Nightingale: A Reed Security Romance

by Giulia Lagomarsino

  “Yeah, always playing safe and by the rules,” he scoffed.

  “What? You think I should be more like you? By your standards, I should just kidnap him. Maybe I should trick the courts into giving me what I want. Better yet, I won’t involve them at all. I’ll just take what I fucking want and screw anyone else involved, right?”

  “At least I fight for what I want,” he shot back.

  “You mean you take what you want.”

  “Hey!” Derek shouted.

  We both turned and faced him, neither of us backing down though.

  “What the fuck? Cap just had a meeting about this and you guys are back at fighting over this. Take a fucking break from the arguing and let’s figure this out.”

  “What’s to figure out?” Craig scoffed. “We already know that we have a traitor amongst us.”

  “Really? A fucking traitor?”

  “Well, you sure as fuck aren’t on our side.”

  “Think what you want. I was trying to do what was best for Reid.”

  “You keep telling yourself that,” Craig spat.

  I walked away. There was nothing more to say at this point. My friendships were falling apart. Florrie wasn’t speaking to me and Craig obviously didn’t trust me right now. It was ironic how our positions had flipped so quickly. One minute Craig was pissed at everyone for not trusting him, and the next, I was the one that wasn’t trusted.

  “Hey,” Derek said, running to catch up with me. “You okay?”

  “I’m not sure that’s possible.”

  “What can I do?”

  I stopped walking and turned to him. “Get a job for us. I need to get the fuck out of here.”

  “Are you sure you’re ready for that?”

  “What do you want me to do? Should I stay around here, around a woman that despises me, and wait for her to come around? Or maybe I should hang out in the locker room, along with all the guys that fucking hate me right now.”

  “I hate to tell you this, but Hunter wasn’t exactly on your side, if you remember.”

  “Well, that’s one person. I can handle one person’s shit.”

  “Alright,” he said. “If that’s what you need, I’ll talk to Cap. I know that Ice’s team was supposed to go out tomorrow. I can see if he’ll switch the teams, but I make no guarantees.”

  “Thanks.”

  I headed home, hoping like hell that Florrie would be there and she would talk to me this time. I’d take anything right about now. Hell, a fuck you at this point would be preferable to the radio silence.

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  Florrie

  I stuffed my clothes into my bag and ignored the ache in my chest. I couldn’t just sit around here anymore, and training wasn’t enough to clear my mind. There were too many reminders. If it wasn’t the training center that got to me, then it was the looks on everyone’s faces as I passed them. I couldn’t take it anymore, so I was doing what I did best.

  “Where are you going?” Alec asked as he walked into our bedroom.

  “Out on a job.”

  I heard his soft exhale and chanced a quick glance. He looked defeated and the dark circles under his eyes said that he wasn’t sleeping. I almost felt bad. Almost.

  “How long are you going to be gone?”

  “Two weeks. Craig got Cap to give us Ice’s job.”

  “Derek tried to get me that job,” he said, walking further into the room.

  “Yeah, well, I guess I beat you to it.”

  He shook his head. “I’m not cleared to work yet. You know…concussion.”

  I knew he was trying to get to me, trying to make me feel bad about that, but the truth was, I didn’t. It gave me a release that I needed, but I didn’t kill him, so I took what I could get.

  “I suppose you think I should feel bad about that.”

  “Fuck, Florrie, I’d take twenty fucking concussions from you if you would only talk to me.”

  “We’re talking now,” I said, zipping up my duffel.

  He snatched me around the waist and turned me to face him. “This isn’t fucking talking. This is…this is you being civil.”

  I smirked. “I think it’s funny that you think I’m being civil right now. I would call it restraint.”

  “Whatever the fuck it is, it sure as hell isn’t talking to me. Talk to me. Let me in.”

  “I have nothing to say.”

  I tried to jerk away, but he pulled me close and slammed his mouth down on mine. I felt the tang of blood where his teeth bit into my lip. He tried to push his way deeper inside, but I shoved him back, swiping at my mouth to remove his taste as much as I could.

  “When are you going to get it?” I shouted. “I don’t want to talk. I don’t want to see you. Hell, I don’t even know why you bother coming back here to me. Do you really think that I’m going to suddenly forgive you and we’ll work through our issues? Alec, we have so many problems that it’s not worth working through them.”

  “Yes, it is,” he said, grabbing onto me again. He gripped my neck and pulled me in closer again. I fought against him, trying to get away, but I couldn’t break his hold. “Fuck, Florrie, we have everything to fight for. We’re good together. We’re supposed to get married.”

  “You’re delusional if you think I would ever consider marrying you after what you did. You tore me apart! You took something from me that I can never get back!” I swiped angrily at the tears that slid down my cheeks. “I hate you! Don’t you see that?”

  He shook his head and I could feel him tremble under my touch. “I’ll never see that. I’ll never give up and I’ll never walk away from you. You’re my whole fucking world, Florrie. I live and breathe for you. Can’t you see that?”

  “No, I can’t see that. Because if you really loved me, you never would have shredded me the way you did.” He released me and I stepped away, snatching my duffel off the bed. “Do us both a favor and be gone when I get back. You have two weeks.”

  I turned and walked out of the room, my heart breaking the entire way. I heard his roar of anger and the smashing of anything he could get his hands on. I leaned against the wall in the hall and dropped my head into my hands. Tears poured down my cheeks and my heart seized in my chest. I didn’t really want him to leave, but I couldn’t stand the thought of him staying either. I was broken, and Alec was one person that I couldn’t stand to see me as weak. Pushing him away was so much easier to deal with. So, I straightened and sucked back the tears. I just needed to go out on this job and then I could deal with him when I got back. I just needed space.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  Alec

  Two miserable fucking weeks without her. I had barely survived. At least when the team first split up we had talked on the phone. Now it was radio silence. I was like a fucking puppy, wandering into Cap’s office every day for even a scrap of news on Florrie. Every day it was the same. The team is fine. There’s no news. Go home and get better. That was his go-to line. I was off work for another week. That was the standard order after a concussion. But she would be coming home any day now. I would have her back, even if she hated me. I could hold her while she slept or slip into her room at night and watch her sleep. God, I was turning into Knight, desperate for just a look at her.

  “What the fuck are you doing here?” Cap asked. “Seriously, I told you every day for the last two weeks that you can’t be here and you just won’t fucking listen.”

  “I’m stubborn,” I said, stretching for a run.

  “If you keep pushing, you’re going to have even more issues.”

  I didn’t know what the fuck he was talking about. Sure, I had some dizziness and might have passed out a time or two in the last two weeks, but I was pushing through. All that other crap was just that, crap.

  “I’m fine.”

  “You know, Hunter is pissed enough at you without you ending up in his medical room every other day.”

  “It hasn’t been every other day, and I didn’t ask anyone to take me there.”<
br />
  “Well, no shit, dumbass, but when you collapse in the training center, someone has to step in and take care of your ass.”

  “Next time, just fucking leave me. I’ll come around eventually.”

  He sighed and spun around, heading in the other direction, but stopped suddenly. “You know, you might not give a shit right now, but despite what happened, everyone around here cares about what fucking happens to you. Even Florrie would be pissed right now if she knew what you’re doing.”

  I scoffed at that. Florrie was the one that gave me the concussion, and considering that she hadn’t contacted me in two fucking weeks, I was pretty sure that I was the last thing on her mind right now.

  “Florrie’s probably hoping that I pass out and don’t wake up. Don’t bullshit me right now.”

  He gave me that pitying look that he gave the guys sometimes. I knew it was coming. I was entering ‘big guy’ territory. I could see it in his eyes. Any time one of us was injured or heartbroken, he didn’t know what to say. So, he labeled that person ‘big guy’ and inevitably made whoever it was feel like shit.

  “Don’t,” I snapped.

  “Don’t what?” he asked, holding up his hands as he took a step back.

  “I know what you’re thinking. I’ve seen it before.”

  “Look, I’m not sure what you’re talking about. I’m just worried about you, big guy.”

  I closed my eyes and clenched my fists. I would not hit my boss.

  “Oh, is…is that what you’re talking about?”

  “What do you think?” I asked.

  “Sorry, it just kind of comes out. You know, I don’t know what else to say.”

  “How about you just don’t say anything? Do you want me to start calling you big guy?”

  “I don’t have any reason to be called that.”

  “Yeah?” I asked, advancing on him. “How about when Maggie kicked you out of the house after she found out she was having triplets? You okay, big guy? Or how about when I tell you that Reid was kissing your daughter?”

  His jaw dropped in shock. “Which one?”

  I rolled my eyes. “Really? Which one is most like Maggie and closest to Reid in age?”

  His jaw clenched and I briefly thought that maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to bring this up right now, but I just couldn’t help but stoke the fire. “You alright there, big guy?”

  His eyes flared and his body tensed. It hit me just before he ran at me and tackled me to the ground that taunting the bear when I had a concussion was maybe not the brightest idea. But when I saw that fist flying at me and felt the crushing blow to my jaw, my body finally released some of the tension from the past few weeks and I couldn’t regret a thing. That is, until I started to black out.

  ✯✯✯✯✯

  “Fuck, this is really bad.”

  I stirred slightly at the worried voice, but opening my eyes wasn’t an option. My head was pounding more than it had at any point during the last two weeks. My whole body fucking hurt, but I couldn’t remember why.

  “You told him to stay out of the training center.” I recognized that as Hunter’s voice. “It’s his own damn fault for going in there.”

  “I fucking pounded the shit out of him!” That was Cap, and he sounded fucking worried.

  “Hey, I say you gave him exactly what he deserved.”

  “I hit a man with a concussion in the head. How the fuck did he deserve that?”

  “What did he say to you anyway? It’s not like you to lose your shit like that.”

  I’d like to know that as well. I tried to think back, but it just made my head hurt even more.

  “He said…Look, if I tell you, this goes no further than here.”

  “Scouts honor.”

  Cap snorted. “Yeah, like I’d ever fucking believe that.”

  “Just tell me what the fuck happened,” Hunter snapped.

  “He said that Reid was fucking kissing Caitlin.”

  Dead silence. I could have heard a fucking pin drop in the room, and now I realized why I was lying down with a fucking headache again.

  Then Hunter snorted out a laugh, then burst into a huge laugh that made me cringe. “Holy shit. Reid was tonguing your little girl?”

  “Shut it, asshole.”

  “Holy shit. That’s fucking hilarious.”

  “It is not,” Cap bit out.

  “Well, it sort of is. I mean, think about it, Reid is four years older than your daughter. He was totally robbing the cradle.”

  I heard a scuffle and forced my eyes open. Cap had Hunter around the throat and shoved up against the wall. His cheeks were red and shaking with rage. I snorted out a laugh, then instantly regretted it when pain spiked in my head. Cap swung around and sagged in relief.

  “Thank Christ. I thought I had put you in a coma.”

  “Like you could really get rid of me that easily,” I retorted.

  “I wish we could,” Hunter muttered. Cap shot him a glare and he held up his hands. “What? I’m just saying what half of us are thinking.”

  “You need to walk away,” Cap growled.

  “Are you sure? Because I’d hate for you to attack him again when you remember him allowing his kid to-”

  He didn’t get to finish the thought. Cap swung, taking him down to the ground with just one hit. The door swung open and Maggie stood there, a vase of…weapons? I looked closer and grinned. Leave it to Maggie to have an arrangement of weapons made up for me. Of course, they couldn’t be real to get in the hospital, but it was the thought that counted. She stepped over Hunter on the floor and placed the vase on the table beside the bed.

  “Sebastian, I think maybe that’s enough violence for one day.”

  “Are you feeling okay?” I asked.

  “Me? You’re the one in the hospital bed.”

  “Yeah, but since when do you not advocate for violence?”

  She flung her hands on her hips and pursed her lips. “Against others? Yes. We’re not supposed to make each other end up in the hospital.” She spun around to face Cap. “Tell Alec you’re sorry.”

  “What? But he started it,” Cap said, pointing his finger at me. Hunter stood behind Cap, rubbing at his jaw. “He told me that Reid was kissing Caitlin.”

  “I don’t care who started it. You made your friend end up in the hospital. You’re lucky I don’t make you walk over and kiss him to make it better.”

  Cap shuddered and turned to me with his head hung. “I’m sorry.”

  “I accept your apology,” I said, feigning sincerity.

  Maggie turned back to me and winked, then fluffed up the pillows behind my head, just to piss Cap off. “So, what’s this about Reid and Caitlin?”

  “I don’t know. I walked in on them kissing a few months back.”

  “A few months?” Cap shouted.

  “I had it under control. Besides, you know Sinner would never let anything-”

  “Sinner knew about this? Jesus fucking Christ! I’m gonna kill him. I’m gonna rip off his goddamn head.”

  “Relax,” I said, trying to hold back my laughter. “They were just practicing. Reid had a thing for Kayla and-”

  “So, he was using her?” Cap was fuming now. “Are you telling me that your kid was using my little girl so that he could move on to bigger and brighter pastures?”

  My chest ached when he called Reid my kid and I fought the need to rub at the ache. “He’s gone now anyway. Does it really matter?”

  That put a damper on the whole thing and Cap stepped back, his anger deflating. Maggie patted my hand, drawing my attention to her.

  “We all miss him.”

  I nodded, but couldn’t say anything else around the lump growing in my throat.

  “What about me?” Hunter asked. “Aren’t you going to make Cap apologize to me?”

  Maggie spun around to face him. “Are you in a hospital bed?”

  “No,” Hunter grumbled.

  “Do you have a concussion?”

  “
No.”

  “Then why would he apologize to you?”

  Hunter glared at me and I stuck out my tongue before Maggie could see. The door opened again, only this time, my heart literally fucking stopped in my chest. The love of my life, the one person that I needed more than anything in this world was standing there staring down at me. When she took her first step toward me, my heart slowly started beating again, then started thumping out of control. She was back, and she was here.

  “What happened? All I heard was that you were in the hospital.”

  I wanted so badly to hold her hand, but she wasn’t reaching out for me. She stayed a few feet away from me, almost like she couldn’t make herself come any closer.

  “That may have been my fault,” Cap piped up. “I may have attacked him.”

  “For what?”

  Cap grumbled under his breath and Maggie stepped in. “That’s not important. Now that you’re here. We’ll leave the two of you alone to talk.”

  Florrie looked panicked, like she didn’t want to be in the same room alone with me. I held out my hand to her, hoping and praying that she fucking took it. She stared down at it, but she didn’t move. I barely noticed everyone leaving the room. My gaze was set hard on Florrie and whatever move she would make next. She took a step back, clearing her throat as she straightened.

  “Are you okay?”

  “Fine,” I said gruffly, trying to cover the emotion of rejection.

  She nodded and crossed her arms over her chest.

  “How was the job?”

  She lifted one shoulder. “Normal.”

  “How are you?”

  Her gaze narrowed in on mine and she pursed her lips. “As you’d expect.”

  “Florrie-”

  “I’m glad you’re okay,” she said, turning on her heel.

  “Will I see you at home?”

  She looked over her shoulder, but not really looking at me. “Sure.”

  She was gone just a second later, and I was fucking destroyed. I felt the tears building, but I swallowed them back when I heard the murmurs outside the door. I wouldn’t let someone walk in on me fucking bawling my eyes out. I’d cried over Florrie in the past in front of Cap, not at all ashamed of those tears, but to have it happen twice was just embarrassing. The door swung open and Cap walked in.