13. Cas
13
Cas
I hadn’t expected to look quite so thoroughly fucked for Rishi’s colleague, but here I was, and Luis’s looks told me that he was knew full well what we had been up to that morning. Rishi had washed the bedding after and remade the bed with a different set of sheets. I actually had three sets, more because that way I could go longer between having to do laundry — a task that was now Rishi’s anyway and one he was quite fastidious about — than because I was thinking about fresh bedding after sex, but they came in handy today.
I showed Luis where the filtered water and the bathroom were and told him he was free to help himself to anything in the refrigerator. When we were finished with the brief tour, I left him to get comfortable and wheeled myself out to the living room.
Rishi was back, sitting on the sofa with his laptop open. “I’m writing an email to John,” he said. “I’m outlining my proposal for time splitting with Luis, but I won’t send it until he wakes up and goes over it. I want to make sure that we are on the same page and make sure he gets a chance to add his input,” he said.
“Not a bad idea,” I said as he turned the device to show me what he had written so far. It outlined a schedule where Luis and Rishi switched off duty and included a two-day break for Rishi to head to Denver to get his things from the apartment.
“When would you do that?” I asked him.
“I do not know yet. I’m considering asking my friend to help pack my things and pick me up from the airport. I do not have many possessions, at least not many that are important to me. I want my photo album, the rest of my clothing, and a few mementos and souvenirs from my time overseas. He can keep the things we bought together; they were more his taste than mine. It was his apartment in the first place, anyway. I moved in with him.”
I smothered a little twinge of jealousy at the idea that anyone else had the privilege of living with Rishi. “I suppose you want to go as soon as possible, though. You’re going to need to talk to your boss soon, right? For all we know he could have already assigned you to another job.”
Rishi shook his head. “He wouldn’t do that without debriefing me. John runs a really great outfit, and he works hard at putting his people first. If he’d needed me somewhere urgently he would have called me,” he said. “You are right, though, I should let him know that I’m not ready to be put back on the roster.” He took out his phone and typed a quick message. “I told him that I have to speak to him, but Luis is resting from the drive, and we will call together when he is awake. He said that was fine.”
I wheeled into the kitchen and made myself an iced drink, cut my eyes toward where I knew Rishi sat on the other side of the living room wall, and made him one, too. Then I headed back out with both of them perched on my lap. My cup was a tall, reusable drink glass from a coffee chain, and since I only had one, I put Rishi’s in a hot cup. He looked at me in surprise when I held the cup out to him. I set mine on the side table and transferred myself to the sofa next to him.
“Hello,” he said, closing his laptop.
“Hi. How are you feeling?”
Rishi blinked. “I am well,” he said slowly. He set his laptop aside. “How are you?”
“I’m okay.” I took a sip of my drink, deliberately setting the cup back on the side table. I wanted to ask if he was happy about this morning, and if we were still good now that Luis was here and everything, but I didn’t. Running my mouth was what got us into this situation in the first place.
I felt Rishi’s eyes on me. “You’re thinking very loudly, do you know?” he asked.
I smiled, not looking at him. “Mind reader? No wonder you’re good in bed.”
Rishi huffed lightly. “More like not blind,” he said. “Do you want to talk about something?”
“No,” I sighed. “Yes. No.” I looked at him. “Everything is okay again, right? I’ve never argued like that and then went back to a relationship with another person. Emotions that high have always meant an end.”
Rishi nodded slowly, eyes roaming over and around me. “I think so, yes. Do you feel good with me?”
I tipped my lips up in a smirk, and he chuckled.
“I feel good with you, too. It was a misunderstanding, with some missteps on both sides, I think. However, we talked it through, and we are okay now. Fights happen.” Rishi took my hand, studied me for another minute, then leaned in and kissed me.
I sighed into it and put my arms around him, letting him chase my worries away.
***
Luis came out of my bedroom at two p.m. He was dressed in fresh clothes and looked alert and ready to go, his deep brown eyes quickly assessing the apartment, Rishi, and me. I offered to make him a coffee, which he accepted with a quick thank you.
“I composed this email,” Rishi said, holding his laptop out for Luis to take and read. Luis took a seat in the armchair and read it through, nodding here and there. “I did not send it yet; I wanted your opinion.”
Luis nodded again, looking at Rishi. “I think that works for me. Do you feel comfortable with it?” he asked me.
“Yes,” I said immediately. “Fernandez is dangerous. He is responsible for this.” I gestured to my limb. “I have a gun, but I’m a sitting duck, literally.”
Luis nodded once more, a sharp, definite thing. “Yes, if John approves it, I’m in.”
Rishi grinned. “Great. I’ll send it off now and tell him we’ll wait for his call. Bet you it’s inside twenty minutes.”
Luis laughed. “Nope, I’m not stupid.”
Ten minutes later Rishi’s phone rang, and he and Luis fist-bumped as he pulled it out to answer. “Hello, sir. I am here with Luis and Mr. Hallie. If you have no objections, I can put my phone on speaker.”
Rishi listened for a moment, then tapped the screen. “Here we are, sir.”
“Hello,” Luis said.
“Mr. Alden,” I said.
“Ah, quite the impromptu little conference call. Hello, everyone. I’m glad that we can all discuss this together so there is no confusion, and nothing is lost in a game of telephone.” He chuckled at his joke before he continued. “Previously, I was informed that Mr. Rao wanted to return to Colorado and was requesting a new agent be assigned to the case. Then, this morning, I received a text saying that he did not want to be put back on the available agent roster, and now I have an email with a proposal from Rishi and Luis regarding a collaborative effort to Mr. Hallie’s security.”
“That is correct,” Rishi said. “I mistakenly believed that it would be best for me to bow out and allow another agent to take over the case. Mr. Hallie and I have since spoken about it, conferred with Luis, and came up with this proposal.”
“I think it would be a good plan, as well, and it gives Rishi the chance to go back to Denver to deal with his belongings,” I added.
John hummed. “I was planning to speak to you about that, privately,” he said. “Your boyfriend contacted me this morning to ask when you would be back.”
Luis and I were both aware of Rishi tensing up. “Is that so, sir,” Rishi said in a deceptively calm voice.
“It is. I told him I was not at liberty to discuss an agent’s schedule and that he should contact you directly.”
“Thank you, sir,” Rishi said. “He called me yesterday and we disagreed, but I had ended the relationship before I came to California to work at True Colors. The chance to collect my belongings from his possession would be welcome.”
“Luis, are you amenable to all of this?” John asked.
“I am, sir. Thank you very much,” Luis said.
“Excellent. I will adjust everything necessary. Thank you both. Mr. Hallie, I hope this threat to your safety is resolved quickly, but rest assured that your agents are both very good at their jobs.”
“Thank you, Mr. Alden. Rishi has been very helpful, going above and beyond.”
John chuckled. “Yes, many of my agents have gone above and beyond lately.” He laughed lightly. “If there’s nothing else, have a good day everyone. Good-bye.”
The call disconnected, and Luis smirked at Rishi. “Above and beyond, huh.”
Rishi offered a cool smile. “One hundred and ten percent.”
Luis laughed. “Respect, man, respect.”
Rishi and I gave Luis a CliffsNotes rundown on everything that had happened. We told him about Elena, the kidnapping attempt, the note, and the photo. Rishi filled him in on the shelter and how first Saint and then I had become targets for Fernandez, and about the shooting that put me in the wheelchair. John Alden had the facts, of course, but reading a file is not the same as hearing a firsthand account.
Luis was shaking his head when we were only halfway through. I didn’t have some of the details that Rishi had about the shelter and the events that Saint and Rio had experienced.
“A rattlesnake? ” I hissed.
“Yes. You can see why the plan is to focus on the exotic animal angle,” Rishi said.
“Is it all creepy, dangerous things?” Luis asked. “Where are they going when they get to the States? There can’t be that big of a market for funnel web spiders and deadly snakes.”
I shrugged. “I have no idea. I assume they have to be importing other animals too. There is an ongoing investigation that hinges upon their ability to import an assortment of exotics.”
Luis nodded slowly. “And while the police work on that, we just keep on keeping on here?”
“That is exactly what we do,” Rishi said. “Welcome to the Golden State, Luis.”