7. Isla

7

ISLA

I sat on the porch, pushing the swing with my toe as I sniffed my cup of tea. There was nothing better than enjoying the simple pleasures in life like my favorite mug filled with some chai to start my morning off right.

The door pushed open and Riley stepped out in pajama pants and a loose top that barely stayed on her shoulders. She squinted into the rising sunlight, holding her own cup in her hand as she stumbled over to me. She plopped onto the swing, nearly spilling my tea in the process.

“It’s way too early to be up.”

“Johnny doesn’t think so.”

She glared at me. “Johnny is an image on a cup.”

I looked down at the handsome, shirtless man donning a cowboy hat as he graced the side of my mug. “I don’t think he would agree with you. He has feelings too, you know.”

“He can’t have feelings. He’s an image!”

“Don’t listen to her, Johnny. She’s nothing but a cranky lady who doesn’t understand who you truly are.”

I patted my cup lovingly, ignoring the weird look my sister was shooting me .

“So, what are we doing this morning?”

I shrugged. “Garage sales? Flea market?”

“We could go to a shop like a normal person.”

“Yes, but normal people don’t find these awesome pieces like we do.”

She sighed heavily. “You know, just for once, it would be nice to not have to lug a piece of furniture away from a flea market.”

“You know you love it just as much as I do. Remember the blue table? That was an amazing piece.”

“That you left behind for Shawn to have,” she pointed out.

“Well, he liked it too. I wouldn’t have been happy with it knowing how much joy he got when we shared it.”

“I still think we should go to Ikea or Pottery Barn.”

I gasped, flicking her for saying such cruel words. “How dare you? You want to bring pieces like that into our new old house?”

She groaned, thunking her head against the swing. “I just don’t want to have to work up a sweat moving furniture today.”

I didn’t either, but I wasn’t about to tell her that. She’d never let me hear the end of it. I let my gaze roam over the other houses on the street. It was really quiet this morning, and from what I saw yesterday, it was pretty dull around here, which suited me fine.

“Do you see that gray car down the street?” Riley asked.

I followed her gaze. “Yeah, what about it?”

“It was there yesterday, too.”

Rolling my eyes, I shot her an incredulous look. “A car parked in a residential area? What kind of insanity is that?”

“No, I’m serious. It was idling by the curb last night.” She nodded her head back at it. “And it’s idling now.”

“And your point being?”

“Well…it’s weird. Someone’s just sitting there.”

“Maybe it’s a man waiting on a woman to finish her hair,” I snorted.

“Maybe…” But she didn’t sound convinced.

I glanced back at the car, surprised when it suddenly pulled into the street and turned around, driving away .

“Okay, that’s odd. It’s like whoever was in the car knew we were watching.”

“See? I told you I wasn’t imagining things.”

“That or it was a man who decided it wasn’t worth it to wait while his woman put on her makeup.”

“Somehow, I doubt that was the case.”

Either way, the car was gone now. Not that it mattered, anyway. It had nothing to do with us. We only moved here yesterday and that wasn’t nearly enough time to gain a stalker.

Unless it was Kavanaugh. I’d gladly take him as a stalker.

“I know that smile on your face,” Riley grinned. “Thinking about Kavanaugh?”

“Maybe.”

“Maybe,” she said mockingly. “I have to admit, I didn’t think you could move so fast. We weren’t even in his presence for five minutes and you managed to pull him back into your web.”

“I don’t have a web.”

“Sure you don’t,” she laughed.

“It’s not a web! Is it my fault that we hit it off right away?”

“It doesn’t hurt that he’s insanely attractive now. Did you know?”

“That he grew muscles on top of muscles and has looks that would devastate half the female population? No, I didn’t know that. I just…wanted someone familiar.”

“Well, he most definitely is not familiar.”

“Come on. It’s time to go shopping,” I said, jumping up from my swing.

She groaned, flopping it across the seat dramatically. “Do I have to? It’s still so early!”

“It is not, you big baby. Now, let’s move before the day gets away from us.”

“It can’t actually get away from us,” she shouted as I headed inside. “It’s a day, not a person!”

I chuckled and ran upstairs to get dressed. I was determined to have a great day, and that started with finding just one piece of furniture that would brighten my room and make this house feel like a home .

For three hours, I dragged Riley around the flea market twenty minutes from town. Every stall was just as disappointing as the last, and when Riley complained about an imaginary flea chasing her around, I decided to call it quits and end the charade of finding something magnificent. There had to be other flea markets we could go to. I just had to find the right one.

“Thank God we’re home!” Riley shouted, falling out of the car onto the sidewalk in front of our house. She hugged the ground, pulling at the grass. “I missed you so much!”

“Dramatic much?” I asked, walking past her and leaving her on the ground to sniff the grass.

As I climbed the steps, a prickling feeling touched my neck and I reached out to rub away the unease. The gray car was back. I knew it as soon as the hairs on my neck stood on end. But that wasn’t the only thing that was here. A box sat on my porch, but there was no return address. Only my name.

I picked it up and studied the box. There was nothing special about it. It was just an ordinary shipping box.

With no sender.

“What’s that?” Riley asked, peering over my shoulder.

“A box.”

She rolled her eyes at me. “Thanks, Captain Obvious. I’m so glad you told me. I never would have figured that out on my own.”

“Well, since there’s no name on it other than mine, how would I be able to tell you anything else?”

“You could have said that,” she pointed out. “Are you going to open it?”

“I don’t know.” I got an itchy feeling just staring at it. I had a feeling it was from Shawn. The handwriting was similar to his, and I wouldn’t put it past him to send me something cryptic like this.

“There’s no address,” she added.

“I realize that.”

“No, what I mean is that this wasn’t delivered by the post office. Someone left this on the porch for you. They were here.”

My eyes flashed to the gray car, but it was gone. Riley followed my line of sight and sucked in a breath. “Holy crap. The car. ”

“It wasn’t Shawn. He doesn’t have a car like that. It was too fancy.”

“You think this is from Shawn?” she asked.

Crap, I hadn’t meant to say that out loud, but there was no point in hiding it from her. “Well, I do now. Who else would send me a cryptic package with no return label?”

“Shawn,” she muttered. “Well, open it.”

I winced, unsure about doing that. “Don’t you think we should…have someone who knows better look at it?”

She shot me a knowing look. “Like a handsome guy whose name starts with a K?”

“Or anyone else he works with. Didn’t he say last night that the company is just down the road?”

She nodded. “We could go there and find out. Besides, there’s a whole slew of hot guys there. I’m just saying it wouldn’t hurt to get to know a few more of them.”

Yeah, that was exactly what she wanted. To get to know a few of them.

“Maybe I should text him first,” I said, pulling out my phone.

But she quickly snatched it from my hands. “You have the element of surprise. Run with it.”

“Surprise only works in your favor when it’s wanted.”

“Au contraire. It also works when you want to get information on someone without having to ask all the questions.”

“So…you want me to ask his coworkers about him. You want me to spy on him.”

“Spy is such a strong word,” she grinned. Then she was pulling me down the stairs to the car and practically tossing me inside. I was shaking with nerves as we pulled into OPS. I had no problem moving here to be closer to my childhood friend, but bombarding him like this felt wrong.

Not that Riley would let me get away with feeling that way. She tugged me over to a trailer as soon as the car stopped. Men were scattered on the property, constructing a building that looked like an office.

“Isla?”

I spun, shielding my eyes from the sun as a man approached. I had no idea who he was, but he seemed to know me. “Do I know you? ”

“I’ve heard all about you,” he chuckled. “I’m Dash.”

“It’s nice to meet you,” I answered, shaking his hand. “How…have you heard about me?”

He snorted. “Flaming red hair? Kavanaugh’s childhood friend? The guys wouldn’t stop talking about you last night.”

Riley snorted and I nudged her in the side to shut her up. “Is that so?”

“Yeah, but don’t worry. Kavanaugh put them in their places and shut them up.” He turned bright red, then huffed out a laugh. “So, what can I do for you?”

“Um…I was actually hoping to speak with Kavanaugh. Is he around?”

“He is, but…I think he’s in the middle of something with—” He cut himself off as if he was about to reveal something—something that I now desperately wanted to know.

“Maybe I can help you.”

“She has a package that needs to be checked out,” Riley butted in.

I jabbed her in the side, smirking at her when she winced. “It’s not a big deal. I’m pretty sure my ex is behind it and I want to make sure he didn’t send me a dead body.”

“That would be pretty hard to do unless he cremated it. Not that he would,” he rushed on. “Why do you think he would send you anything nefarious?”

I quirked an eyebrow at his word, but he just shrugged.

“I have no idea. He’s changed a lot since we were first married. In fact, I’m probably being silly, but I thought maybe Kavanaugh could check it out for me.”

“Let me take that.”

I handed it over, letting him take charge. He nodded for me to follow and headed inside the temporary office. After holding the door open for me, he shot off a text to someone and set the box on the table.

“I have a guy coming. It’ll just be a minute.”

“Sure,” I nodded, leaning against the counter. “So, what happened to the building?”

“Uh…that would be Edu.”

“Edu? ”

“He’s a guy who works here. He sort of…blew up the building as a distraction.”

“And…your boss is okay with that?”

“Comes with the territory,” he shrugged.

“I love this place,” Riley chimed in. “Reminds me of home.”

“Because we blew up things at home?” I asked.

“No, but…well, you know what I mean.”

I didn’t have a clue what she meant, but she was off in LaLa Land, daydreaming about something—probably firemen coming to rescue her if she was trapped in the burning building.

The door swung open and a huge man walked through. I took a step back, not out of fear, but so I could take in all of him in one shot. Holy crap. Did they grow men around here?

“Isla, this is IRIS. He’s our EOD expert.”

The man tipped his head at me. “Ma’am.”

I scoffed. “I’m not that old.”

He grinned at me, striding over to the table. “This is it?”

I nodded as he leaned over and inspected the packaging. “Well, you carried it this far. I would say it’s most likely not a bomb.”

“I would hope not. He’s a cop. It would look bad if he sent explosives through the mail.”

His sharp gaze met mine. “A cop?”

“Yeah, a detective.”

“That makes it a little more tricky.”

“Why?”

“Because he knows how to hide all the evidence. If he’s not stupid—which I’m assuming he’s not.”

“No, unfortunately.”

“No signs of blood.”

I swallowed hard. “Blood?”

“Oh yeah. People send body parts in the mail all the time. Again, he’s a cop, so he could have figured out how to do it the right way.”

“You want to take it to the lab?” Dash asked.

He nodded. “We should have it scanned. I won’t completely rule out a bomb until we run it through.”

“Wait, where’s the lab? ”

The man slowly faced me with an almost gleeful look. “Underground.”

I walked through the tunnels, wondering what the hell I had gotten myself into. There was literally an underground bunker. Like the kind they used during the Cold War. I didn’t know that was even still a thing. Were people really worried about air raids and nuclear bombs? Should I have a bunker built somewhere?

I studied each screen on the wall as we passed. Updates on the day scrolled across the screens, maps of the tunnels filled the majority of the space, and there was some kind of beacon system flashing on the screen.

“What’s that?” I asked, stopping by one of them. I pointed at the dots flashing.

Dash stepped up beside me, his arms crossed over his chest. “Those are locators.”

“They’re moving.”

“Yep.”

Wow, talk about being informative. “But what are they tracking?”

He looked at me funny. “People.”

“Like…people in town?”

He barked out a laugh. “No, us.” He pulled up his sleeve and pointed to a thin scar on his arm. “We all have them.”

He had a tracker in his arm. That was…insane. Dogs had trackers. Maybe cats. Hamsters, even. But people? My eyes flicked from his arm to his face. “You…have a tracker.”

“For jobs. You know, if we get separated from the team or taken hostage or find ourselves in a foreign country or…the ocean.”

“The ocean,” I repeated.

He shrugged. “It happens more than you think.”

I didn’t think it happened at all, but what did I know?

“Can anyone get a tracker?” Riley asked. “Or do we have to work here?”

I nudged her in the side. “What would you need a tracker for? ”

She grinned at Dash, batting her eyes. “So someone can always find me.”

He cleared his throat uncomfortably. “Married,” he said, holding up his left hand.

She sighed. “All the good ones are.”

We followed him the rest of the way until the tunnel opened up into what looked like the inside of a grain elevator. Except, we were underground.

“Is this…”

“A missile silo?” Dash grinned. “Pretty cool, right?”

“You work in a missile silo,” I repeated.

I knew I was repeating everything like I was stupid. Well…more like he was stupid. This was insane. Did the town know that these men functioned like mole people? Or was this the best-kept secret in the Midwest? Just a bunch of men hanging around underground, plotting and devising plans to take over the world. Okay, maybe they weren’t going to take over the world, but what on earth could they possibly need a bunker like this for?

And how did Kavanaugh get wrapped up in an organization like this? From everything I was finding out about him, I would guess he wasn’t the same person I knew as a kid. It was like he had been cloned, but given an entirely new personality. Not that I was complaining. I liked this new version of him just as much as the last.

Especially his muscles.

I realized that I had been staring at the massive room, freaking out internally because…well, this was really weird. I heard a hard thwack and looked behind me to a room where a woman was cheering on other women. I made my way over to the doorway and peeked inside. There were five of them, all gathered around a styrofoam cutout of a man. And he had knives embedded in his junk.

“I got his nuts!”

“That was my knife!”

“Whatever. Your knife displaced my knife.”

“Only because your knife was crooked. Fox taught you better than that.”

“Ladies! We all got his nuts. Can we move on to the headshots? ”

Headshots? I mouthed silently. Who were these people? They looked like ordinary women. One of them was even wearing heels and dressed like she was going to a meeting. Yet, she yanked a knife from the cutout and twirled it in her hand like it wasn’t a deadly weapon, but a pen or a paperclip. Something that wasn’t actually a sharp object.

“Whoa,” Riley whispered in awe. “I want to be them.”

“You want to throw daggers at a styrofoam cutout for fun?”

“Why not? They look like they’re having the best time. I bet if someone taught me, I’d be awesome at this!”

“Isla! Over here,” Dash shouted, waving me over to a room.

With one final look at the women, we headed over to Dash, still trying to figure out who these people were. This seemed to go above and beyond just a normal bodyguard company.

IRIS and Dash hovered around a table, watching it intently. “Um…what are we doing?”

“Waiting for the scans,” IRIS said, rubbing his hands together in excitement.

“Okay, so where’s the scanner?”

“You’re looking at it. A product of my own invention,” he said proudly.

I stared at the table and then looked back at him. “It’s a table.”

“It’s a scanner.”

I bent down to see better. Maybe I was missing something. The table looked like maybe it could be a pool table by the size of it, but didn’t have pockets in the corners. What was I missing? There were no laser beams or anything else moving around the room. It was literally just a table.

Standing, I turned to the large man. “Okay, what am I missing? There is nothing here. It’s a table.”

“It’s a scanner,” he stressed.

“But there’s no light or beams or magical waves moving around the room. The package is just sitting on the table.”

“What do we got?” Kavanaugh asked, walking into the room.

Finally, a normal person was here.

He winked at me, which the others caught. “Isla, you’re looking particularly beautiful today. ”

I glanced at my clothes and then back at him with a sardonic smile. “I’m wearing jeans and a T-shirt.”

“And it looks fucking amazing on you.”

His charm oozed through the room, sending tingles down my spine. I could feel a blush climbing up my neck the longer I stared at him.

“Ah, it’s like that,” Dash chuckled.

“It’s like what?” I asked, ducking my head.

He pointed between Kavanaugh and me. “The two of you.”

“It’s not,” I clarified.

“But it is,” he chuckled.

“No, it’s not,” I repeated in the tone he used.

He strolled over to me and gave me that look all men give when they’re about to mansplain something. “Look, I get it. It’s not what it is. But it is.”

“That doesn’t make sense.”

“It really does.”

“It really doesn’t,” I countered.

“We get it,” he grinned, turning to IRIS. “Don’t we?”

“Oh, we get it,” he laughed.

Was I in a third dimension? What the hell was going on here? “Whatever you think is happening isn’t happening.”

“I get it,” he said in a typical know-it-all voice. “You’re Kavanaugh’s girl.”

“She is?” Kavanaugh said at the same time I said, “I am?”

“You are,” Dash confirmed. “Maybe you’re not with him, but you’re with him.”

“Are you speaking an unknown language? Because I’m not following.”

“He’s not,” IRIS shrugged. “It’s a thing. A gift, really.”

“It’s a bunch of bullshit,” Kavanaugh said, stepping forward. “She’s not my girl. Not yet,” he grinned, shooting me a wink.

Riley was fanning herself beside me and I had to step on her toes to get her to stop.

“Yeah,” Dash chuckled. “Okay. ”

With a shake of his head, Kavanaugh got things back on track. “Anyway, what’s in the box?”

“This came from her house. We’re checking for bombs,” IRIS said with way more enthusiasm than he had when I first arrived.

“I’m really hoping for a few fingers inside,” Dash grinned, crossing two fingers on both hands.

Shaking my head in confusion, I was trying to figure out why they were so calm before, but now they were acting like schoolboys who had discovered the lost city.

“You know what would be really cool? The lost files of Jimmy Hoffa.”

“Why the hell would her ex send her the lost files of Jimmy Hoffa?” Dash asked.

“Wait, this is from your ex?” Kavanaugh asked, his demeanor suddenly shifting to a more lethal tone and rigid posture.

“It is, but?—”

“Maybe it’s a sex tape,” IRIS said, his eyes wide.

“A sex tape?” I nearly choked out. “Right, like that would ever happen.”

“It would for me,” Riley sighed.

“Not your thing?” Dash nodded.

Kavanaugh turned to me curiously. “Not ever or not with him?”

“Why? Are you propositioning me?”

The brown of his eyes deepened as mischief spread across his face. “Maybe.”

“Uh…we don’t have a room set up for that here,” Dash pointed out.

“And even if we did, that wouldn’t get us any closer to finding out what’s inside this beauty.” IRIS moved around the table, examining the package carefully. His eyebrows were pulled down in intense scrutiny and his fingers drummed against the table as he considered the contents.

“Can’t we just open it?” I asked.

All three of them jerked their gazes at me.

“Just like that?” Dash asked.

“Yeah,” Kavanaugh said hesitantly. “You just want to open it? ”

“How else are we going to find out what’s inside?” I asked curiously.

“Guess,” IRIS said, staring at me like I was insane.

“You…just want to stand around and guess.”

Kavanaugh chuckled, walking over to me and taking my hand. “Look, Isla. I get that you’re new at this, but there’s a method to our madness.”

“And that would be?”

“I don’t think you understand the repercussions of opening the box.”

I thought for certain he would tell me it was dangerous or maybe too much for me to handle. Instead, he completely shocked me.

“Once we open it, we’ll know what’s in there.”

I waited for the hook. There had to be something else that was missing. “And?”

“And once you know, it’s no longer a mystery. Don’t you get it? Right now, there’s a world of possibilities. It could be anything.”

“Well, not anything,” Dash spoke up. “A plane wouldn’t fit in there.”

“Or an elephant,” IRIS pointed out.

“Or a host of other things,” Kavanaugh gritted out. “But the point is, right now, that box is treasure. And if you just tear it open…that’s it. No more mystery.”

I couldn’t believe I was standing here with three grown men who were looking at me like this little box held the keys to the universe. It was just a box from my ex. There was nothing in there that would change the world. At least, I sincerely hoped not. Yet, they all watched me with hopeful eyes.

That’s why it was really kind of sad to watch their faces fall when I snatched the box off the table and tore the brown paper wrap. Gasps filled the small room as each of them watched in horror as I decimated the wrapping. The secret was partially out. It was a box. A plain, ordinary box.

“Well, no plane.”

“So far,” Dash muttered. “It could be extremely tiny. ”

“It’s not a plane,” I huffed. “Trust me. I know Shawn. He wants to send a message, not buy me a trip to a luxury island.”

I dug my finger under the tape along the edge, peeling it up slowly. I could feel the anticipation growing in the room as I unsealed the first edge. Then Kavanaugh walked over and took the package from me.

“I’ll do that.”

“Why?”

“Because it could be dangerous,” he muttered.

“Yeah,” Riley nudged me. “Let the big, strong man open it.”

“If it was dangerous, wouldn’t the scans have shown that?”

“That’s beside the point. Don’t you see? We don’t know what’s in here, and I wouldn’t be a man if I let you do the honors and potentially put yourself in harm’s way.”

IRIS pulled up an image on the screen and looked at us. “I can tell you right now what’s in it.”

“Don’t!” Dash shouted, nearly scaring the shit out of me. “I want to be surprised.”

Kavanaugh ripped open the top of the box, tearing the tape from the edges. Paper spilled out on the floor from the rough handling, and I bent over to see what it was.

The paper was in shreds, and as I turned it over and stared at the typing, it was clear what this was. “It looks like he got the paperwork.”

“For what?” Kavanaugh asked.

“Our divorce.”

“He was never good at handling the hard stuff,” Riley muttered.

“He knew it was coming.”

“Yeah, and he took it really well the first time,” she said, shooting me a pointed look, which I chose to ignore. The last thing I needed was Kavanaugh to find out about my rescuer who saved me in the alley when Shawn lost his shit.

“Well, at least I know what’s going on. Thanks,” I smiled, heading for the door.

“Wait!” Kavanaugh called, chasing after me. “Let me walk you out.”

I smiled at him, seeing right through his words. “Sure.”