Page 15 of Gator
I looked at her, trying to decide if she was being honest with me or not. Kat was nothing if not dedicated, but she was too valuable to Three Bears for us to let her burn herself out.
“Just make sure you take care of yourself. We can’t do this without you.”
She rolled her eyes. “I take care of myself just fine, don’t worry about me.”
“I’m going for a run, but later on I’ll be in the lounge with the others to watch some football. You should join us.” We always offered, but for whatever reason, she never accepted. She was easy to get along with and worked her ass off for our company, but she wasn’t very social. We didn’t push her, but we always wanted to make sure she knew she was welcome.
“I’ll pass on the sports ball. Thanks, though.”
“You know where to find us if you change your mind.”
By the time I got back from my run and took a shower, it was almost time for kick-off. Game day had become something of a tradition around here, so I walked into the common area on the ninth floor. I wasn’t at all surprised that pretty much everyone who wasn’t on assignment was there.
The twins were sitting on the couch, Tuck and Knox were standing near the snack table munching, Wolfe and Crowe were sitting at the poker table, and to my surprise, Diego was sitting in one of the armchairs. Hawk had brought him on a few months ago, but this was the first time he’d come for game day. Most of the guys who worked here lived here on the ninth floor making it easy for them to all hang out, but Diego had his own place on the north side of town.
I thought about joining Wolfe and Crowe, but I figured today would be a good chance for me to get to know Diego better. Before I joined him, I needed something to eat. Before Mika moved in with Hawk, our game-day snack selections had been pretty rudimentary. Open up a couple of bags of chips, toss them in a bowl, and call it good. But not anymore.
I didn’t think Mika cared much for football, but he loved to feed us, and no one was complaining. There was a table along the wall covered in chips, dips, veggies, cookies, and of course, my favorite—Mika’s double chocolate brownies.
I grabbed a brownie and made my way over to the couch.
“Make room, assholes,” I said, motioning for Axel to slide over so I could sit between him and his brother Maddox.
When they first came to work for us, neither Axel nor Maddox were big football fans. They had rather spent the day playing video games or riding their dirt bikes out at the camp, but eventually, we won them over. They’d both selected teams based on which ones had the biggest rivalry in the NFL, of course, with each brother taking a different team because they wouldn’t have it any other way.
I could’ve sat on the left-hand side of the couch, but the day would be better if the Wonder Twins were separated. I’d heard stories all my life about twins and how they did this mind-meld thing, but I never really believed it until we hired these two. They hassled each other, picked on each other, and sometimes even went so far as to fight each other physically—but they were thickas thieves, often finished each other's sentences, and loved to cause trouble.
I bit into the brownie and let out a moan.
“So, where are Hawk and Mika anyway?” I asked. “It’s obvious he’s been down here.”
“Mika stopped by and dropped off the food, but then he headed back upstairs to fix Hawk something to eat. Apparently, he was up until the early hours this morning.”
“Must be nice,” I grumbled. “I was up all night, too, and I wanted to sleep in, but my brain had other ideas.”
“They said they’d be down in time to see the Bengals game.”
“Nobody wants to watch the freaking Bengals,” I grumbled.
“Apparently, Mika does,” Maddox said.
“Whatever. They’re playing the Saints today, so it ought to be a good game.”
Tucker plopped down in one of the armchairs and shook her head. “So… I heard what happened at the club last night. That’s pretty fucked up.”
“It is. And we honestly still have no idea what the deal is. Why him? What did they want with him? Was it a regular kidnapping or something else? Honestly, we don’t know much.”
Maddox shoved a large chip covered in guac in his mouth before saying something I couldn’t begin to understand. “Ew do espe tuff li va ew apun e bespa.”
I scowled at him and shook my head. “What?”
Axel reached behind me and popped his brother on the back of his head. “Mom raised you better than that, you animal.” He sighed. “He said you don’t expect stuff like that to happen in Vesper.”
“Stuff like that can happen anywhere. I would think you would’ve realized that by now,” Wolfe called over, because of course the man was listening to everything, he always was.
Maddox swallowed what was left of his bite and turned to look at Wolfe. “I know. Vesper just has that small-town feel, even though it's a decent size.”
“You’d be surprised,” Diego said. “Working as a PI taught me that small towns are hotbeds of secrets and unhealthy relationships. Give me a big city any day.”