9. Chapter Nine

Chapter Nine

The following day was a buzz with activity in the camp, what with the parents coming that weekend. The kids were super excited to show off their friends and the things they'd done and made to their folks. Even some of the counselors' parents were coming, but Prince hadn't bothered inviting his. He knew his father and Tory would never show.

He helped some kids finish their craft projects while Silvio helped others paint some cards for their moms. Anton came in before lunch, showing off his best swimmer, Montese. "She is going to be a damn lifeguard. Even the real lifeguard was impressed!"

They both shook her hand as she smiled proudly at them. "It wasn't nothing."

"It was, Monnie. Very much so," Anton said.

"I think whatever we're good at, it means something," I told her. "All I've ever been good at is computers."

"Don't do that. You're good at breaking into houses, too. Wait! Nat is good at it," she said, laughing.

"Shhh," the three of us told her.

She just giggled more.

Silvio suggested Prince go to Dex's cabin for the rest of the day. "We're covered here. Why don't you head over?"

"I thought you didn't want me going alone."

"Take a walkie. I'll have one on to that channel we set for the last time. If he gets weird, call me and we'll be over so fast, it'll shock him."

Prince suspected Silvio wanted more for Prince than a job. "You know, all he is doing is checking me out for a job, Sil."

"You may not have seen it, but the way he looked at you? Vato , he wants your nuts. Or butt, or whatever."

"Nice, Sil. Real nice," he laughed.

Prince went, though he was so nervous, it was hard to walk with his legs shaking like they were. As he walked up to the door, he almost talked himself out of knocking, but it wouldn't have mattered. Dex saw him and opened the door before he could knock. "Hey. Glad to see you."

God, the man was gorgeous. Prince could trip right over his tongue if he weren't careful. "I…am interested."

"Oh?" He asked, his eyes, and they were dark blue eyes, were dancing.

He realized what he'd said and how it could be taken and felt flush. "I mean, in the job."

"Damn. Too bad," he said with one of his deep, resonating chuckles.

"Dex, come on."

"I'm just messing with you. Kind of," he finished with a wink.

When he went into the cabin, he again noticed how neat and tidy it was. It was a good place to start a conversation, he thought. "You don't like messes, I'm guessing."

"Oh? Yeah, blame my strict Italian mother. She was insane with cleaning. Had plastic over all the furniture, given to her on her wedding day from my grandma, who was even cleaner than her daughter."

A peek into his life. It was nice. He was offered a seat on the plaid couch while Dex sat on the leather recliner, his eyes set on Prince the entire time. "You'd like to know more about my bosses, and they've given me the okay to talk about them. As long as you know they won't take it as a compliment if you tell anyone about them. In fact, they'd likely get upset."

"Have me knocked off or whatever?" Prince said with a nervous laugh.

Dex chuckled dryly, but the smile didn't reach his eyes. "Nothing that drastic, Prince, but discretion is important to them."

When he heard that, Prince knew what it meant. Corporate intrigue, backstabbing. All of it were things he knew about from his father. "My father used to get so angry when he thought we had spies in the company. He talked about getting hitmen. I am pretty sure he was kidding."

Dex just stared at him and didn't say a word.

"Yeah, well, um…"

"Prince, you have the money to do nothing at all but travel and act like any other trust funder with no responsibilities. The thing is, I can tell from speaking to you the one time, and yes, watching you some, that description doesn't suit you. I bet you haven't been away from your computer so much ever, right?"

"Right. Yeah, but I am enjoying it."

"Good. You know, where you'd work, if you took this job, is very much like this place. Wide open spaces and mountains. My bosses bought a huge piece of property recently, and they're moving some of their operation there. Of course, most of it needs to be back in the cities where they have interests, but they can run everything from their new home. They'd like it if their computer expert moved there too, but that can be negotiated."

He'd never thought of living in the country before he'd gone to the lake that summer. Now he couldn't imagine himself back in the noise and congestion of the city. "I'm…not out of school yet. In fact, I'm here because of school."

"I know. You're flunking."

Tensing immediately, Prince squeaked, "How did you know?"

"We have a computer guy on the payroll, Prince, like I said. Until he's replaced, he's still working. He was the one who suggested you. It seems he was a huge fan of your mother."

"I'm not my mother."

"No, you're better. No offense, Prince, to your mother. You got her brains, but you've had better computers to start with. Neil, the one you'd be replacing, studied her for years, learning how she came up with the programs that Double Zap uses. When he learned we took his advice in considering you to replace him he was very excited. He'll, of course, stay on long enough to give you the layout of the organization."

"You're acting like I'm some celebrity. I'm not. My father discouraged me all my life from getting into computer hard and software."

He leaned forward over his lap and asked sincerely, "Why would he do that? He owns a computer company. You'd think he'd want you to, I don't know, make him richer."

Looking away, Prince felt ashamed. "I'd be labor, and no son of his will be some laborer."

Prince caught Dex's face falling from the corner of his eye. "Your daddy sounds like a real dick."

Facing him again, Prince brushed a rogue tear from his face. "I've never had a daddy. I have a father."

"Well, that just isn't right. Maybe someday, you can find that. A daddy." Catching his eye, Prince saw something he just couldn't bring himself to believe. The beautiful man that Dex was, he'd never want a skinny, rather plain guy like him.

"I gotta get back," he blurted. "I'm still thinking about this, but I'm going to ask more."

"That's fine. I'm here, and if I can't answer directly, I will tell you why. I don't want to pressure you, Prince. I think you've had enough of that. This is a job, yes, but it's a new life too. A new place for you, and I don't mean a house, though you'd get that too. I mean that you'd have a place on your own, no one expecting things of you like your father. You'd set your own destiny."

"If that's true, it would be worth just about anything."

They both rose and Dex walked him to the door. Just on the outside of it, Dex whispered, "Take care of yourself, Prince."

Prince turned around, and they were so close, Prince felt his warm breath on his face. "Don't worry. I won't get myself killed before I consider the job."

"My concern has nothing to do with the fucking job," Dex said as he ran one finger from Prince's temple to his jaw. "See you soon, I hope."

All Prince wanted to do was run. Run away, run far. He couldn't, however, and not give the vibe that he was scared or over the moon happy. In that moment, though, he was both.

Dex liked him, or at least, Prince thought so. He could grin like a fool as he walked away from Dex's cabin, because Dex couldn't see.

Even if he was crazy and reading things into what had just occurred, he wanted to feel that goofy happiness, that fluttering of a thousand butterflies in his gut. It wasn't something that happened often, and in fact, had only felt it once before. His movement slowed and smiled faded as he thought about that time of his life.

When he had an unreciprocated crush on his professor in boarding school.

Turning his head, he saw Dex outside the door of the cabin, watching him. Was he way off? Was the wave that Dex just made a simple friendly gesture?

He'd never know, probably. As he started walking fast again, he pushed all his doubts aside. Whether he was deluding himself that Dex could like him or not, there was a possible job involved that Prince wanted more with each second that passed.

At dinner, he finally had time to talk to Silvio, though it was in the middle of a room full of very excited campers. For as annoying as parents could be, as the kids often complained, they were missed. Each and every set of eyes in that camp were twinkling with happiness at the prospect of seeing their parent, guardian, or whoever was coming to see them.

"The job, I've been thinking, Prince. There are two possible scenarios for it. I don't want to talk about them here, of course."

"I've thought of the same things, I'm sure. And one of them is right. I'm sure of it. And it's not the covert government option."

Silvio chuckled before taking a bite of his sloppy joe. After swallowing, Silvio reasoned, "I thought the same. Not to judge a book by the cover, or anything, but he doesn't look like a fed."

"He would, I guess, if he was undercover. But why would anyone go undercover to talk to me? Not saying I'm a saint, but nothing the feds could want me for."

"Unless it's actually a job. I'm pretty much sure it's the other direction too, but don't the feds recruit computer geniuses too?"

Before he could answer, or consider answering, two trays were set down next to theirs and as they turned that direction, they saw Monnie sit next to Silvio and Nat was moving onto the bench next to Prince.

"Guys," Silvio sighed.

"We wanna know what happened," Monnie said before digging into her food.

Prince shrugged. "They know almost all of it already."

"Mmmhmmm," Monnie hummed as she swallowed. "We sure do."

"Okay, fine, so we're trying to figure out what kind of people he'll be working for."

"That tattoo is the insignia of the Kings," Nat said off-handedly.

"Who are the Kings?" Silvio asked.

Monnie said, "He got his phone to call his mom and looked it up. Found it pretty fast. Maybe he should get the fancy job," she finished with a jerk of her chin.

"Maybe he should," Prince whispered. He asked Nat, "Who are the Kings?"

"Italian organized crime family, if you know what I mean."

After rolling his eyes, Silvio hissed, "Nat, hush!"

"We'll finish this conversation later," Prince said as he looked across the room to Toby, who was watching him closely, a little smile playing on his thin lips.

Silvio turned to see what Prince was seeing and turned his head back quickly, seething. "That fucker."

"It had to be him that put up the video, but my dad knowing, he did that, too."

"I'd bet a million bucks and finally be rich."

"A million is no longer rich, Silvio."

He laughed at Prince and kicked him playfully under the table. "Rich for me!"

"No, no. You have a billionaire best friend, darling. You should have billions too. In fact, instead of helping all of humankind in medicine, get your degree and be a concierge doctor for only the rich and powerful children."

"Oh! Grand idea, lovey."

Monnie and Nat picked up their trays and left. Prince asked, "Where are you going?"

"You boys are too weird for us," Monnie said in a huff.