“Shit,” I said, running a hand over my head in frustration.
“What happened?” I turned to see Hunter “Pappy” Papacosta standing in the doorway with a beer. Lola, Pappy, and I had been on a team together from the start and the people I trusted most in this world.
“Lola. I said some shit to her about getting help and she tore me a new asshole about trying to fix her.”
“You can’t keep blaming yourself for what happened, Irish. None of us knew what the fuck was going on. You did the best you could under the circumstances.”
“I knew that something was fucked up. I could feel it in my gut. The same fucking thing happened when we were at the safe house with Knight. I knew that something was wrong with that whole situation and I went along with it anyway.”
“What happened with Knight worked out for the best. Go outside and ask him right now if he would change a goddamn thing and he’ll tell you that he’s happy with the way everything turned out. Yeah, we were blindsided, but shit worked out.”
“That’s besides the point,” I snapped at him. “When am I going to fucking learn? Every time my gut tells me that something’s wrong, I don’t do a damn thing to change the outcome. I should have fucking gone somewhere else with Cole and Alex. I should have just run with them. You wouldn’t have ended up in a coma. I wouldn’t have been shot in the leg. Lola wouldn’t have been fucking terrorized. Cole wouldn’t have been stabbed. And Alex wouldn’t have had to face that psychopath again. Same fucking thing with Knight. I knew that something was off and I still didn’t do anything. How the fuck do all of you put your trust in me?” I yelled.
“Because you’re fucking good at your job. There’s not a single situation you’ve described that you should have known to do something different. You could have run with Cole and Alex, but guess what? That asshole could have been following us and something worse might have happened. Same thing with Knight. They were tracking us. Running wouldn’t have done a fucking thing for us. Bad shit happens. That doesn’t make you a bad leader. That just means that we’ve had some shit luck. Now, go the fuck outside, grab a beer, and stop whining like a little bitch!”
“You’re such an asshole, Pappy.”
✯✯✯✯✯
I was waiting at the coffee house in town for Claire. She told me that she was feeling fine and would meet me like we had planned. She was running late and that wasn’t something I particularly liked. I was a person that was always on time to everything. It was something that was instilled in me during my military days. Even now, years after being discharged, I still had to be early for everything. I checked my watch again and saw that she was fifteen minutes late. I wasn’t going to wait around any more. Maybe she didn’t really want to meet me. I got up and threw down a few bills for the waitress, even though I hadn’t ordered anything yet.
“Excuse me! Excuse me! I need to get through.” I couldn’t see her, but the voice was all her. She was so tiny that she got lost in the few patrons that were trying to leave the coffee house. She finally pushed her way through, tripping over her own feet and falling to the ground, her bag spilling out all over the ground. She quickly shoved an e-reader and another book back inside her purse. I shook my head, realizing that this woman was a damn klutz. Walking over to her, I bent down and gripped onto her arm and pulled her up. She stumbled into my arms before jerking back and adjusting her clothes.
“I’m so sorry I’m late. You must think I’m so rude. I was just refreshing the chickens’ water before I left and then Beatrice flew at me and it freaked me out. I ended up stepping in the chicken feed and then I fell back into the roost. All the chickens went crazy, flapping their wings and trying to get away from me. By the time I got out of there, I was covered in chicken shit and feathers and I had to take another shower because if you’ve ever dealt with chickens, you’d know that you don’t want to smell like them when you’re going on a date. I mean, of course I would have taken a shower anyway, but I really had to scrub myself down after that one.”
She stopped her rambling and I noticed that her ample chest was heaving from how much air she used in such a short amount of time. It made me wonder how much her breasts would be bouncing if I had her wound up in bed.
“Chickens?”
“Yes, chickens. I live on a farm. In the country. With my father. He’s not really all there any more so I take care of the farm for him with my sister, Lucy. It’s not exactly what I would have imagined I would be doing with the rest of my life, but when your family needs help, you step up, right? It’s not like there was anyone else to do it anyway, and my father loves his farm and his chickens. I couldn’t just sell the farm and move him into a nursing home or something. I never really understood how people could do that to their loved ones. I guess there are times when the situation calls for it. Like if the person couldn’t physically take care of themselves. Then I suppose it would make sense, but my father just isn’t all there any more up top,” she said, tapping her head. “So, yeah. I live at home on the farm with my sister and dad.”
Did this girl ever stop rambling? She was cute as shit when she did it. It was like she had no filter and I wanted to kiss her silly when she got going, but we had just covered a shit load of stuff and we hadn’t even technically started our date yet.
“Okay. Well, how about we save something to discuss with our coffee. Maybe how you feel about euthanizing animals.”
“Are kidding?” she said in shock. “I could never- oh. You were joking.”
I grinned at her and slipped my hand around hers, thinking about how perfect her hand felt in mine. “Come on. Let’s get some coffee before we get into anything deeper.”
I pulled out her chair and helped her into it, then walked over to mine and sat down.
“How’s your head?”
“Good. Well, as good as it can be when it’s smacked against the pavement.”
“Lucy said that the doctor told you to take it easy.”
“Yeah, but I feel fine. I still get headaches, but the doctor said that could happen for a few weeks. It’s nothing I can’t handle.”
She was fidgeting with her purse, obviously not comfortable with this date.
“Do I make you nervous?” I asked.
“What? No. Of course not. I mean, you’re extremely handsome and you have muscles that match the fantasies I have about any book boyfriend that ranks in my top 100 list. You have this really sexy, deep voice that makes me want to squeeze my legs together and hope you’ll take me home all at the same time. And I’m just me. I’m short and I’m just average looking. Especially compared to you. So, I guess I’m kind of wondering why you would even want to take me out on a date, but I’m not going to complain either. I mean, I would give my left arm to have you kiss me. But am I nervous? No. I’m totally cool with all this.”
I wondered if she knew how much she just revealed about herself to me. She was obviously very insecure about herself and it was clear that no man had ever bothered to set her straight about exactly how gorgeous she was. Then again, maybe no man ever got the chance to tell her with how much she rambled. I leaned across the table and picked up her hand that was resting in front of her, intertwining our fingers.
“First of all, there’s no such thing as you just being you. You’re not average by any man’s standards. You have an ass that any man would kill to get his hands on and don’t get me started on the things I’d like to do to your breasts. I could see myself on top of you, fucking those tits and coming down your throat. And that has nothing to do with just wanting to fuck you and everything to do with how gorgeous you are. I’m thinking based on that you can come to the conclusion that I’m going to kiss you and I may not be enough of a gentleman to hold out until we’ve dated before I try to get you into bed. Because there’s nothing I want more than to sink my hard cock inside that hot, little pussy.”
Her eyes dilated and her mouth dropped open. I didn’t normally get quite so descriptive with women, but she needed to hear j
ust how bad I wanted her. I didn’t want there to be any insecurities on her part or rethinking whether or not I wanted her.
“Close your mouth or I may be tempted to shove my cock in there and I don’t give a fuck that we’re in the middle of a cafe.” Her mouth snapped shut and she blushed deep red. Damn, she was gorgeous. “So, besides working on your farm, what do you like to do?”
“Um..” She thought about it for a moment and smiled at me. “Well, I don’t get much time to go out, so I usually just read when I have some down time.”
“Why don’t you get to go out much?”
“Too much work to do. The farm is my side job in the summer, but I’m also the town librarian. I usually close the library because it works best with my schedule on the farm, but sometimes that changes. I have another woman that opens the library for me in the mornings and then she leaves after lunch. I close the library every night and then I go finish up on the farm.”
“Damn. That sounds brutal.”
She shrugged like it was no big deal. “The farm doesn’t make enough for me to stay home and I work with Lucy, so we both have to have other jobs. Honestly, if Dad didn’t love the farm so much, I might consider giving it up just so that I didn’t have to work two jobs.”
“Do you not like doing the farm work?”
“I love it. I grew up working on the farm with Dad and I really enjoy the work, but it doesn’t make enough income and it doesn’t allow me to get a job with more nine to five hours, which is what’s so great about the library. I have a little more flexibility.
“But that can’t pay the bills.”
“It does the job,” she said cryptically.
I noticed that now that we were having an actual conversation, she had calmed down and wasn’t quite so spastic. When she took the time to slow down, I could see the person she was beneath all that nervousness. She could have walked away from her family, but she was holding it together with her sister because her father loved the farm.
“So, what is it that you do, Derek?”
“I work in security.”
“Like a bodyguard?” she said, eyes widening.
“Sometimes. I work for Reed Security. We do everything from installing security systems to protecting people in trouble.”
“Wow. That’s amazing. How did you get into that?”
She seemed a little eager to know more about my work and it made me a little wary. Usually women that were so curious were only looking for one thing: A roll in the sack with someone they considered dangerous. Not that it bothered me that much. That’s what I was looking for too, but she hadn’t struck me as that kind of woman.
“I was in the military and when I was discharged, I was looking for something to do that I could use the skills the military gave me. It’s not the easiest to come back after being deployed and get a normal job.”
“Because it’s not what you’re used to?”
“Yeah. I mean, when you go from watching your back and thinking that everyone is out to kill you, it takes time for that to wear off enough that you can act normal in public.”
“I could see that. I’ve never met anyone in the military before. It’s kind of cool to know someone that’s such a badass,” she grinned.
“When you’re over there, it has nothing to do with being a badass and everything to do with making sure you don’t get your ass shot off or any of your friends killed,” I snapped. I hated when people thought that being a soldier automatically elevated you to God like status. The truth was, when you were over there fighting for your life and those around you, you didn’t really give a shit what people thought of you, as long as they cared enough to welcome you home and be understanding during the adjustment period.
“I’m sorry. That’s not what I meant,” she said as her eyes widened in horror. She fumbled with her purse and pulled out some bills, throwing them down on the table as she shoved the chair back as she stood. “I didn’t mean to offend you. I sometimes just word vomit all over everything and I’m really sorry. I’m just going to go,” she said as she spun around and right into the tray of a waitress carrying several coffees. The drinks spilled down the front of her shirt, quickly making her white t-shirt see-through. Her head swiveled to mine and her beautiful face quickly morphed into complete embarrassment and I’m pretty sure there were a few tears in her eyes. I felt like such an ass, but before I could apologize, she was out the door and running down the sidewalk.
“Shit.” I ran a hand roughly through my hair and tugged on the ends, pissed at myself for being such an asshole to her. She was obviously socially awkward as it was and I just made her feel like crap and then got her so worked up that she embarrassed herself further. I could be a real jackass sometimes.
CHAPTER THREE
Claire
WELL, I HAD just made a total ass out of myself in front of one of the hottest men on the face of the earth, again! There was nothing normal about the way I behaved around men. I didn’t know how to carry on a normal conversation and the more I tried, the worse it got. I stomped out of the coffee shop, irritated with myself for being so spastic, throwing my messenger bag over my shoulder and across my body. It didn’t matter, I told myself. I didn’t need to worry about dating right now. I had to figure out who the mystery man was that saved my life.
Before I headed home, I had to stop at the bank and deposit my check from the library. I went to write out my deposit slip and then I waited in the longest line known to man. There was only one teller working and about ten people in line ahead of me. There were other tellers gathered around someone’s desk and they were laughing and totally ignoring the rest of the people in the bank. I checked my watch and sighed. This was going to take forever and after my disaster coffee date, I just wanted to get home.
The doors of the bank burst open and five men dressed in head to toe black burst inside with guns. Three of them broke off to the sides of the bank and quickly went around to who I’m assuming they thought were the people they needed. The fourth person did something with the door and the fifth person, who I assumed was in charge, popped off a few shots with his large, extremely scary looking gun.
“Everybody get down and put your face to the floor! Hands above your heads!”
Everyone stood there in shock for a minute, scared to make a move. He shot his gun one more time and we all quickly obeyed. I was close enough to a table that I could half hide myself underneath. I hoped that because I was so small no one would notice. I saw someone across the bank on the phone and I prayed they were calling the police.
I watched as the man in charge walked up to the teller station and started demanding all the money from the drawers. The teller fumbled around, but started unloading the drawers. I glanced around the room and saw that the other men were disappearing into the back. The man in charge appeared to be talking to someone, maybe on some kind of radio and the other men were now out of sight. I pulled out my phone and pulled up Derek’s number. He was in security and seemed like a good person to call.
“Claire-”
“Derek,” I whispered. “I’m in the bank and there are five men that came in with guns.”
“Just hang tight,” his voice all business. “I’ll make sure the police have been informed. Is there anyone around you right now?”
“No. The main guy, he’s having the teller get all the money from the drawers. The other four disappeared into the back. They’ve been back there about a minute.”
“Okay. Where are you?”
The man in charge turned and looked out at everyone. I quickly averted my eyes and made sure my phone was out of sight. He paused on me for a second and I was sure he was on to me, but then he turned back to the woman behind the counter and urged her on again.
“Claire, are you there?”
I put the phone back to my ear and checked one more time to make sure I was clear. “I’m here. I’m hiding under a table.”
“Good. Just stay there until the police get there.”
&nb
sp; “You’re right down the road,” I hissed. “You’re in security, so come secure..something.”
“Claire, the police will handle this. There’s no way I could put together a team in time to handle this, not to mention that it’s not my job.”
“Time. Yes, you need time. Good. I’ll create a distraction so that you can get in here and do your thing. What do you need? Like five minutes?”
“No! Claire, don’t do anything. Just stay low and don’t draw any attention to yourself.”
“I have an idea. I’m not sure how well it’ll work, but it should buy you enough time to get in here and take them out.”
“No-” I hung up because I was afraid that someone would hear him yelling at me through the phone. He would come through. This was what they did after all. I stood shakily and raised my hand, which was ridiculous because I wasn’t in school and they weren’t going to call on me.
“Excuse me, but how long is this going to take?” I tried for snarky, but it came out nervous and I ended up laughing at the end.
The man turned to me and scowled, pointing his gun in my direction. “Lady, lay the fuck back on the floor.”
I twisted my fingers, a nervous habit, and took a step forward. “I’m really sorry, but I’ve had a horrible day and I just want to get home.”
“I don’t give a fuck what kind of day you’ve had. Get your fat ass back on the ground.”
My eyes welled with tears and I was sorry to say that I wasn’t even acting. I hated being called fat as much as the next girl and it didn’t take much to make me cry.
Irish: A Reed Security Romance (Reed Security Series Book 5) Page 3