Chapter 25
Killian
The rest of the week I spend helping Celani with Shadow, and taking care of both of them. She goes into the city a few times, but we mostly stay around the house, walking around her favorite paths in the back of the property, and cooking.
She seems calmer having Shadow with her when I’m not around, and I feel like he’s doing what I hoped he would. Keeping her mind off of the stress Pierce is causing in her life.
Sunday morning, my team and I load up our SUV and head to the firing range for our weekly target shooting. I leave Davi and Floyd in charge at the house, making sure that Celani is still looked after in my absence.
Working a slower job like this it is important that we all keep our skills sharp. I make sure that everyone is keeping up with their workouts, as well as gun, and knife skills practice, weekly.
We make it to the firing range and after an hour, Jules and Malakai are the first to wrap up. Asher and I finish up next, and walk over to join them.
Jules is holding her Target paper inspecting how she did. I come over and step next to her, and she hands it to me.
“What do you think, boss?” She asks, placing her hands on her hips.
I study it for a moment before handing it back to her. “Not your best, but not as rusty as you were last week,” I respond.
She smirks at me and shrugs her shoulder. “You know I prefer to use knives,” she drawls, folding up the paper. “I think I’m going to head into the city today. Unless you need me?”
“That’s fine. Our clients have no plans for leaving the house today as far as I know. Just be on standby,” I respond, putting my gun back into its case.
My phone beeps and I pull it out frowning when I see the message.
“What’s wrong, Kill?” Malakai asks, noticing the vex expression on my face.
“Pierce wants to talk to me,” I mutter, typing back a reply. “He asked if I could come to the house in an hour.”
Asher’s eyes narrow. “What the hell is that about?”
“I don’t know,” I say, pocketing my phone, my mind running through what I need to do next. “Let’s head back.”
An hour later, I walk into the main house with my key for the back doors. Everything is quiet except for the faint sound of Pierce talking off in the distance.
I follow his voice to his office door, disappointed when I don’t see Celani in the kitchen or living room along the way. I knock on his door, and he calls out for me to come inside.
I step in and see him getting off of the phone, and he motions to the chair on the other side of his desk.
“Please. Have a seat, Killian,” he says, sitting up straighter in his chair.
I look around his office as I sit down, taking in the bookshelves and large desk. There’s a picture of him with an older couple that I assume are his parents, and another picture of him and Celani on a beach somewhere. I twist my jaw and avert my eyes from their picture to meet his.
“Where is Celani?”
He gives me a confused look as he sits back in his chair. “I don’t know. Somewhere in the house with that cat,” he responds.
His nonchalance in rarely knowing where my woman is, when he gets the honor of sharing a house with her, infuriates me.
I haven’t been in many relationships, but even I know that caring how your woman spends her time, or where she is seems essential.
It’s basic fucking common sense.
Which I am coming to understand more and more he has none of.
I realize that I must be glaring at him when he shifts uneasily in his chair, clearing his throat.
“Anyway, I need to talk to you about your contract with us,” he says.
I raise an eyebrow. “What about it?”
He sits forward and folds his hands on his desk.
“I know that we said that your contract would only be for a month or two until they hopefully caught this bastard who killed Shawn McCoy,” he says, his gaze shifting away from me.
“ But I will need you and your team to stay on longer than we planned.”
Part of me wants to smile at the fact that he really believes I am ever leaving Celani. If anyone’s time is ending with her in the future, it will be his.
But I push down the urge to laugh in his smug face and keep myself focused. I decide to take this opportunity to give him an opening to tell me what is really going on here. Because my team and I are all far past believing that his concern is about McCoy’s killer coming after him and Celani.
I place one hand on the arm of the chair and rub my chin with the other. “Did something happen that I’m not aware of? We’ve been keeping up with all angles of the case and haven’t seen any new developments. Is there a new threat?” I ask, looking him straight in his eyes.
He looks startled by my question for a moment before he shakes his head hurriedly.
“No. No. Nothing new,” he responds, tapping his fingers on his desk.
“I just believe it would be best to continue to play it safe, you know? I mean, this crazy guy is still out there, right? And the news said they found evidence that he may be targeting more people in my industry. I want to remain..cautious.”
His rambling ends and I study his face. He is a poor liar, at best, but he doesn’t need to know that I recognize that, so I just move on.
“Right. Us staying on won’t be a problem. I never book out our next job until our current one wraps up,” I respond.
He lets out a slow breath and gives me a small smile for possibly the first time ever.
“Great. Great. Just put together an extension addendum and I’ll sign it,” he says, “You can see yourself out.”
He turns back to his computer and I get up, leaving him to work. I close his office door and glance down the hallway. I’m tempted to go up the stairs to find Celani and Shadow, but I stop myself, knowing that Pierce could come out of his office at any minute.
I hate that we can’t text each other when I’m not with her. I need to set her up with a burner phone that she can hide, because an entire day without speaking to her at this point is fucking torture.
I make it back outside and down to the guest house still thinking over my conversation with Pierce.
When he left the house alone last Sunday and Malakai tracked his location we again had no luck figuring out who he met with.
He was already leaving by the time Malakai arrived there.
He staked out the place for a few hours but didn’t get any new information.
I go to open the door, ready to give my team the update Pierce gave me, when I see Davi hurrying out of the pool house.
He jogs over to me, waving a hand in the air.
“I was just about to call you, Kill,” he pants, stopping in front of me. “I saw you on the cameras so I came out instead.”
“What is it?” I ask, my guard rising seeing the expression on his face.
He holds up his phone. “I finally got a hold of Lucian,” he says. “He got a tip from a contact that he has here in Redland. He wants to meet with you. He may have information about Pierce.”