[B.S. #1] Tied Up in Knotts

by Dale Cadeau

  “Thanks, guys, I really appreciate the help. I guess I’ll just go back and do a quick clean up.” Avery put her box down, trying not to breathe too heavily. She didn’t want James to know that she had struggled moving the one box up the last flight of stairs and prove him right.

  “No need. Angel cleaned up and just needs the keys to lock up and give back to the landlord.”

  Angel gave Clay a “what the fuck” look but said with a serious voice to Avery, “Yes, it was me that cleaned up. I like cleaning, ask anyone.”

  Walking up to Avery, he held out his large hand for the keys.

  “Well, that’s very nice, Mr. Angel.”

  “It’s just Angel.” He seemed uncomfortable around her, his black eyes not reaching her face, and Avery didn’t have a clue why.

  Reaching into her purse, she dug around, finally finding the keys, and handed them to Angel.

  Almost snatching them out of her hands, he disappeared out the door, and his heavy boots could be heard retreating on the stairs, taking them two at a time.

  “Did I say something? He left in an awful hurry.” Avery looked at the others with a curious expression on her face.

  James spoke up before Clay could. He knew Clay was acting as the boss, but he wanted Avery to get used to coming to him with any questions.

  “He’s always like that. He seems to get nervous and jumpy when he’s at loose ends. I’m sure once we start working he will settle down.” James raised his eyebrows and turned his head toward the stairs, nodding at Clay and the others. He hoped that they would take their cues and leave him alone with Avery.

  Avery seemed to be the only one that caught his gesture and didn’t want to be alone with James just yet. She thanked everyone, including James, and asked them to leave so she could get unpacked and settled in.

  James tried to think of an excuse to stay, but in the end he turned and followed the others down the stairs to the office.

  Taking a deep breath, Avery looked around at the new apartment. She was starting her new life now.

  Chapter Eight

  James sat at his desk in the new office building. Night had fallen hours ago, but James didn’t want to go home until he knew that Avery was safely settled in her apartment. Looking at the papers spread across his desk, James tried to put all the pieces together. He knew Avery’s father had been involved with the drug running, but no drugs had been found at the vacation cottage or at the main house. All known places that her father might have stashed the drugs had been gone over by the Feds, with the drug lord trailing not far behind. Everyone believed that Avery knew where the drugs were. While the Feds had stepped back to allow James and his firm to get closer and maybe ferret out new clues from Avery, he knew that the drug lord would not be so accommodating. It was a wonder that they hadn’t grabbed her yet. They would use methods to get her to talk that James didn’t even want to think about.

  Rising to his feet, he made his way down the hall to the small kitchen to get coffee. It looked like it might be an all-nighter. James thought he heard something and raised his head. The kitchen was right below Avery’s new bedroom. Thinking he must be mistaken, he took another step toward the coffee maker. No, there it was again. Standing as still as he could, James tried to make out what the sounds were. There it was again. This time James thought it sounded like a sniffle. As he listened, the sounds became increasingly clearer and louder as they came again and again without stopping.

  Avery must be in trouble. James didn’t stop to think. He ran to the back of the hallway and up the stairs. Reaching the apartment door, he pulled the keys out of his pocket. Avery might be mad when she realized that they had not made the floor of the apartment soundproof. James wanted to be able to hear if she needed help at any time. He originally wanted a bug, but Clay had talked him out of it. They had compromised with the floor being made out of wood that sound could travel through.

  Unlocking the door, James looked around. Nothing seemed out of place. Boxes still sat where they had been placed earlier.

  James heard the wretched sound again. It sounded so sorrowful. James steadily made his way to the bedroom. He didn’t want to scare her. Maybe she was just having a bad dream. After the day she had with Danny and his gang, she might be dreaming of them back at her old apartment.

  As silently as he could, James turned the knob of the bedroom door. What he saw took his breath away and pulled at his heartstrings. Avery was sitting in the middle of the bed with her head held in both her hands, sobbing like she had lost her best friend.

  James hurried to her bedside and couldn’t stop himself from gathering her up in his arms. Avery struggled as she felt James’s arms wrapped around her. She hadn’t heard him come into the room. It wasn’t until she heard his voice telling her everything was OK that she stopped fighting.

  Shrinking back into his arms, Avery took a deep breath and hiccupped. She just allowed herself to breathe him in. The strong arms now fully around her were comforting. Avery felt safe. They sat like that for a long time. James didn’t move except to keep stroking her hair, trying to soothe her. And if she wasn’t mistaken he would every now and then kiss her on the top of her head.

  Sitting up, Avery pushed James’s arms away. Wiping her face with her hand, she took the Kleenex that James passed to her. Oh God, she didn’t want James to think that she needed protection. Part of her job was to protect this place and here she was the first night, crying and making a fool of herself. She would never live it down. If James told Clay, she was probably out of a job as well. Looking up at James through red-rimmed eyes, she looked at his large body sitting on the bed next to her.

  “Sorry, what must you think of me?” Avery struggled to pull her nightgown down and get off the bed. James pulled her back into his arms.

  “I think you had a hard day. Sometime things get to the best of us.”

  Avery tried again to regain her dignity and get off the bed and out of James’s arms. Finally with her small push at his chest, James let her leave the bed. He wanted to comfort her. He didn’t want to let her go, but looking at her staring up at him, he pulled his emotions back. He had to remember that she didn’t know him that well yet. If he made any move toward her now, she looked like she would run and never trust him.

  “Don’t tell me that, James. I doubt that you cry when thing get too much for you. You look like you could handle anything thrown your way.” Avery looked at James with her green eyes still swimming with tears.

  James got up and stood stiffly beside the bed, not letting himself reach for her. “You’re right, I usually throw something.”

  “You don’t look like you throw things around. Tell me another one.” The doubt was heavy in Avery’s voice now.

  James passed his hand through his hair, a habit he had when he didn’t know what to say. James knew he had to think of something to say to get her to trust him. After all, he had technically broken into her apartment and she would soon be coming to that conclusion.

  “No, you’re right. I usually take it out at the gym when I can’t reach a conclusion that settles my brain. I take it out on a punching bag or take a round out of one of the guys that’s stupid enough to stick around when I’m in a mood. But crying is not a sign of weakness, it’s just another way of dealing with problems in your life.” James took a step closer to Avery.

  Avery stepped back and grabbed her housecoat that she had thrown on the end of the bed. James took the minute to switch on a light. Their talk had been in the dark and while he could see her fine, he thought she might like the same courtesy. Avery blinked at the sudden light and looked around the bedroom. James could see that it suddenly dawned on her that he was in her bedroom in the middle of the night. Avery tied the housecoat tightly around herself.

  “What are you doing up here? How did you get in?” Avery now had an accusing look on her face, the tears forgotten for the moment. “Clay told me there were no strings attached to this job, other than guarding the place. Well, why are you
here, and how did you know I was crying? I’m sure I didn’t make that much noise.”

  James stared back at an outraged Avery. “I was downstairs just making myself a cup of coffee and thought I heard something. So naturally I assume that you must be in trouble. I needed to check. As we are all new to this building, until we know what it sounds like in the middle of the night, every sound has to be checked. I’ll admit I was worried…” James let off. Shaking his head at himself, he started to back up out of the bedroom. He didn’t want to let her know too much of what he was starting to feel about her.

  “Don’t you dare leave without answering my questions. How did you get in here?” Avery was now following James out of the bedroom, her green eyes flashing.

  He walked backward into the living room, while trying to still keep an eye on Avery in the darkened room. James had just enough time to grab her arm and stop her from falling over the boxes still piled in the middle. Avery pulled back and James couldn’t keep the grip on her satiny housecoat. James just watched in amazement as a spitting Avery landed on her ass. She didn’t stay down long and was back on her feet the next minute and shaking a finger in James direction. James looked at the finger pointing in his direction and grinned at the spitting kitten before him. This just riled her up more.

  Avery stamped her foot. Turning from James she took a big breath. She looked like she was struggling within herself to know what to do. Pulling herself up to her full height, she rewrapped her housecoat that had become loose when James grabbed her. Walking past him, her head held high, she reached for her purse on the living room table. Taking her cell phone out, she swung back around, while dialing.

  “We’ll just see what Clay has to say about this?” Putting the phone to her ear James could hear Clay’s loud voice on the other end

  “Clay here, what’s the emergency and there better be one at this time of the morning.” Clay’s sleep-roughened, harsh voice came over the other end.

  Avery cleared her throat. “It’s me,” she spoke into the phone, almost taking it from her ear at Clay’s voice.

  “Avery, Avery is that you?” James could tell that Clay was now alert and probably grabbing his pants ready to come to her rescue.

  “Yes it’s me. I have a bit of a problem.”

  “I’ll be there right away.”

  “No, no, listen just a moment.” Avery managed to get a word in.

  Clay on the other end of town sat down on his bed, his pants forgotten at his feet. “OK, Avery. What’s wrong? I thought James was still at the office. If you need him, he’s just below you working. In fact if you want, I can call him and get him up there right away.”

  Avery looked down at her bare feet. Now she felt foolish as she answered Clay back. “James is the problem. He is standing in the middle of my living room and I didn’t invite him here. I thought this was my apartment and expected some courtesy. This is not part of the office. This is my home,” Avery told Clay in a small voice

  Clay was silent for a moment. “James is in your place right now? Let me speak to him. I’ll set him straight. I’ll make sure you have no problems with him.”

  Keeping her head down, Avery passed the phone to a now angry James.

  “Clay…”

  “James.” Clay growled the return greeting.

  “Can you tell me what you’re doing up in Avery’s apartment at this time of night. Can’t you keep your motor cooled and at least let her settle in?”

  “I heard a noise and came up to investigate, nothing more.” James said in a deadpan voice. He was pissed. He knew his friend was just protecting Avery, but God he just wanted to hit something.

  “Are you sure that’s all you were doing, James?” Clay now had a smile in his voice. He loved having James on the other end of the string hanging and having to explain his actions. Usually it was the other way around. James had been the commander of their unit and was usually the one asking the question and demanding answers.

  “OK, OK, don’t rub it in. I’m just leaving.” Handing back the phone to Avery, James made his way to the door. He didn’t see anything funny in the situation. Clay had a funny sense of humor.

  “You just wait a minute.” Avery clutched the phone in one hand and put her other hand out, palm up, in James’s direction. “I want the keys.” James took one look at the outstretched hand and said, “No,” and closed the door behind him.

  “Clay,” Avery whined into the phone. “He wouldn’t give me his keys back.” She sounded like a brat, but damn she wanted her keys. This was her place.

  “We all have keys to the apartment. It’s for your protection. Now look at it this way. If there had been an intruder in the apartment and James had to take time to knock down the door, you could be dead. It only takes a second and I for one don’t want to take that chance,” Clay tried to reason with her.

  Avery though for a minute. “But there wasn’t any intruder. James should have left as soon as he saw the way was clear.” Avery knew she was arguing for the sake of arguing now, but couldn’t seem to stop. She was still pissed at James

  “I’ll talk to him in the morning and clear this all up.”

  At Clay’s words, Avery stopped. She didn’t want to create bad feelings between the friends.

  “I don’t want him to get fired. He probably doesn’t know all the rules. We are all new to the situation.”

  Clay agreed, scratching his head. Maybe that’s the problem. James didn’t know the rules. Clay laughed at the thought. “I’ll make sure that this doesn’t happen again, unless it’s an emergency. Now go back to bed and get some sleep. Oh by the way, did you hear the same noise that James did?” Clay asked.

  “No, I didn’t, sorry to bother you.” Avery bit her lip. James had helped her out of her pity fest and hadn’t harmed her in any way. He had been trying to be nice and now he was mad at her. Calling the boss on him was just a bit of an overreaction. What if it had been an intruder? It was nice knowing she wasn’t all alone in the building that she was supposed to protect.

  Clay had better teach her how to shoot or at least some self-defense moves if she was going to do this job properly. Oh God, she would have to apologize to James in the morning and talk to Clay, telling him she had overreacted.

  Avery closed the phone after saying bye to Clay and made her way back to her solitary bed. The way she was going, it would remain that way. Everyone was going to think she was crazy or too much work to handle. She crawled into her bed and pulled the covers over her head. How had a great day turned out so bad? With a big sigh, Avery plumped her pillow and tried to get some sleep.

  Chapter Nine

  The next morning found Avery showered, dressed, and walking down the hall and into the small office kitchen before 8:00 a.m. She knew she was early, but after last night, she might have to do some groveling and wanted to get it over with as soon as possible. Curving her head, she peeked around the door, looking to see if anyone was up and around. She hoped to run into Clay first. Instead she spotted James pouring himself a cup of coffee, the last person she wanted to see first.

  James’s blue eyes assessed her. “I see you there. You don’t have to skulk around.” Raising his cup, James asked her if she would like some coffee.

  Avery looked at James who still looked sleep ruffled. “Didn’t you go home last night?”

  “No, I had a lot of work to catch up on and it was easier to sleep here then go back to my apartment for a few hours.” James poured Avery some coffee and put it on the table between them.

  “I’m sorry about last night.”

  James looked at her. “Don’t let it bother you. I wasn’t thinking either, barging into your apartment.” He sat wearily down at the table and took a long drink of his coffee.

  “So, it’s OK between us? Clay wasn’t mad at you? I didn’t mean to cause trouble,” Avery said in a small voice. She didn’t want to step in it again.

  James set his cup down and really looked at Avery now that the coffee had woken up his brain
. He took in the long skirt that almost touched her ankles, the buttoned-up blouse to her chin, and the long blonde hair now captured in a bun at the back of her head. “What are you dressed up for?”

  “Is there something wrong with the way I’ve dressed? I’m trying to present a proper look for the office.” Avery’s voice had now risen as she took in James’s words.

  “If we were in a retirement home, you would be dressed properly. As we are an investment firm, I think we can do without the old lady clothes. We want people to think we are on top of our game and the best there is to have. Not that we have stalled in the last century.” James knew the moment the words left his mouth, that she was going to take offense, but couldn’t retract them.

  Looking at Avery’s angry expression, James could tell that he really put his foot in it this time. The old lady at the door became a spitting kitten again. As he watched her, her over-powdered face turned a bright red. “You think I look like an old lady? Well thanks for your opinion. It’s a good thing you’re not the boss. I would be on my ass out on the sidewalk by now,” Avery spat back at him.

  Grabbing her coffee cup off the table, she gave James her back and walked toward the door of the kitchen.

  “We’ll just see what Clay thinks. After all, only his opinion matters, he is the boss.” Avery held her head high, her back stiff, and left the kitchen and headed for the front reception desk.

  “Clay won’t be able to protect you all the time,” James replied to her back.

  Sitting down at her desk, she plopped her coffee cup down, spilling it with the force she used. She had to get her temper under control before Clay got here. Grabbing a tissue, she was mopping up the mess when Clay walked in the front door.

  God, this day was going downhill and it wasn’t even the start of the work day yet.

  Clay walked up to the front desk and watched as Avery mopped up her mess.

  “Did you and James make nice this morning? Or am I seeing the end of the argument and the coffee lost?” Clay asked with a smile in his voice.