CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
“Well, you sure lived up to your nickname, Sloane,” Brent chortled as he approached with a curried lamb skewer in hand. He took a huge bite.
“What nickname?” Perk asked, his head coming up from where he was perusing the food offerings.
Wiley’s small cottage was filled to the brim with large bodies feasting on a repast that Solina had lovingly prepared, but everyone stopped chewing, having heard Brent’s pronouncement.
Sloane groaned beside him, and he watched as she rolled her eyes.
“Thanks a lot, asshole,” Sloane grumbled at Brent.
“A nickname?” Prez asked, his face filled with amused anticipation. “How is it that we didn’t know about this sooner?”
“Because it’s nothing,” Sloane grumped, sending a look full of daggers toward Brent.
“Oh, it must be something,” Billboard joined in. “Are you going to tell us, or do we have to get it out of Brent?”
Perk didn’t know whether he should intervene or not. If the nickname was some kind of trigger for Sloane, he didn’t want her having to work through whatever emotions she had around it, especially with an audience.
“Guys. Leave her alone,” he finally said, watching Sloane chew on her bottom lip. “If she wants to tell us, she will. If not, respect her wishes that it’s not something she likes to talk about.”
Sloane sucked in a breath. “It’s okay, Perk. I can handle this.”
He knew she could, but he wanted to make it clear that she didn’t have to.
“Only if you’re sure you want to share. Nobody here is going to be an asshole about it if you don’t. I promise.” He sent a glare around the room, and found everyone to be curious but acquiescent, something he’d come to expect from his team. They could all poke a bear with the best of them, but each and every one of them had also dealt with their own demons in the past, and knew how that felt. Not one of them would want to make Sloane uncomfortable.
“Perk,” she sighed. “If I’m going to be working with SOS in the future, I want the team to understand where I’m coming from.”
Perk lifted her hand from where it plucked at the hem of her shirt, wrapping his warm fingers around her cold ones. “You do whatever feels right,” he encouraged, holding on.
She hissed in a breath and looked around. “My nickname is Buster at the office. As in ball-buster,” she revealed. “And it’s not just because I’m good on the mats and can take down much bigger opponents.”
Billboard grinned and saluted her with a turkey leg.
“It’s because I haven’t ever exactly been a person who’s been…approachable to my teammates. But there’s a reason for that.”
Perk didn’t think it was necessary for Sloane to unload about her past. “You don’t have to say anything else,” he comforted, changing his hand-hold to a one-armed hug, tucking her up against his side. He could feel the tension radiating through her body.
Sloane shook her head. “I’ll make it brief.”
She braved the room. “I’ve held myself more or less aloof from people because of two things: a dysfunctional family, and an asshole of an ex-husband. They all wanted to change me; make me more…feminine. I tried to live up to their expectations for a while, but it was total crap and I knew it. Which still didn’t mean I was completely confident in who I was, once I shook free of those…impediments. When you’re constantly shit on, you tend to have your doubts.
“My job at the FBI eventually gave me something on which to focus, and as long as I didn’t let anyone get close enough to see my insecurities, I didn’t have to sugar-coat my true personality.” Sloane paused for a moment and gave a wry smile. “To my fellow agents, my reticence to interact—especially in social situations—and my tough demeanor while working cases, was the reason they gave me the handle, Buster.” She blew out a gust of air before revealing the next. “Then you guys came along.”
Perk encouraged her now, with a slight squeeze.
“You weren’t like any of the people at the Bureau. You kept at me, like buzzing mosquitos, not caring if I metaphorically slapped at you every time you tried to dig into my skin. Prez, in particular, continuously teased me like some kind of—”
“Big brother?” Prez smirked.
“I was going to say malarial species to maintain my previous imagery, but I guess brother works, too,” she replied with a snort before elbowing Perk.
“It was this guy, however, who began making me feel like I was someone worthy. The tougher and meaner I got to drive him away, the more he showed me patience and…friendship. Like some kind of big goofy dog,” she grumbled.
“Rooby-roo!” Prez interjected. Del punched him to shut him up, but it had the effect of getting everyone in the room laughing.
Including Sloane.
Perk would thank the dick-head, later.
“Yup,” Sloane continued. “Perk continually told me without words that I was a person he liked, regardless of how nasty I could be.”
“Fuh the record Miz Vessers,” Mizzay piped up, “when I was… When I interfaced with your office, I nevah thought you were nasty. Just a little unapproachable.”
Sloane nodded. “Thank you. But even for that perception, I take full responsibility. However, now that my eyes have been opened—mostly—and I’ve started dismantling my walls here, I’m also trying to make changes for the better at my office. I’ve had a few recent conversations with Director Baskins that have proven insightful, Agent Tertia and I have actually had a few light moments together recently, and even Agent Smalley is starting to grow on me.”
Strangely, even though Mizzay had looked like she wanted to speak again, that statement seemed to shut her down. Perk noticed. If it hadn’t been for everyone approaching to drag Sloane out of his arms for hugs, he might have called the normally unflappable Mizzay on it.
As it was, he’d file it away for later. Currently, he was too giddy, seeing Sloane flush and laugh as she was passed around, given noogies, and even twirled into an impromptu dance-step by Daire.
“So what do you say, people?” Perk finally whistled loudly, making his voice heard above the cacophony. “Can we lay the ‘Buster’ moniker to rest?”
“You won’t hear it from any of us,” Del stated with certainty, giving Brent the hairy-eyeball.
“I’m over it,” Brent relented. “But who’s going to give a head’s up to her fellow agents?”
“I will,” Mizzay woke herself up from whatever had affected her, and gave Sloane a hug. “Nobodeez gonna call you that, ever again, or they’ll hear from me.”
Perk knew they could all take that to the bank.
Tears appeared in Sloane’s eyes as she made her way back to him.
Wiley must have noticed she was on the edge of losing it.
“Listen. Perk. The horses are in for the night. Why don’t you take Sloane out to the barn to meet them.” Wiley made it a statement, and Perk understood. Even though Wiley loved to be the one introducing his hooved-babies to newcomers, he was giving Perk an opportunity to get Sloane alone so she could re-center.
“Thanks, Wiles.” He turned to Sloane. “You want to go pat some very velvety noses?”
“Sure,” she said, ducking her head and making her way toward the door.
Perk followed, grabbing both their coats on his way by the sofa where they were piled. “You might need this.” It had gotten really cold outside, as it was known to do in New England during December.
“Thanks,” she replied, taking it from him and slipping it on while he took care of his. They walked out the door together. “Which way?” She pointed at the barn in the distance.
“Around the back. The front door is pretty much for the gym only, and as you can see through the windows, all the lights are off. Out back, there’s a people door and a horse door, and Wiley keeps the horse quarters lit up until about eleven at night this time of year.”
“Eight hours of sleep for the residents?” Sloane guessed.
“That’s right. He says it reduces stress in the animals to have the length of their days be pretty much the same all year round. It also helps bring mares into heat earlier in the spring.”
“Oh. Is he breeding horses?”
“Not yet, but it’s something he wants to do. Apparently, he grew up in a horse breeding family out west, so he knows how that works.”
“Very cool,” Sloane said distractedly, but Perk detected a slight choking noise.
“Hey.” Perk stopped them before they reached the barn. “Are you okay?”
She sniffled. “Well, I pretty much just told your entire team how fucked up I am, but other than that…”
Perk couldn’t see her very well in the dark, but what he heard suggested she was on the verge of a good cry. He didn’t hesitate. He pulled Sloane into his arms.
She responded by snuggling up hard against him where he could feel sobs begin to wrack her body. His heart broke for her, and as the storm inside her picked up and raged, Perk soothed up and down her back, murmuring small words of comfort.
“It’ll be okay, Sloane. Not one of them will judge you. I promise.”
“I know, I know,” she managed to get out. “I’m crying because… I guess these are tears of relief. After years of doubting who I am because of people around me judging, I finally have…friends who like me for me.”
She eventually sniffed, wiping her face on the front of his coat.
“That’s right. You do. And Sloane, I l… I like you. A lot,” he strangled out. He’d almost said “love”, but now wasn’t the time. Sloane had just opened up pretty publicly about her insecurities, and she needed his support. Not something more she might internalize and worry about. “You are a very special person, Sloane. The team and I won’t be letting you forget that anytime soon.”
Sloane pulled away, and in the moonlight, he could see her tear-dampened eyes. “Thank you, Perk. I don’t know what I would have done without you being so tenacious.”
“Ruh, row,” he quipped. “Now I’m back to being a dog with a bone.”
She slapped him playfully on the chest. “Man’s best friend.”
“Woman’s best friend,” he countered, and after making a big show of using the sleeve of his jacket to mop her face, he bent and gently kissed her on her soft lips.
When he lifted away, she reached up and stroked his cheek.
“You’re really something, aren’t you?” she told him. “I’m so lucky you came into my life.”
Before Perk could do something stupid, like howl to the moon and declare his love, he needed to distract toward things that weren’t in any way deep. “I appreciate the sentiment. But it’s so damned cold out here, my balls are probably blue. Now, do you want to meet the horses, or what?”
Sloane was no fool. She’d immediately figure out he was trying to change the subject. “Of course. But we didn’t bring any carrots,” she pouted.
“No worries. Wiley keeps a small refrigerator in the barn with approved treats.”
Fifteen minutes later, after patting a lot of those soft noses he’d spoken about and handing out bedtime snacks to the six horses in residence, Perk and Sloane leaned comfortably side by side on one of the stalls, watching a dark gray dun munch down her carrot.
“So have Del and Director Baskins decided what your next step will be?” Sloane asked.
Perk had just heard the extended plan from Del tonight when he’d come into the gym.
“Yeah. This week I’m going to stick close to Jeremy and do exactly what I’ve already been doing. Making him more comfortable with my presence. I’ll also try to be a little…friendlier with his mother, as distasteful as that sounds, to see if I can get her talking.”
“Friendly, as in…?”
Yeah . He hadn’t yet told Sloane how he’d had to avoid the handsy woman.
“She, uh, thinks I’m good boy-toy material, and she’s let it be known that she wouldn’t mind getting…frisky with me.”
“Ewww,” Sloane responded. “That’s gross. You’re supposed to be seventeen.”
“I know. It is pretty skeevy, and I’ve managed to put her off so far.” Perk quickly revealed how he’d made up an STD to keep the woman at bay.
Sloane threw back her head and laughed. “That was quick thinking, Perk. How long do you think that excuse will hold?”
“I looked it up. Cure time with meds is seven days, but since I only just ‘found out’ about it, and it’s supposedly been hanging on for a while, I’m going to tell her the doc is giving me a full ten days until he considers me cured. At that point I’ll be off the hook because I told her I’m headed back to Cincinnati for the holidays.”
“Right. To share the game with your ‘old friends’,” Sloane confirmed. “I hear Smalley and Sarge have set up a bunch of phony names, purchasing phones under those IDs, and when you ‘give them the game’ the guys will download it onto the monitored devices.”
“Yup. And those fake people will all have lots of dough in a local Cincinnati Credit Union that Smalley fake-established, so when Jeremy tries to access the funds, cash will come through, but attached to it will be some kind of markers that I don’t quite understand. Those will hopefully trace where the funds go next.”
“You mean into crypto.”
“Exactly. Sarge and Smalley are fairly confident over some AI thing they’ve set up.”
“And if it doesn’t work, what’s your next step when you ‘come back’?” Sloane made air quotes around the words, because Perk wasn’t really going anywhere. He and his fake parents would just be lying low in places that weren’t the house where they supposedly lived.
“I’ll go back into the Nelsin household wearing a wire, so when I have to play nice with Mrs. Nelsin, she’ll hopefully let something drop that will incriminate her.”
“Going with the assumption that she is the kingpin here,” Sloane warned. “And that it’s not the missing husband or the computer teacher.”
“My gut says she’s behind it,” Perk responded, “but your office isn’t ruling the other two out, and they’re still trying to locate Felix Nelsin.”
“Right. I’ve actually been on that one, and I feel like I’m getting close to finding him.”
“Good. The faster this is wrapped up, the sooner I can get back to my real life. Which includes dating you, meeting your friend Melissa as my true self, and introducing you to my family.”
“You…want me to meet your folks?” she squeaked, startling the horse who had just been nudging her for more carrots.
She reached into her pocket and procured another one to make up for the scare.
It did the trick.
“I do,” Perk answered, turning his head to look at her; growing serious. “I’ve been thinking about this. You’ve faced your troubles, now it’s time for me to face mine. My family needs to smarten up, and start treating me like an adult.”
“Which is where I come in?” Sloane asked.
“That’s right. I want the take-charge, no-nonsense Agent Vessers to inform them in no uncertain terms that their little boy has reached maturity.”
Sloane nodded, meeting his gaze with a steady one of her own.
“Gladly.”