The Traitor ✓ (Book Six)

Chapter Fifty Nine

"Good morning husband." Groggily, Maria's voice pierces through my nightmares, and then I smile because it's her, not Lauren or Emily.

  "Good morning wife." Though all I want to do is roll over and go back to sleep, I refrain.

   Bare faced, hair messy from last night's honeymoon activities, she is still a goddess. I'd say even more so now.

  "So-" She Sits up, propping herself up on her elbow. "Watcha wanna do today?"

  I smirk.

  "Besides that." She rolls her eyes. "There is such a thing as too much, ya know."

  "I beg to differ." I reply. "What is too much for one person will be completely different for another, depending on said activity, and that is perfectly fine- but that makes the term 'too much' a subjective one."

  "You're too much." She shakes her head, but she is smiling, still on the honeymoon high. "Rock climbing. We'll go rock climbing."

  The resort we're at it typically meant for tourists, but we did the best we could with my travel restrictions. If that meant getting stared at because of the Americans- so be it. I can't let the possibility ruin my entire life.

  Maria pretty much drags me up and forces me to get dressed, all whilst I'm groaning.

  "Oh come on-" She says. "Didn't you do shit like this all the time when you were in the secret service?"

  "I mean..... sort of? We didn't have time for any recreational activities but depending on the venue, there was a lot of stairs I had to climb. Sometimes I would be stationed on top of a roof as a sniper to take down as assassin, if one showed up."

  "Badass."

  "I've killed people, Maria."

  "I know."

  "A lot of them were before I joined the organization. Assassination attempts are so much more common than people think."

  "I assumed as much. Look, we've discussed this." She grabs my arms, making me look at her. "I don't care what happened in your past. You are a new person now. Okay?"

  "Okay."

  So we walk down to the lobby of our hotel and request a shuttle to the other end of the resort. While we wait, we take up one of the empty couches.

  "Ya know what this place reminds me of?" I say.

  "Hmn?"

"A resort Kyle and Lauren vacationed at once in the Bahamas." I say. "It was.... One of their only ones actually. They'd both been really stressed out lately, and it was affecting their relationship so they decided they needed a break. Lauren called me in and asked me, as her head of security, if I would go on this trip with her. I said yes of course since that was my job. Lauren's chief of staff took over her duties as First Lady for an entire week, as did Marisol with Kyle's Presidential one. He pissed a lot of his staff off that week by giving them such short notice."

  "I can imagine."

  "Imagine well over a hundred people being pissed at you, but also loyal enough that they would never do anything to hurt your public  reputation.  That's what he had. He'd hand picked a lot of these people who had experience in the position, but weren't doing so well financially- and gave them higher paying jobs to do the exact things they were good at. They did owe him their loyalty."

  "Why would you owe someone, though?" She sits up. "I mean, he gave them a job, cool. They get more money out of it. Wouldn't it be even?"

  "I guess it-"

  "James Garcia and Maria Hernandez?" A driver approaches us just as we're about to get into a philosophical conversation.

  "That's us." She puts her hands up, and we stand, walking over to the driver. We follow him out to the shuttle.

  The drive is short, though the resort is large, because of how they designed the roads. Just five minutes later, we're standing in front of the large ROCK CLIMBING sign, the wall right below it.

  We wait almost an hour in line. By then, Maria's ready to give up, until the guy working overhears our conversation.

  "Maria Hernandez?" He blinks several times.

  "That's me." She tried to hide her foot, which she's impatiently tapping.

  "Forgive me for the wait. Come on-"

  He lets us cut the line. In the past I would have protested this, but people change.

  Being a literal terrorist changed me, Emily changed me, lauren changed me...... Maria changed me.

Despite us telling him we've got it, the attendee insists on fixing our harnests. Something about safety regulations, though I'm not exactly listening to him.

"Got it?" I ask as Maria stumbles on the second stone, trying to find her footing.

  "Yep." She simply replies. "Race you to the top."

  We do.

  She beats me by a fraction of a second, her butt hitting the ledge before I do. The victory is short lived though, when the attendee tells us we need to come down. I glance at the growing line and agree.

  I jump the twenty feet down. Maria requires a little more encouragement, keeps insisting she'll die but she eventually gives in.

  When she's calmed down, we start talking about lunch. The attendee recommends an American themed place that's two buildings down.

  Mmmm, greasy.

  Now that I think about it, I can remember the last time I ate.

  We go to this recommended restaurant. Tips are not required, and the food is included in our resort package, but Maria sets aside a hundred dollars anyways.

  We both order veggie burgers. When they come, they're bigger than both of our faces. We laugh.

  Then Maria's phone rings.

  She goes to turn it off.

"No, it's okay answer it. We can't completely cut ourselves off from the world." I nod, taking a bite of my burger and she reaches into her pocket.

   The number is apparently familiar, but she doesn't know who it belongs too.

  "Hello?"

  All I can hear on the other end is mumbling.

  Then Maria's face falls in shock, and I hear a sentence I wasn't expecting.

"Maria I know it's way too soon and you need time to grieve but.... We need to discuss his Will and the future of the company. He was very insistent."