20. Kavanaugh

20

KAVANAUGH

“Are you sure you want to do this?” I asked Isla again.

I watched her pack her bag with just a little too much excitement. She was all for going to New York City, but did she really understand what she was getting herself into? There were tons of criminals there. Not that Kansas was completely safe, but it wasn’t anything like what she was used to.

She stopped packing and turned to face me. “I think I can handle a client meeting on my own.”

I frowned, not liking her choice of words. “I’m sure you can, but it would still be safer if I went with.”

“What’s so unsafe about this?”

“You mean besides the fact that a client emailed you out of the blue, offered to pay for your flight and expenses, all to interview you for a job that could take a month to complete?”

“Yes, aside from that,” she said snidely.

“It doesn’t seem at all odd to you?”

She sighed heavily, plopping a few outfits on the bed to be hung in a dress bag. “Sometimes this happens. This is a big company. I looked into them and they are expanding rapidly. They need a designer like me to take over and help them explode.”

“But still…it all seems too good to be true.”

“Kavanaugh, don’t you have something else to do?”

I had plenty to do, and it all included keeping her safe. There was nothing about this job that sat right with me. It felt like they were luring her out to New York City.

“Besides protect you? I know I fucked up before. I wasn’t there for you, but it’s not like I have a job right now. I will be there for you every step of the way. You’ll never feel unsafe while I’m next to you.”

The hesitant smile on her face didn’t make me feel any better. She still didn’t trust me. After everything we’d been through, I was still clawing my way away from the mistakes I had made.

Finally, she placed her hand on my arm and smiled for real. “Then you’d better pack. We leave first thing tomorrow morning.”

Tomorrow morning. There was so much to do. “Right, I just have to run a few errands.”

With a nod, I headed downstairs and rifled through her paperwork until I had all the information I needed. I scribbled it down on a piece of paper and shoved it in my pocket before heading out the door.

It didn’t take long to make the drive to OPS, but getting onto the property was another issue altogether. I texted Eli to meet me outside, hoping I could avoid running into Cash on the way. Luckily, he was waiting for me with Red. I got out and slammed my door, heading over to them.

“Are you here to get your job back?” Red asked hopefully.

I shook my head, handing over the paper. “I need you to run this.”

Eli took it and looked it over. “What is this?”

“A job Isla’s taking. I need you to run a background check on them.”

Eli shook his head, handing it back. “I wish we could, but things have changed. Cash has put a hold on anyone doing anything on their own. We have to run everything past him.”

“Everything? That seems a little drastic. What about Rae?”

“Her hands are tied. Hell, we can’t even approve work orders unless he agrees.”

I shoved my fingers through my hair, pissed even more than I had been the day Cash tossed me out on my ass. “What the fuck is going on with him?”

“Nobody knows. And Eva…apparently, Cash hasn’t been home since the day you left,” Eli sighed. “Things are going to shit really fast around here.”

“How did the interview go with Cap?” Red asked.

I winced, remembering the way he threw me off the property. “Not any better. Fox showed up.”

“Well, shit,” Red muttered. “I wish we could help you, but?—”

“No, I get it. You guys have to stick around. You have families to take care of and someone needs to keep an eye on Cash.”

“You’re being awfully generous to the man who stripped you of everything,” Eli muttered.

I was, but it wasn’t because I was forgiving what he did. I just had this feeling that maybe something more was going on. Or at the very least, maybe he would eventually pull his head out of his ass and wake up to what was going on around him. I didn’t want to work for him, but I didn’t want him to lose his business or for the guys to suffer because they backed me.

“I’ve been keeping an eye on Shawn,” Eli said, changing the subject. “I don’t have all the facts since we’re restricted, but from what I can tell, he’s not a threat right now.”

I hadn’t told them I’d paid him a visit and nearly ended the fucker’s life. Not that they would blame me, but the last thing I wanted was to be like the senator, and killing a man already in the hospital felt like it was hitting a little too close to home. Besides, after what happened, I didn’t put it past Shawn to do something drastic. “Did you check with IKE or Knight?”

Eli stiffened. “You think he’d put a hit on her?”

“I wouldn’t put anything past that asshole. But something else has to be going on. What kind of guy marries a woman he’s in love with and then tries to kill her?”

“Psychopaths,” Red said bluntly.

“But I don’t think he is.” It might be an unpopular opinion, but there it was. “I talked to Isla about it and she said it all started about three years ago when he made detective. That can’t be a coincidence.”

“But what does that have to do with Isla?” Red asked. “Even if the asshole is dirty, why would he go after Isla for it?”

I couldn’t figure it out either, but it was keeping me up at night. “Unless we can dig into him, we may never know. And then Isla will be looking over her shoulder for the rest of her life.”

“You mean you’ll be watching her back,” Eli corrected. “You haven’t told her about your suspicions, have you?”

“What would I tell her? I have nothing to go on but a gut feeling.”

He shook his head at me in disappointment. “Man, you’re going to lose her if you lie to her again.”

“I won’t keep it from her if I find something concrete. But I can’t fuck with her head like that when I don’t know a damn thing. And technically, I’m not keeping anything from her because I don’t know anything.”

“That sounds like arguing semantics to me,” Red snorted.

“Maybe it is.” I sighed heavily, feeling like I was on the verge of making another critical error. “I don’t know. There’s too much shit going on right now. She just started sleeping through the night again, and now she has this client out of town. I just…I don’t want to fuck with her head when things are finally going right again.”

“I get it,” Eli said carefully. “But you’d better be really fucking sure because if she finds out, she might end things for good.”

Fuck, I knew that. But how the hell was I supposed to tell her I had a sinking feeling in my gut about her ex? I had no fucking proof. Hell, the guy was still laid up in the hospital. If I told her my gut was telling me something was off, she would want details. And then what would I do? Tell her that I was worried the asshole put a hit on her? No, there was no way I would pile that stress on her right now. Not until I had more information.

“That’s a risk I’m going to have to take.”

Neither of them looked very convinced, but they knew I was between a rock and a hard place. I glanced back at the building, an aching feeling rushing through me, knowing I would never walk through those doors again. I never thought I would be exiled from the company, or that the men I worked with for so many years would suddenly become people I saw around town. But here we were. I made my choices and I didn’t regret them. I just wished the cost wasn’t so fucking high.

“Listen, Isla and I are heading out of town tomorrow. Bowie is still with Riley. Maybe stop by and check on them from time to time.”

“Sure,” Eli nodded.

“Maybe we could send Fox along with you.”

I winced at the thought of having Fox hanging around. I didn’t like the sound of it, but I also didn’t like the idea of being alone with Isla in New York City. That churning in my gut was growing by the second.

“Do you think he could get away from Cash?”

Red snorted. “It’s Fox. If anyone can get away with it, it’s him.”

“Yeah, alright. But tell him I want him to be a ghost. Isla can’t know he’s there.”

“The secrets are stacking up, man,” Eli said.

“Not secrets. Additional security. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

“I’m sure she’ll see it that way,” Eli retorted. “Let me see if I can find anything out from Knight. Maybe you could contact IKE.”

I gritted my teeth, remembering the things I said to Isla not that long ago. “Yeah, I’ll get ahold of him.”

As I turned to walk away, Red called out, “Don’t get dead.”