As Bette boarded the limo, she was surprised to see Brom and Chelsea, along with Tina and Alice.  She greeted them warmly, as she settled into a space next to Tina.

“Baby, Chelsea was just explaining that Rob, Elise’ husband, works in the Wall Street firm her father owns, and that everyone in the firm was stunned about what had happened to Elise, once word got around,” Tina explained quickly.

As the group chatted about what they’d heard from others during the reception about what people surmised regarding the stroke that befell Elise, Bette’s thoughts turned to the man she’d seen in the secluded corner of the hotel.  Something about him being there was unsettling to her, since he seemed to have a skill set more suited to deadly combat or similar settings.  Combat zones maybe but not New York, surely?   

When there was a suitable break in the flow of conversation, she smiled at Brom to ask, “Umm… have you changed the detail following me and Tina?”

Brom frowned a little as he looked at Bette.  He didn’t realize Bette had noticed who the members of the team covering her family were, and answered, “No, no.  Why do you ask?”

“Well, I just saw one of the guys who had been in the group that provided me security protection in Afghanistan, over in the lobby of the hotel across from the church earlier,” Bette said slowly. “So I wondered whether he was now part of the detail following me here in New York.”  She glanced apologetically at Tina, who rubbed her arm and looked back at her worriedly.  She turned to Alice and Chelsea, and was about to apologize to them for bringing something like this up, at such a time, when Brom interrupted her brusquely.

He pushed a button to lower the glass separating them from the driver, and then instructed the driver to take them to Bette and Tina’s instead of the restaurant that they’d all thought of grabbing an early dinner in.  He turned to Chelsea and said in clipped tones, “Sorry, darling, but we’re not doing dinner tonight.  I have something to clear up with Bette, so I’ll get down at their place with them, and then if you wouldn’t mind, let Charlie here take you home.  He can get me after.”