by Elle Casey
What is happening?!
I’ve barely tasted any of him, and he’s pulling away again.
When I realize I’m looking a little too wasted, I get control of myself and stand on my own. His hand falls away, and I want to cry with loneliness. Holy drunk girl going on here.
My hands are shaking when I reach up to push my hair back from my face. I can be cool. I can handle this . . . whatever it is. Maybe he kisses all his new employees. I’m not going to be the first one to make a big deal out of it, if that’s the case.
“Well . . . good-bye then,” I say, staring at his shoulder. I can’t bring my gaze any higher.
He walks backward two steps before he turns around and walks to his truck. “See you around, Little Bo Peep.” He climbs up into the vehicle and shuts the door, reversing out of the driveway in mere seconds.
I wait until he’s out of sight before I close the door and fall to the floor in a puddle of goo.
“Oh my god, he kissed me!!”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
After receiving instructions from Ozzie via text again, I show up for my first day of work two days later on Monday at the warehouse, leaving Felix to fend for himself at home. He’s used to it. I’ve had plenty of full days at the studio. I’m pretty sure he naps the entire time I’m gone.
I’m kind of surprised I’m able to find the warehouse, even though I was just here not that long ago. It seems like everything passed by in a blur. I’m completely over Ozzie kissing me already. It was nothing more than just too much wine. I’m not even going to look at him funny when I see him again. He’s my boss now, and because he’s my boss, I will not ever be touching his lips or his gorgeous body again.
When I pull up to the warehouse, Thibault motions for me to bring my car inside. Everyone else has parked outside.
“Is there something wrong?” I ask after rolling down my window.
“Just helping you keep a low profile. Park it over there.” He gestures to a dark corner on the far right of the building. I didn’t even notice it existed when I was here before. This place is huge.
When I emerge from my car, everyone but Ozzie is standing around in the middle of the big space. He’s nowhere to be seen. Sunlight streams through the open wall of the warehouse, but it’s slowly cut off as the big door rolls closed.
“Welcome, everyone,” Thibault says. “Today is May’s first day with us, so I thought we’d give her a little primer about what we do before we have our morning meeting.”
I nod at everyone, receiving nods in return. Dev gives me a smile, as does Lucky. Toni’s more serious. I kind of respect her for that. She looks all business, and from what I can tell, she’s doing well in a man’s kind of world. I wonder how high she can kick in those black leather boots she’s wearing.
“Who’s first?” asks Dev.
“You are.” Thibault nods at him. “Just give her the basics.”
Dev rubs his hands together. “Okay, batter up.” He makes a quick bow. “Consider me your PE teacher.”
I smile, remembering the chubby balding man who always wore puffy sweat pants and carried a basketball under his arm at my high school. Mr. Pritchard was so nice.
Dev’s expression goes dark. “Only not like any PE teacher you’ve ever had before.”
“You can say that again,” mumbles Toni.
“Let’s see what you got.” He gestures for me to move closer. “Come on over here and hit me.”
I laugh for a second before I realize he’s serious. So is everyone else.
“Hit you?” I hug my purse to my side, glad I left Felix home today. Felix doesn’t like violence of any kind, and I can’t say as I blame him.
“Yes. Hit me.” He gestures at his chest. “Give it your best shot.”
I frown. “I’m not going to hit you.”
“Why not?” He bends at the waist a little, getting his head more level with mine.
“Because . . . I don’t like hitting people.”
“What about people who are getting ready to hit you?” He reaches over and grabs a stick from a nearby table and holds it up. “You like to hit them?”
“If you hit me with that stick, you’re going to be very sorry.” My hand slides slowly down into my purse. I’m not exactly panicked right now, because I feel confident that Dev is a nice guy and he’s just messing around, but that doesn’t mean I won’t taze his stupid ass if he hits me with that weapon. What kind of welcoming committee is this, anyway? I was kind of expecting coffee and donuts, not whacks with a stick.
He smiles. “Good. She’s got attitude. I like it.” He moves forward.
“I’m not kidding, Dev.” I take a step back. He looks serious, but he can’t be, right? I look around at everyone else, and they’re watching us closely. None of them looks distressed or amused. This is business to them.
He moves quicker than I expect; two strides has him right in front of me. The stick goes up.
I cower down as it descends, closing my eyes and bracing for impact. Please don’t hit me, please don’t hit me, please don’t hit me.
It stops just next to my arm, and I open one eye first to make sure it’s okay.
“You’re not moving,” he says. He looks frustrated.
Now both of my eyes are open, and I’m standing straight. “No, I’m not. I’m hoping this is all going to stop very soon.”
Toni snorts.
I catch the mocking expression on her face, and it instantly gets me all fired up.
Forget this cowardly lion act. What the hell, man. I didn’t come here to get hit with a stick. Who does he think he is, standing there threatening me like that? Does he know I had lobster with the boss two days ago and shared a hot kiss on my doorstep?
Dev moves in closer. “This isn’t going to stop until you see how serious it is.”
“Okaaaay.” I look up into his eyes, my finger flipping the safety button off on my Taser inside my purse. Bastard. Making me use my Taser. These cartridges are expensive. I know because I had to replace one when I accidentally shot myself in the foot one time. Getting tazed is also painful as all hell, so he’s definitely not going to be happy with me after.
“Now listen up, Little Bo Peep . . . I’m going to hit you with this stick unless you do something to defend yourself.” He’s looking down at me with pity in his eyes. Everyone else is dead silent. “This isn’t a game. We play to live. That’s how it works. Slackers get injured, and I won’t have that happening when I’m in charge.”
“I really wish you wouldn’t do this,” I say, sounding as weak as possible. Part of it is an act, and part of it is really how I feel. Being a badass has never been part of my repertoire. I hate that I’m being pushed into this. Why is this happening on my first day? This is the worst orientation day I’ve ever had.
“I’ll try not to leave too big of a bruise.” The stick goes up, almost above his head and starts its descent. This time I’m sure he’s not going to stop.
I jerk my hand out of my purse and shove the Taser toward his chest. Some kind of crazy war cry leaves my lips as I cringe and wait for the pain to come from the stick. “Awwwoooooahhh!”
My whole body clenches up and my finger squeezes the trigger on the Taser. The prongs fire out of the end of it, and all hell breaks loose.
Dev’s eyes bug out of his head.
He drops the stick and it clatters on the ground near our feet.
The rat-tat-tat-tat-tat of several thousand volts of electricity makes a nice beat for the convulsions that start to rack his body a few seconds later.
“What the hell is going on down here!” yells Ozzie from the top of the stairs.
“Holy shit, she tazed him!” Lucky’s stuck in a daze of confusion.
Dev grunts, his eyes roll back in his head, and he starts to go down.
I jump to the side to avoid getting squashed. The wires coming out of the end of my Taser stretch right along with me.
Lucky leans over and grabs Dev’s arm to slow his descent
.
Both of them fall into a heap on the ground, Dev on top of his stupid stick, Lucky on top of Dev, who’s groaning like a wounded elephant, and my wires tangled up with both of them.
I hug my purse to my chest, my Taser in one hand, my keys in the other.
“Oh my god, I can’t believe it! She actually tazed his ass!” Toni starts to laugh.
“That ain’t funny, man.” Thibault is shaking his head, first looking at Dev and then at me.
“I’m sorry. I’m really sorry.” I can barely get the words out, I’m so embarrassed. I feel terrible. “The trigger was way more sensitive than I expected it to be.” I should probably get it checked. Two accidental Taserings can’t be good. I swear I wasn’t really going to taze him. I was planning to just scare him into not hitting me. Dammit.
Lucky gets up and rolls Dev onto his back. The wires are still connecting him to my gun. Yep, the barbs are definitely in his skin, not just his clothes. Oops.
“Why in the hell is Dev lying on the ground with Taser barbs in his chest?” Ozzie is standing a few feet away with his hands on his hips.
“We were giving her an intro,” Toni says, “just like you told us to.”
“I’m pretty sure I didn’t tell anyone to get her so fired up she’d shoot Dev.” He scrubs at the back of his head. “You all right, man?”
Dev tries to answer, but the only things that will come out are grunts and groans. His eyes roll up into his head.
“Ozzie, I’m sorry.” I can look at his chin. Not his eyes, but his chin. It’s close enough that probably no one will notice I’m a chicken. “I didn’t mean to hurt him.”
His words come out as a growl. “Don’t you apologize.” He glares at Thibault. “You’re the one who should be talking right now.”
“All right, fine, fine. I take full responsibility.” Thibault has his hands up in surrender. “We talked about it before she got here and decided we’d just see if she had any self-defense instincts.”
“And what have you decided after your little experiment?” Ozzie looks at each person individually.
Toni shrugs. “I’d say she passed.” She turns away so Ozzie won’t see her smiling.
“I think we probably should have come at this from another angle,” says Lucky.
“Oh, you think?” Ozzie gestures at Dev. “Get him up, and get those damn barbs out of his chest. And if he whines, slap him in the head.”
“You got it, boss.” Lucky braces his legs to help Dev to his feet. After a few stumbles, they’re both standing, Lucky with his arm under Dev’s shoulder to give him support. After I remove the cartridge from my Taser and give it to Lucky, they begin to walk away, but stop after a few steps. Dev turns his head and speaks over his shoulder. His words are a little slurred.
“I wanna re-mash. She trick’t me.”
Ozzie growls. “Bullshit, she tricked you. She got one over on you. Big difference.”
I could swear I hear pride in Ozzie’s voice, but I’m not going to let it go to my head. I feel terrible. I can’t think of a worse way to start off my new job. Dev is never going to forgive me.
Ozzie jabs his thumb at the stairs. “When you’re done goofing around out here, we have a meeting upstairs that needs to happen.”
“No better time than the present.” Toni holds up her hand as she walks by. “High-five, sister. Well played.”
I reach up and slap her hand delicately. I don’t want to look too enthusiastic about putting holes in Dev’s chest and shooting him up with all those volts.
Thibault comes over and stops in front of me. “You mind if I take that from you?” He holds out his hand and looks down at my cartridgeless weapon.
I put the Taser in his palm. “Sure. Sorry about shooting your friend.”
Thibault smiles. “Don’t apologize. He got what he had coming to him. Next time he’ll think twice about lifting a stick to you.”
“I’m hoping there won’t be a next time.”
“Oh, there will be—you can trust me on that.” He walks away to climb the stairs.
What the hell? He’s going to try to hit me again? I’m going to need my Taser back. I wonder if the cartridges are a legitimate business expense. I don’t think I should have to pay out of my paycheck for protection against nutty colleagues.
Ozzie and I are left on the ground floor together, standing a few feet apart.
“I guess this is where I welcome you to Bourbon Street Boys and tell you where to hang your coat.”
I laugh a little. “And I think this is where I’m supposed to say I’m glad to be here and can’t wait to get started.”
He smiles. “How about we start over and do this thing the right way this time?”
“Sounds good to me.”
He points to the exercise machines. “You can hang your coat anywhere over there you can find a hook. Welcome to Bourbon Street Boys. Follow me. We have a meeting in five.”
I walk behind him, my face on fire. He’s being nice, and he’s not mad I tazed his employee. Maybe today won’t suck after all.
“I’m really glad to be here. Can’t wait to get started.”
He chuckles but says nothing in response. We climb the stairs together and enter the room full of ninja swords.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Everyone has a spot around the table where we had soup the other night. There are a few folders in front of each person and a pitcher with ice water in the center of it all. My glass is already full, courtesy of Dev.
“Peace offering,” he says, placing it in front of me and giving me a wink.
“Peace offering accepted,” I say, taking a sip and winking back. My stress level drops down a few notches. Maybe he’s not going to hold a grudge against me after all.
“Okay, so let’s take a look at the Harley file,” Ozzie says, turning the cover back on the folder in front of him.
I open my copy and see a memo there. A quick scan of the paper tells me that the New Orleans Police Department has retained these consultants—the Bourbon Street Boys Security firm—to help them infiltrate a local gang and try to gather data that might lead to some arrests. The operation is termed the Harley Op because that was Ozzie’s nickname when he wore the beard and leather.
I have to bite my lip to keep from giggling. That beard was so awful. I steal a quick glance at him to see if I can picture him wearing it again, but I can’t. He’s too cute now to be that ugly man who saved my life last week.
“As you all know, due to unforeseen circumstances”—everyone but Ozzie looks at me—“we had to take me out of the picture. Thibault and I were talking about pulling out entirely, but we decided that might not need to happen.” He looks up. “If we can save this project, I’d like to do that. We have a lot invested.”
I make a mental note to ask someone exactly how it was that I screwed things up. Just by me being in that bar everything went south? I doubt it. It was probably that beard. Even criminals know something that ugly can’t be right.
Lucky speaks up. “We’ve got nobody on the inside, though. How are we going to get any info at all?”
Ozzie closes the folder and looks up at me, putting his hands down flat on the table in front of him. “I was hoping we could try again to gather some info via surveillance. I know the detectives on the case tried before, but I think we should budget some of our own work in on this one.”
Oh, poo. I think this is where I come in. Is this going to be my penance for screwing up his silly beard costume? I squirm in my chair, with all the attention on me.
“It’s possible,” Lucky says. “What’d you have in mind?”
“The night you were supposed to show up and be my backup,”—Ozzie glares at Dev—“I learned the location of one of their big runners. It’s over off Burgundy. I swung by this weekend. It has possibilities.”
“You thinking stills or video?” Thibault asks.
“Both. And maybe some ears too. We’ll see. I need Toni’s opinion.”
She n
ods. “You got it. When?”
“You and Bo Peep can head over there today if you can manage it.” He’s looking at Toni, not me.
I raise my hand.
Everyone looks at me like I’m crazy.
“You have something you want to add?” Ozzie asks.
“Actually, I have a question. And feel free to call me May, by the way.” I smile. “I’m just wondering, if I were to go with Toni today, what exactly would we be doing?” I draw an invisible letter M on the table in front of me, trying to act as cool as possible. If it requires that I carry a weapon, I’m not doing this thing he’s talking about, whatever it is.
“Just a quick drive-by,” Toni says. “It’s no big deal. It’s just to get the lay of the land, see what kind of property it is, best places to set up to watch things going down, stuff like that.”
“And by going down, you mean . . .?” I draw an invisible A and a Y on the tabletop to complete my little distraction. I will not freak out. I will not let my face burn bright red.
She shrugs. “Whatever. If they have people stopping by, business going on, birthday parties—whatever.”
I nod, wondering if she’s purposely glossing over the more dangerous situations or if there just aren’t any. It sounds innocent enough. Driving by. What would that take? Five seconds?
“I can probably manage that,” I say, nodding with confidence.
Ozzie slides a second folder out from under the first. “Good. Moving on. We got a new project, this one from a private party. It’s the Blue Marine Operation folder there in front of you. Lucky, I’m going to put you on it for now. Let me know if we need to hire outsiders.”
“Outsiders?” I ask.
“People who have skills we don’t,” Thibault explains.
“Like what?”
“Mainly computer experts,” Lucky says. “I can manage the financials, but when it comes to . . . getting inside things . . .”—he wiggles his eyebrows—“I’m still at basic level.”
I nod. My sister is a computer guru, but she’s so busy at work, she never has time for side jobs. She’s always threatening to quit and go freelance, but I know she never will because she’s too afraid of not making enough money to support the kids. Her ex can’t always be counted on for his part of the bills. Not because he’s not in town, but because he’s a lowlife asshole who’d rather spend the money on his new girlfriend than his old ex wife and kids.
