Chapter 2
2
“ M orning everyone.” Ink walked into the meeting room at Callahan Security. Brody strode in behind him, looking slightly dishevelled with his hair standing up on end. His T-shirt had a fox’s face on it. Above the fox was the word, ‘No’, while underneath was the word, ‘Given.’
No fox given.
Clever.
Ethan was sitting at the large table. Across from him sat Seth Blue. He’d worked with Seth for years. The other man was solid. If a bit too happy. It was odd.
“Morning,” Seth said cheerfully. “Love the shirt, Brody.”
“Um, thanks.” Brody tugged at it self-consciously.
Ethan didn’t say anything, just nodded in greeting. He was feeling grouchy this morning.
Something about his run-in last night with the Fox had irritated him.
Maybe because a killer assassin has two people who love him, and you have no one.
Ouch. His inner voice was being a real bastard this morning.
“We have a new client,” Ink said, getting straight to the point.
Brody sat with his laptop and connected it to the projector.
“And this client is important because he’s an old friend of mine,” Ink added.
Brody brought up an image of . . .
“Is that Rhodes Ripley?” Seth asked in surprise.
“Yep.”
“He was amazing in that last Luther Kiley movie,” Brody said. “Do you know he does his own stunts?”
Ink nodded. “Yeah, Rip is a good guy. Duke and I went to high school with him and his twin sister, Cate.”
“What’s going on? Does he have a stalker or something?” Ethan asked. That was the logical explanation. Rhodes Ripley was famous for his role as Luther Kiley, an ex-Special Forces turned mercenary hero.
“Looks like it,” Ink replied. “He’s received a series of letters. Each one gets progressively more intense.”
Ethan looked at the images on the projector screen. His eyebrows rose as one letter stated they wanted to slip into Ripley’s room and wake him up with their mouth around his cock.
Another stated they would happily be his fucktoy, to be used however he wanted.
“Some of these letters are explicit.” Seth asked. “That last one goes into a lot of detail about what they want to do to Rip.”
“Yeah. Rip’s agent finally brought the letters to his attention after that one. They reported them to the police, but they don’t have any leads on whoever has been sending the mail yet. No fingerprints, no return address.”
“So your friend called you?” Seth asked.
“Only because of what occurred last night.” Ink started pacing. “Someone attempted to enter his property.”
“Wait, that was the news today, wasn’t it?” Brody asked.
“Yeah, they couldn’t keep it quiet since Cate called the police. She was the only one home at the time. Rip was at his girlfriend’s place.”
“The stalker is escalating,” Ethan said grimly.
Ink nodded. “Since Rip is a good friend of mine, we’re going to push some other jobs back to fit him in. And I’m going to bring in extra help. I’ve already spoken to Matthieu. He will take over some jobs here to free up the two of you to go to Los Angeles.” He nodded to Seth and Ethan.
That was interesting. Matthieu was a friend of Ink’s. Matthieu had helped Royal and Baron escape the boarding school they’d been sent to by Forrest Robins.
Evil bastard.
“And even though Butch has just started, so far, he’s shown to have a good aptitude for the job.”
Butch was part of the Iron Shadows Motorcycle Club. He had been working for several years as a bouncer for Reapers, the bar owned by Reyes, the club’s president. Just recently, he’d taken a job with Callahan Security.
Ethan raised his eyebrows. “So you want us to head out to LA?”
“Hell, yeah,” Seth said, rubbing his hands together. “I love LA. the sun. The beach.”
“The traffic. The congestion,” Ethan said dryly. “The smog.”
“Do you need me to go as well?” Brody asked curiously.
“Just initially,” Ink told him. “I want you to help set up the security system. You’ll only need to be there a couple of days, tops. I’ll be with you. Think you can swing that?”
“I think so. Let me check.” Brody drew out his phone and typed out a message.
“You have to get permission?” Seth asked. He sounded more curious than anything else.
“Ahh. Sort of.” Brody pushed his glasses up his nose as his phone buzzed with a reply. “Uh-oh.”
“I don’t need uh-ohs,” Ink said.
“Um. It’s all right. It’s just . . . um, he’s going to come.”
“He can’t come!” Ink replied.
“Who can’t come? Your guy? I look forward to meeting him,” Seth said cheerfully.
They all gave him alarmed looks.
“Argh, that likely won’t happen. He’s private,” Brody said.
“One could say shy.” Ink grinned.
“Oh. You know, I don’t even know his name,” Seth mused.
Yeah. There was a reason for that.
“You don’t, well, um, huh. It’s Fred,” Brody blurted out. Then he closed his eyes for a moment. It was obvious he didn’t mean to say that.
Ethan felt a pang of discomfort for the poor guy.
“Fred? Okay. Cool.” Seth looked a bit confused. Probably because Brody was the shade of an overly-ripe tomato.
“He said that you won’t even know he’s there,” Brody told Ink. “He’ll bring Autumn and make it a holiday.” Brody rubbed at his chest. “It’s that or it’s a no.”
“How will he even get there?” Ethan asked, guessing that the Fox wouldn’t be flying economy.
Ink sighed. “I’m sure he has his ways.”
“You’re talking about this guy like he’s . . . I don’t know, Batman or something,” Seth said.
“Close,” Brody said. Then he grinned as he read something on his phone.
“So you’re coming too?” Ethan asked Ink.
“I can only spare a few days. With Royal and Baron at college, I don’t like leaving Betsy on her own for too long. But also, uh, we’ve decided to become foster parents.”
Wow.
“Really, man? That’s awesome!” Brody said with a huge grin.
Ink smiled. “Thanks. We’ve had all the assessments done and we’ve been approved. We even know that our first foster child is going to be a little girl.”
Ink looked slightly ill at that, and Ethan had to grin. “A girl? That’s going to be different from the boys.”
“Tell me about it. Baron and Royal are already discussing all the ways they’re going to be the best big brothers. Poor kid. That’s if she wants to stay with us. She didn’t work out with her last family. She threatened to cut her foster father with a knife.”
“Uhhh, I don’t know what to say to that,” Seth said.
“The Fo . . . I mean, he said that she sounds like his kind of kid and where can he get one?” Brody blinked at his phone as though just processing what he’d said. “Holy heck balls. He wants a kid?”
“Wait. Can he hear us?” Ink demanded, leaning forward and putting his hands on the table.
Brody blinked up at him. “You know he’s got cameras here.”
“In the meeting room?” Ink asked, running his hand down his face.
Brody glanced at his phone as it buzzed. “He said, yes. Also, he wants to know why she threatened to cut her foster dad.”
Ink’s face grew serious. “I don’t know. But I want to find out what happened.”
“He wants the name of the foster father, so he can do some research.”
“Tell him that he needs to stay out of this. She’s my kid!” Ink glanced around. “Stay out.”
“I’m starting to worry about you guys. Is Brody’s boyfriend really watching and listening?” Seth asked, glancing around.
“He’s a bit . . . protective,” Ethan explained with a grimace.
“Right. Sure, I get it.” Seth grinned. “If I had someone I cared about, I’d probably be overprotective too.”
Yeah. But probably not at the same level the Fox was at.
Brody groaned. “Please just give him the name. He’s not going to let this go.”
“I don’t know the name. But when I do, I’ll let him know. Happy?” Ink asked.
“He said he’s ecstatic. And when do we leave?” Brody asked.
“We’ll fly out tonight. That all right with everyone?”
Ethan nodded. He guessed Ink had chosen him and Seth because they didn’t have any dependents. No significant others. Hell, he didn’t even have a goldfish to feed.
When had his life become so lonely?
It made him feel like a loser.
“There’s one more thing. It’s about Rip’s sister.” Ink nodded over at Brody who brought up an image of a gorgeous woman with white-blonde hair slicked back into a ponytail. She looked serious, frowning slightly into the camera.
“This is Cate. She’s Rip’s twin sister. She prefers to stay out of the limelight, but she does live with him,” Ink explained.
That was surprising. But Ethan guessed there could be a lot of reasons for that.
“I’ve spoken to Rip and Cate and she’s okay with me talking to you about this. Cate is autistic. She finds change very difficult, and this situation will be hard on her, so I need you all to be understanding. Sometimes her social filter doesn’t work the way it does with everyone else, meaning she can be blunt. She doesn’t mean to be rude.”
Ethan nodded. “Got it.”
“Sure thing,” Seth said easily.
“Cate and Rip are really close. He’s always been her protector. I know he’d take a bullet for her. So we’re not there just to protect him, but her as well. Because if anything happens to her, heads will roll. Got it?”
“Fair enough. What does she do?” Ethan asked. “Is Rip going to want one of us to stay with her while she goes to work?”
“She’s an intellectual property lawyer. She works mostly from home. Sometimes she goes to in-person meetings at the firm she works for. However, Rip said that doesn’t happen often. Oh, and just be aware, she finds loud noises distressing. Especially yelling. People getting angry around her is a trigger for her.”
That was interesting. Ethan wondered if there was something in her background that could explain that.
“Like I said, she knows I’m telling you all this. And again, I need you all to be understanding. God knows she didn’t have that with her awful aunt and uncle growing up,” Ink muttered.
That didn’t sit well with him. Why would someone be mean to a kid?
“Right. Let’s go get ready.” Ink clapped his hands. “LA, here we come.”