I close my bedroom door behind me, strip out of my clothes and collapse onto the bed. It's just after midnight and I have to be up at six in order to have everything ready for Talia's meeting. She wants food for them, along with tea, coffee, and refreshments. We've all been instructed that we're not to argue or shout while the meeting is happening.
I close my eyes and start to fall asleep but the sound of my door opening has my body tensing. Not tonight, I silently beg. I'm too worn out, there's no way I'll be able to fight her. She's just going to take whatever she wants from me.
Two
John
“Dad. How are you?” I ask as I sit down on my chair. I’m fucking exhausted; I’ve just gotten back from a three week working trip. I had to fly out to Japan and deal with a client's security. He and his wife have been getting threatening letters and calls, and they called me needing help when the perp went from threatening them to hurting his wife. Thankfully we were able to find the fucker who had been terrorizing the couple and he’s safely behind bars.
“Good, although if you don’t call your mother, she may kill me,” he grouses.
I groan. Shit, my mom is a woman not to be messed with. She likes to have her family together for dinner once a week, or if she had her way, every day of the week and I’ve not been home to have a family dinner in over a month.
“Shit; I’ll call her.”
“You do that and maybe she can stop bitching to me,” he murmurs, and I know that they were both worried about me as they always do whenever I’m overseas. I was in the Army for years. I was injured four years ago and was medically discharged. Now I own a multi-million dollar security firm.
“And son, before you ask, I haven’t heard from her. Talia stopped us coming by after Paul died.” I know that not seeing Yoreli is eating away at my dad. Paul was his best friend and his business partner; Dad promised he’d watch over his daughter and her step-mom took her away and Dad’s not been able to locate her.
He also won’t let me find her. I have the means to do so and I could have her found within minutes but Dad has made me promise not to, that if Yoreli needs him she’ll call. I just hope that he’s right. We’re not even sure they still live in the same house; whenever I drive past, there’s no one home.
There’s something about her that I haven’t been able to forget. I’ve known her since she was born, but I hadn’t seen her in years and when I saw her at her father’s funeral it was like someone had sucker punched me in the gut. I couldn’t breathe as I stared at her. I’m usually so composed and yet as it took me a good few minutes to get myself under control. She’s not been far from my mind since then, and it pisses me off that she’s practically vanished.
“Okay, my next case is here in Detroit so I won’t be going anywhere for the foreseeable future.” My next case is a little more complex than any others that I’ve had. It involves computer hacking and shit I’m not really up on. Thankfully, I have a man on my staff who’s one hell of a hacker. Zeke can get into the FBI’s database within two minutes. He’s got an entire network of friends that can help him if need be.
“Good, your mom will be pleased. Have you thought more about having your brothers join you?” he asks, and it’s the same damn question he asks every few months.
“Dad, I’ve told you, if they go through the training then yes, I’ll be more than happy to have them on the team. I’m always looking for more men.”
“Good, I’d be expecting them to turn up at your office some time today,” he informs me and I frown; why would they be here?
I love my brothers; we’re all extremely close, but they’ve never once shown up at my work.
“Why?”
“John, just wait for them to tell you.”
There’s a knock on my office door and before I can say anything, the door opens and all four of my brothers are standing there with grins on their faces.
“They’re here. I’ll talk to you later,” I tell my father and end the call. “Come in,” I instruct my brothers.
They file in, each of them glancing around as they take in my office.
“What can I do for you?” My patience isn’t great. I want to go home and sleep.
“Well, you always told us we could work for you if we did the training,” Cohen says; he's the more serious of the bunch.
“I remember what I said.”
He raises his brow at me and hands me an envelope. “Open it.”
I do as he says and open it. I’m fucking shocked to see that not only has Cohen, but all my brothers, have completed the training required to work for me. They aced it. Not only that, I can see from the reports what their strengths and weaknesses are. I’m shocked that it’s Cage, my youngest, that is the all rounder; he’s good at everything. Including hacking. How the hell did I not know that little shit could hack?
Cohen and Talin are twins and they’re twenty-seven; their strengths are hand to hand combat and communications. Not that I’m surprised. They learned Krav Maga in their early twenties; they’re also black belts in Karate and know how to street fight. Those fuckers used to get into fights constantly when they were teenagers.
Matthew, from what the report says, could very well have been a sharp shooter. He’s that good. Damn, he almost beat my score and I’m fucking trained in this. He’s also good at communications but excels in subterfuge. He’s good at staying hidden in the shadows.
“Okay. Monday morning, you’ll be