By the time Gail had everything in the apartment set up how she wanted; it was time for her meeting with the client. She had been pleasantly surprised when a rental company showed up with the keys to a car for her an hour earlier. It was nice to know she didn't have to call a cab to take her everywhere. Still not entirely sure what the job entitled, she knew it would be hard to do her job without a car. "Well time to get this show on the road." She grumbled to herself, grabbing the keys to her rental and heading out the door.
Finding the place wasn't nearly as hard as she had been thinking it would be, the client's home sat on a huge lot just the city itself. As her car pulled up to the main entrance, she couldn't help the grumble of annoyance at the sight of the large and beautiful house in the distance. Leaning out the window she pushed the small black button on the intercom and sat and waited.
"Can I help you?" A male voice came over the intercom.
"I'm Gail Peck from D15, I have a meeting with Mr. Stewart." Gail replied to the faceless man.
She heard the buzz and click of the gate opening even before the voice responded to her. "He is waiting for you in the parlor."
Once the gate fully opened Gail drove up the log gravel driveway. She couldn't help but think how cliché the whole set up was. A large multi-million dollar home, on a large piece of land, set back on a long gravel driveway. But who was she to really judge, if you've got the money for a place like this why not?
The house was a beautiful brick, three story estate that Gail couldn't help but find impressive. The house had to have at least a dozen rooms easy, it also probably had a library, a study, and the parlor. The one thing Gail didn't envy was the people who had to keep the place clean.
The man for the intercom was waiting for her as she parked her car. His grey hair and tuxedo continued to add to the cliché of the place and Gail couldn't stop herself from rolling her eyes at it all. She was lead inside, through the entryway, down a long hall to a room she would have more classified as a library or a study, but if they were calling it a parlor…what did she know about these things anyways?
"Gail Peck I presume." The man that was sitting behind the desk when she had walked in questioned.
"That's me." Gail said, extending her hand out to her client. He glanced at her hand for a moment, before allowing his eyes to travel over her.
"So you are the best that Sam and D15 have to offer?" Mr. Stewart scoffed, his eyes continuing to take her in.
"Excuse me?" Gail nearly snapped, trying her hardest to keep her cool.
"When I called to hire you guys, I was expecting…more."
"Listen here asshole!" Gail barked, no longer trying to keep her anger in check. This man had royally pissed her off. If he fired her on the spot what did she care? She was fairly certain she could calm Sam down from whatever anger this situation would cause him, but no one and she means NO ONE said that she wasn't good enough and got away with it.
Yes she was fairly young, one of the younger members of the team, but that held little in the way of skill. Not one for false modesty, Gail knew she was beautiful. Her flawless pale skin, traffic stopping ice blue eyes, and perfect golden blonde hair, Gail knew she didn't look the part, and it only angered her more when she wasn't given the chance.
"Don't you think for a second that I am unable to handle whatever job this is, just because of how I look! You know nothing about me and what I am capable of." Gail yelled. She was fairly certain now that she had just lost the job but she couldn't bring herself to care at this particular moment.
A deep rumbling chuckle cut through the anger in the room. "Sam was right; you are one hell of a spit-fire." Mr. Stewart chuckled. "You will do just fine."
"I'm so happy you approve." Gail sneered sarcastically, watching as the older gentleman slide a file acrossed his desk. Without saying a word she picked up the file to be greeted with a picture of a beautiful woman, this must be Holly, it was Gail's first time even seeing a picture of her.
After examining the picture for a moment, she was no longer sure beauty was the right word for what Holly was. She was young, probably roughly the same age as Gail, but she looked to be her polar opposite. Where Gail had golden blonde hair, brilliant blue eyes, and pale skin; Holly had hair of the darkest chocolate, chocolate brown eyes, and olive skin. An absolute perfect contrast.
The woman in the photo wore her hair down and natural, it cascaded down past her chest in a slightly curled waterfall. Her hair was longer then Gail's was; if she ever saw fit to take it out of the pony tail she put it in daily. Holly also wore glasses in the picture which gave her a sort of nerdish vibe, but didn't take away from her attractiveness. Gail was in trouble already and she knew it.
"I fear for my daughter's safety." Mr. Stewart's voice said suddenly cutting through Gail's silent admiration of the photo. "Some of my business deals leave a lot of people angry and I fear they may lash out and do something to my daughter."
"Mr. Stewart, D15 is not a long time bodyguard service." Gail stated as she slid the photo back in the file and placed the file back down on the large oak desk.
"I realize this." Mr. Stewart stated firmly. "I know an army ranger who returns from his tour in six weeks, that I have hired to be Holly's permanent bodyguard."
"So what do you want me to do?" Gail cocked her head to the side in confusion.
"Holly's finals are coming up soon, I don't need her getting upset or distracted by having someone watching over her. Sam tells me that you are an expert at staying in the shadows and observing without being noticed, but that you are also skilled enough to defend my daughter if anything does happen to her."
Staying hidden was one of her strong points. She was one of the top members in D15 when it came to weapons training, she was also pretty good when it came to hand-to-hand combat, even against a foe that was larger than she herself was, but getting close and remaining unseen, Gail was the best at it.
"And what, pray tell do you think could happen to her?"
The look in the client's eyes told Gail he wasn't willing to share in the details of the type of people he may have pissed off. Placing his fingers on the file containing Holly's photo, he slid the file back towards Gail. "Just keep her safe."
That was it, Gail was smart enough to realize this was all the intel she was going to get out of the client, so with a sigh she grabbed the file and started to head out of the 'parlor'.
She didn't stop to see what else was in the file until she returned to her home away from home. The file was well put together and Gail had a hard time figuring out if it was a file Sam had put together, knowing her preferred to have as much information as possible, or if it was on Mr. Stewart had put together and was just a well put together set of information.
Gail sat on the couch in her living room, file contents spread out all over the small coffee table. Holly went to Harvard for what looked like forensic pathology. It made Gail's head spin, the amount of classes the woman was taking. She wasn't a stupid person, but she knew when it came to book smarts she was sort of lacking in the area.
Using her laptop, Gail had pulled up a few articles about forensic pathology; she tried her hardest to follow along with what was being said but quickly found most of the information went right over her head. She suddenly found herself very happy that the client wished for her to stay unseen, she wasn't sure if she would be able to talk to this other woman without making herself sound like the dumbest ape on the planet.
It was going on midnight when Gail finally found herself at a place where she was comfortable with stopping for the night. She had Holly's school schedule memorized, had seen pictures of who she interacted with on a daily basis and knew she would be able to pick them out if she saw them and not have to worry about any potential threat.
After packing things away, Gail plopped herself down on the bed, not even attempting to get herself out of the close she had been in all day. With the flight from Toronto, the meeting with Mr. Stewart, and then all the time spend going over her assignment details, she was exhausted. She knew she would have to wake early to shower and finish going over everything.
She allowed her mind to travel back to the image of Holly, tomorrow officially started her assignment, and she was no longer certain it was going to be all that boring.
A/N: So I have to say I am so surprised at the amount of people who favorite/followed/reviewed this story, it actually totally blew me away, this was just a random story I thought of while at work. Please let me know what you think with a review. Also I am sorry I know people where wanting to see Gail and Holly meet but I promise you that is coming up. Next chapter should be up in the next few days. Thanks again for reading. :-D
