17. Kavanaugh

17

KAVANAUGH

I adjusted my suit as I stepped into the elevator at Reed Security. Their facility was pretty damn nice, though I liked our silo better. I had to admit, as much as I fucking hated Rafe, he did get us some pretty nice equipment. Not that I would speak ill of the dead.

“So, what made you decide to leave OPS?” Cap asked calmly.

I had no doubts that he already fucking knew about my blowup with Cash. Fox was always in contact with Knight, even if Knight didn’t talk back. And then there was Cash…how much would he have told Cap?

“Difference of opinion,” I said, trying to keep things casual.

“Yeah, I know all about that,” he muttered. The doors opened and he stepped off, guiding me over to the conference room where Sinner was waiting, a grin on his face.

“Hey, man,” I grinned, walking over to shake his hand. “It’s been a minute.”

“Can’t complain about where I landed, even if the boss occasionally yells at me for his wife’s unwillingness to follow a simple fucking direction.”

“Isn’t she the reason—” I cut myself off, figuring I was venturing in enemy territory with that question. “Well, it’s good to see you again.”

“Kind of strange, don’t you think?”

“What’s that?”

“Both of us left our jobs because of a miscommunication with the boss,” Sinner grinned.

“I didn’t exactly leave by choice.”

“Oh, me neither. Then again, if you ask Cap, he’ll tell you differently.”

I glanced at Cap who watched the whole conversation with curious eyes.

“So…anyway, I’m assuming you talked to Cash.”

Cap shook his head. “He’s been shutting us out for a while. Care to explain?”

Did I? Not really. “Look, it’s not that I don’t trust you guys, but what Cash is going through…it’s not my place to get involved any further.”

I hoped he wouldn’t throw me out on my ass for the answer. I wanted to remain neutral. There was nothing worse than an employee leaving a job and bitching about it at the next one.

“Fair enough,” Cap said, taking a seat. “And you’re good for the transfer?”

I shifted uneasily. I wasn’t sure I wanted to do it, but I didn’t have much choice. “Any chance you’re opening a branch near me?” I joked.

“Not anytime soon. Why?”

I rubbed the back of my neck uneasily. “Look, I’ll be honest. I didn’t want to leave OPS. I like where I live and I have a woman there who’s not quite sure she wants to move. But what’s done is done. I have to go where the work is.”

“And if Cash suddenly decides he wants you back?”

I huffed out a laugh. “That’s not gonna happen.”

Sinner leaned forward. “You never know. Maybe you’ll have some horrible job that ends you up in the hospital. That’s how I got this guy back,” he said, jerking his thumb at Cap. “Hell, he even cried when he thought I died not too long ago.”

A pencil flew across the room, smacking Sinner on the forehead. “Hey! What the fuck was that for?”

“When the hell are you gonna learn to keep your mouth shut?” Cap snapped.

I looked at the broken pencil on the table and chuckled.

“Something funny?” Cap asked.

“No, it’s just…” I waved my hand at the pencil. “It’s a Ticonderoga. Cash has a thing for them.”

“Aww, fuck. He’s gonna cry,” Sinner muttered.

“I’m not gonna cry,” I retorted.

“You know it’s just a pencil, right?” Sinner asked.

My eyes shot to his and I glared. “It’s so much more than a pencil. It’s a Ticonderoga. It’s the best pencil on the planet.”

“He’s right,” Cap agreed. “You can’t really go wrong with a Ticonderoga.”

Alright, this was getting a little weird, even by my standards. “Anyway…pencils aside, I think?—”

Alarms blared through the building. The lights flickered, then went out, plunging us into darkness. Cap was on his feet in a flash, dragging Sinner out of his chair as they ran for the doors, slipping through right before they slammed shut. I was already out of my chair and yanking on the handle, but it was too late. I was locked in. I slammed my fist against the glass, not that it mattered. Everyone was running around, trying to find out what the threat was. In the meantime, I was trapped in here with nowhere to go.

Sighing, I started pacing, trying to figure out how to get the fuck out of there. No one was paying a bit of attention to me, and frankly, if this was my building, I’d be doing the same thing. Metal clattered to the ground behind me and I spun, reaching for my weapon, but it wasn’t there. They’d taken it before I entered the building, and now I was unarmed.

I stared up at the ceiling, waiting for the intruder to break in. Grabbing the chair, I armed myself the only way I could in a room that locked me in with no way to defend myself. I tightened my grip on the legs just before a masked face popped into view.

“Hey, roomie!”

I flinched at the voice. “Fox?”

He yanked the mask off his face, tossing it to the ground, then flipped down, landing on his feet. “Yeah, it’s me!” he said, holding his arms wide.

“Why did you call me roomie?”

Rolling his eyes, he laughed. “Because we’re in the same room. Trapped. Well, you’re trapped, but I’m here to break you out.”

I frowned at his words. “I’m trapped—Fox, did you break in here?”

“Duh. What kind of friend would I be if I didn’t come to the rescue?”

“I’m not being held hostage,” I said slowly.

“Clearly, you are, or you wouldn’t be here.”

“I’m on an interview.”

He snorted, walking toward me. “Yeah, an interview,” he said, using air quotes. “I know what they’re doing in here.”

“Yes, interviewing me for a job.”

“You don’t need a job. You have a job. Besides, this is Kamau’s way of trying to get me here.”

I knew I was going to regret asking, but— “What exactly is Kamau doing to lure you here?”

“Duh. He invited you for an interview. Isn’t it obvious what he wanted?”

“Not at all. Kamau isn’t even here.”

“Oh, he’s here,” Fox grinned, nodding in a knowing way. “He’s always watching.”

“He’s going to watch you get shot when Cap bursts back in here with his gun pointed at you.”

“Listen, maybe you forgot how awesome I am with knives. It’s alright. I forgive you for the slip.”

He started to stroll past me, but I grabbed him, jerking him back. “Fox, you will get yourself killed if you don’t call Cap right now and tell him you’re the one who broke in.”

“But that would defeat the purpose of breaking in here to get you out. Right now, they don’t know that I have you, but if we stick around or if I call, then it’s pretty fucking obvious what I’m doing here.”

“Not to me.”

“Oh, come on. You can call this whatever you want, but we both know what this is.”

“An interview.”

He rolled his eyes dramatically. “A plea for help, but they can’t give you what you need.”

“Which is?”

“Funyuns, shawarma, and love.”

“That sounds like a serial killer’s Valentine’s list.”

He frowned at me. “Actually, it’s mine. What exactly are you saying?”

The door burst open and I spun, holding up my hands. However, my Funyun-loving friend wasn’t quite so accommodating. He had his knives out and was whipping them across the room, attacking the very men I was trying to get a job with.

Guns were drawn, and like the idiot I was, I stepped between the men I wanted to hire me and the psychopath behind me who was trying to rescue me. “Whoa, whoa, whoa!” I shouted, holding up my hands.

Sweat trickled down my temple as the seconds ticked by. Every second felt like an hour until, finally, Cap gave the signal for his guys to stand down. I peered over my shoulder, glaring at Fox. “Lower your fucking knives.”

He scoffed, pocketing his daggers. “Talk about ungrateful. I was just trying to help you out.”

I turned to Cap and immediately denied everything. “I don’t know him.”

“Yes, you do. Why are you lying to them?” Fox asked.

I shook my head, ready to go to the mattresses over this. “Nope, haven’t seen him a day in my life.”

“Then why were you at the bar with me just last night having a beer? Remember? We had that whole conversation about if cats had wings. And I said it would be totally awesome because then they could fly and attack at the same time. And then you said it was ridiculous because cats could already jump really high. They didn’t need wings.” He turned to Cap. “But what cat wouldn’t want wings? Am I right? It would be totally awesome.”

They just stared at him, and a little at me too.

“Nope, that was someone else.”

He scratched the back of his head, chuckling lightly. “I’m confused. It’s like you don’t want to admit you know me.”

“I wouldn’t say that.”

“Whew,” he breathed out.

“I’m flat out saying I don’t fucking know you. And I’ve never had a conversation with you about flying cats.”

Fox pulled out his phone, looking through it, and then our voices filled the air. I cringed as I said exactly what he’d just told them. He was nodding along, laughing when he got to the part about how awesome flying cats really were. Then he cut it off right after I told him I would never ride a flying cat.

“Well, clearly, he’s insane,” I said to Cap. “And this should in no way reflect my employment status.”

“It does,” Fox grinned. “Because he’s coming home with me. I really don’t know what you were thinking, walking out on all of us like that. It was just a disagreement.”

“Any chance Knight is here?” I asked Cap. “I’m sure that would take some of the heat off me.”

“Ooh, I’d love to see my brother,” Fox nodded excitedly. “Not that I didn’t come here for you. I totally did. We’re like this,” he said, crossing his fingers. “But Kamau and I are like this,” he said, holding up the other hand and crossing two fingers. “It’s really the same. Except one’s better.”

Silence filled the air and I turned back to Cap. “So, any chance you still want that interview?”

“Work your shit out,” I huffed, dragging Fox away from the building by his ear. “Work your shit out!”

“Ow, I heard it! You’re not going to make me hear it better by trying to pull my ear off!” Fox shouted.

“I can’t fucking believe you did that!”

“I can’t believe they wouldn’t let me see The Kamau first! We’re family!”

“I was trying to get a fucking job!” I shouted. “You just ruined that for me!”

“Ruined?” he scoffed. “That one guy had a knife in his leg.”

I stopped and spun on him. “Because you put it there!”

“Well, clearly, he couldn’t move fast enough. Do you really want someone like that on your team?”

“Only if he shot you,” I snarled. “What the fuck am I supposed to do now?”

I finally released him, taking a large step away before I decided to really do some damage. Rubbing his ear, he didn’t even bother to look guilty.

“You go back to OPS and?—”

“That’s not a fucking option. Unless Cash miraculously decides to become a decent person again, my time there is over. I can’t afford to just skip through life and pretend everything’s fine.”

He frowned, thinking it over. “You know, back when things sucked for me, I stalked Anna.”

“I’m already living with Isla. It would be pretty fucking stupid to stalk her.”

“Huh…well, you could always stalk her for fun,” he grinned.

Shaking my head, I paced away from him, trying to figure out my next step. “I was supposed to get a fucking job out here. I was going to move Isla and everything was going to be fine. I can’t just sit around her house all day and watch life move on.”

“You could work on the down low,” Fox suggested. “Like, be a secret agent. Ooh, and you’ll need a sidekick! I’m a great fucking sidekick!”

“You still work for the company,” I hissed.

“Right, that could be a problem. But I think it could work. We’ll get FNG involved too. He’d be all over this.”

Like I would trust FNG. That man was just as insane as Fox. “Isn’t he a little busy with his umbrella business?”

“Which is exactly why it would be the perfect cover! Just think of it. You could be taking over his business while he worked on the inside, gathering intel. And it wouldn’t look weird that you’re with him because you’re part of his business! It’s ingenious!”

I couldn’t even think of a logical way to respond to that. The whole idea was completely ludicrous. The fact that he wanted me to help FNG with a deadly, knife-throwing umbrella business was just so wrong. But working undercover could be an advantage to me. I just had to figure out how and what I would do.

I turned and headed for my car. Fox trailed behind me, rambling about all the ways I could sell umbrellas and who I could market them to, but I ignored everything, focusing on how I was going to turn this series of unfortunate events in my favor.

The problem was…without getting involved with the senator, I couldn’t find a single solution.

“So, what do you think?” Fox asked as we got in the truck.

“I think it’s going to be a long fucking drive back to Kansas.”