Maggie - This is yelling
Maggie – This is yelling
“Ben?” The cold, hardwood floor creaked under my bare feet as I made my way to the empty kitchen.
That was weird. Ben was always up before me and usually making eggs and coffee. Maybe the first few weeks of school or the shock of having to do a lice treatment wiped him out? He was pretty freaked out by the experience.
“Ms. Quinn?” A deep voice probed.
My eyes darted to the hallway where the voice came from and my entire body froze. Who the hell was that?
I held my breath, waiting for the person to say something, anything else. My heart rammed hard against my chest as my mind spun in all different directions.
Where was Ben?
Who was this stranger?
They found me?
A shiver skated through my body.
Ben would never leave me. I knew it deep in my bones. So that meant… They hurt Ben. My heart bottomed-out. I clapped a hand over my mouth to stop a whimper from escaping.
But I wouldn’t let this happen to me. Not again. I wouldn’t go down without a fight.
With trembling hands, I grabbed the living room lamp off the side table and creeped to the opening of the hallway. I crouched down, hiding my body behind the wall.
“Ms. Quinn?”
That voice… It sounded eerily familiar. Sifting back through my memories, I tried to place where I heard it before, but I came up blank.
Think, think, think , I anxiously ordered myself, but I couldn’t stop from freaking out enough to concentrate.
The heavy footsteps came closer.
I could practically hear my pulse thrumming erratically in my ears.
As soon as the person came to the opening, I knew it was go-time. Squeezing my eyes shut, I swung the lamp as hard as I could.
“Ow! Fuck!”
I went to swing again, but this time, a hand caught the lamp. I struggled hard, frantically trying to break the lamp free from his grip.
“It’s me! It’s me, Maggie! Stop screaming! Open your eyes!”
Me ? Who the hell was me ? I was screaming?
I dared to peek one eye open and gasped. The hulking, athletic looking man with gray eyes and dirty blonde hair that questioned me that first day at the FBI headquarters. “Agent Coleson?”
He looked at me like I was crazy. “Dear God, you were going to fight with your eyes closed? You really do need this training.”
I could practically feel my body deflate with relief, but then I noticed the trickle of blood coming down from his forehead. “Oh my God, I am so sorry.”
“Jesus Christ.” He swiped at the blood.
“Don’t say that,” I shushed him while rushing to the kitchen to grab a wet paper towel for his head.
“Don’t…?” His eyes bulged in exasperation. “You hit me, woman!”
“I said I was sorry,” I offered weakly, feeling bad for almost maiming the guy.
He grumbled something under his breath that sounded a lot like, “Ben is a saint.”
Speaking of which … “Where is Ben?”
“He had to step out for a little, said he’d be back soon.”
Oh. That was weird. He hadn’t stepped out the whole time we’d been together so far. What would be so pressing that he’d need to leave without even telling me? For some reason, that made my heart sink, which I knew was stupid. This was his job, he didn’t owe me anything. But still… It felt like we’d grown closer in the last couple weeks.
The corner of Coleson’s mouth kicked up in a knowing grin. “Don’t worry your pretty little head about it.”
“I’m not worried,” I lied.
He just lifted his eyebrow at me. Damnit. He could read right through me. “Ben just didn’t want to wake you from your beauty sleep, Jinx.”
I rolled my eyes. “Not you, too.”
“It’s your codename,” he said with a wink.
“Whatever,” I muttered. “Want me to make breakfast?”
His eyebrows shot up in clear skepticism as he viewed the kitchen behind me. “Do you know how?”
My hands went to my hips. “Do you?” I threw back.
“Honestly? No.” He chuckled to himself. “Ben’s the house mom of the group. And I haven’t seen you touch the stove since you’ve been here.”
A shiver passed through me. “You know, it’s kind of weird, you guys spying on us and all.” My mind flashed through everything I said and did in this apartment over the past couple weeks and my face flamed red.
He shrugged. “Not a big deal, Jinx. We usually don’t pay too close attention unless needed, or unless y’all are talking about some juicy gossip.”
“Wow, that makes me feel so much better,” I sarcastically quipped.
“Don’t feel weird,” he said, giving me a knowing grin. “Cap turns us off sometimes.”
For some reason, that made me feel a little more at ease with the situation.
For the next half hour, I busied myself in the kitchen while Coleson told me stories of growing up with Ben and their buddy, Conor Banks. While Ben was dark and stormy and would’ve probably been a closed off kid in class, Coleson would’ve definitely been a class clown.
“So then I was able to hack into the PA system and play messages whenever I pleased throughout our entire senior year,” he said with a grin. “The admin team couldn’t figure out how we were doing it. I think they just prayed for graduation to come faster.”
I stared at him from my place at the stove. “They never found out it was you guys? No wonder you got a job hacking for the FBI, you were a practiced criminal.”
“Nah,” he said with a laugh. “And I couldn’t have done it without Cap and Banksy. The three of us were a well-oiled machine.”
I shook my head at him. “I don’t even want to know what you three did as a senior prank.”
“It was no big deal. Only a little explosion,” he said off-handedly.
My eyes bulged. “Explosion?!”
He chuckled. “No one was hurt, and it was just a small one.”
I stared at him.
“What?” He shrugged his big shoulders. “We needed to teach the principal a lesson for revoking our parking passes.”
“So you exploded something?”
He grinned. “We exploded his car.” He stuck his finger up in warning. “Allegedly.”
I blinked at him. He did not look like the kind of person who blew your car up. He resembled a golden retriever– big, blonde, and athletic, but very friendly and goofy. “You totally don’t look like the kind of kid that would pull that off, that’s prolly why they never suspected.”
He winked at me. “That’s part of my charm. I was always the techy guy, but Ben stole the tech– he was a handy pick-pocket, and Conor was the bullshitter who could talk his way out of anything.”
I shook my head. “You three sounded like trouble.”
“Yes, you’re only wrong for using past tense, Jinx,” Coleson said with a wink. “By the way, can you send me that pic with Ben wearing the pink hairnet?”
“My pleasure.” I laughed while reaching for my phone.
“Oh, this is perfect.” Coleson snickered at the picture. “Conor will never let him live it down.”
As soon as I plated the eggs, I dolled out a serving for Coleson and then shoved some bacon in the microwave.
I was leaning back against the counter drinking my coffee when Coleson took a huge bite, paused, and then immediately sputtered into a gagging fit which ended with him spitting the eggs out in his napkin.
My eyes bulged. “Did you just… ?!” I couldn’t even form the words for what he just did. I pointed to the napkin he was now trying to hide.
His face screwed up in a mixture of desperation and apology as he pushed the plate away from him. “They’re gooey,” he said weakly.
“No they’re not. They’re perfectly good eggs,” I stomped my foot.
His eyes widened. “Well then why don’t you have some, Ms. Chef? Take a bite for yourself and see!”
Sticking my chin in the air, I marched toward the plate of eggs. “Fine. I think I will have some for myself.”
“Morning, guys,” Ben breezed in the kitchen.
I dropped the serving spoon with a loud clatter.
It was Ben’s voice, Ben’s standard dark gray henley, and his tatted up right arm. But…
“You didn’t,” I whispered.
He gave me a sheepish look and ran a hand over his now buzzed off dark hair.
“I just did all that work and you went and cut off all your pretty hair?” I stomped my foot for the second time today, which made me feel like a child throwing a tantrum.
“Pretty?” He faced me with a smirk. With his new look, his angular cheekbones, the slash in his eyebrow, and his hard jawline seemed to stand out even more. I felt the urge to reach out and run my hand over it– but that would be literally crazy. I wrung my fingers together instead.
“Sorry.” He gave a nonchalant shrug like it wasn’t a big deal at all. “I was crawling out of my skin all night. I could practically still feel those leeches all over me.”
I crossed my arms over my chest and glowered up at him. “Are you saying I did a bad job?”
“You did a bad job with these eggs,” Coleson muttered. .
I turned my fury on him. “Hey! I–”
Ben took care of it, smacking his buddy upside the back of the head for me.
“Ow,” Coleson grumbled and rubbed at his head.
“No. You did great,” Ben said, turning to face me with a look of genuine sincerity. “Thank you.”
I pouted. “But… Your pretty hair.”
He laughed as he swiped the eggs off the counter and quickly dumped them in the trash. “Sorry?”
I gaped at him. “For which offense?!”
“All of them?” He grimaced.
“You are not forgiven. All my hard work. Literally in the trash.” I threw up my arms.
“Who knows when that lice shit will happen again. Can’t take any chances when I’m stuck with you. As for the eggs… Don’t want you making any excuses of food poisoning to get out of training.” He shot me a wink that made a zip go through my lower body.
“Whatever.” I turned away to hide my blush. “You look good,” I tossed out.
He ran a hand over his head. “You think?”
“Don’t make me repeat it,” I mumbled, my face heating up as I took a seat at the island next to Coleson.
He dipped his head and a sheepish grin slipped onto his face as he took more eggs out of the fridge. “I deserved that.”
_________
“You gotta put your hair up in a ponytail so we don’t have another situation like the printer fiasco,” Ben told me as we walked into the old gym, which housed a bunch of boxing rings and punching bags.
I slipped a hair tie around on my wrist today, just in case, but I couldn’t bring myself to use it. Swallowing hard, I said, “I don't wear it like that anymore.” Because I could still practically feel Timothy easily grabbing it and dragging me around. Ponytails were bad, they made it too easy on vultures.
A look passed on his face, I couldn't quite pinpoint what, regret maybe? Anguish? “Why not?”
“That’s how he…” I shuddered. I couldn’t talk about it. Not yet, not while it was still fresh in my mind.
He squared himself in my path to face me and I stumbled into him.
“Ben, what’re you…?” The words caught in my throat, because now he just looked… devastated .
He reached out and tucked my hair behind my ear, and it felt like he was breaking some kind of barrier between us. My heart rate ramped up, surprised by his touch. “I just don’t want to accidentally pull it and hurt you.” He kept his eyes on my hair.
God, we hadn’t even started training yet and I was already failing. I understood what he meant, I just still couldn’t bring myself to actually pull my hair up. I felt rooted to the spot on the rubber floor of the gym lobby while I played mental tug-of-war with the anxiety coursing through me.
“I’ll be with you the whole time,” Ben said gently. “And Coleson,” he hitched a thumb to his buddy who walked past us. The two of them really did give off the semblance of safety. They were the best in shape around here, both wearing tight dry-fit shirts so you could see their defined muscles. “You have nothing to worry about with us. I promise.”
His rough fingertips went to my wrist and my racing thoughts suddenly stopped. Suddenly my brain was solely focused on his touch as he gently slipped the ponytail off me. “Can I?” His eyes pleaded with a warm intensity.
Chewing on the inside of my cheek, I gave a weak nod.
His strong hands fumbled gently in my hair. “Don’t hate me if it doesn’t look good, okay?” he said lightly, but the grin on his face didn’t make it up to his eyes.
All I could do was stare up at him.
His rough palm fell down to the side of my neck.
“How does it look?”
His eyes were still on my neck. “You…”
I stared up at him, hanging on to his every word like my life depended on it, wanting desperately to know what he was thinking.
“Beautiful.” Heat bloomed in my chest, but he flinched and it looked like he was internally berating himself up. “Sorry,” he tacked on, dropping his gaze to the floor and flexing his jaw.
“Why are you sorry?”
He just grimaced and led the way.
_________
After a half hour of training, I missed the gentle version of him from this morning. True to his sour patch nature, he fully turned into a sourpuss. And while he did warn me about his “coach mode,” he wasn’t entirely accurate– it was more like dick mode.
“C’mon, you have to move. Forceful… like this.” He demonstrated the move for me for the hundredth time.
“Ow!” I jumped away from him.
His large shoulders dropped in disappointment. “C’mon, that didn’t hurt.”
My eyes narrowed. “It did, too.”
“Well, get back at me, c’mon.” He motioned for me to try.
I did the move, exactly how he showed me, but he still wasn’t happy.
“Maggie, you’re not even trying,” he said, disappointment lacing his tone.
“Yes, I am,” I fumed, using my shoulder to wipe the sweat pouring from me. “I need a break.”
But he wasn’t letting up. “Don’t be a wimp. Let’s go.”
“I’m not being a wimp,” I scoffed. “Take that back.”
“Show me.” He hit his padded hands together and held them out for me to hit. “C’mon.”
I put my weight into it and tried to pivot my back leg just like he told me. “Asshole,” I grunted with the punch.
His lips twitched like he was staving off a grin and it just made me more mad.
“I hate when you laugh at me,” I growled, punching his hand again.
“Wrong. Chest and hips toward the target, Jinx.”
I flung my arms down. “Enough.”
His face cracked and he stood straighter. “What?”
“You’re being mean,” I complained.
He blinked. “No, I’m not.”
“Yes, you are. You’re yelling at me.”
His eyebrows tugged together defensively. “No, I’m not.”
“Yes, you are,” I said, forcefully shoving him back.
Coleson laughed at us, pissing me off, and making Ben grumble a curse.
“I’m not,” he added forcefully.
“You are!” I yelled up at him.
He paused for a moment, turning away from me. Then he stalked right up into my personal space. Red hot frustration was coming off him in waves. “This would be yelling!” The veins in his throat bulged as he yelled, making me take a startled step back. “So, no, I wasn’t yelling.”
I blinked up at him. My nose burned. Tears sprang to my eyes.
“No.” He dropped his head back in frustration. “Don’t… C’mon…” Remorse swam in his brown eyes. “I just want you to get it right.”
I wasn’t budging.
“I’m sorry.” He moved to give me a hug.
And that’s when I struck. I jammed my knee up to his crotch just like he’d been teaching me to do.
An “oof” punched out of him and he doubled up and fell to the mat, clutching his lower stomach.
“Ha! I took you down !” I yelled triumphantly. “Not so tough now, huh?”
Coleson, who was sitting on the sidelines, laughed and clapped for me. “Way to go, Jinx!” He reached out for a high-five. “Ya hit the jackpot, girly!”
I gave Ben a smug little smile as I pranced off the mat.
“I deserved that,” Ben grunted out as struggled to climb to his hands and knees, breathing deeply.
“Yeah, you did! Yelling at our precious Jinx like that?” Coleson patted my head. “What were you thinkin’?” Coleson shot me a wink as he climbed into the ring and helped his buddy to his feet.
“I’m precious?” My hand flitted dramatically to my chest. “Why can’t you be nice like him?” I asked Ben as I took up the seat on the side of the ring that Coleson just vacated.
“Yeah, Cap. Why can’t you?” Coleson snickered at Ben. “I like her.”
Ben’s face turned to storm clouds.
“Not like that, relax, bud.” Coleson clapped him on the back, but Ben’s expression barely lightened.
“Not like what?” I asked curiously, leaning my chin on my hand while I watched the two of them.
Coleson turned to face me with a shit-eating grin, but before he could say anything, Ben performed a quick ninja move and then Coleson was flat on his back, laughing as he looked up at the gym’s rafters.
I spent the next hour watching the two of them spare. While they were moving forcefully and violently, they made their fighting look like art, like a smooth back and forth, they were like well-oiled machines that never tired. While Coleson was huskier and barrel-chested and definitely looked like he could throw a punch that hurt, Ben moved in a stealthy way and was quick on his feet.
They were both attractive. But when Ben lifted his shirt to wipe sweat from his face, exposing his cut muscles, my mouth went dry.
The two of them were breathing heavily and shiny with sweat by the time they finished and wandered over to me for their water bottles.