She pulled the towel away from her hair and draped it over the bar beside the shower. “You lived here?”
Turning the sink on, using it as a momentary distraction, I sorted my thoughts. “I haven’t really lived anywhere since I left Opp.”
“You’re avoiding a straight answer. Why?” Her eyes crinkled at the corners as she stared me down in the mirror.
“I’m not avoiding anything. I know you want answers. Believe me, I’d want them too if I were you. And I’ll tell you everything I can. It’s just gonna take a little time. Right now, we’re needed in the cafeteria.”
Her eyes lowered as she grabbed a toothbrush and opened the toothpaste, squeezing a thick dollop on the bristles from the middle of the tube. I sighed, taking the toothpaste from her and rolling the bottom up to get the dent out of the middle. She snickered around the bubbles in her mouth, knowing she’d scored a point at needling me with one of my pet peeves.
I turned the water on full blast and left it running. She side-eyed me and shut it off. I reached out, twisting it back on. She bumped me out of the way and shut it off. I yanked her behind me, turned it back on, and finished brushing my teeth. The second I stepped out of the way, she turned the water down to a trickle, spit the toothpaste out of her mouth, and rounded on me, pointing the toothbrush at my face and shaking it in silent warning. I plucked it from her fingers and reached past her to rinse it, shutting the water off when I was done.
She scowled at me when I turned around and bumped into her. “You shouldn’t waste water.”
“I didn’t. This water runs through a purifier and gets recirculated. It’s one of Cole’s mad scientist projects.” I gave her a knowing smile before I walked out of the bathroom.
I waited for her to pepper me with questions, but she stayed quiet. “You okay?”
She wrapped her arms around me and rested her head against my chest. “Yeah. I’m just taking it all in. For a moment there, it was like old times. Like we were home, but then I looked around and realized we aren’t …” She shrugged.
I kissed her forehead and hugged her tight, picking her up so that her feet dangled before setting her back down. “That’s the thing about growing up. Some things have no choice but to change, and some things will always remain the same.”
She sighed, smiling up at me. “This growing up thing sucks.”
I caught her hand in mine, gently tugging her out of the bedroom and into the hallway.
She nudged me with her elbow when I remained silent. “Look at us. All of us. You and Aiden have secret lives. Jared barely started out in the band, and now this. Eli had to leave Haiti.” She sighed. “The only ones who are doing what they said they’d do are Josh, Mark, and Paige.”
I winced when she called me out about having a secret life. Yes, it was true, but how in the hell could I explain it to her without making it seem like I felt I had to lie?
She came to an abrupt stop and poked her finger in my chest. “And don’t think you’re off the hook either, Jake. I want to know everything.”
“I know, Riley. Let’s just get through the breakfast meeting with Grant and Nadia first,” I said, taking her hand back in mine.
“Riley!” Eli called out as he jogged towards us from the end of the hall. When he was close enough, he swept her off her feet and spun her around. “Dang, Riley! Did you gain weight?”
She swatted his arm when he set her down. “You’re an ass, Eli.”
He laughed. “Kidding, Riles. You haven’t changed a bit. Except, I think you have more of a hair-trigger temper now.”
She rolled her eyes at him. “I’ve always had one. You, of all people, should know that.”
Eli snickered, turning his attention to me as we made our way down the hallway. “So what do you think they want us for?”
Even though my fingers were linked with Riley’s, I felt myself snap into the soldier I’d trained to be. There was definitely a line between love and duty. “More than likely, they’ll be putting a team together to take down Robert de Fleur.”
A deep rumble of laughter came out of Eli as he rubbed his hand against his chest. I shot a questioning look at him.
“What? Oh, come on! Robert de Fleur?” He waited for me to catch on, but I had no idea what he found so funny. “Seriously? Robert the flower? I bet he’s a real pansy.”
Riley groaned as she looked up at me. “Maybe I misjudged Eli when I said we’d all grown up.”
As we got closer to the kitchen, the buttery scent of toast drifted along the air. From the level of noise, I could tell we were the last to arrive.
Along the island in the kitchen were plates stacked with sausage, bacon, pancakes, eggs, and toast. Whoever cooked had made sure we’d all be well fed.
Greetings were called out as we filled our plates. No one wasted too much time with catching up since Grant and Nadia were among us and getting antsy to start the meeting.
Riley, Eli, and I ate as the others went about cleaning up the kitchen. I watched everyone as they worked around one another. It was habit for me. I needed to know where everyone in the room was and what they were doing. Even in the company of friends, I kept a constant vigil of my surroundings.
Grant and Nadia walked around the room, briefly talking to Oliver, Jared, and Aiden before making their way over to me. I stood up when they approached, but Nadia waved at me to sit back down. “We just wanted to check on you to see how you’re doing.”
I sat, feeling awkward while doing it. “I’m doing fine. Thank you. And thank you for bringing Riley here.”
Grant’s eyes crinkled at the corner as he smiled. “Gotta take care of our Riley girl.”
I looked over at Riley, seeing her shake her head and return Grant’s smile. For whatever reason, Grant had called Riley that since we were kids. I thought it embarrassed her, or maybe flustered her. I’d never thought to ask.
“We’re glad you’re here, Riley. After the meeting, you need to get with Nadia. There are a few things she needs to speak to you about,” Grant said, dipping his head in farewell as he walked away. Nadia gave us a brief smile and followed Grant out.
“Uh-oh,” Eli said as he grabbed his plate and stood. “Looks like you’re gonna get the same ultimatum we did.”
A look of confusion crossed Riley’s face as her eyes darted between us. “What does that mean?”
Jared strolled over and put his hand on Riley’s shoulder. I caught myself wanting to growl in possession. Riley was mine; he needed to get his damn hands off. I kept my thoughts to myself, watching instead as Jared’s eyes sought out and locked onto the girl who walked over and stood beside him. His hand squeezed briefly on Riley’s shoulder, and then moved to the girl’s back.
“Ace, do you remember Murphy?” he asked.
I’d seen her briefly when I’d stormed into the house in the Poconos. She was the band’s pseudo manager from what Oliver had said. I hadn’t had time to meet her with everything else going on at the time. Realizing everyone was staring at me, waiting for me to answer, I nodded and said, “Skylar Murphy, right?”
She winced. “Just Murphy.”
Jared, the guy who spent most of his teenage existence avoiding any real form of a relationship, was practically glowing as he looked at her. To say I was shocked was an understatement.
Eli chuckled, bringing everyone’s attention to him. “I guess my name is Chopped Liver. I’m Eli. It’s nice to meet you, Murphy. I hope you know what you’ve gotten yourself into with that one,” he said pointing at Jared.
Jared flipped him off. “Har-har, Eli. Don’t you worry about Murphy. I’ve got her covered.”
Eli flashed his teeth with a grin that stretched from ear to ear. “I bet you do.” He winked and got up from the table.
Murphy turned an interesting shade of red. When Riley saw it, she popped up from her seat, turned an all-too-familiar scowl in Eli’s direction, and then collected our plates as she said, “The first thing you need to learn, Murphy, is that these boys have n
o manners.”
Jared’s arm went around Murphy. He pulled her close, planting a kiss on her parted lips. “Not true. I have manners. The rest of them are heathens.”
Murphy gave Jared a brief smile, although she still looked a little shell-shocked by having so much attention cast her way. I could only hope, for Jared’s sake, she had thick skin. She’d never make it around all of us if she didn’t.
“So, do you have a girlfriend, Eli?” Murphy asked, laying the sarcasm on thick.
I couldn’t keep the howl of laughter from escaping me. “Yep, you’ll do just fine,” I told her as Eli’s mouth worked open and closed with no quick reply. Had it been any of the Six, he’d have been ready, but I didn’t think he expected Murphy to say anything back. And really, what he’d said was more towards Jared than her, but she gave it back nonetheless.
Jared, the smug bastard, looked proud as a peacock.
Riley walked over, looped her arm through Murphy’s, and pulled her away. The three of us watched them go and then turned to each other.
“Dude, you were gone for less than a year. Now you have a girlfriend? Dang!” Eli said, slapping Jared on the back. He staggered forward, but caught himself.
We gave the girls a little bit of a head start before we followed behind them.
“I noticed your band mates weren’t here this morning. Did they decide to go home?” I asked, bringing the subject back to issues that were more important.
Jared ruffled a hand through his hair. “No. Grant and Nadia have them set up for training.” He sounded just as surprised as I felt on the inside. “They don’t want to place them anywhere until they go through the whole gamut of testing though.”
“Grant and Nadia?” Eli asked, giving Jared a weird look.
I shook my head. “He doesn’t want to call them Mom and Dad now that he works with them, or whatever it is he’s doing.”
Jared’s face scrunched up. “Hey! Not cool, Ace. You know why I’m doing it. I mean… how the hell can you be some sort of super spy and call your superiors Mom and Dad? That shit don’t fly. For reals.”
Although he was trying to play it off, I could hear him getting wound up to defend himself even further, so I put my hand up to stop him from carrying on. “I get it. Don’t freak out.”
Eli made a noise of understanding and turned the conversation over to a new topic. “Have either of you talked to Josh and Mark?”
It was in his voice, the same painful hole we all felt within us to be near each other without them. It just didn’t feel right.
Jared was the first to clear his throat. “I’ve talked to both of them. Josh… something is up with him. He’s… I don’t even know how to explain it, I can just tell. Ya know? And Mark’s doing good.” He hit me in the side. “Did you know he talked Paige into moving to New York with him? I bet we hear wedding bells for those two before we do for you and Riley… ouch!”
I’d slammed my elbow into his ribs. “Don’t start your shit.”
He rubbed at his side. “You could have just told me to shut it. Dang, Ace I think you cracked a rib.” He winced as he hissed through his teeth.
Damn, I shouldn’t have done that. He wasn’t completely healed, and I could have really hurt him. “Sorry. Are you all right?”
“Yeah, but can you not beat on me until I fully recover? Damn, I feel like an old man most days.”
“You know what they say… it’s all downhill after graduation,” I told him.
Eli groaned. “You made that shit up. And you two can go head off to the old folk’s home if you want, but I can sure as hell tell you that I’m in my damn groove.”
As soon as we stepped inside Grant’s office, he called the meeting to order.
“First things first, I want to say thank you for your hard work and dedication, not only for bringing my son home, but also for assisting in the search efforts for Ace. Now, what some of you don’t know is that one of the many restrictions to Cole Enterprise is the family rule.”
There were murmurs when he brought that detail to light. I’d never known about it and hearing it worried me. What did that mean for Jared? For Riley and me? My stomach clenched as I waited to hear the axe fall.
“With that being said, Cole has given us a loophole of sorts. It’s why we’ve called you here today. As of tomorrow, Nadia and I will be headed to Scotland to set up a new location.” Grant paused only briefly to allow the room to settle. “That doesn’t mean we won’t be available. You will still have access to us for everything. The only difference will be our home base. Cole, along with Nadia and myself, have taken into account that someone will have to be appointed here as liaison for Chicago. Roman Flint, would you please come up here?”
On the far side of the room, there was a shuffle of people as Flint moved to stand beside Grant.
“Roman Flint will be your acting liaison here in Chicago. Starting now, any and all questions will be handled by him. Flint…” Grant stepped back, giving Flint the floor.
Roman Flint didn’t hesitate. “Thank you, Grant. Over the next couple of days, I will be calling each of you in to go over files and cases you have just wrapped up or are currently working on. It is in my interest to get to know each and every one of you as Nadia and Grant do. Our purpose hasn’t changed even if the internal structure has. Before you leave today, you will need to look at the schedule I made up for meetings on Grant’s desk. Find your name, note the date and time. Be there.”
Jared stayed silent, brooding as he leaned against the wall. Murphy put her hand on his chest as she moved closer to say something to him. His face lost its pinched expression as his eyes softened when he looked down at her.
Grant cleared his throat and Murphy turned around, moving back to Jared’s side. They were like a united force, the two of them. I looked to my right where Riley stood. Our stance mirrored theirs. It hit me then. Murphy was more than just a girlfriend to Jared. Nothing as simple as a girlfriend would have worked for him. Murphy was his other half.
Nadia crossed the room, halting in front of the bookcase situated to the left of Grant’s desk, and tilted a random book forward on its spine. The bookcase popped free from the wall, and Grant pulled it open. His eyes never left us as he brought his finger up to his lips. We were to remain silent until he told us otherwise.
Nadia gestured for us to enter the room behind the bookcase wall, waiting until we were all inside with the door shut before she spoke. “There’s a leak of information coming from somewhere inside Cole Enterprise. Grant and I are handing it off to Flint and Oliver to oversee the investigation, but you are our key players. Lars, Retro, and Licks are already in place. They’ve been informed of what’s happened and will be reporting back to Oliver daily with anything they overhear or come across. It’s why they’re not here.”
Jared’s band mates were already being used as internal spies. Well, at least that explained where they were. And I really needed to stop calling them his band mates. That ship had sailed, without them on it, the minute they decided to accept what Cole Enterprise offered.
I couldn’t help but feel disappointed for Jared. Being in a band was all he’d ever wanted. Knowing there was no way he could hold onto that dream had to be a huge let down for him.
Jared shoved off the wall. “Why Scotland? Why do you have to leave?”
Nadia put her hand on Grant’s arm, stalling him from speaking so she could answer. “Cole would have overlooked that rule for us, Jared. But the truth is that your father and I have to go to Scotland and get the other location set up. We’d planned on it all along, but thought we’d be able to run both locations. That’s not possible now with everything that has happened recently.”
“You mean Trent,” Oliver said, jumping into the conversation.
“Yes. Him—and the fact that Nicco has popped up on Cole’s radar. Plus, Robert de Fleur is still on the loose. We have too many related problems to keep tabs on all of them, as well as get the Scotland location up and running. Something tel
ls me we’re really going to need that location opened as soon as possible with a staff of trustworthy people. That’s where all of you will come into play,” Grant answered.
“Nicco?” Oliver sighed and pushed himself away from the door. “When did he start coming around again?”
My head spun with all the names they were tossing around.
“Wait… who’s Trent?” I asked.
“Trent was one of our operatives,” Grant answered, brushing away any further explanation. He nodded to Flint, giving him the floor.
“Nicco started coming back around about five months ago. At first, when Jared went missing, we’d thought Nicco had some sort of connection to Robert de Fleur, which raised the red flag on a possible internal leak. But Nicco’s movements didn’t correspond with the areas we were searching for Jared, so he was eliminated from our list of suspects, but we never stopped keeping tabs on him. Especially when he showed up at random times, asking odd questions about one of the prototypes he’d sat in on a conference for.
“My thought, and it’s just a hunch, is that he’s trying to connect Cole Enterprise with our underground network. I’ve had a few runners come back from his office telling me about the odd questions he’s been asking.” Flint shrugged.
“You’re not worried that he could be getting close to uncovering us?” Oliver asked.
“No. Besides, who would he go to? The government knows about us. They won’t claim us, but they won’t give us up either. If they did, they’d have to seek out another trustworthy company to take care of their dirty work.
“No, the only thing that concerns me is if Nicco has someone on the inside feeding him information. If so, he’d be able to start picking us off. He’d go for Cole’s jugular and try to take the company. No matter what, we’re linked to Cole Enterprise and, if one ship goes down, so does the other.”
“Meaning?” I asked not sure how one would affect the other.
“Cole’s projects fund us, and we, in turn, fund his projects. It’s a circle of funds that keeps everything going. The minute a monkey wrench gets thrown into it, both would cease to exist,” Flint answered.
Relevance (The Six Series, book 2.5) Page 6