Chapter 12
CHAPTER TWELVE
NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK
Comfort food is called that not because of the ingredients but because of the people who bring it to you.
—Fab and Delish
Four Years Ago—August
Even though I was brought here to courier some food from our hometown to my niece since returning from her stint at the hospital, I have this overwhelming need to escape the emotions suffocating my brother-in-law’s penthouse. Fuck. Seeing Austyn so broken is cutting me deep.
Even knowing I’m the one who stopped what could have happened in Seven Virtues, it makes me wish Fallon were by my side—not only to deal with her best friend but to help heal the ache in my heart. I know she could, simply by being in the same room as me.
Instead, I looked up an old friend, knowing he relocated his family years ago after his company merged with the largest investigative firm in the nation. As I stand in the pristine office, I mutter, “You’ve come a long way, buddy.”
“And if you think this is my office, you’re off your rocker, Kensington. I’m the mad scientist they keep locked away for good reason.”
Crossing the room in a few strides, I clasp the dark-haired man’s hand before lifting it to my chest and bumping his chest against mine. “It’s great to see you, man.”
“Same, Ethan. It’s been too long,” my hero and mentor Sam Aiken replies.
“Wish it was under better circumstances.”
“Me too.” Sam gestures me back so he can shut the door behind him.
“Sweet view,” I remark as I gaze out the window at the view of Rockefeller Center.
Sam twitches at all the sunlight. “You know, I think it was supposed to be my office. By now, one of Caleb’s or Keene’s kids has appropriated this space. Maybe Cal’s?” He scratches his head as he rattles off his partners.
I snicker. “For real? You got booted out of your own executive suite and you’re not even certain by whom?”
“Let’s be real. I’m never in here.” He tries to keep his lips from twitching when he admits, “My real office has a four-foot air gap with copper mesh wires shielding it.”
I lean back in the visitor chair and thread my hands behind my head. “Ahh, sounds just like my place back home.”
“You have the same kind of setup in Texas?”
“Had to build it if I wanted to partner on some of the work with Castor as prime,” I admit, not without some rancor. “Between you and me, Leanne Miles can be a real pain in the ass about the specs she demands. I technically am a small business.”
Sam, bless him, chokes on his laughter as I blast one of the DoD’s darlings of software development, who I know through family connections has indirect ties to the company he’s part owner of Hudson Investigations. “I see you haven’t changed much, Ethan.”
I cajole him. “Come on, Sam. Tell your wife you want to come to work with me. It will be just like old times.”
He shoots me a filthy look at the reminder. “The last time you and I worked on an op together, it was life and death, and we were with my wife being screamed at in Italian in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. I much prefer when she yells at other people in foreign languages.”
Rocking the chair back on two legs, I grin at him. “Yeah, me too. Much better for my stress level.”
“You ain’t kidding.” Sam leans against the front of the office desk, crossing his ankles. “So, what brought you to visit me? Why aren’t we having this reunion somewhere fun?”
I let the chair legs fall back down before I push myself to my full height, and I stroll over to the window. “I could say I’m looking to get back in the game.”
“Getting bored working as a contractor?”
“Let’s just say I thought I’d be seeing some of the action you did,” I admit.
He snorts. “That’s because of what our company did. We were…hold on.” He reaches across the desk and taps a few buttons on an iPad and in seconds, locks on doors engage and the view I’d been admiring disappears as shutters lower.
I spin on my heel to face him. “Impressive.”
“All the executive suites have it.”
“Do I want to know how much it cost to install?”
“Talk to Cal. His wife did the upgrades here and in our office in D.C.” I make a mental note to stop by my other friend’s office before I leave. Sam continues, “What I was saying is before our part of the company was acquired, what we did was dangerous.”
My jaw tightens. “I’m feeling that way right now.”
“No, what you’re out for is vengeance,” he counters.
“Is it that obvious?”
“If what happened to your family happened to mine, I’d be seeking the same, Ethan.” He stands and clasps my shoulder. “You need to be there for your niece. Let us go after who did this to her. Don’t blur the lines.”
“Because you all follow your own advice so well,” I fling back at him. The first time I met the man before me, we helped rescue his cousin from a hostage situation.
“I never claimed to, but at that time, I was the only one with the skills to get the job done.” It isn’t Sam’s arrogance talking—it’s fact.
Spinning away from him, I plant my feet apart and cross my arms before admitting, “I hate that you’re right.”
“But you’ll do it,” he declares confidently.
“How do you know?”
“Because if you were going to interfere, you’d have already done so and I’d have received a call from our former boss, pissed as shit.”
The groan I release may be heard in the Bronx. “You just had to mention him .” A man who played fast and loose with people’s lives so often they should give him a gold-plated wrench as his next anniversary gift at the Agency.
Sam chuckles. “Of course I did.” Then his expression morphs into one of concern. “How’s your niece?”
I think back to the explosion in her father’s penthouse yesterday when I showed up between her lover, her mother and father, and her family from back home, and how all it needed was my favorite witch to descend to turn it into sheer chaos. “She’s desperately trying to heal, to not give the bastard who ran her over any more of herself.” Sighing, I scrub my hand through my hair. “She’s in pain, but her man’s helping.”
“And you? How are you holding up?”
I think back to the text I received from Fallon earlier checking in on our girl.
Fallon:
It’s okay if her tears are falling.
Ethan:
That’s good, right?
Fallon:
That means she’s not hiding them.
Ethan:
Thanks, witch. X
Fallon:
You’re welcome. X
“I think we’re all devastated, but we’ll all be okay.” At least, I hope we will be. This latest setback just detoured off the road to get there.