SawyersFutureWife:Sawyer, o Sawyer, where for art thou Sawyer? And when are you coming back?
Amy’sBooks:Okay, you really don’t understand that iconic scene. Juliet is not asking where Romeo is, she is asking why he has to be Romeo, a Montague, a member of that family, the Capulets’ arch enemies. It’s a common mistake...
SawyerFutureWife:Bite me.
With Sawyer gone, Kai’s office, which was usually seldom used, transformed into Grand Central Station. As he learned that first Monday in the hot seat, there wasn’t much that happened at Caswallawn that Sawyer didn’t have a hand in. So Kai approved a stack of requisitions, agreed that flowers should be sent to a client’s wife—he was a Brazilian billionaire who employed six of their PPOs—because she’d just produced his sixth son, and took a call from another client wondering if he needed protection to go to Kashmir. And hell, yeah, he did. Kai signed off on the payroll, looked over the staff schedules, and in between the interruptions, tried to look over the three-day training schedule for the group of corporate civilians who were arriving tomorrow for their team-building session.
Sawyer had decided that the sales team from Philadelphia—two women and six men— would spend the first morning on their state-of-the-art paintball course, break for lunch, and then have two hours of survival training. All under his supervision.
Oh, bliss. What joy.
Kai picked up his telephone and dialed the extension for Sawyer’s PA. When Jenny finally answered, he asked her to check on the lunch arrangements and whether their clients needed transport from their hotel to Caswallawn.
“Sawyer usually writes all of that down at the end of the schedule,” Jenny told him. Kai flipped over a page and squinted at Sawyer’s scrawl.
“It looks like they’re finding their own way here, but it doesn’t say anything about lunch,” Kai told her.
“I’ll find out,” Jenny told him. “Oh, and Reagan’s on her way to see you.”
As he replaced the handset on its cradle, Reagan rapped on the open door and half-leaned into his office. “Hey! Have you got a minute?”
“No, not really but come on in,” Kai told her, leaning back in his chair and linking his hands behind his head.
“How are you enjoying being the boss?” Reagan asked, taking a seat in the only other chair in the room. Before he could answer her cell phone rang and, after looking at the display, she flashed him an apologetic smile. “It’s Axl.”
“Take it,” Kai said. Reagan placed a white box on the corner of his desk before answering her call.
He’d been the boss for three hours and he wasn’t enjoying any of it. He’d held rank in his military unit and had been happy to take command, to issue orders, to take responsibility—but that was in the hot zone, where adrenaline was pumping and lives were at stake. This was just boring. But until Sawyer was back and Kai left to join Mark in Aberdeen, this was what he’d have to do. He couldn’t change it, so there was no point moaning about it. When Kai came back to Mercy, he was usually able to distance himself from the day-to-day problems and irritations of Cas since Sawyer was so damn efficient. But now those problems and irritations were all his. He was very aware that he didn’t have Sawyer’s patience and charm, so he hoped that their staff and clients would keep the drama to the minimum.
So what that he didn’t want to be here, doing this? He would because Sawyer asked him to. And he’d do it to the best of his ability. Besides, he’d never run from a challenge in his life. He never gave up and he never gave in. He faced life, and every shitty thing it threw at him, back straight and chin lifted. His friend needed his help so there was never any other choice than to step up and do what he was asked.
He’d be nice to the clients, decisive with the staff, and he’d keep his distance from the woman with the eyes of a mermaid. He was still trying to forget what he and Flick did, how her eyes changed color with passion, her scent, the feel of her soft skin under his hard hands. Her husky laugh, the funny noise she made in her throat when she was turned on, the way she felt when he slid into her.
It was a one-time thing, Manning. We agreed on that. Right. Good. All he needed to do was what Sawyer asked of him, and then he could leave Mercy.
Reagan ended her call and pushed the box closer to him. “That was Axl being the usual pain in my butt. I brought you a present.”
Kai leaned forward, dropped his hands, and smiled when he noticed the Artsy Tartsy logo. He flipped open the lid of the box and his mouth watered at the glossy swirls of caramel frosting on top of the chocolate cupcakes. He didn’t have many weaknesses—hell, weakness was not part of his vocabulary—but if he had to admit to one, then it was his obsession with sugar, specifically chocolate. Maybe it was because sweets and chocolate had been harder to come by on the streets and later, in the system, than moon dust. His mother had liked to prioritize the little money they infrequently had; hard drugs and booze were higher up her list than say, food and rent. Filling his belly was a hope rather than an expectation, and sweets were a rarity.
He picked up one cupcake, pulled back the paper, and bit down, groaning when the sweet hit of sugar and cocoa spread across his tongue. “You are most definitely my favorite employee.”
Reagan grinned. “I walked down this morning. I saw that woman again—Flick? And I met her partner.”
“Pippa?”
“Mmm.”Reagan frowned. “Oh, and while I was there, some kid was asking for directions to Cas.”
“Here? A kid? How old?”
“Seventeen, eighteen? Before I could ask her why she was asking, Flick gave her directions and she bolted. Have you seen her yet?” Reagan asked.
“Nope, and I probably won’t. She probably just wants some information for her boyfriend or brother on how they can sign up for one of our courses,” Kai replied, fast losing interest. There were, after all, cupcakes to be eaten. He was about to reach for the last one when Regan swiped it from under his hand.
He protested, but Reagan looked thoroughly unrepentant. With that mischievous expression on her face, she looked like the young girl they’d all met when she was sixteen. She was Mike’s bratty sister and she’d had a crush on all three of his closest friends at one time or another. First Sawyer, then him, then Axl.
She’d grown up and out of all that nonsense when Mike had been killed in Somalia shortly before her twentieth birthday. She’d adored her brother. He was her hero—he was a hero to all of them—and she’d wanted to keep her connection to him through his best friends.
Axl had freaked when she’d signed on for one of the first personal protection courses they held. She’d been a natural, but Axl had still had kittens when Kai and Sawyer decided to employ Reagan as their first, and still their best, female bodyguard. He still bitched about her assignments and was meticulous in checking up on her. It drove Reagan nuts.