21. Chapter 21 #2
Before Maven even has time to answer, the office door swings open.
Roman stops about a foot in the room to look around at all the shit scattered across the floor, but instead of showing any kind of concern over the entire fucking situation, he just steps between the couch and glares down at Ollivander.
Olli eventually realizes that Roman isn’t just walking past him to sit down on the other side of the couch and glances up at him.
When Roman gestures for him to move over so that he can plop his ass down right beside me, Olli doesn’t even argue it. Fucking pushover.
I roll my eyes in annoyance as Roman practically sits in my damn lap.
I’m not sure if he’s trying to mark his territory in front of Maven and Ollivander or just get on my last nerve, but only one of those is actually working.
I scoff as I squeeze myself as close to the arm of the couch as possible, but it doesn’t seem to bother Roman at all. He’s already focused on Maven.
“We have a situation.” Maven announces without even bothering to look up at us.
“What kind of situation?” Roman asks sharply, with the precision of an arrow. I’m glad that at least one member of Maven’s audience seems to have their shit together today.
“Another shipment has been poached.” He replies as he looks up at Ollivander.
Olli immediately starts squirming in his seat again, but me?
My enthusiasm has skyrocketed. I was just saying that I wanted to be a part of the inner circle around here, wasn’t I?
Didn’t I just mention that? Okay. Play it cool.
“Another? How many are we talking about?” I ask as calmly as possible.
“Three in the last two months, but this one… this one was important.”
My eyes nearly explode out of my head. Three shipments for the prison have been stolen?
How has no one heard anything about this?
Ollivander seems just as shocked as I am because he lets out a surprised gasp.
I thought that he would know practically everything about this place since he waits on Maven hand and foot, but apparently I was wrong.
“I need the two of you to pack some bags. You’ll be going stateside.”
Wait… What? What the hell are Olli and I going to do about stolen shipments? I’m not even qualified to find my own lost shoes, and I don’t think Ollivander knows how to set up a camer— Oh.
No.
No, no, no.
Ha. Not happening.
I scoot to the edge of the couch, before standing up. I need some fucking space, or some air, or something. It feels like it’s getting really fucking crowded in here.
“Ha! Absolutely not. No.“ I shake my head in denial as I start to pace the room. “Get someone else. I… I… I have a job placement.” I stammer out. There’s no fucking way this is happening right now. The timing could not be worse. I barely even have my emotions at a manageable point right now. I’m a fucking disaster, and he wants me to spend an unknown amount of time stuck in the same space as the person who caused all this turmoil? I can’t do it. I can’t.
Maven is taking exactly none of my tantrum though. He points to the couch, and my body promptly plops right back down without even thinking about it. “You’re no longer needed in that position. Wilder will be briefing you on that tomorrow.”
Um… do what now?
“Wait…” I interject as I scoot back to the edge of the couch again. “What about Everest?”
“You’ll be briefed tomorrow.” He says a little more sternly as he leans back in his chair and crosses his arms across his chest.
Panic grips my chest. This is bad. Really fucking bad. Jett is going to freak the fuck out. Does he already know? Does Everest already know? Oh God. If I see them before they’ve been told, I’m gonna have to keep it a secret.
And I wanted to be a part of the inner circle? I take it back. I want out. Like yesterday.
“You don’t understand. Jett is going to be inconsolable if he’s being separated from Everest.” Roman never takes his eyes off of Maven, but he reaches over and places his hand on my thigh.
I hate that I’m immediately comforted by his touch, it disgusts me, but there’s no way in fuck I’m going to push him away right now.
This is a huge fucking disaster. I think— Jesus.
The world might as well be a giant ball of dust hurling its way toward the sun at full speed.
I can’t handle all of this right now. “He’s my best friend. I can’t just leave him to—”
“Unfortunately, I’m not in the position to give you a choice.
This is slightly outside the scope of a normal job placement, so I’m prepared to offer each of you an untraditional form of payment for your help.
Or… if you decide not to participate as I’ve requested, I’ll be forced to reevaluate our current contracts and make amendments as necessary.
The choice is yours.” He tilts his head in warning, watching me closely.
I furrow my brow, extremely irritated by his insinuation.
I’m aware of exactly what he’s doing. He’s using my brother to keep me in line, to make me do what he wants, which is like the first red flag in the ‘Manipulation 101’ manual.
While I’m pissed about that portion of this conversation, it’s not what makes me zip my lips and push my ass right back on the couch.
I don’t know what he’s planning to offer us for helping him, but if we could request an additional clause on our contracts, then that could solve all of my problems, if only I knew that my problems were real concerns to begin with.
I need to find a way to contact my brother before it’s time for him to come here, and there’s only one person I know that could help me with that.
Unfortunately, he’s the last person I want to ask for help.
Getting sent to the states for this mission would be the perfect opportunity to communicate with Gatlin if I can convince Roman to help me.
No matter how much I could benefit from this arrangement, I’m not letting Maven’s demands slide.
Knowing that he would go back on things that we already agreed to because I’m going through something personal that specifically relates to the person I’d be forced to spend time with is a really fucking low blow.
I’ve talked to Maven more times than I can count, and I never, in a million years, would’ve imagined him doing something so shady to anyone here.
Not even Wilder, and I’m almost positive that he loathes Wilder.
It’s not like my brain is in a completely stable state to begin with, and now I feel like everything I knew about Maven has been flipped on its head.
There’s never been a request that he’s denied, even when I wanted lingerie and a fucking fire pit.
He was ecstatic to provide useless bullshit to make me feel at home, but as soon as I’m in a mental crisis with his head of security, he wants to threaten my family over some covert mission that he could have literally anyone else do.
It muddles my brain and pisses me off more than I can even explain.
“I hate you,” I murmur in irritation. It’s petulant and childish, but I want him to know that his intentions have been made clear. He’s drawn a very visible line in the sand between himself and everyone else with this one fucking request. He has a priority, and whatever it is, it’s not us.
“The feeling is mutual,” he replies without a single hint of emotion. “You’ll be briefed tomorrow, and then the two of you will fly out the next morning.”
“Where are we going? And what will we be doing?” Roman asks. Again, I’m glad someone’s mind is focused on the task at hand.
There’s a lot of back and forth, mostly between Maven and Roman, including a little posturing, before we’re finally dismissed. As we’re walking back to our apartments, awkwardly as fuck, Roman glances over at me.
“We need to talk, Lance.”
“No… we don’t. We have a job to do. Nothing more.
” I reply without looking over at him. I focus on my feet.
The way my shoes squeak with every step.
The way each of my strides are the perfect length, just like my father had me trained.
The way the cracks in the concrete spider out in every direction around my feet.
It’s kind of ironic. I feel like I’m caught in a sticky spiderweb in more ways than one.
“We’re just going to ignore each other the entire time? It’s just going to be the two of us most days, and there’s no telling how long we’re going to be there.”
I’m no idiot. I don’t know why Maven is sending me with Roman, especially since this job is completely out of my wheelhouse, but I know he has a motive.
Maven always has a motive. Whatever it is, I highly doubt that it has anything to do with the shit going on between Roman and I.
So, I just need to focus on… being focused.
This job is important to Maven, and whatever his reasoning was for choosing me to go, I need to make sure to exceed his expectations.
I don’t know exactly what I’m going to ask for if he grants me another clause on my contract, but depending on what Gatlin says, I might need something big. Really big.
As the hallway splits off, Roman needing to go right, and me needing to go left, I stop in my tracks and turn toward him. I keep my eyes trained on the floor, hoping and praying that there’s some way I can survive all of this.
“I need your help.” I demand. It’s not a question, it’s not a request, and honestly, it’s not even optional at this point. After the way he treated me, he at least owes me this.
“Yeah? Of course. Anything.“ His brows furrow in confusion as he tucks his hands in his pockets.
“I need to talk to my brother when we get stateside, and I need you to make it happen.”
“Fuck…”