Titus took a seat in the boat. “You don’t expect to have guests, huh?”
“Not if I can help it.”
Titus snorted. “I can understand that.”
“Which brings me to the question of why are you here?” Younger reached into the small cooler at his feet and pulled out two bottled waters. “It’s too early for beer. Water is all you get.”
Titus took the bottle and popped it open. “Water is perfectly fine. I just wanted to stop by and talk to you. I had to do another one of those neighborhood watch patrols. I was out walking and figured I would nip on down here.”
“Nip on down here?” Younger heard his own voice getting tight and incredulous and tried to rein it in. It was difficult though when his boss was literally talking nonsense. “It’s at least ten miles from your house to mine, even going around the shoreline and avoiding roads. In fact, I think that might be longer!”
“It is,” Titus agreed with a wolfish smile. “But that’s not important. I needed the exercise. After dealing with my old lady neighbor for a few hours, I think I’m ready to run another twenty miles just to calm down.”
Younger drew back as he tried to imagine an old lady neighbor that bad. “Holy cow! What’s wrong with this woman?”
“Her pug. That’s what’s wrong with her,” Titus said absently. “But I wanted to ask you about the mall gig last night. What happened? Did you see the vandals? What sort of situation are we looking at here? Are we going to need to put more guys on duty there? What’s the situation report?”
Younger frowned and tried to imagine Titus being that interested in a mall security job. It was all a little odd in Younger’s opinion, but maybe he was looking at this in the wrong way. Maybe Titus was on the level and he was just curious. It was a rather odd job for their company.
The expectant expression on Titus’s face wasn’t quite right. Younger sighed and wondered what to say about his experience at Branson Landing last night.
“That good, huh?” Titus prompted. “Okay. So tell me this. Did you see the vandals?”
“Yes. I got a pretty good look at three of them,” Younger mused. Then he laid out for Titus what had happened, starting with the ridiculous sweep operation put into action by the former army colonel-turned-security guard and finishing with the ice cream splattered all over the perpetrators.
At some point, Titus started to laugh. His eyes crinkled and his shoulders shook and he looked as though he was going to fall out of the boat. “I’m sorry, man, but that is funny! Are you telling me this army guy put together a sweep that moved from one end of the promenade to the other without actually thinking about what would happen when the little skateboarding guerillas just slipped in from the sides?”
“Yes. That is exactly what I’m telling you.” Younger sighed. When put like that, it did sound rather ridiculous. “I’m not sure what the guy’s problem is. I think he’s… but I don’t like to say that because it really makes it seem like I doubt Laurie Talcott’s competence and I don’t.”
“That’s the security manager?” Titus prompted.
Younger nodded and stared off into the trees. “I don’t like her. I don’t. She’s one of those people who makes you feel like she’s… I don’t even know how to describe it.”
“You don’t know how to describe it.” There was a smile playing at the corners of Titus’s mouth. “That sounds like a problem.”
“No. It’s not a problem at all,” Younger growled. “Why would it be a problem? I don’t need to like her. I don’t have to say why. I’m just supposed to work this case until it’s done and over with and honestly, at this rate…” Younger paused and shook his head. He could actually see this whole thing playing out in his head. “At this rate, it will be over before too long just because Laurie Talcott can’t stand up to Colonel Josh Bentley. That man is going to convince her to do things his way and that’s Laurie Talcott’s problem and not mine.”
“All right then.” Titus stood up. “I suppose I’ll get back to the house and get ready for work.”
“Go back and get ready?” Younger said sarcastically. “Why not just keep running until you get there?”
“You know,” Titus drawled, “I might just do that. You’ve got a good idea there. I’ll just run into the office. No big deal right?”
“Oh sure. Just another thirty miles.” Younger shook his head and stood up. “I’ll be in a bit later. I have to meet Laurie Talcott at two o’clock.”
Younger walked with Titus up the steep, rock-strewn path to his house. The small dwelling wasn’t much bigger than a shack and that’s what Younger liked the most about it. Nice and out of the way. It was exactly what Younger had wanted—a place away from everything.
They made it to the top of the hill, Titus chatting amicably and with a strange kind of lightheartedness about mundane things having to do with the office. But when they got to the top, Younger was surprised to see Colonel Josh Bentley standing at the end of Younger’s front walk.
Titus’s entire demeanor changed. He stopped walking and stood stiff with a narrowed gaze and a dangerous expression on his face. Younger could not help but make the comparison between Titus and a dog that’s just seen an intruder. He went from friendly to businesslike in a single breath.
“Mr. Bentley,” Younger said deliberately. He wasn’t sure why he felt such a need to call attention to the fact that they were no longer in the military, but Younger felt it necessary. “What brings you out here so early in the morning?”
“I was looking for you,” Bentley said with a narrowed gaze.
Titus chuffed out a low grunt. “And how exactly did you get the home address of one of my employees?”
“So, you must be Titus Holbrook.” Bentley’s lip curled with obvious disdain. “I’ve heard about you.”
Titus looked nonplussed. “Have you? If that’s the case, then I’m sure you’ve heard that crossing me is always a bad idea.”
“I don’t see where this is crossing anything,” Bentley blustered.
Younger tried to set aside the feeling of intrusion and focus on reasons why Josh Bentley might decide he needed to come all the way out here to piss in Younger’s yard. To make a point, obviously, but which point?
“I’m assuming,” Younger began slowly, “you’re here to tell me you don’t need my help with these vandals.”
“It’s not that simple.”
Bentley must have been anticipating he would at least guess that much. Great. So, he’d actually thought about this idiocy before through with it.
“You’re trying to distract Ms. Talcott from the real problem.”
Younger frowned and wondered where Bentley had gotten his logic. “How do you figure that?”
“You’re telling her to hold that skateboard in the lost and found?” Bentley’s voice was harsh. “For what purpose? Why would you hold it anywhere? You throw it out! That makes a statement. That has a purpose. To make sure these hoodlums know they cannot mess with our security team without paying consequences.”
“I see.” And Younger sort of did. “So, you’re all about taking a strong stance and keeping them out by building a wall?”
“Yes!” the older man burst out. “That’s the only way to accomplish anything! You have to see that, you arrogant little whelp! I’ll check on you, Mister Younger Adair. I will. I’ll pull your service record and I will show Ms. Talcott that you’re nothing but a filthy liar.”
“Now look here…” Titus started to growl but Younger grabbed his boss’s tense forearm and gave it a squeeze to tell him to stop.
Younger wasn’t afraid of his service record. He had never done anything remarkable enough to be written up for it. “You do that, Bentley. I’m not entirely sure what you’re expecting to find, but I’m betting you’ll be disappointed.”
“We’ll just see about that.” Josh Bentley jabbed his index finger in Younger’s direction and then threw one last order right in his face. “At two o’clock today you had better resign or you
won’t like the consequences.”
Younger watched Bentley get into his beat up old truck and drive off. Obviously, the guy didn’t know much about Marines. They didn’t give up. Ever.
Chapter Ten
Laurie Talcott dragged herself into work and barely made it from the parking lot to the coffee shop for her usual morning latte. She sucked down that caffeine and took a seat in a corner of the shop in order to eat an enormous chocolate chip and banana walnut muffin. She wished she could stay there all day long. Just right there in the tiny corner of the shop where she could watch people and pretend she didn’t have to go to work.
Work. The place she went every single day to pretend she knew what she was doing.
Laurie lifted the paper take-away coffee cup to her lips and inhaled the rich scent. As she closed her eyes and took a sip of the smooth, hot liquid, she thought about last night. She had watched Younger Adair single-handedly, and with enviable capability, take down three little vandals with one well-played game of chicken. What bothered her about that? That was the question, wasn’t it?
But Laurie already knew what bothered her. It was the fact that no matter how she spun it, she would never have been able to do something like that. She could spout off a bunch of rhetoric about toughening up on vandals or cracking down on shoplifting, but when it came right down to it, she was nothing but a wimp.
A fraud. A fake. The worst security manager the Landing has ever seen.
The words spun around and around in her head. Laurie set down her coffee cup and reached for a fork in order to spear a bite of muffin. In the process, she became distracted by the sight of her own hands. They were too small and feminine. She was six-foot-seven inches tall and perhaps a hundred and fifty pounds. She had been athletic growing up, but what did she do now? Nothing!
Somehow, eating that muffin only made her feel worse about herself. The yumminess of the fluffy cake-like texture of that muffin served to remind Laurie that she was just taking in calories that she would likely never burn. She was going to lose her job because she was incompetent and not fit to serve.
As if to underscore her feelings of insecurity, Josh Bentley strode past the coffee shop with his huge, swinging walk and his military-style, everyday casual dress—cargo pants and combat boots. Not unlike Younger Adair. Maybe it was a former military thing. Either way, Laurie felt herself beginning to shrink into her seat in the café as she waited for the inevitable.
Josh’s constant scanning spotted Laurie’s face in the shop window only moments before he waved and turned to walk inside. Great. This would just make her day complete. Laurie forced herself to look nonchalant and unconcerned.
“Good morning, Josh, how are you on this bright and sunny day?” There. That was bright and happy. Right?
Josh’s grizzled leathery face seemed to crinkle up even more. “What’s good about it? I hear we have another visitation from that expensive security consultant today. I can’t imagine that’s going to be much fun dealing with Adair.”
“I’m meeting with Mr. Adair at two o’clock.” Even as the words came out of Laurie’s mouth, she could not help but wonder how and where Josh had discovered Younger Adair’s surname. Laurie hadn’t mentioned it and, to her knowledge, Younger hadn’t mentioned it either. He had seemed almost reticent to tell her what it had been. That suggested Josh had been digging around about Younger. But why? “I can’t imagine why you would need to speak with him,” Laurie continued. “After all, you’re going to be out on one of your patrols. Right? I wouldn’t expect you to come back into the office just to meet with a security consultant that I can handle on my own.”
Josh did not look amused by her thoughts. His flinty gray eyes got that much sharper and he pursed his lips. Then he looked down at her muffin. “Junk food for breakfast, Laurie? I thought we talked about that. Eggs and bacon. Steak. Protein. Stick to that and you’ll have a great day full of energy. It’s common sense really. You need to cut down on the carbs or you’ll never build the kind of muscle that will allow you to really get in there with the hand to hand combat.”
“This isn’t an urban warfare jungle,” Laurie reminded Josh in a mild tone of voice. Her heart was fluttering madly against her ribcage and she felt more than a little breathless. But she had to speak up for herself. “A single muffin isn’t going to ruin my entire day. I’m positive of that.”
“And that foamed milk crap you drink,” Josh continued, “do you have any notion of the amount of carbs, fat, and calories that are in that cup?”
Laurie picked up the cup of “foamed milk crap” and sipped it. She must have been feeling very daring this morning, though she could not fathom why. “I think it tastes good. And if I can’t have one treat in the morning to get me going, then what good is being alive? That’s what I want to know, Josh. If we just eat food for fuel and never enjoy anything that passes our lips, then how are we supposed to enjoy life?”
“Life isn’t about enjoyment,” Josh growled. He was shaking his head. “You know, when you were first promoted I had really high hopes for you. You were a woman, but you’re practical and you’ve always had an interest in the nuts and bolts of the security job. You wanted to learn all of that hand to hand combat that I taught you back then? Do you remember?”
Yes. She remembered. She also remembered feeling as though she would die after the sessions she had with Josh. He pummeled her with his words and his wrapped and padded fists until Laurie felt as though she was never going to be able to get up off the floor.
“You haven’t kept up with your workouts. Have you?” Josh was shaking his head now. “I can tell that you’re losing your stamina.”
It was not really a question. Josh was accusing her of a crime and he wasn’t being easy about it. Funny how she used to think she was really the boss. When had that shifted? And no, she hadn’t been working out. It was freaking hot outside and Josh’s workout regimen, the one he recommended for Laurie to stay in shape, was prohibitively long. When did she have time for an hour and half long marathon of running, crunches, sit ups, and then a tour of the entire promenade with a jump rope?
“I’ve been working out in the mornings at home where it’s not hot enough to kill me,” Laurie told him after a minute or two. He was staring at her now with an expression that Laurie couldn’t read. She was supposed to be in control of the security team here at the Landing. It was not Josh who had been promoted to that position. Perhaps that was part of his problem. He thought he could do her job better.
Before Laurie could think better of it, her mouth started talking without getting permission from her brain. “Josh, you act as though you feel like you could do a better job at being in my position. If that’s true, then why don’t you just apply to the corporate department heads and get me replaced?”
Josh sputtered. Then his frown got even deeper. His eyes shot sparks and for just a moment Laurie was afraid she was going to have a scene on her hands. The sort of scene that usually ended with the shop clerks calling her in her office to ask for security personnel to assist.
“That’s completely out of line!” Josh finally managed to say. “You’re deliberately misunderstanding everything that I’ve said. Why do you always do that, Laurie? It’s completely unprofessional. If this was—”
He’d been about to say that if this were the army, then she would have never spoken to him with such disrespect. He was quite fond of saying that. Repeatedly. Sometimes Laurie was pretty sure Josh had such a low opinion of her in general that it was almost irreparable.
“That wasn’t my intention,” Laurie told him quietly. She was hoping he would hear her being quiet and follow suit. There were several groups of tourists entering the coffee shop and there was no need for them to be forced to listen to this sort of bickering. That was unprofessional in Laurie’s opinion. “You know that I value your expertise in this field.”
“You have a business degree,” Josh reminded her for the millionth time. “I don’t know how in the hell that mak
es you fit to lead a group of men tasked with keeping the citizens in this mall safe from shoplifters and vandals.”
Laurie pressed her lips into such a tight line that she felt as though all of the blood were being squeezed out. Why did it always seem as though he was arguing in circles and she was caught in the middle? As if she was in a washing machine just going around and around. At some point, she was going to have to get out of the machine and try to figure out which way was up and which was down, but for now it was difficult to try to decipher what Josh meant when he got so upset with her over something that should have been a simple conversation.
“I just told you that if you honestly feel like you would be better at my job than I am, you should apply to the corporate managers,” Laurie reminded him calmly. “You tell me that you don’t mean that, and then you say it again. So, I feel like you really do mean it, Josh.”
Josh gave a disgusted shake of his head. “It’s just that you’ve been slacking off lately, Laurie.”
“This is the first I’ve heard about it.” She wondered if he had just been biding his time about mentioning it. Sometimes she felt like he waited until she was already doubting herself and then slammed her with another round of negativity. “I wonder why you didn’t feel like you needed to mention it before?”
“I did mention it,” he told her roughly. “I’ve mentioned it dozens and dozens of times. You just don’t listen.”
Laurie frowned. Was he right? Was she ignoring or misunderstanding what he’d told her? She struggled to think back, to try to discover if she had been somehow ignoring what was right in front of her. But her mind was jumbled. She’d been busy lately. Maybe she had blown off something that Josh had told her. Maybe more than one thing. Maybe she had been so distracted with this skateboard gang that she had totally forgotten something that Josh had said in the last few weeks. It was possible. She had been very preoccupied and Josh seemed as though he had been fuming beneath the surface. That didn’t suggest he was just now coming up with this gripe.
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