Chapter 13 #2
I was whistling as I entered headquarters.
I wondered what would be on today's docket.
I passed the front desk on the main level.
The one where visitors came in, were directed to their destination, or met there on the first level.
Only employees had free run of Dark Patriot headquarters.
I halted and turned back when the receptionist called my name. I went over to her.
“Morning, Allison. What’s up?” I asked.
“Good morning, Heath. How have you been?” she asked.
Allison was a woman in her mid-twenties.
She was a pretty woman, and I admit, there had been innocent flirting on both sides.
With so many guys working at the Dark Patriots, I was hardly the only one she flirted with, or who flirted back.
It was harmless fun. I leaned on the counter above her desk. She smiled up at me.
“I’m great. How about you?” I asked. I refused to be rude.
“Oh, you know, okay, I guess. Hey, I was wondering something.” She paused and glanced around. People were milling about, but no one was close to us. I waited for her to continue.
“I wanted to know if you’d like to have a drink after work tonight. Or dinner, if you’re open to it,” she asked sweetly.
Dismay swept through me. It was more embarrassing for her than for me, though I did wonder if I had done or said something to make her ask this.
Why now? She had worked here for over a year, and we’d always been friendly with a dash of flirting.
I gulped. A slight feeling of panic fluttered in my gut. I straightened up.
“Allison, I’m sorry, but I can’t do that. What made you ask me?” I asked.
She frowned. “What do you mean, you can’t? Why not? We’re both adults, so if it should happen to turn into something more, then so be it,” she stated boldly. She’d risen from her chair. Allison stared at me with her hands on her hips.
“That’s not happening, ever,” I replied.
She gasped. “Why are you being so rude? I know you like me. We’ve danced around each other for a year. You can’t tell me you don’t find me attractive,” she protested.
“I have a question. Tell me why now? As you said, we’ve worked together at this company for over a year. Sure, we flirted, I don’t deny it. But that was all,” I reminded her.
“Well, yeah, we did playfully dance around each other. It was nice. And I always found you handsome. But I don’t actually cheat. Flirting is one thing, dates and sex are another. I had a boyfriend, but we broke up two months ago. I thought it was time for us to see where things can go.”
I took a moment to compose myself. I didn’t want to hurt her feelings, but I didn't want any confusion about my status.
“Allison, you flatter me, but there’s no dating or anything else between us. You see—”
Another voice cut off my reply. This voice was low and masculine, and it belonged to my closest friend. I whipped around to find him standing close to us.
“What Heath is trying to say and doing a shitty job of it is that he’s not free, Allison.
I guess you hadn't heard the rumor or been here for the party over Memorial weekend. He’s gone and fallen for a woman.
Danae is pregnant, and I’m sure that an engagement is not far in the future,” Ben told her.
I watched Allison’s face turn red. Her gaze went from Ben to me. I saw the disbelief lurking there.
“He’s telling the truth, Allison. I have a girlfriend. She’s six and a half months pregnant. We’re living together, searching for a house, and I plan to ask her to marry me very soon. I’m sorry that you didn’t know.”
She dropped into her chair. Her hands came up to cover her face. Allison moaned. “Oh my God, I can’t believe this. You’re having a baby! Why didn’t anyone tell me? I’ve been working up the courage to ask you out for weeks. How mortifying,” she moaned.
“Hey, we’re the only ones who heard you. We’ll pretend we never heard you say it. I’m sorry you feel mortified, but please don’t think anything of it. I’m all good,” I hurriedly explained.
She sat there with her head hanging, shaking it. I thought about going behind the counter and sticking with her until she regained her composure, but that was blown out of the water by Ben, too.
“Allison, I hate to drag Heath away, but he’s being asked for up in the lair. You know how that is. He can’t be late. I promised to fetch him as soon as I found him. He can come back later to finish speaking to you about it,” he offered.
She shook her head and waved her hand dismissively. “No, please, no, don’t do that. Go see what the bosses want. I want us to pretend this never happened. Please, forget I ever said anything,” she pleaded.
We left her there, though I hated it. As we got to the elevator, Ben blew out a breath.
“Christ, I just saved you. I told you, flirting with the ladies would get your ass in trouble one of these days. You’re lucky it was me and not one of the gossips around here.
It would’ve been all over the building by lunch that you and she were going out on a date despite you having a pregnant girlfriend. ”
I shivered. He was right. While the people here were generally good, some liked to gossip, and they weren’t always accurate in what they reported to others.
I slapped him on the shoulder. We were the only ones in the elevator. “Thank you, man. You saved my ass, although I wish it hadn’t been necessary. Quick thinking on telling her the dragons wanted me.”
“You’re welcome, but the bosses are waiting up in their offices for you. I was just up there. They said if I saw you, to send you up.”
“Did they say why?” I asked.
“No, they didn’t. I’d get my ass up there and get it over with, whatever it is. You haven’t screwed up lately, have you?”
“Not that I know of. Thanks, Ben. Let’s try to hook up for lunch later,” I suggested.
As the doors to the fifth floor began to open, he turned to me and fluttered his eyelashes.
In a falsetto voice, he cooed, “Why, Heath, I’d love to have lunch with you, stud.”
Laughing despite trying not to, I shoved him between the shoulder blades.
It was enough for him to step outside the elevator.
As the doors closed, he smirked and held up his hands, forming a heart over his chest. He mouthed, I love you.
I replied by giving him the middle finger and mouthing back, Fuck you.
His laughter, I swear, followed me up to the last floor. Why did the bosses need to see me?
???
I sat in the small conference room between Sean and Gabe’s offices.
When I arrived, Abigail had ushered me in here with assurances that they’d be with me soon.
She offered to get me coffee. I needed something to keep my hands busy, so I said yes.
As I took another sip, I had to admit, she made a mean cup of joe.
I sat there contemplating what they’d want to talk about. I didn’t have but a few minutes between when I sat and when they entered. All four streamed into the room. The door was firmly closed behind them. I watched them take their usual seats. I’d been in here enough to know which was theirs.
“Thanks for getting here so fast, Heath. Glad Ben found you,” Gabe stated.
“Not a problem. May I ask why I’m here? Did I do something?” I asked.
“Oh shit, no, you didn’t do anything wrong. Undertaker, what did you tell Ben?” Griffin grumbled.
Undertakers shrugged. “I said we needed Wolf’s ass here ASAP. That we had shit to talk about.”
The other three groaned. “No wonder people are afraid of you,” Sean muttered.
“Sounds like a personal problem to me. Ben should know me by now, and so should Heath. So, let’s get to the point,” Undertaker said nonchalantly.
Griff rolled his eyes at Undertaker but said nothing. Sean did the presenting. “Forgive him, he’s uncouth. Alright, we want to discuss the scare you had in town last week. How is Danae?”
“She’s doing fine. Yeah, we had a false alarm. I’m sorry I dragged Undertaker, Matt, and Kyle out for nothing. I didn’t want to take a chance that my truck had been tampered with.”
“No one disagrees that you made the right choice. Mark said you had Johann with you and Danae,” Gabe stated.
“Yeah, he kept her safe while I was outside.”
“Has there been any more episodes of anything suspicious, or does something feel off?” Sean asked.
“No, nothing suspicious and honestly, nothing that I can say with certainty is off…” I replied.
“But?” Griff prompted.
“I’ve had this low-level uneasy feeling in my gut since that night. It doesn’t seem to go away, but nothing explains why. I think I must be letting anxiety about the baby’s birth affect me. I read it can do that,” I explained.
“It can cause it, but don’t discount your instincts.
We had the team go back through to check if we might’ve missed anyone on your last mission with Justin.
They can’t find a single person that wiggled through our net, so there should be no way they traced you back to your real persona and home,” Undertaker explained.
“I was wondering about that. I keep going over what I know to see if I’ve messed up. But I swear I don’t recall anyone that slipped through our fingers,” I admitted.
“We believe you. But we’d rather you remain on alert and cautious. You guys haven’t had any trouble with anyone else, have you? What about Johann?” Gabe asked.
“Johann is like us, and he’s been going through his missions over the past year. So far, nothing, but he’s still digging into it. Honestly, the only one we’re aware of who has any conflict with us is Danae’s mom. Now that woman is a piece of work,” I grumbled.
“Her mom? Mind telling us what’s up with her? We know the basics of what happened when her dad died and that she doesn’t get along with her mom, but that’s all,” Griff said.
I took them through the weird-ass night at her stepfather's and Mom’s place and how she got us there with the promise of giving Danae some stuff that belonged to her dad.
“You know as well as we do that you can’t pick your blood family, so thankfully, we can choose our own. Though it is low to lure her there and then tell her it’s a lie. I bet that Bolin guy wished he hadn’t accepted their dinner invitation that night,” Sean said.
“You know, he was very close-mouthed. During dinner, he chatted about unimportant things, like people they knew and that kind of stuff. But when things went south, he remained an observer. I tried to gauge what he thought, but he seemed to be unaffected by the conversation when it got heated. He gave no indication he was embarrassed, uncomfortable, angry, or anything else.”
“So he either was used to them, to conflict, or he couldn’t care less what kind of fights they get into with whomever. Hmm. Anyway, we just wanted to get your take and to let you know, if you find something that sets off your radar, let us know so we can see how we can help,” Sean concluded.
“I appreciate the hell out of you having my back like this, especially when it comes to anything endangering Danae,” I told them.
After that, we spent a little while just talking about this and that.
They were happy with the contract we signed from that assessment, Gio and I did.
I excused myself when Margie stuck her head in to tell Sean and Griff their meeting was starting in fifteen minutes.
I thanked them, then checked the assignment board to see what I had assigned for today.
If nothing was posted, we spent time conducting threat analyses on various assignments and other tasks.
I ended up with a hodge-podge of things to work on.
There were threat assessments, training for new staff, competency assessments, and then helping Chuck in the armory.
It was a rare honor if he allowed you to touch any of his precious babies.
What you took, you’d better not bring it back all fucked up.
If you did, he took it personally, and it would be months or more before he’d trust you with his babies, if at all.