine what kind of rediscovery process he would have to go through after that to reacclimatize himself to life, and perhaps unsurprisingly some of it wouldn’t be pretty and considering his looks there was likely to be a number of women involved. And this was all happening while he occupied the White House.

She gave him a faint smile as he rolled up between her and Dedan. Alex—could she even think of him by his first name?—was so close but still so far away.

“I should’ve hydrated more. Funny the things you forget, like it was my first night out again. Doesn’t college seem like a lifetime ago?” he said to her in a wistful way she found intriguing.

“Sir,” she said with the slightest nod. Jane’s job wasn’t to be there to talk to the president. As an agent on duty with the president’s Personal Protective Division, the only thing she was supposed to be doing was to keep him safe. That meant if something happened, it was her responsibility to address it. If shooting broke out, she would have to cover him with her body.

Thirty-seven Secret Service agents have died in the line of duty. For the first time she’d put herself in position where she could be next.

Alex clicked his feet into place and started riding. Jane now had enough practice doing this that it was like second nature, and soon she’d gotten even to him and was staring out at the long winding road. For a while she felt like the president must’ve been taking a lengthy warm-up, but she came to understand that this ride wasn’t going to be at all like the high-speed chase she’d been led to anticipate.

They moseyed down the road at such a lethargic pace that at times Jane had to just stop pedaling to keep herself from pulling away from him. Alex seemed to be nearly slumping against the frame of the bike, like it was propping him up rather than that he was riding it. His pedaling was slow and he was breathing heavily. Whatever workout he may have gotten last night was taking its toll.

As slowly as they were going, Dedan still had trouble keeping up with them. The casual pace was something of a shame too, since Jane found herself feeling really good and wishing she didn’t have to hold back. If she’d been free to cruise the forest roads on her own, she would’ve flown.

“I hope you’re not bored,” he said, surprising her.

“No, sir,” she said. He kept looking at her, like he was about to say more, but eventually he turned his sights forward as they continued around the loop.

When they reached the big hill, Jane wondered if he’d even manage to get to the top of it, but he climbed steadily all the way to the top. After seeing signs like that, she was sure with a better night’s sleep and less alcohol consumption he was a really impressive rider, but as it was every rotation of the pedals seemed to be more taxing than the previous one. They made it all the way around the loop again, but at the top of the hill Alex coasted to a stop.

Jane came to a halt, glancing back over her shoulder at Dedan, who looked at the end of his rope and hadn’t even reached the bottom of the hill yet.

“I guess I’d better not show up to the courtroom like this,” he chuckled, elbows propped against the handlebars. Jane blinked. It wasn’t her place to tell him what he should or shouldn’t do, and the appearance of the president of the United States in a courtroom was sure to be a spectacle regardless.

“Sir,” she said, and he sighed and sat up, hanging his head a bit.

“You know, half the fun of going out for a ride is being able to talk to someone about whatever. I completely get that you have a job to do, and I appreciate your service and that of everyone else who’s been involved with my detail, but aren’t there enough other people around for you to be able to just say something like a regular person? It’s Jane, right?”

She took a long look at him, his handsome cheekbones and somewhat windswept look after being on the bike for a while. The daze he’d been in earlier had mostly faded away, like being outside engaging in an activity like this had rejuvenated him, or at least woken him up. Her proper role was a giant presence in her mind, and there certainly wasn’t anyone coming onto the radio to give her the go-ahead, but something in her gut told her that in this case