Revenge A Charlie and Will Short Story
The door slammed shut, followed by stomping feet. Charlie’s brow furrowed as he walked out of the kitchen while drying his hands on a blue and white dish towel. He’d just finished washing up the few dishes they’d used for breakfast while Will had taken Oscar for his morning walk.
Oscar was their new orange tabby cat. Recently, they’d started spending six months in Gaoxing and six months in Paris each year.
As part of their desire to grow more established as a couple, Will had talked him into getting a pet.
Charlie had thought it would be a dog. What he’d not realized until he was already in love with Will was that this man was a cat guy.
Luckily, Oscar turned out to be more of a dog than a cat in a lot of ways.
He was friendly, outgoing, loved to play fetch with his little gray mouse, and demanded daily walks on a harness and leash.
The cat might have had only a few of working brain cells in its entire almost-empty head, but he was extremely lovable.
But the most important thing was that Will adored him.
The good doctor had spent too many years moving around and had never felt secure enough in his situation to allow a pet into his life.
He hadn’t wanted to worry about uprooting it or, worse, leaving it behind when he left for another job.
But things were steady between the two of them, so he’d given in and gotten the cat he’d longed for.
As Charlie strode into the living room of their Paris apartment, he spotted Will leaving the foyer with Oscar clutched to his chest and a scowl digging deep lines in his face.
“Baby, what’s wrong? Is Oscar okay?” Charlie asked, trying to decide whether he should pry the cat out of his arms before he wrapped Will up in a hug.
The cat seemed fine as he stared up at Charlie with his big yellow eyes, a placid expression on its furry face as if it didn’t mind being held in a death grip.
“A giant asshole insulted Oscar! His honor has been impugned! His intelligence maligned! Fucking American tourists!” Will shouted only to lift Oscar up to his face and rub his lips against the top of the cat’s head as if trying to either soothe Oscar’s so-called wounded pride or apologize for losing his temper.
Charlie took a moment to find the right words.
Both he and Will had more than once mocked the dimness of Oscar’s bulb, but they were allowed as Oscar’s loving guardians.
A stranger doing that was a step across the line.
Charlie also wisely sidestepped the entire “American tourists” slur, choosing not the remind Will that they were also Americans.
Instead, he slid an arm around Will’s tense shoulders and guided him and the cat to the sofa. When they were settled and Will’s arms loosened enough to allow Oscar to climb free and headbutt Charlie, he prodded. “Why don’t you tell me what happened?”
“We went for our normal walk. We said hello to Madame Allard as we went by her shop. Oscar hopped up on that stone wall he likes and made his little noises at some finches. Then we made a pass at the park. At that one bench under the oak—you know the one—”
Charlie nodded. “The one where I kissed you senseless, and the cops had to get us to move along before we did something that would make even the French blush.”
Will gave him a look, but it wasn’t too angry.
Just a mild warning, which meant he was calming.
“Anyway, Oscar was laying on it and batting at his tail through the wooden slats, being adorable. While I was taking his picture, some stupid guy walked over and announced—as if I gave a shit about his opinion—that you weren’t supposed to put cats on leashes. I was polite.”
Charlie bit down hard on his tongue. He could imagine what Will’s “polite” was like when someone was talking about his baby.
“I told him that Oscar was just fine on his leash and that he loved going for his daily walks. We’d trained him to walk on a leash so he could get regular exercise and stimulation outside.”
Okay, that didn’t sound too bad.
“And then this asshole went on about how I was stunting his growth and harming his spine with the leash and harness by dragging him around. Also, Oscar only put up with it because he was an orange cat, and everyone knew orange cats were the dumbest of all the cats. And that was science. This fucking moron was trying to quote science to me when I’m sure he’s never read a scientific article in his life.
He probably got all his information from hacks pulling handfuls of shit out of their asses and calling it facts on social media.
I have never once dragged Oscar on his leash.
Oscar is not a moron. He’s just friendly and enthusiastic. That doesn’t make him dumb.”
Will was right. This guy was some know-it-all asshole who’d ruined his love’s good mood and impugned the honor of their furry son. He needed to be taught a lesson about sticking his nose where it didn’t belong.
“I’m sorry, baby.” Charlie tightened his hold on Will, forcing him to lean close as Charlie kissed his temple.
“How could he say such horrible things? Oscar was playing on the bench, happy as could be. We walked through the park, and Oscar showed not one sign of struggling with the leash. He loves his walkies!”
“You said this guy was an American tourist?”
Will shrugged and ran his hand over Oscar’s head, sending the cat into a purring fit that would have put a motorboat’s engine to shame.
“The accent was American. Maybe Midwestern. I don’t know.
It’s been so long since I’ve been back. He didn’t even attempt French, and I’m at least blending in with the locals.
He couldn’t have assumed I was an American too. ”
Unless the guy overheard Will sprinkling Oscar with adorable baby talk, which was done all in English despite Will’s fluency in French.
“What’d the asshole look like?”
“I don’t know. Medium height. Average build. Brown hair.”
Charlie stared at Will’s bent head. If any of his team had given him that kind of description, he would have smacked the shit out of them. Of course, his team were all trained CIA pros. Still, he should have noticed a little more detail than that.
“Oh! I think I got a picture of him.” Will shifted around on the soft cushions, jostling Charlie and Oscar as he dug out his phone.
Oscar crossed to Charlie’s lap and turned to watch Will as if expecting him to dig out a treat from his pockets.
When Will pulled out his phone, Oscar lost interest and jumped to the floor, likely to grab a drink from his bowl in the kitchen.
Will pulled up the photo gallery on his phone and paged through a couple dozen pictures of Oscar on his walk prior to stopping on a photo of Oscar pawing at his tail through the slats of the bench.
In the photo’s background was a man of average height and build, with brown hair, brown eyes, and a sour expression.
His clothes were garish and of a middling price range.
Charlie had to admit that Will’s description wasn’t far off.
The only thing Charlie would have added was thinning hair with a receding hairline, late twenties, and a possible limp on his left side, just based on the way he was holding his body.
“That’s the asshole,” Will hissed.
Charlie plucked the phone from his fingers.
After a couple of quick taps, he emailed the picture to himself and handed the phone to Will.
“Don’t worry about it, darling. I’ll take care of it.
How about some shopping? You said you wanted to pick up something for Westin and Jin’s first baby.
” Charlie rose as he spoke and brushed his hands along the front of his dark-blue cashmere sweater.
“Ugh. What do you even buy for a baby princess?” he groaned. Will stopped and shook his head hard before he jumped to his feet as well, glaring at Charlie as he seemed to realize that he’d been distracted. “What do you mean you’ll take care of it? What’s there to take care of?”
“Nothing. Don’t worry about it.”
Will narrowed his eyes. “Charlie,” Will growled in warning.
A warning Charlie chose to overlook.
Charlie sneaked out of the bedroom after Will had been snoring softly for a bit.
Oscar was stretched out in the middle of the bed like the spoiled only child he was.
Charlie had already completed a facial recognition search using Will’s photo to discover the man’s name was Jacob Tanner and that he was an Internet security specialist. He was likely in Paris on a job.
Charlie was willing to bet this asshole wasn’t as talented as the hacker he had at his fingertips.
He turned on one of the small lamps in the living room and strolled over to the windows that looked out on the Paris skyline as he pulled up Kairo’s number.
It was late spring in the City of Lights, and most of the trees had regained their leaves.
Blooming flowers filled boxes, adding a splash of color to the town.
But right now, it was all about dazzling yellow lights dotting the buildings and streaking along the winding Seine.
Kairo and Izzie were supposed to be in Gaoxing right now, which meant that it was late morning/early afternoon there.
“Holy shit. This better be good.” Kairo’s sleep-rough voice grated on Charlie’s ear, and he pulled the phone away to once again check the time. It was only one in the morning in Paris. Why was Kairo still asleep?
“Where are you?” Charlie demanded.
“Athens.”
“I thought you were in Gaoxing.”
Kairo yawned loudly in Charlie’s ear. “Nope. We flew to Athens two days ago. Or maybe three. Izzie had a meeting with the board, and he wanted to swing by to check on the new olive farm.”
“Who is it?” Isidore mumbled.
“Charlie.”
“Oh, no! Is something wrong? Does he need us?” It was kind of stunning how quickly Isidore could go from sleepy to panicked.