Page 87 of Under Her Protection

Leo held her as she fell asleep feeling like she had let go properly for the first time in a very long time.

16

The venue was the Musée d'Orsay on the first Thursday in December, private evening in the Salle des Fêtes, two hundred guests in black tie, a standing French charitable foundation Vivienne had been the principal patron of since two thousand and eleven.

Leo had been on the venue for nine days.

She had walked the rooms four times. She had walked the service corridors three. She had made the evening head of security at the museum take her through every exit door in the east wing and had made him show her, specifically, the small unmarked door behind the drapery in the south-east corner of the Salle des Fêtes that opened into a service stair, which in turn opened onto the quai Anatole-France. She had had a Blackthorn sweep of the guest list on Wednesday. On Wednesday night she had telephoned Vivienne and said, into the phone, at eleven forty-eight, "Do not go."

"I am going."

"There are two names on the amended list that came through at seventeen-twelve that were not on the list I vetted on Monday, and one of them is a man who has spent three weeks in Geneva this autumn, and the foundation's security lead has not clocked him, and I do not like the entry route through the quai Anatole-France for the catering trucks."

"Mm."

"Cancel."

"No."

"Vivienne."

"I am not going to let her choose whether I appear at my own foundation's gala because she has put a man named Petit on the list. I will appear. You will keep me safe. Those are the terms we agreed on."

"Those were not — "

"Those were the terms. I am going. Good night, Leo."

She hung up.

Leo had stood in the lodge for one count looking at the phone in her hand, and had said a short and unprofessional word to the lodge's paraffin heater, and had called Avery back at eleven fifty-two, and by one a.m. they had a contingency plan that had in it a pre-cleared safe room in the basement of the Salle des Fêtes, a Blackthorn car on the quai, and an evacuation route that moved through the unmarked door behind the drapery.

---

At eight fifteen on the Thursday, Vivienne came down the stairs of the residence in a black silk dress that was figure hugging and striking. She wore small pearl studs, no necklace. She was beautiful, her dark hair neatly pinned up and her make up minimal. Leo, at the foot of the stair in a charcoal dinner jacket and a shoulder rig under it, had an earpiece in her ear and the muscle at her jaw locked tight.

"Mademoiselle Cole."

"Madame."

"I am going."

"I am aware."

"You will stand three paces behind me at all the door work and one pace behind me inside the room, as usual."

"Copy."

Leo took a deep breath. Vivienne was breathtaking. The dress was classy, but fitted at the same time. It showed her body off at its very best. Leo couldn’t stop her eyes running over Vivienne’s body. Vivienne was glowing. Leo had noticed that lately too. It must be all the sex, it could do that to a woman.

"Leo."

"Yes."

"I am going to the gala because the gala is a big thing for me. She does not get to take the gala."

"I understand."

"Good."