9
Eric
With a to-go cup of coffee in my hand that a waitressnotnamed Katrina poured for me, I pocket my car keys and swing into the Checkmate Security offices with a smile for another sunny day and a wish the fall could last longer. Summer around here is hot as Hades, and the winter hurts my balls, so I enjoy the in-between seasons. I don’t wish a single second of them away, and I almost always have a smile, because for a short while each year, I’m neither melting or frozen.
Stepping past the six-foot-tall plastic ice cream statue tucked into the corner with a chuckle, I shake my head because the women attached to my co-workers,my brothers, are a bunch of devils in angels’ clothes. They steal, fight, cheat, cuss, andneverdo as they’re told, and despite the fact a couple of them are sisters to the law, they still loaded up into a family car, drove their asses across town and stole that ice cream statue because of a two-decade-long grudge against unfair working conditions and an old lady who was mean to them way back in high school.
The stealing wasn’t the issue, really, but shit heated up fast when Miss Dixie, the owner, dragged her sobbing self in here to hire our services to help her find the damn thing. I had to keep a straight face and talk the woman though the paperwork when our office went into full frenzy mode while the heathens hid the statue and giggled about it the whole time.
I consider this place my home away from home. It’s the place I’d honestly rather be, except perhaps sitting in an old diner watching a certain waitress walk. For eighteen months, I was working an undercover case and handled Jay and Kane Bishop while they worked. I was kind of the home base, the father figure, in a sense, and living with these guys on a semi-regular basis. But ten months ago, our case blew open; everyone was pulled back, and the home base we’d made became something else.
Kane Bishop is now living in that home with the woman he declares his whole existence for. Jessica Lenaghan will become Jessica Bishop before we know it, and though I stayed in that house with them for a little while, nobody wants to be the third wheel or lying in bed all alone while Jess and Kane’s headboard rhythmically slams against the wall.
It was a reminder of what I didn’t have, and too often, it tempted me to go out and find my own companion to spend a little time with. Which is how I ended up in the diner so often; I’d rather watch Katrina walk than any other woman doing anything else.
I seriously need help.
I’m no longer a Fed, but a civilian with too much alone time in the apartment above Ang’s garage and little direction in where I want my life to go. I lived and breathed the job for all of my adult life; I adopted new identities while I worked undercover, and kept busy watching Bishop backs. But now we’re out; the guys are in love, and the most excitement I see comes from cheating women and baseball bats in the dead of night.
But still, I take pleasure in my new job at the security company. Of all the jobs I could have considered once I became a civilian, doing this with my best friends is kind of the best-case scenario, even if I take a baseball bat to my shoulder sometimes. I’m in here from eight in the morning, and I don’t leave until after six in the afternoon, and during those hours, my time is filled with purpose.
I have something to do. A goal, a case, a mission.
I’m the first to offer myself up for extra time and surveillance work, and though the guys know what I’m doing and why, they allow it, because they know as soon as I clock out and everyone goes home, I’m left standing in the parking lot with a big fat question mark hanging over my head.
Where to now? What do I do? Where do I go?
I’ve tried to stay away from the woman who throws out the biggest neon rejections I’ve ever seen, but I can’t. Every time I stop in the parking lot and ask myself what next, I see her.
I don’t even know her! I shouldn’t think of her late at night when I’m all alone, but I can’t stop. So I inevitably find myself sitting in a booth in Franky’s for a couple hours while I watch the beautiful succubus work, and when she takes her twenty minutes for dinner, I try to mind my own damn business and not listen to her talk with her son.
I just want a minute of her time. But I’d rather it wasn’t through a video conference during stalker mediation.
“Eric!” Amid girly screams and stomping feet, one of my favorite blondes races through the office in tiny shorts and flying hair as she grabs my arm and swings behind me. Jess uses me as a shield despite my aching shoulder, until all formidable and shit, Sophia Solomon steps into the room with a fully automatic Nerf gun and points it right at my face. “Give her up, Cap, or you both die today.”
“What did you do to her? Jess?” I grab her arm and swing her giggling self around until she shields me. “What did you do to bring the wrath of a ballerina down on you?”
“She ate my Snickers.” Soph cocks her weapon and brings it higher. “She knows better.”
With a loud mock gasp, I shake the blonde twin and bite my smile when she collapses in a fit of laugher. “Why would you do that? Why would you steal food from her?”
“I didn’t know it was hers!”
“She knew, Cap.” Soph steps closer and brings the not-at-all-standard scope mounted to the top of the plastic rifle up to her eyes. “I have you both in my sight, and I’ve rigged this machine up to be powerful enough to take you both out.”
“Sophia!” Jay Bishop’s voice echoes from the back garage. It sounds almost concerned, but I don’t think it’s for the ballerina’s safety. “Sophia Solomon!” His voice comes closer until he and his brother stop at the doorway with wide eyes and shocked expressions. “What happened?”
“She ate my candy bar, babe.”
“Jessica!” Jay scolds, though he can’t hide the way his lips twitch. “We talked about this, dammit. She needs to eat, or we’re all in her scope. Sophia, beautiful, I got some gummies that’ll take the sting away. You just gotta put down your weapon.”
“No, I wanted the Snickers.” She doesn’t lower her piece a single hair. It’s all fun and games, and no one will die today, but not a single person in this room fools themselves into thinking she won’t make the shot and drop us both to our asses. “Why’d you take my candy, Jessica? You have three seconds to explain yourself, then you gotta make peace with your maker.”
“I was hungry!” Jess continues giggling. “I was so friggin’ hungry, I was gonna eat the fridge door. Instead I found an almost frozen chocolate bar and considered it the universe rewarding me.”
“Rewarding you for what?” Soph asks in a serious tone. “You didn’t do shit to earn my candy bar.”
“Sophia,” Jay rumbles. “Ease it back.”