Sanctuary

[Jay Carpenter]

Axel Miller

Former Raider, MARSOC

PPO to Governor Thrice of Texas

Motion caught Axel’s attention. He watched that little girl snooping around the line of vehicles outside the garage with faint curiosity. She was checking handles and locks, peering through the tinted windows as though searching for something lost in each.  The girl was cute as a kitten. Axel gave her that.

He snatched a lighter on his way out of the security house.

He was leaning against the governor’s lead SUV when the girl rounded the front. She gasped and jumped backward. Axel’s quick motion grabbed her elbow before she fell over.

“Jumpy?” He asked, brows raised. The cigarette didn’t even move from his lips as he put her back on her feet. She was dressed in black jeans and a black t-shirt that Axel recognized belonging to the governor. Her hair in a pony tail.

She shoved his hand off her elbow. “Don’t touch me,” she ordered with all the command of a ruler and he the lowly subject.
He laughed and retracted said hands.
“Yes ma’am. Don’t want you to get hurt is all. What are you doing around the cars?”

She shuffled her feet, that lower lip bitten ever so slightly. “I left something and I am looking for it.”

“Oh yeah? And what’s that?”

She lifted her chain, “None of your business.”

Axel laughed again. She didn’t look too pleased by his reaction. “Let me tell you something, Cayli Carpenter, everything on this property is my business, including the governor’s guests. You see, my job is to keep the governor safe, and I can’t allow anyone to go snooping around armored vehicles no matter how innocent.”

He smiled reassuringly, nodding his head backward. “Your vehicle is over there. Come on, I’ll show you how to unlock it.”

Her attention launched itself toward the SUV that drove from Iowa. He showed her how an authorized user could gain entrance, but being that it was the governor’s property, Axel could override the system. He opened the rear door and waited patiently while she climbed in.

Cayli cautiously crawled in, peering under the seats for whatever it was she lost. When she looked back over her shoulder, Axel’s expression was flat. “Lock it up when you’re done.” He said and left her to the search.

Back at the gatehouse, he witnessed her slip out of the car and gently shut the door without locking it.

Nothing was in her hands as she hurried back to the house.