Page 19 of Axel (Reed Hawthorne Security #6)

Axel

“Thank you again for letting us stay here last night,” Savvy says.

“No problem. I figured the sooner I got you two out of there, the better,” Durango says.

I finish my coffee. “That asshole is lucky he left. I never want to work with him again.”

“Agreed,” Durango says.

“Have you heard from Stevens?” I ask.

After Myers left with Bennett, Durango offered his place for Savvy and me to sleep.

We were going to suggest we find a new location, so his offer was perfect.

We were all exhausted. Savvy took Piper’s old room when she lived here.

I slept on the couch. Durango must have said something to Willow because no one bothered us for several blissful hours while we slept.

“I got her voicemail when I called this morning. We should hear from her soon,” Durango says .

Savvy stretches her arms over her head. “Well, if Bennett and Bob are both incarcerated, I should be safe, right?”

“Theoretically,” I say.

“Good. I’m going home.” She jumps up and heads to the bedroom she stayed in.

I follow her. She grabs her purse and jacket. I want to stop her, but she’s right. The threat is gone. For now.

“Let me check out your place. Just in case either Bob or Bennett went through it.”

She frowns. “I hadn’t thought about that. I hope they didn’t.” She nods. “Okay, let’s go.”

“When Bennett gets released, we will probably need to come back here,” I say.

She sighs. “Yeah.”

We say goodbye to Durango and Willow, who are now in the living room. I’m almost to the door when Durango calls me back.

“I almost forgot. Here you go,” he says as he tosses a set of keys my way.

“These are my keys.”

“Yeah, I got your car fixed up. It would have been towed from the street the way it looked.”

“Wow, thank you. How much do I owe you?”

“Nothing. A guy owed me a favor.”

I doubt that, but I’m not going to argue with him now. “Thank you. I really appreciate it.”

“Anytime.”

As we step onto the sidewalk, I spot Peter, that damn podcast guy .

“Don’t say a word,” I tell Savvy.

He steps up to us, holding his phone near our faces. “Hunter Charles? I have a few questions.”

I ignore him and keep an arm around Savvy.

“Do you believe Stacy Hawthorne was set up?”

He’s trying to walk next to me, but the sidewalk isn’t wide enough. Plus, I may be purposely trying to walk him into the stairs of the row houses.

When I don’t answer, he tries again. “Did you help Mr. Reed set her up?”

How dare he accuse Reed.

He pockets his phone. “All right, I’m not recording. Seriously, can you talk to me?”

I stop and turn to face him. “No.”

“Hey, I’m trying to help Stacy out. She doesn’t deserve all that’s happened to her.”

I should win an award for my self-control at this point. She doesn’t deserve prison?

“Are you two friends? Or is she your girlfriend?”

He looks disgusted. “Girlfriend, no. Why do you ask?”

“Because this seems personal to you. Is it?”

“All of my podcasts are personal to me. Now, can I ask you a few questions?” He pulls his phone out of his pocket again.

I turn back to Savvy, and we head down the sidewalk away from Peter. At this point, I realize I have no idea where we are going.

We’re walking side by side. I lean down to Savvy and whisper so Peter won’t hear. “Where are we going?”

She smiles. “Subway. ”

We pick up our pace, and finally, after about five blocks, Peter leaves us alone. We take a short subway ride, where I text Durango and Reed about what happened.

Once we are off the subway and back up on the street, my mind is racing.

What if Bennett isn’t released? There’s a chance Savvy won’t need my protection anymore.

Will she want to see me after this? While we have admitted to having some kind of feelings, I’ll also be a reminder to her about a traumatic time in her life.

Once that sinks in, she might decide we shouldn’t see each other again.

I’m usually a confident man, yet I find myself unsure around Savvy now.

She leads me to a house similar to mine.

I step inside first and look around. Everything appears to be in order.

I go through, room by room. The place is nicely decorated.

She even has art hanging on many walls. I can’t imagine what she thought of my place.

I only have the bare necessities and never bothered decorating.

“It looks fine. But if you get scared, I want you to call me right away,” I say.

“Oh, you’re leaving?”

I shrug. “I thought you might want some time alone.”

She smiles. “Thank you. I think I’ll take a bath and try to relax. But I won’t be able to call you.”

“Why not?”

“I still don’t have a phone.”

I close my eyes. “I’m sorry. I forgot again. I owe you a new phone.” And that’s my excuse to keep spending time with her. “Want to go get one now? ”

“No, thank you. I really want to take a bath and settle in. Some other time?”

“Oh, okay.”

I’m not dense, I can take a hint. She wants me to leave. “Okay. I guess I’ll see you around,” I say.

“Yeah, I’ll see you around.”

I step outside, and she closes the door. Fortunately, I do hear her lock it.

Part of me wants to knock and ask her out. But I’m not going to push. She needs time. And maybe I do, too.

I head home. I need a shower, and hopefully, there will be an update from Stevens. When I step inside my home, it feels emptier than it did yesterday.

Two hours later, I’m sitting in my office at Reed Hawthorne Security.

Reed wants the paperwork for my last assignment.

Writing up what happened with Bennett makes me angry all over again.

There has been no update from Stevens, and now I’m worried that I might not be alerted if Bennett or Bob are released.

I call my contact with the local police and explain the situation to him. He agrees to let me know if Bob is released. Since Bennett is in federal custody, he has no way of knowing his status unless Stevens tells me.

A large pop sound comes from the kitchen.

“Son of a bitch!” Ozzie shouts.

I jump up to see what’s going on. Ozzie is standing there, covered in some white liquid, cursing.

“What happened?”

“I tried to use this creamer in my coffee, and it exploded when I opened it.” He attempts to wipe it off his shirt with a paper towel.

“That’s going to stink in about an hour,” I say.

Lightning steps into the kitchen. “It wasn’t exactly creamer. Told you I could get you,” he says and then walks out.

“Wait, you did this?” Ozzie yells.

Lightning glances back and laughs. Ozzie runs after him. Lightning sprints toward the front door.

“We all agreed, no more pranks!” Ozzie yells as he runs out the door.

“Should we go after them?” Moose asks.

Moose is still new enough that he hasn’t witnessed the worst of the pranks Lightning has played over the years. But he is right to be concerned. We are all at our wit’s end with Lightning. He’s a nice guy, but this needs to stop.

“Yeah, let’s check on them,” I say.

We step outside to see Lightning on the ground with Ozzie on top of him. Ozzie’s shirt is off, and he’s rubbing it in Lightning’s face.

“Smell that! Bet you don’t find it funny now, asshole!”

Moose snaps a photo with his phone. Ozzie notices.

“Are you videotaping us?” Ozzie asks.

“Nah, just a photo for our yearbook.” Moose turns and goes back inside.

Lightning takes advantage of Ozzie’s being distracted and manages to get up and away from him.

Ozzie and Lightning are in a standoff when Reed’s car pulls up and parks in front of the building .

Ozzie points at Lightning. “No more! Now I have to go home and get another shirt.”

“No need. I brought an extra one for you.”

Ozzie shakes his head and follows Lightning inside. Reed walks up to me.

“Do I want to know?” he asks.

“Nope.”

“Okay. Well, let’s go to my office. I came from a meeting, and we need to talk.”

Based on his angry scowl, I suspect he heard about what I did to Myers.

We walk inside, and I head straight for his office. Reed takes a moment to talk to Piper at the front desk.

Perhaps I’m wrong and I’m getting a new assignment. I’m not sure how I feel about leaving Savvy.

He walks in and closes the door. “Go ahead and sit down.”

After we sit, he leans back with his brow furrowed.

“I met with Agent Stevens, and she told me a man had broken into the safe house. She said this man is in federal custody. She explained that in the heat of everything that went on, you punched Agent Myers.”

He stares at me. Of course, she left out the part about what Myers did.

“Is that accurate? Did you punch a federal agent by accident?”

On accident? I guess that was Stevens trying to soften how bad it sounded? Reed is many things, but he’s not stupid. There is no point in lying to him.

“No, it was on purpose. Myers tipped off that man as to where we were. That man was in Savvy’s bedroom, leaning over her, when I stopped him. Myers wanted to catch him in the act, and he didn’t care who was hurt.”

“I know what it’s like to want to punch a fed. Just be smarter next time.”

I suppress a smile. Reed gets it.

Reed leans back in his chair. “Savvy is Savannah Williams, the woman you were tasked with protecting, correct?”

“Yes, she goes by Savvy.”

He raises an eyebrow. “Did you cross a line with her?”

I stand up. “No! She’s my sister’s best friend. I wouldn’t.” I sit back down before I say more. It’s a lie. Because, as I said it, all I want is to be with Savvy.

Reed holds up his hand. “Okay, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize she was like a sister to you.”

Damn. I hate lying to him, but now is not the time to correct him.

“All right, so Agent Myers entrapped this man in order to take him into custody?”

“Something like that.”

“The man may not be in custody for long.”

“That was pointed out to him. He was fine with it because he’s after the guy’s boss. Not a care for Savvy.”

“Do you feel you need to continue protecting Ms. Williams?”

I shake my head. “Myers scared Bennett pretty good. I’d be surprised if he doesn’t leave the country the first chance he gets. Only if he sticks around, then I’ll need to protect her again. ”

Reed nods. “Okay then. You punched Agent Myers by accident. Make sure that’s what is in your report. I’ll be talking to Durango about this later when he gets in.”

“Thank you.” I’m happy he’s not putting me on some kind of suspension or leave.

“And thank you for telling me about that podcast guy. It looks like he’s trying to interview each one of you,” Reed says.

“He seems to know where we all live. I guess he searched the public records for our names.” That’s something that has bothered me all day.

When we are on assignments, we go by our call names, so we haven’t had to worry about someone tracking us down before.

Reed sighs. “Unfortunately, I can’t stop him from looking up property records. Hopefully, he will realize he doesn’t have anything to go on and will find a new story.”

Yeah, I hope so, too.

“That’s all I have for now.”

He turns to his computer, essentially dismissing me.

I stand to leave.

“You can head home after I have your report,” Reed says. “Try to clear your head.”

I leave his office. The smell of freshly brewed coffee hits me as I walk toward the kitchen. I inspect the pot and coffee maker. It all looks good, so I pour myself a cup. I’ve worked here long enough to know not to trust anything in this kitchen, at least when Lightning is in town.

I make my way back to my office and stare at the report I was working on. It will need to be revised. I don’t like what Myers did, but I like the result if it means Bennett leaves town. And liking anything Myers did pisses me off.

After I finish, instead of heading home, I go to my sister’s place.

“Hey, what are you doing here in the middle of the day?” she asks.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to interrupt you. I need to get Savvy a new phone, and I figured you would know which one she’d like.”

Maria crosses her arms. “Is this code for something?”

“No. I threw her phone out of the car window. Now I want to get her a new phone.”

Maria’s mouth drops open. “You threw it out the window? That’s rude.”

“I thought we were being tracked on it somehow. Look, it doesn’t matter. Can you help me?”

Maria smiles. “No need. She called me a few minutes ago, so she must have gotten one.”

“Oh, she has a new phone already?” That was fast.

“And she said she’s safe now. So, is that all?”

Well, I can’t surprise her with a new phone, so there goes my excuse for seeing her.

Maria marches up to me and presses her finger into my chest. “Did something happen between you two? Because she’s my best friend and not one of your flavors of the week.”

I remove her finger. “First of all, nothing happened. She’s out of danger for the moment, but that could change at any time. I wanted to make sure she had a way to contact me if needed. Second, I don’t have flavors of the week. ”

She shrugs and returns to her journey toward the kitchen. “You don’t have girlfriends, either.”

“Harsh. You know exactly why that is.”

“Yes, your ex sucks. But you can’t go the rest of your life avoiding love because one person hurt you,” Maria says. She has always been direct.

“I could say the same to you.”

Maria spins around, pointing at me. “It’s different, and you know it.”

“Is it?”

Her doorbell rings.

“Expecting someone?” I ask.

“Actually, yes.” She walks past me to the front door and opens it. “Savvy, a little warning, my brother is here. And he’s asking about you.”

Well, that didn’t sound great.

Savvy looks especially good today in a purple dress with her hair down. She looks too good. Like somehow, she’s someone else’s future, not mine.

She gives me a smile as she walks in. “Did Bob get released?” Savvy asks.

“No. And Bennett is still in federal custody. I came here to get my sister’s help in picking out a phone for you.”

She holds hers up. “Already got one.”

“That’s what Maria said. I wanted to make sure we had a way to contact each other if needed.”

She smiles. “Of course. The guy at the store was able to transfer my data to this new phone, so you are in my contacts.”

“Good. I’ll call you,” I say as I head toward the door .

“For work purposes only,” Maria adds.

I turn and glare at my sister. “I’m going to leave now. I don’t want to interrupt your plans.” Nor do I want her to embarrass me, which she will try to do if I stick around. I give my sister a hug.

“Try not to mess this up, Romeo,” she whispers in my ear.

Wait, is she softening to the idea?

I pull back, and Savvy meets my eyes with a small smile. Yep, she heard that.

Now I have her number. I’ll call her later to checkup. Yep. Checkup.