Chapter 4 #2
What he needed was to get his head on straight and focus on this proposal. Benji and Diego were both famous from their stint in the band Star Shadow, but had hit a new level of fame with Diego’s solo album, chock-full of intense love songs that he’d dedicated to his husband and bandmate.
It had also unfortunately led to a rise in threatening social media followers, some of whom had even become stalkers.
Benji and Diego were close friends with their other client, Landon Patton, a pop star who’d endured his own run-in with a dangerous stalker the year before, and he’d recommended Seth and Lennox’s company to deal with the problem.
Doing more celebrity security was good for business.
Very, Seth thought as he looked at the bottom line of the proposal, very good for business. But it did add stress.
He and Lennox agreed that he would take Benji and Diego on if they signed, and Seth wanted to make sure that he didn’t let them down.
His phone dinged again. He’d kept meaning to turn the notification sound off. Lennox—who was over at his own desk—glanced over, a knowing smile on his face, but he didn’t say anything.
He probably didn’t have to.
All Seth had told him was that he’d met someone.
He’d neglected to mention that the someone was actually Lorenzo Moretti.
Ren: I’m going to kill my cousin.
Seth stared at the screen of his phone, wondering what Gabe had done now.
Then he remembered that he wasn’t supposed to know that Ren worked with his cousin. Just in time.
Seth: What’s going on with your cousin?
Ren: We work together, not sure I told you that, but we do, we own a food truck together. And he wants to streamline the menu, while I’m thinking we should add some of our rotating specials to it, permanently.
Ren: We bicker, yeah, but we almost always agree on everything to do with the business, and it’s weirding me out that we aren’t seeing eye to eye on this.
Seth: Remember when I said taking celeb clients on made me nervous? It was my partner’s idea, and I didn’t like it then. Don’t like it much now, but I can admit he was right.
It was inevitable that he’d worry that he was giving away too much about what he did; that Ren would connect the dots and figure him out. But then they lived in LA, and security firms—especially security firms that specialized in celebrities—were a dime a dozen.
And what if Ren found out?
Yeah, he wouldn’t be very happy about Seth’s deception. But they’d forged a genuine connection, which was all Seth had ever wanted.
A chance to talk to the guy who’d leaned out of the food truck that day and turned Seth’s world upside down.
Ren: How did you figure out who was right? Because Gabe’s usually fair, but he’s not listening. He’s just being dismissive and it’s pissing me off.
Seth: He’ll listen.
He’d replied fast, without thinking, because this was Gabriel and like Ren had said, Gabe might tease the shit out of Ren, but they clearly cared so much about each other.
That had been evident, right from the beginning.
Ren: You seem pretty sure.
Seth could see the suspicious tilt of Ren’s head, as he stared at his phone, like he was there.
Seth: It’s hard, when you both care so much. Give him some time to cool down. Give yourself some time to cool down.
Ren: Yeah, that’s not half bad advice.
Seth: Having a business is a pretty personal thing. It’s okay that you both give a shit, you know?
Ren: How did you get so damned smart?
Seth: It’s because I’m old and wise.
Ren: No way you’re old.
Seth: What if I was? What if I had gray hair and a limp and needed to take something to get it up?
Seth could feel the hesitation on Ren’s side, even though he couldn’t possibly see it.
Could feel Ren working through the possibility that maybe Seth was more than he’d said he was.
Ren: You spar and weightlift and you’ve got a limp? That’s impressive.
Seth laughed out loud, and Lennox looked up again.
“So, you gonna tell me about this guy?” Lennox finally asked.
Seth had to give him credit for waiting almost a week before asking.
“What do you want to know about him?” Seth said.
He typed back a really quick message to Ren.
Seth: You caught me.
Ren: I think I have.
He wasn’t wrong.
But then Ren had captured him six months ago, and had never let go. Or maybe that was Seth, who’d refused to let go of him.
Either way, they were irrevocably tied together, and they kept twisting closer and closer.
“Who is he? What’s his name? What does he do?” Lennox asked. Three questions that Seth couldn’t answer without giving away the truth.
He took a deep breath.
“It’s . . . well, you actually know him.” Maybe telling Lennox would be good practice for telling Ren.
“You did not,” Lennox said, dark eyebrows drawing close together in a disapproving frown. “You absolutely did not.”
“I didn’t mean to,” Seth said with an embarrassed shrug. “I signed up on the app, and there he was.”
“And he doesn’t know it’s you,” Lennox stated rather than questioned. Like he already knew how stupid Seth was.
He’d always been stupid over Ren.
That had never changed. Not in six months.
Maybe not ever.
“Ren,” Seth said, because even though Lennox knew, it felt good to have his name in his mouth again, “Ren doesn’t know it’s me. He thinks it’s someone named Jake. But Jake also works in private security, also owns a business with his friend. I haven’t . . . I didn’t lie.”
“Except by omission,” Lennox said. Then leaned back in his chair. “He’s going to freak out, when he finds out.”
“Because he will,” Seth said, saying it before Lennox could. “Yeah, I know he will, and yes, he will absolutely freak out.”
Lennox had a shadow of a smile on his face. “Because you’ve won him over, and he never intended to be won over.”
“That was the idea, anyway,” Seth said, scrubbing a hand across his jaw. “But now I’m worried it’s gonna backfire.”
“As in, leave you more crazy about him than ever, and make him pissed off at you?”
“Uh yeah,” Seth said. He should be used to Lennox’s bluntness after all this time; he usually enjoyed Lennox’s bluntness.
But then it wasn’t usually directed at him.
“He wouldn’t appreciate this, but you know it’s true: he didn’t leave you much of a choice, did he?”
Seth considered this for a moment.
Considered Ren’s last message.
You caught me.
I think I have.
“The key is going to be telling him in a way that doesn’t piss him off, makes him realize that it was . . . well, that it was a romantic gesture.”
Lennox laughed then. “And you think that won’t piss him off? Ren isn’t exactly the romantic gesture type.”
“No,” Seth said. “But maybe he should be. Everyone should be at least once, shouldn’t they?”
The door opened and David walked in. “Everyone should what?”
David Webber was one of their newer employees—but Seth had known him for ages.
They’d been on associated teams, deploying from the same base, often drinking at the same bars off base.
Then Seth had been discharged, and David hadn’t, and they’d lost touch with each other, like most friendly acquaintances once the one thing holding them together ended.
But then a year ago, David had shown up in LA, lost, and looking for work.
Seth and Lennox had taken one look at the guy, who was clearly struggling with the same problem they’d had when they’d left the Navy—the completely foreign lack of structure in civilian life—and it had been a no-brainer to hire him.
Eleven or so months later, he was much steadier. Had found a girlfriend he was crazy about. Bought a motorcycle that Seth liked to tease him about because he drove it so goddamn fast.
But he was happy and relaxed now in a way that Seth recognized, intimately.
Some guys resented the hell out of the military for running every bit of their lives.
Other guys got used to it, and couldn’t handle it when they got out.
“Everyone should indulge in a romantic gesture every once in awhile,” Lennox said, shooting a smile in Seth’s direction. “What do you think?”
“Romantic gestures?” David rubbed his jaw. “How do you think I got Bianca to go out with me?”
Seth laughed. “We’ve been wondering the same thing.”
“I just dropped by to bring my reports in,” David said, sitting down at one of the desks and laptop stations that functioned as drop-ins.
The only guys who had permanent desks were Lennox and Seth.
Everyone else mainly stayed in the field.
There were some days Seth was pretty jealous of that, because paperwork could suck.
“Everything was calm last night. A few teenagers throwing shit, but a growl stopped them in their tracks.” He grinned.
“That was the most fun I’ve had in ages. ”
“I bet,” Lennox said. “And you made the rounds at Food Truck Warriors, too?”
“Lennox wants to make sure his boy is nice and protected,” Seth teased.
“Hey,” Lennox said, without heat, “your guy is there too, now. You want David to cut his rounds short?”
Seth thought about this for a second—though honestly it wasn’t much of a debate. “No,” he said. “No.”
“Though,” Lennox added in a teasing voice, “maybe we should have David around when Ren finally finds out what you’ve been doing with him.”
David shot him a knowing look. “You fuckin’ around with Ren, still?”
“He is. Stupidly,” Lennox said.
“First off,” Seth drawled, “I’m right fucking here, and second off, if it works, it’s not fucking around.”
Lennox did not look convinced, however.
And he’d have felt a lot better about it, but the concern Seth spotted in his expression mirrored the worry he couldn’t quite dismiss, sitting uncomfortably at the bottom of his stomach.
The next day, Ren did not feel any calmer.
Maybe it was because Gabe kept acting like they hadn’t just had an argument the day before, the worst fight they’d ever had as business partners—the worst fight they’d ever had period.
Or that he kept talking about Sean and the changes he was making to his own truck, changes that mirrored what Gabe wanted to do with theirs.