That’s the most comprehensive thought process I’ve heard come from Jason. Maybe he’s not as dumb as he acts. The fact these two are openly talking about TREX in front of me gives me hope. Maybe I’m in after all. I hate not knowing and ask, “Did I pass the last test?”
“And then some, dude. You’re in better shape than either one of us. You’d never know you already put in five miles before we joined you on the run. And you’ve got stupid fast reflexes.”
“It’s your over-the-top protective instincts we need to work on,” Jackson adds.
“Dude,” Jason protests. “Ease him in, man.”
I’m offended. I don’t need to be eased in, and I definitely don’t need to work on my instincts. “What’s wrong with protective instincts? I don’t back down from standing up for those who deserve it. How is that a bad thing?”
“There’s a time and place for everything, Ryan. That’s what you’ll learn in the program.”
“A couple ground rules.” Jason grabs a piece of toast, using the corner as a pointer. “Don’t go bragging to your friends about being in an internship program for TREX. There’s a reason why they call it a covert agency.”
Like I have any friends to brag to. Well, except one. I snag Emma’s gaze as she delivers food to another booth. “What am I supposed to tell her?”
“There’s a script with a list of things you’re allowed to say.” Jackson shoves another piece of bacon into his mouth. “Starting with what excuse you’re going to use on Emma as to why you can’t have her come over after she gets off work.”
I jerk my attention to him, not liking where this is heading. As much as I want this, I don’t want it getting in the way of any of my time with Emma. “Why can’t she come over after work?”
“You’re going to be busy. You also get off at two and will have half an hour to report to this address.” He slides a folded piece of paper across the table. “Dress ready to work out.”
After running eight miles, I don’t know if I can take another workout today. My muscles are twitching as it is. I definitely need to let them rest before I pull something. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. I pushed myself too far on that run. My muscles need to rest.”
“Oh, boohoo.” Jackson hardens his expression. “TREX agents push themselves past the point of exhaustion all the time. They push through being shot, push through blown-out knees, through being poisoned. So forgive me if I don’t have an ounce of sympathy for goddamn muscles needing a little rest. TREX up.”
Holy shit. Where’d that come from? What happened to the guy I came into the diner with? Give him a few pieces of bacon and he turns from Bruce Banner into the Hulk. A dick version of the Hulk on top of that.
“Way to ease him in.” Jason steals a piece of my bacon while I’m still in too much of a state of shock processing what Jackson just said. “Eat, dude. Your food is getting cold. Besides, you’re going to need your strength.”
What the hell did I get myself into?
20
TREX HQ
“What do you mean, he tried to back out?” Bailey didn’t attempt to hide the worry in her voice. Harold Ryan was supposed to be her gold star. Her sure win. He was who she planned to use as her poster child for the program. No way did he try to back out of his first training.
Jason looked to Jackson, who waved for him to continue. “We ran the final test.”
“Literally,” Jackson grumbled.
“And?” She’d jumped from worry to desperation. “What’s that got to do with him trying to back out? Is he worried about the physical aspects of the program?” It wasn’t unheard of for a gamer to be more of a couch potato than a marathon runner.
“He can run circles around us,” Jackson pointed out. “Literally. He’s clearly in better shape than either one of us. He already had several miles in by the time we joined him. That’s not it.”
“Then what is it?” When Jackson wouldn’t answer her, she focused on Jason. “Jas? What’s really going on? Because I don’t think you guys are worried about Ryan missing his first workout.”
“He challenged me,” he finally said.
“So? I challenge you all the time.”
“No, Bails.” He pushed off the wall. “He challenged me. Like full-on, in my face challenge. If we weren’t in a booth, he probably would have bumped my chest.”
“I don’t…”
“Tombstone courage.” Jackson crossed his arms. “I’ve seen it too many times in rookies. They think they have to take on every threat just to prove themselves.”
“Not every threat,” Jason corrected and regarded Bailey. “Only when it comes to his girl.”
Her heart skipped. That sounded all too familiar. Jason did stupid things when it came to her. Stupid things like flying to Montana to confront her big BIL, who’d taken on the role of overprotective brother—like she needed another one of those. She already had four who were blood relatives. Add in her plethora of cousins, and David Snyder would have to stand in line to protect her.
None of them scared her nearly as much as her brother-in-law. Maybe not scared her. More like made her scared for the guys she dated. She’d been with Jason Bowman since David had married into the McKoy family. So, yes. Her big BIL made her scared for Jason. He didn’t like Jason and made that no secret.
“You’re saying he may not be a viable prospect because he challenged you to protect Emma?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying.” Jason looked to Jackson, who agreed with a nod.
“That’s what you have to go on?” Her anxiety lifted. “That his protective instincts kicked in? How is that a bad thing?”
“It could get him killed if he’s on a find and his protective instincts kick in.” Jackson used air quotes to emphasize the words. “If he’s only focused on protecting her, he may miss critical signs of threats that are right in front of him.”
“At least he’s got instincts,” she countered. “I’ve been on too many finds where the agent missed the signs because he didn’t know what to look for. We can teach him how to recognize threats. We can teach him when to engage and when to stand down. What we can’t teach him are instincts. Those come naturally. You either have them or you don’t. Ryan has them.”
“What are you saying? You want us to let him out of his first day of training all because you think he’s got sound instincts?”
“I’m saying I want you to trust our first member of the internship program. I expect each and every one of them to challenge us. We have things to teach them. What makes you think they don’t have things to teach us?” A buzzer sounded, announcing someone at the front door of the building. Bailey glanced at the monitor. “So much for him backing out of his first training.”
“I’ll get him,” Jason offered. “Jackson pulled the TREX card at breakfast and had the poor guy shitting himself.”
She glared at Jackson. After Jason left the room, she snapped, “Are you trying to screw this up?”
“I’m doing my job by vetting prospective agents. We can’t afford to dilute TREX by allowing in the runts of the litter.”
“Do you think he’s weak?” She waited. He didn’t answer and crossed his arms, working his jaw. He would no longer look at her. When he squared his shoulders, she lowered hers. Ah, hell. She recognized that body language. Having an entire family of over-the-top alphas gave her the advantage when it came to reading the opposite sex. “We’re not talking about Ryan, are we?”
Jackson looked at her before quickly jumping his gaze to the door. It took two minutes and forty-five seconds to get from this room to the front door and back. They had enough time to talk about what really had him tense enough to shatter.
“What’s going on with you? Jackson, talk to me.”
“Why would I talk to you?” He forced out a harsh laugh.
“Do you think I’m one of the weak ones?”
“It’s not you,” he pointed out. “It’s the company you keep.”
“You think Jas
on is weak?” That shocked her. Jason was one of the strongest agents she knew. No, this wasn’t about Jason. This was something else. “You don’t like him with me.”
He looked at her. “I don’t like him. Period. He’s too arrogant.”
“An arrogant TREX agent? Oh, no. That’s completely unheard of.”
“This is why I didn’t want to talk to you about it.”
Jason opened the door and led Ryan into the room. Bailey placed her back to them and held Jackson in her sights. “We’ll talk more later.”
“No,” he shot back. “We won’t.”
“Set your stuff wherever,” Jason instructed Ryan. He entered the room and gave it a cursory glance before dropping a gym bag next to the door. That told her he hadn’t made up his mind whether he planned to stay or not. They’d put him through a series of tests. It was now their turn.
“Welcome to the TREX internship program.” Bailey held out her hand.
Ryan accepted it and glanced around again. “Am I the only intern?”
“At the moment.”
He eyed the door. “You mean for the training?” He regarded her. “Or for the program?”
“Both.” She followed up by repeating, “At the moment.”
“Is that a problem?” Jackson asked.
Ryan barely gave him a second look. Maybe he didn’t scare as easily as Jason thought. Either that or he was very good at hiding it. Bailey had a knack at reading people. Ryan didn’t give off any signals of being scared. Curious, sure. Cautious, absolutely. But not scared.
Another sign of a good agent.
“Have a seat,” she instructed and motioned at the giant conference table in the center of the large room TREX had convinced the university to reserve for the program. It took a few calls from Special Director Weber to convince the powers that be, but the agency got the room in the basement of the rec center. It stayed cool, didn’t have any windows to distract the interns or attract unwanted attention, and was as close to soundproof as it got without lining the walls. Any noises would be covered by the everyday sounds of the gym above them. “The first thing we need to do is—”
“Stop,” David interrupted as he barged into the room, a computer bag in hand, which caught Bailey’s eye. He wasn’t one to use computers.
Ryan sat up a little straighter. “Agent Snyder, sir.”
“Hey, kid.” He nodded, clearly impressed. Ryan knew who to suck up to. Observant. “I wish I were here with good news. As part of the agreement to allow us into the university, we had to make a few concessions.”
Bailey didn’t like the way David looked at Ryan. “No.”
“Sorry, Bails. He’s off-limits.”
“But…” she trailed off, not sure what else to say. David wouldn’t interrupt them to deliver this kind of news unless it came from higher up.
Ryan stood. “What do you mean, off-limits?”
“We’ve got our orders. We aren’t allowed to touch you.”
“Whose orders?”
“Stuart Ryan, your father. He practically owns this university. If we want in, we have to play by his rules.”
“That’s not… That’s bullshit.”
“It is what it is.”
“No,” he insisted and pounded his fist on the table. “I won’t let my dad take this from me.”
David sighed and pinched the skin above his nose. It was something she’d seen Weber do. A lot. Her BIL must have picked it up from his best friend. “We don’t have a choice here, Ryan.”
“The hell we don’t.” He stormed to the door and grabbed his bag. “I’ll take care of this. Text me the time of the next training. I’ll be there.” He walked out with purpose.
Bailey wanted to scream. Who was Stuart Ryan to take this from his son? “That selfish bastard. I can’t believe he’d…” She stopped when she caught David smiling. “What?”
“He said we. He’s already associating himself with TREX.”
“And?” There was always an and when he had that glimmer in his eye.
“We’re not in the position to go up against Stuart Ryan and his power.”
“But his son is.” Bailey made the connection aloud. It bothered her. Oh, how it bothered her. “Ryan is a bigger asset than just being a connection to his father. Please tell me that’s not your angle.”
“He seems a solid choice,” David answered without actually answering. “Let’s see how he handles this.”
“Something tells me it’s bigger than Daddy worried about his boy getting hurt.”
“It is. Stuart Ryan is to colleges what Rupert Murdoch is to media. He doesn’t just have his fingers in Bainbridge University. Most of the major universities this side of the Rockies have some sort of Ryan stamp of approval. This goes much deeper than him not wanting his son involved with an agency that specializes in finding things.”
“If he’s in bed with so many colleges,” Jackson started.
“He can control the curriculum,” Jason finished. “Why would he want to do that?”
“If you own the information,” Bailey said in a mutter. “You can bend it any way you want.”
“I don’t think that’s what this is.” David set the bag on the table and pulled out a laptop. “The board can direct, but they don’t have final say on the curriculum. There’s more to this, more than we’ve been able to dig up—yet.”
“Until Ryan.” Bailey made the connection.
“That’s why Stuart Ryan doesn’t want TREX to touch his son. This isn’t about Daddy worried his kid will be in any danger. He’s worried Ryan will put it all together, which is exactly what we need.”
“What’s that?” Bailey nodded at the beefy computer.
“This is how Ryan is going put it all together.”
21
[Ryan]
I try my dad again. When I get one of his many secretaries, I don’t leave a message. I’ve already left three. For a man who claims to need to talk to me, he’s sure as hell not making much of an effort. Then again, he never has.
There’s only one other person who’ll understand how hard it is to have Stuart Ryan as a father. As much as I hate the idea, I need to talk this through with someone who’ll get it. I tap my brother’s number.
“Go for Derek.”
I roll my eyes, already regretting the decision to call him. Hearing his voice convinces me to hang up. What was I thinking? Derek wouldn’t sympathize. He’d only find a way to hold this against me like he does everything else.
My phone buzzes and I check the number, irritated he called me back. I debate ignoring the call, but then decide to take it. I’ll tell him it was a butt dial. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to call you.”
“Bullshit, bro. You don’t call me. Like, ever. Don’t even try to pass this off as something you didn’t mean to do. What’s up with you?”
“I’m just…” I laugh into the air, pissed I can’t even talk to my own flesh and blood. “I’m having a really bad day.”
“What’d he do?”
“Who?”
“Don’t even. We have one thing in common. Our last name and our parents.”
“That’s two things. Three, technically, if you count Mom and Dad separately.” Why I feel the need to correct him, I have no idea.
“Don’t be a dick,” Derek barks. That’s usually my line. “If you called to take out whatever’s got you so pissed on me, I’m hanging up. We haven’t talked since Christmas. You could at least pretend to give a shit.”
“I do.” I groan and close my eyes, feeling like shit. “I’m just…”
“You’re having a bad day.”
“I’m having a really bad day.”
“And we’ve come full circle. What’d he do?”
His question opens the floodgates. I unleash, needing to talk to someone before I explode. “I finally have a chance to do what I want, to be something, you know? Just when I’m finally there, Dad steps in and yanks it away like he does everything else.”
“Uh…” He
spends far too many seconds in silence. “We’re not talking sex, right?”
“No, Derek. We’re not talking sex.” I’m back to wanting to hang up on him.
“Good, cuz that’d just be weird.”
How can we even be related? “Never mind. Forget I called.”
“Dude, chill.” He laughs. The son of a bitch actually laughs. God, I hate my brother. “It was a joke.”
“You know that’s what he does, right?” When he doesn’t say anything, I go into more detail. “He changes the subject whenever it’s something he doesn’t want to talk about.”
Derek sighs. “Yeah, I know. Low blow…uh…bro.”
That’s about as serious as it gets with my brother. Right now, I’ll take it. I collapse to the couch and rest my head on the back cushion. As much as I want to tell him about TREX, my instructions were clear. It’s not exactly bragging, but it is admitting to a covert agency. I’m sure that’s against the rules.
Then again, if our dad knows about TREX, what are the chances Derek does, too? I decide to test that theory. “Have you ever heard of tactical retrieval experts?”
“Tactical what?”
That answers the question. “Never mind.”
“Is that like a video game or something?”
“I said never mind.”
“You’re being weird. I mean, even weirder than normal.”
“Derek,” I growl, something I don’t usually do—unless I’m dealing with my family.
“Why are you asking about TREX?” His question, so direct, catches me off-guard. He’s using a tone I rarely hear from my brother—concern.
When I realize he called the agency by name, my heart rate picks up. “You do know about them.”
“I never said I did.”
“I never called them by name,” I counter.
Reluctant Hero (TREX Rookies Book 1) Page 16
