Chapter 26 #2
“Yeah, I will have to switch some stuff around, but I will make it happen. It will be nice to put a face to the name and get a chance to get a feel for the new HIC.” I wasn’t sure what a HIC was, but I was sure I would find out.
“Okay, sounds good. I will have Bonnie email you with the details. See you soon, man.”
“Later Madd.”
I looked at Maddox after he hit the end button on the dash. “HIC?” I said curiously.
“Human In Charge,” he replied, scrolling through his phone for the next contact.
He repeated the process two more times, and the conversation was pretty much the same each time.
This wasn’t some little club. This was power.
This was an organization that was a top priority in these men’s lives.
It was probably a more accurate statement to say that this organization was the reason these men were allowed to have lives.
I think it’s going to take me quite a while to actually grasp how big this is.
When he was done checking their availability, he called Bonnie.
“Maddox, I was hoping I would hear from you soon. So, when do I get to meet Joslyn?”
“Hi Bonnie. Joslyn is on the phone with me; we are in the car. She needs you to set up a few events over a three-day stretch. It will take place a week from today. Accommodations need to be set up, and the event is to be private. The other Order members, their immediate families if they so choose, Ronan, Jerome, and my extra security detail will need accommodations. I will send you an email with the details.”
“Anyone else, Maddox?” Bonnie asked. I could hear her typing in the background. She was making notes as he was talking, and I was already impressed.
“We will have a lot of higher-ups in one place at one time. Bonnie, you may want to make a phone call. This is a precarious meeting, to say the least. We can all protect ourselves, but we could get blindsided. We will be having Alexander and Scott brought in for a meeting the day after the cocktail party. That is essentially what this is all about.”
“Xavier,” was the response that came from Bonnie. “I like Joslyn already.”
“Yes, Bonnie, Xavier. It’s being dealt with now. That’s what the boss wants,” Maddox answered.
“I will email you once I finalize everything.”
“Thank you.” He hit the end button and turned to me, smiling. “There, everything is taken care of. I will shoot Jerome a text. Do you want to call Scott and Alexander?” he asked, wondering how I wanted to move forward with things.
“I want you to send agents to pick Scott up and take him to the compound. Don’t let him leave.
I want you to call Alexander and tell him that I want him to turn himself in within the next five days.
He will be treated well and so will Scott, but they will be kept away from one another, and they aren’t allowed to have visitors or to roam about freely.
They are to be treated as guests, though.
If they request something, we make it happen. Do we understand one another?”
“Completely. Let me get out of the car and make a phone call to Ronan to set that up.”
“Do not fucking antagonize him. Do you understand that?” My voice left no room for interpretation. I was speaking to him as his boss—not his girlfriend.
“Got it, Boss,” he said as he exited the vehicle.
I watched him pace in front of the vehicle, talking into the phone pressed to his ear.
He appeared to be slightly agitated, which was completely out of character.
He ended his call and began another. This one went a lot smoother judging from his body language.
When he ended that call, he returned to the car, sliding into the driver’s seat.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, genuinely concerned. “You were visibly irritated, and that doesn’t happen. You are always unbothered.”
“Alexander was difficult initially. He asked why he would show up just to get locked up for who knows how long. I told him that he needed to step up and do the right thing. That didn’t work either.
So, I told him that if we thought we were going to be locking him away we wouldn’t have asked him to turn himself in.
If that was the case, we would have sent someone to arrest him.
I might have also mentioned that we wouldn’t be sending agents to pick up Scott if we thought he was indeed innocent. ”
Something had Maddox worked up, and I was fairly certain that it wasn’t Alexander. What he explained seemed as though it would have been nothing more than an inconvenience to him. Someone said something to him that got under his skin, and he really didn’t want me to know what that was.
“Well, you didn’t lie. Besides, it requires all of us to believe him.
At the very least us and one other person.
If the rest don’t agree with us, then Alexander will have been right.
I am confident in my assertion, though. I don’t know why, but I am dead sure that Scott had Xavier killed.
But who the hell am I? I just got here. That is why I want us all to hear them out, then decide. Majority rules.”
“That is a sound plan, Jos.”
He put his hand on top of mine and leaned over.
I met him in the middle and pressed my lips to his.
It was so easy with him. I just hope it wasn’t too good to be true, because at this point, I was all in.
I couldn’t go back from here; not a chance.
He pulled out his phone and began writing an email giving Bonnie the necessary details for her to commence planning.
When he was finished, he set his phone down and started the car.
“Well, we have a little bit of time now that we called and got everything taken care of. The only thing we are waiting for now is the email from Bonnie. Oh, and I need to text Jerome and let him know he will be receiving an email and that his presence is required.” He quickly typed out his message and hit send.