Page 9 of Collin, Episodes 7-9 (The Residency Boys #3)

Mr. Reevesworth smirked. “It’s not off-the-shelf tech, at least not at your regular shop.”

Collin blushed. He poked at the device. It was small enough that it wouldn’t really show once he zipped back up.

“Consider yourself marked and claimed, boy.”

“Yes, master.”

“Good. Now, let’s get started on our day. You have etiquette lessons at ten for two hours, then you’ll accompany me to a lunch meeting with the mayor. It’s more casual; you’ll be eating with me. But first, go check on Ash and ask him if he has a report about your old devices.”

Collin pulled a face. He hadn’t thought about the data breach on his old laptop in days. “Yes, sir.”

He turned away and opened the door. Carrie, the receptionist, was just coming in along with Bruiski and Janice. Bruiski looked worse for wear with dark marks under his eyes. Janice, however, seemed to have made a complete recovery.

Carrie approached Collin and paused close enough to speak quietly. “Morning, Mr. Ryker. There’s someone here for Mr. Reevesworth. I think…they aren’t friendly. I’m holding them in reception. Smells like a lawyer.”

“No one is on his schedule.” Collin narrowed his eyes. “Tell them to leave their number. Mr. Reevesworth is occupied.”

Carried nodded and left. Collin moved to greet Bruiski and Janice. Hartwick came in and joined in the good mornings.

Carrie came trotting back flushed. “Mr. Ryker, the man’s insisting. He’s saying it’s a legal matter and will only take a moment.” She coughed, covering her mouth with shaking fingers.

“Are you all right?”

“It’s the man’s perfume, I mean, cologne. I think I’m allergic. The whole front smells like him.”

Her eyes were truly watering.

“Stay here,” Collin said. “Janice, can you keep an eye on Carrie? She’s having an allergic reaction.

” He stuck his head back into the inner office.

“Sir, we’re having a little bit of a situation.

I’m going out to the front to deal with someone maybe not friendly?

They brought in something that Carrie’s allergic to. Janice has her.”

Mr. Reevesworth nodded, already busy on his computer with his phone to his ear. “Thank you.”

Collin strode out, careful not to jog. No need to give someone the upper hand by showing he was overly concerned.

A large man with more padding than definition stood in the middle of the reception area, conspicuously taking up space. He was spinning the tip of his umbrella, half open, against the floor. The entire room reeked.

“I’m afraid our receptionist had to step away,” Collin said. “How may we assist you today?”

“Oh, I’m quite sure none of you can assist me,” the man said, turning.

He had a mustache that poofed out from his nose and a collection of yellowing teeth that suggested a smoking habit.

“Perhaps you should get someone to tell Richard to have me in before I start saying things he doesn’t want heard. ”

Collin smiled without a hint of friendliness. “People say things often, sir. It’s a free country. What’s your number, and do you have free time Thursday after this this Thursday?”

“I think not. Far too late.”

“Mr. Reevesworth carries a heavy schedule. Perhaps you would like to leave your name and number, and I’ll see what I can do to have you seen faster. Or perhaps there is someone else who can help you, someone with more availability?”

“Unfortunately, in this state, riffraff like you can’t sign for their betters when they want to hide like cowards in their offices.”

Collin raised an eyebrow. This man was scum. “So, you need something signed?”

The man stepped toward Collin, his round belly was almost brushing up against Collin’s chest, eyes narrow and mean. “If I were you, I’d be looking for a new job. Because whether or not Reevesworth wants to hide behind cannon fodder like you, he can’t stop the long arm of the law.”

Collin laughed. “You can try to intimidate me, sir. I’m paid quite enough that I’m quite happy to allow you to—up and unto the point you commit assault. And then I will also be quite happy to charge you to the full extent of the law.”

The man’s nostrils flared. “What, you need a participation trophy? You’re just a thin-skinned whiner like the rest of the young people these days.”

Collin smiled blandly. “I suppose we’re both generational stereotypes.”

The man’s eyes grew larger, the implied insult landing better than hoped. “I have places to be and things to do. Just go get your boss so we can get this over with. I’ve come a long way, and the longer you drag this out, the worse things will get for him.”

Collin shrugged. “I’m afraid that’s not possible. Since you’re so busy, would you like to leave your card?”

The man sniffed and started pacing, pretending to ignore him.

Collin shrugged again and leaned his hip against the reception desk, crossing his arms. He really was going to have to call physical plant after this.

The man was spreading his literal stench throughout the entire space.

Had he poured the entire bottle of whatever he was wearing on himself?

Maybe he was trying to hide another scent. Collin sniffed again.

The man stormed back. “I’m not leaving my card.”

Collin raised an eyebrow. “Would you like to make an appointment?”

“Now look you here, you two-cent imbecile. I have not been treated with such disrespect as this in all my life.” He shook his finger at Collin’s face while still approaching.

Collin smirked. “No amount of hot air will clear my boss’s schedule.”

“It will just be five minutes.” The man started to stride past Collin toward the hallway to the offices.

Collin stepped in front of the man. He came to an abrupt halt, a fraction of an inch away from physically pushing Collin back.

There was certainly an unpleasant scent beneath the completely terrible cologne. Something that made Collin feel ill. Or maybe the man’s ego was just that awful.

“I’m afraid that I will have to ask you to leave, sir, if you can’t abide by decorum. This is private property, and your behavior is not acceptable. I’m going to give you one more chance to leave your card, and then you need to leave.”

The man glowered. Collin gazed back. Come on, hit me. Make our day easy. My doms will totally take care of me, and then we can have your ass arrested.

“I am going to bury you, young man. When I’m done with you, your mother’s dirty laundry will be public knowledge. You won’t be able to get a job bagging groceries.”

Collin smirked. “Lucky me, I’m not looking.”

The man turned and stormed toward the exit. “Tell your boss to start playing ball or he’s not going to have balls to play with.” He went out the door, throwing it open with enough violence it hit the wall.

Collin sighed and pulled out his phone, calling physical plant to bring up an air purifier.

Bruiski stepped out of the hall as Collin hung up. “That was fun.”

Collin pulled a face, agreeing with the other man. “I’m going to go pull the footage. Who does that around here?”

“Ash.”

“Cool. I have to talk to him anyways.”

“You okay?”

“Who, me? It’s Carrie that I’m worried about.”

“She took her medication, and she’s resting. She’ll be okay. But she can’t go home until the elevator airs out, so…”

“People like him are so selfish.” Collin shook his head.

“You handled it well.”

“Try telling a drunk at two a.m. that you’re cutting him off after his sports team loses on the day his wife serves him divorce papers. That was nothing. If he hit me, I knew someone was going to help. That wasn’t always the case at the bar.”

Bruiski’s nose and lip curled in discomfort. “Fair.”

“Can you watch the desk? In case he comes back or anyone else comes in.”

“Yep. Mr. Reevesworth told me to take over. I can work out here for a while.”

Ash threw open the door to his dungeon at Collin’s first knock.

“What, I don’t have to bribe you?” Collin raised an eyebrow and stuffed his hands into his pockets.

Ash smirked. He grabbed Collin by the front of his suit and dragged him inside, pushing the door all the way shut after him. “Bribe me later. Look.”

He pointed to Collin’s laptop.

“What am I looking at?”

“A trap. That worked.” Ash rubbed his hands together, eyes shining. “This is what I needed parts for, well, one of the things. I needed a camera outside the door, too, and…anyway. This, this is what is important.” He waved his hands, unable to contain himself.

“Ash, regular plain human here, remember? Muggle, non-magical, not trained in the ways of wizardry.”

Ash sighed and threw himself into his chair.

“I’m pretending to be you. I looked into your logs and created a program to ‘be you’ based on your current work schedule and previous habits.

Like, your computer is doing things you would do.

There’re some rough guesses, of course. And I had to throw in some white noise so you started reading a lot of boring PDFs based on your previous search histories.

And dude, you like, seriously, do not look at porn half as much as other people.

I had to make this thing be doing actual work.

What’s wrong with you, not even an anime binge? ”

“Why are you faking being me?”

“Oh, so they’d hack you.” Ash frowned at Collin like he was slow. He waved his arms at the laptop. “Honeypot, catch more flies with honey, all that? I mean, every now and then, I have you googling words, little things, just enough to keep them interested.”

Collin approached the computer. It didn’t look like anything was going on. The screen was open to a PDF on inner city market integration for locally grown produce. Huh, that did look interesting. He should read that.

Ash gave an exasperated sigh. “They’re watching you, well, as of two hours ago, they started watching you again. And…” Ash drew a big breath. “Now I’m watching them!”

“You are? You know where they are?”