22. Jordan
22
JORDAN
A year ago, I wouldn’t have dreaded laying into my guards. I would have chewed them up and spit them out without a second thought. These weren’t just any guards who fucked up. These were two of my best. I couldn’t even blame Sheldon for thinking with his dick, considering he was thinking with that beating organ in his chest. Hadn’t I been guilty of that? And it wasn’t like they marched Hartley and his brother into the street for anyone to hurt them. They were in my building, talking to someone who was unarmed.
Still…
“Sir?” Reghan asked as I walked to the elevator. My home was quiet with my men working and Ava at school.
“Yes?” I hit the button for the elevator. Tahoe whimpered where he sat in the living room. “You can come with me.” I patted my leg, and he trotted over. Maybe having Tahoe with me would be a good thing. He could keep me from slitting Sheldon’s and Oleander’s throats while I yelled at them.
“Barrett reached out.”
I cocked an eyebrow .
“He heard there’s another boss in the city and wanted to know if you had anything to do with it.” I knew that fucker would come here. He had little money and was desperate as hell for what I had.
“Good.” With Barrett hearing things, that meant I had more eyes on my men. More people to watch out for them and make sure they weren’t hurt. “Let him know they’re a dangerous rival, and I’d appreciate information about movement in exchange for dinner at my steakhouse.”
“That’s generous, sir.”
“Yes, well, you’re not biting my head off with news of Barrett, so something has finally snapped between you two or you’ve scratched that itch and feel better.”
“Neither,” he was quick to say.
I hummed and stepped into the elevator with Tahoe and Reghan, then hit the button for the floor Sheldon lived on. He’d snuck in during the night. Barry let me know and said Sheldon didn’t do his usual pacing the hallways shit. He knew his ass was in trouble.
“Whatever it is,” I began, “I don’t care who you fuck, as long as your lips stay closed, unless your mouth is busy doing other things. No talking. No nothing. Fuck and flee, Reghan. If you see it going further, come to me. I’m trying to be… reasonable.”
“Yes, sir.”
Reasonable. When the fuck did that happen? I knew, but I didn’t want to admit to it out loud. It happened when I started softening. Soon I’d have a detective fucking one of my best guards. There was no doubt in my mind there would be a trail of destruction from the two of them. Yet, there were these voices in my head that sounded a lot like Hartley and Vail telling me Reghan deserved to find happiness too .
“Nothing interferes with what you do for me,” I added.
“Of course not. I take my job seriously.”
“Good.”
Reghan and Raiden were my personal detail, but they also covered Vail and Hartley when we were together or if they were needed as extra security. They’d lay their lives down for my men. With all this fucking love inside me, apparently, I wanted others to be happy too.
Bullshit. That was what it was. Fucking bullshit.
We stepped off the elevator and walked toward Sheldon’s door. Vail was in the building working on his kitchen, so Oleander was here, leaning against the wall, knowing damn well I’d come for his ass too. Tahoe didn’t want to move this morning when Vail left, or he would have gone with him. The dog lived the good life here.
I looked Oleander in the eye while I pounded my fist on Sheldon’s door. It opened slowly, very like Sheldon not to hurry to do everything. It was calm and with precision.
My eyes met Sheldon’s next. “Inside. You too, Oleander.” He was lucky I didn’t last name him like a father did with their children.
We stepped into Sheldon’s home, Tahoe rushing ahead to put his nose to the floor and sniff every inch of the space. He’d been here before, so it wasn’t new to him. Sheldon left nothing out Tahoe could get into.
Reghan took his position in the hall by the door and closed it behind us.
“Sit,” I told them. I would stand, towering over them. I couldn’t hurt them, didn’t really want to. Except I did.
Turning away from them, I paced down the hall and back again. Sheldon had deep brown, wide planks of wood for his floor. The walls were light beige in the hallway, giving the area a warm feel. Photos of himself and Oleander hung on the walls, as well as a photo of his mother. In the living room, the walls were a soft baby blue, a serene color that went with the man who lived here. There were no photos here, but there were other things that were personal to him. Items from trips he’d gone on or gifts others had given him. I noticed a baseball from a game he and Oleander went to. Sheldon had caught a foul ball.
I spun, averting my eyes of the shit that made me have more feelings, that made Sheldon a real person and not the guard who protected me and the men I loved. Stopping in front of them, I peered down. “You two fucked up,” I bit out. “You put Hartley’s and Forest’s lives in danger. What the fuck were you thinking? And before you answer, don’t. I don’t really give a shit what you have to say because I already know. Jesus, I’m so fucking pissed at you two right now.”
Pacing away, I had to move to keep from throttling them. I wanted to wrap my hands around their necks but resisted. Hartley and Vail’s voices were in my head. Vail telling me how much he cared about them and what good friends they’d become. Hartley threatening to leave me.
Whirling, I paced back. “Do you know what Hartley fucking said to me yesterday?” I seethed. “He threatened to walk away from me if I fired you two. Do you know what that did to me? How it almost put me into an early fucking grave? You’re lucky my men like you or you’d be the ones digging where you’d spend eternity, because I’d fucking kill you both.”
I took a deep breath, then another. That icy dread rushed through my veins again, like at any moment I'd get a call Hartley was leaving. I couldn’t bear to watch them walk away. I wouldn’t fucking survive it.
Placing one hand on the arm of the couch and the other on the back near Sheldon’s shoulder, I leaned forward, putting my face in his. “If you ever do something that stupid again, you better get on that bike of yours and hit max speed on the way out of Dremest because if I catch you, I’ll shoot you in the head. You’ll look right at me when I end your life. Is that fucking clear?”
He nodded; eyes wide. “Yes, sir.”
“I don’t care who you’re falling for, who you want to share your goddamn bed with. I will kill you. Hartley’s safety should have come first. And worse? You knew that and did it anyway. You knew you shouldn’t have let them talk to Lane, yet off you went.” My hand moved from the back of the couch to grip his throat. I wouldn’t kill him, but there was a warning in my hold. “I don’t care how long we’ve known each other or what shitstorms we’ve been through. You fuck up like this again and we’re done. If you think you need to shift your priorities, you fucking talk to me. Not pull a stunt like this. Goddammit, Sheldon.” I released him before I did actually hurt him.
He rubbed his throat. “I know, sir. I’m sorry.”
Pushing back, I went to Oleander, leaning forward like I did with his friend, my hand not on his throat. Oleander did what he did because he would follow Sheldon to the ends of the earth. That was the kind of loyalty I appreciated, but in this instance, he should have stopped him, not gone along with him. “And you. How many times have you been the voice of reason for Sheldon or been there when he needed you? Yet, you let him walk the fuck in there because he wasn’t thinking with his brain or his dick. He was thinking with his heart and that’s worse! Logic goes out the window and all he saw was what he wanted to do for Forest. You should have guided him, not fanned the goddamn flames.” The only thing stopping me from gripping his throat too was the reminder in the back of my head of the bullet he took protecting Vail.
“I can’t let you two off with a warning. The others will run rampant, thinking they can pull shit while working for me. The question is, what should your punishments be?” I leaned away, rubbing my fingers over my beard, contemplating the shit I could put them through. “Sheldon, you’re on monitor duty. You can park your ass in front of those screens for eight hours a night for a week. When not staring at them or attempting to sleep, watching every fucking move people make, you’re going to spend it in Hartley’s studio, cleaning every square inch of it. I don’t want to see a damn piece of thread on the floor. Since I can’t punish him for getting you to let him into see Lane, and I know he persuaded you, Hartley’s going to feel like shit while watching you clean. If he helps you, Rory will tell me, and then you’ll be scrubbing every toilet until they shine.”
“Yes, sir.”
One punishment down. One to go. “Oleander, you’re going to have to be quick on your feet this week. You’ve been temporarily demoted. You’ll run every errand, every task the others don’t want to do. You like helping your friends out so much, prove it. I don’t care how small the task is, you’re going to handle it and not complain once. Seven days of you doing the shit others hate. The only time you won’t be doing it is when Vail leaves the building. Then you’ll go with him and be so fucking alert a goddamn ladybug can’t get in his vicinity.”
“Yes, sir.”
“I hate this shit,” I told them, my anger dissipating. “I hate that I had to have this conversation, and that I had to dole out punishments. Most of the others would have been fired, or worse. But I can’t do that to you. Your balls have been saved by the men I love. I trusted you to watch over them and decide when they aren’t thinking clearly. You let me down. I expected better.”
Snapping my fingers, I called for Tahoe to come to me. There was no doubt in my mind he wanted to stay and get attention from them, but they didn’t deserve to pet him. Was I being too hard on them with their punishments and my words? Maybe. Others would have killed them though.
Just the thought of what Lane could have done to Hartley made me want to yell at them some more. Logic told me Lane wouldn’t hurt them. He had been nothing but compliant since he’d stepped into Hartley’s grandfather’s living room. But logic had no voice where my men were concerned. I didn’t think. I reacted. At least this time I gave myself the night to cool down a little.
They wouldn’t pull something like this again, that was for damn sure. Not Sheldon or Oleander. Or even Hartley, for that matter. We would talk and figure this out together. After all, I still had no idea why his grandfather owed money to Lane’s father. It was just another mystery with no way to trace it. Thanks to them doing everything on paper, Lawson couldn’t work his magic this time.