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

How was she going to keep her job now when the only thing she would ever be remembered for was this? Jane Roe and the bicycle crash. The terror on two wheels. And that was just from the people who’d laugh but didn’t have any power over her. No one would trust her with an assignment close to the president again, not Vale, not Salidas.

The White House doctor was crouching over the president, who was trying to get up.

“I’m good. I’m good,” Alex protested, and for a second he spotted Jane standing there gawking at him as he put his arms over the doctor and Evans, so they could help him hobble toward the open door of the Beast.

Agent Trice and the Office of the Inspector General would not care in the slightest that Alex wanted to put on a brave face and tough out his injury. Poking around on Facebook to expose Ip wouldn’t carry any weight when she’d drawn blood from the president. Carelessness, negligence, blatant disregard for safety, there was no end to what their report might contain now. And the worst part was it would all be right. She hadn’t trained properly and wasn’t capable of maintaining a ride like this, but she’d done it anyway because she wanted to be close to Alex.

It was like the Secret Service counter-snipers, who were tested on whether they could hit targets a mile away each month. And if they couldn’t perform, they weren’t assigned to the unit. End of story. There were no protocols about the riding, allowing her to get in, but there sure would be after this. Her riding days were done, and going back to work on Monday would be a quick affair with the only item on her list being to clean out her desk.

Dedan was there as well, standing off to the side a bit as stoic and stout as a Secret Service agent should be. Even though he wore glasses, she could tell he was looking at her. She imagined he was sympathizing with her over an honest mistake that had her feeling like she would melt into the ground. More likely he was watching her to see if she would continue to be a threat. One fast move and he would shoot her where she stood.

But that seemed worth the risk when her heart was breaking and she had to see that Alex was OK, had to give him a real apology instead of the wheezy blubbering she’d done from the road. She had to say goodbye.

Her eyes were stinging and she felt lightheaded, exhausted from the ride and her whipsawing fate. Slowly and with her hands at her side, she stepped forward along with the progression bringing the president to his limo, a veritable fortress on wheels. While its nickname was the Beast, its actual codename was Stagecoach.

As they brought Alex in to lie on the interior floor, she could see the full thickness of the armor-plated door at eighteen inches. The windows alone were half a foot thick. Direct hits from a bazooka wouldn’t faze this vehicle in the slightest. The tires were solid and couldn’t be shot out. It contained enough oxygen to allow those inside to continue to live for days if it somehow ended up in outer space. And then there’s the supply of the president’s blood, medical gear, and state-of-the-art communications equipment. The Secret Service had a dozen of these, many of them used concurrently as decoys when the president departed the White House.

Over the radio, Jane could hear Watch Commander Winger get on from the Joint Operations Command Center asking how the president was. One of the other agents relayed the question to the doctor, and that was enough of a sign for Jane that she could turn her radio off and take it out of her ear.

“He’s going to be fine. A nasty scrape might have him limping for a couple days, but that’s it,” the White House physician said.

Jane found herself gravitating closer to the wide-open limo door, angling to get a better look at the wound and how Alex was dealing with it. The other agents were giving the doctor space, making it too easy for her to slip inside the limo’s passenger section, hesitantly at first until Alex gave her a strained smile. The next thing she knew she was kneeling next to him on the floor as things started to gush out of her mouth.

“Alex, I just have to say that was the stupidest thing I’ve ever done and I’m so incredibly sorry. I can’t believe how irresponsible I was, and I know what this means I’ll have to do. I’m going to take responsibility and resign my position. You deserve more capable assistance than I can provide.”

Looking at her in obvious pain, Alex hunched himself up on his elbows and took a deep breath.

“I wish you wouldn’t. I’ve had a hundred falls like this. I get why everyone is concerned, but let’s not blow this out of proportion. It’s not a big deal and I’ll shake this off in no time.”

Jane feigned a smile at his naiveté. Knowing how the Secret Service worked wasn’t his responsibility, nor was deciding whether she stayed or left.

“That’s nice of you, but either I quit or someone will tell me I’m finished. At least this wasn’t the product of pure chance throwing me off my path. I can say I did this to myself,” she said.

Alex looked at her deeply in a way that made her think he was listening but not really listening.

“Well, a lot of people wouldn’t. And anyway, I appreciated what you came in to say the other day. Sometimes it seems like I’m saying a lot of things and most still only hear what they want to hear, so it’s nice to actually feel like I got something through to someone.”

Jane turned her eyes down to her hands in