Hurry Up And Wait (Owens Protective Services #24)

4. Kavanaugh

4

KAVANAUGH

“Where have you been?” Eli said the moment I walked through the door on Monday morning. “You were supposed to be here an hour ago.”

“What’s wrong? There was no one to make you coffee?” I teased, slipping into my chair in the conference room. I had to fill Cash in on the events of the weekend, not that I looked forward to everyone on my team getting the ins and outs of my family life, but they needed to be aware of every move I made in case anything backfired on me.

“Sarah’s out of town visiting her dad,” Red informed me, shooting me a knowing look that said Eli’s errant wife was going to get herself into trouble again.

“Ah, and you’re worried she might run into another bomber and become too friendly with him?”

He tossed a pencil at me that bounced off my forehead and hit the table, breaking the tip. I picked it up, shaking my head at him. “This was a perfectly good pencil.”

Eli rolled his eyes at me. “You’re starting to sound like Cash. It’s a fucking pencil.”

“That,” the voice boomed from behind me, “is not just any pencil, but a Ticonderoga. It is the elite. The best of the best.” Cash snagged the pencil from my hand and shook his head at the broken tip, then glared at Eli. “You owe me a new pencil.”

“It’s actually my pencil,” he said, clearing his throat.

“It’s in my building. Anything in my building is my property.”

“I’m beginning to feel a little used,” Red said, shifting in his chair.

Cash snapped the pencil in half, then dropped it in Eli’s lap. He dropped the files in his hand to the table with a loud thwack and eyed me before taking his seat.

“Where do we stand?”

“I should be receiving a schedule any minute now. I’m sure his team is strategizing and reorganizing.”

He nodded, keeping his eyes trained on me the entire time. “If at any moment you feel this isn’t?—”

“It’s fine,” I snapped. I didn’t want to bring up the whole family thing all over again if I didn’t have to.

“Look, I know you don’t like talking about this, but it’s best your team understands what we’re up against. It would be wise if you told them sooner rather than later.”

Both Eli and Red turned to me in confusion, but it was Red who spoke up. “What’s he talking about?”

“He’s discussing my father and his less-than-moral compass.”

“We already knew that,” Red retorted. “You said as much.”

“But you don’t know why,” Cash pushed.

“That’s my business,” I bit out, glaring at my boss. I really didn’t want to bring this up right now.

“It’s about to become company business.”

“I never agreed to that.”

“Then we’re calling the whole thing off,” Cash said, pushing to his feet.

He didn’t even look pissed as he walked out of the room. It was almost as if he wanted me to push back so I wouldn’t go through with the job.

“We’re still doing the job,” I told my teammates, shoving out of the chair.

The guys chased after me as I stalked down the hall to the tunnels. With the main building under construction after Edu blew up the damn thing, I now had to walk all the way the fuck back to the mansion to get out of the damn building.

“Hey, what’s Cash so pissed about?” Red asked. “Why is he calling the job off?”

“Yeah, and what are you hiding from us?” Eli added.

“Not hiding,” I shouted over my shoulder. “Refusing to spill my guts.”

“That’s the same thing,” Eli scoffed.

“I bet he has a mistress.”

“You can’t have a mistress if you’re not married.”

“Says who?”

“Says history!”

“Not true. A mistress is just a woman of the night. A concubine, a?—”

I spun around suddenly and they crashed into me since they weren’t paying attention. “Nobody has a mistress. I’m not discussing this with you further, so stop fucking asking.”

They both stared at me, their lips pressed tight. I knew it wasn’t over. They were bursting at the seams to find out what was going on.

It was Eli who broke first. “Just tell us the truth…Is your dad secretly a gay ice dancer?”

Rolling my eyes, I turned around and stomped my way to the mansion.

“What? It’s a valid question! A lot of senators would hide shit like that!”

I heard their footsteps trailing after me. They weren’t giving up by a long shot, and the longer I went without answering them, the more scenarios they came up with.

My mother was secretly a Russian spy.

I was adopted and they wanted to keep it a secret because they stole me as a child.

My dad was responsible for Chernobyl.

Mom was really a witch and Harry Potter was based on her life.

And my personal favorite… They were time travelers and came from the year 2525 and were really here to stop the age of robots.

I marched through the mansion, foregoing my old bedroom and heading out the front door. If I stopped, they would just continue to hassle me, but if I kept going, I could lose them eventually. They would lose interest if I just kept walking into town.

Of course, by the time I got to the end of the driveway, they were still with me.

“Where are you going? You know you have a truck!” Red shouted.

“I’m walking!” I shouted.

“Where you goin’, Forest?”

“That boy sure is a runnin’ full.”

“That’s not the line,” Red scoffed.

“Yes, it is. He’s running full because he has the speed.”

“No, he’s a running fool. He’s a fool for running.”

That wasn’t at all what it meant.

“Why would he be a fool for running?” Eli asked. “Clearly, he wasn’t a fool because he was faster than everyone else.”

“Obviously, they think he’s a fool because he runs everywhere.”

“That makes him a fool because he runs everywhere. Not, he’s a fool because he runs everywhere,” Eli snapped.

“That’s the same fucking thing!”

“It is not. It’s the exact opposite of what you said.”

“It’s the same fucking thing!”

“How can he be a fool for doing something, but not be a fool for doing something?”

“Do you even fucking hear yourself? None of that makes sense!”

“You don’t make sense!”

I slipped my earbuds in and cranked up the volume on my phone to drown out the inane commentary behind me. They were both wrong. None of it made sense, and the last thing I wanted to do was get involved in any way. Hell, everyone at the company was beginning to sound like Dash and Fox when they were arguing.

I glanced to my right as a truck slowed beside me. FNG was grinning at me, then lowered his sunglasses. “Hey, baby. Need a lift?”

“Don’t fucking talk to me like you’re my sugar daddy.”

“Fine, I’ll leave you with those two.”

“Wait!” I said as he revved the engine. I ran around the front and jumped in just as the guys gave chase. I spun in my seat and gave the middle finger salute as they tried and failed to jump into the bed of the truck just as FNG hit the gas.

I chuckled as I turned around in my seat, grateful the bastard had picked me up, even if he was a little crazy. “So, where are we headed?”

“To pick up a new umbrella.”

I glared at him. “Seriously?”

“Seriously, that’s where I’m going. My last umbrella was torn to shreds in the last fight. I’m thinking of designing my own. Maybe a tactical umbrella with all the bells and whistles.”

I frowned at him. “And what exactly does an umbrella with all the bells and whistles look like?”

He looked at me with a sly grin. “I’m glad you asked. I’ve been working on this idea of an umbrella where all you do is press a button and it pops open.”

“Don’t they already have that?” I was no umbrella expert, but I was pretty sure someone had invented that long ago.

“No, they have an umbrella where you push the little metal piece and slide it up. That’s not the same thing.”

“It sort of is,” I countered.

“It’s not at all. Mine automatically pops into place.”

“Yeah, they have those.”

“No, but you have to manually close those. Mine isn’t like that.”

I rolled my eyes. “But basically, it’s just an umbrella.”

He shook his head, his eyes gleaming with excitement. Get this. An umbrella that’s not just an umbrella. It has knives.”

I nodded slowly. This guy was crazy. “And where are those knives hidden?”

“Well, they would fly out when you pop it open. They’d be in the metal pieces that hold the umbrella open.”

“So, you’re just opening it and hoping the knives fly at whoever you want killed—and not, say, your teammates who would be with you.”

“Like I said, it’s not perfected yet,” he grumbled. “It was just an idea. Like that spy who killed someone by injecting them with poison using the tip of an umbrella. I’m the next generation of umbrella killers. ”

“I can see it now,” I chuckled. “The umbrella killer is on the loose in Kansas. Lock up your children!”

“Alright, alright. Laugh now, but you know it’s a fucking brilliant idea. The umbrella is the most inconspicuous killing machine out there. And it’s not just for carrying around on a rainy day. It’s a fashion statement, too.”

“I don’t know many people who carry around umbrellas anymore.”

“Some do.”

I thought about it, then shook my head. “I can’t recall seeing anyone carry around umbrellas. Maybe in New York City.”

“Whatever. I’m gonna bring it back. Just you watch and see.”

We pulled into the shopping center and he parked outside the grocery store. “What are we doing here?”

“I told you, getting an umbrella.”

“At the grocery store?”

“It’s the only place in town that has them.”

I couldn’t believe it. He was basing all his designs on a cheap umbrella from the grocery store. “Shouldn’t you at least buy one online?”

He snorted. “And waste twenty bucks on an umbrella that I’m going to rip to shreds? I don’t think so. Besides, I need some items for testing the accuracy and strength of my umbrella.”

“At the grocery store,” I repeated.

He got out of the truck with only a nod and headed inside. I unbuckled, sighing in frustration. I knew I was going to regret this. I caught up to him just as he was grabbing a cart and decided to bite. “So, what are we getting for testing?”

“I’m glad you asked. You can help with the testing.”

“Maybe Fox would be better at that. You know, since he loves knives so much.”

He snapped his fingers at me. “You’re right. Hey, do you think I could become an aichmomaniac?”

“Isn’t that something you’re born with?”

He actually looked disappointed when I suggested that. “Yeah, I guess. ”

“So, what do we need?”

“Well, we’ll pretty much clean out the produce section of melons. We could use avocados, oranges…ooh, let’s get some apples.”

“Know many people with tiny, hard heads?”

He shook his head. “What? No, it’s just to test the strength of the knives.”

I already regretted coming with. “I’ll grab the melons. You find your umbrellas.”

Clearly, sarcasm was not something he was in tune with today. I pushed the cart away from him and went to the produce section. Glancing around, I noted several other people checking their melons carefully. When I started loading them into the cart, they all stopped and watched me.

“Are those all ripe?” an older man asked.

“No idea. I’m not eating them.”

He frowned, counting them in the cart. “What are you doing with so many of them?”

“Knife throwing contest.”

I wasn’t about to admit that I had a crazy friend developing an umbrella knife-throwing machine. We already got enough weird looks from people in town after Fox’s avocado protest. Not to mention the fact that he started a run on toilet paper. We were just one story shy of being booed out of town.

With the cart loaded up, I went in search of FNG, but when I saw him in an argument with the store manager over the umbrella selection, I decided to keep walking. I was just rounding the corner when I heard two women arguing as they loaded up their cart with candy. Like any normal person, I turned to head the other direction when something about them caught my eye.

I moved closer and then heard the name I remembered as a kid.

“I don’t care, Isles! I want all of them!”

My eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Isla? Riley?”

They both turned to me, but it was Isla who rushed at me, throwing her arms around me as she climbed me like a tree. “I missed you, Kavanaugh.”