Jem's POV
My office door opened without a warning but I didn't bother looking up from my computer as I typed the inventory report for last week.
"Well what happened," Devon asked with is usual monotone voice as he sat down in one of the chairs in front of my desk. His eyes told me he was bored but his stiff position made his expression hard to believe.
"I swear to god if someone tried to pull something I'll set their house on fire," Barrett threatened but I didn't pay him any mind. He sat in the chair next to Devon, showing how much they really contrasted each other.
Devon's blond hair constantly stayed his face in order to hide behind it while Barrett always kept his brown hair pushed up and sticking out in every direction so he could see everything.
Barrett's green eyes were bright and constantly searching for things that caught his eyes but Devon tended to keep his eyes glued to the floor if he was around people he didn't know.
Even their positions were polar opposites. Devon stretched out on every surface he sat on while Barrett balled up as much as possible.
I sighed as I pushed the thought aside and pulled out my phone. I don't bother saying anything as I hand it to Barrett, showing him the simple message I had gotten.
Barrett jumped up to look over Devon shoulder.
The text was pretty simple. It only had the address of the building we met at and claimed it was Andrew who needed me for some reason.
I had honestly thought someone had targeted him after they saw him with me a few months ago when I tried to seduce him; if that thought hadn't crossed my mind I wouldn't have gone at all.
"Who's Andrew," Devon asked as his eyes searched the screen for anything else.
"He's Liam's therapist. We met him a while ago but I doubt you two remember him."
At the mention of Liam, both of them stiffen. Ever since I made him leave Liam was very rarely mentioned, none of our minors were, but Liam more so than the others.
"So I'm assuming you went alone, without anyone knowing where you were," Devon said with a small glare. "Do I even want to know what happened?"
"Nothing much. It was more of a warning than anything else but now Andrew and Patrick are targets for whatever comes next."
Barrett doesn't try to hide his scowl at Patrick's name before rolling his eyes as if he couldn't care less about the cop.
"As if you aren't a target too," he sighed. "So what's the plan?"
"They're staying here at night but they are going to keep up their usual routines during the day."
"That's not a good plan. Being alone in the open like that will get them killed," Devon said, his bored expression returning as he handed me my phone again.
"They won't be alone," I dismiss quickly.
"You can't protect both of them by yourself and keep up with all the work around here," Barrett said with a small laugh but Devon's glare returned, already figuring out the plan I had.
"Devon," I said with a small smile.
"No."
"You'll be with Patrick."
"Absolutely not."
"Too bad you don't have a choice."
"I have too much work to do," he said with a glare, his usual monotone surprisingly exchanged for a cold, demanding voice.
"I'm sure I can find someone to do it for you."
"I'm not wasting my time babysitting a cop."
"You'll do it with a damn smile on your face if I tell you to." My glare was much harsher than his and my colder than his as well due to the amount of practice I had.
I expect him to look away and accept that this was happening but he held my gaze.
My jaw clenched but before I could do anything else Barrett was between us.
"What's the point in it? I mean if they were apart of us I would understand but they're outsiders. And Patrick's even worse. Not only is he an outsider, he's a cop; a cop that tried to arrest you on multiple occasions. Is he threatening to do it again if you don't help him?"
"He's not but he's important to Liam so he's important to us."
"He's important to Liam," Devon asked, his glare slowly dripping away. "Or he's important to you?"
When I don't answer Devon lets it drop.
"Barrett, you're with Andrew. You both know what to do; you've done it enough times to not have to be told."
"What are we going to do about the threat?"
"I'll work on that, your jobs are to just keep those two from being dead. Now, who have we pissed off these past few months? That will at least give me a place to start."
"Samuel King is probably a good place to start," Dev sighed. "You blew him off three times in one month and it was for a really big meeting. He's probably pretty pissed but I don't know if it would warrant something like this."
"Bentley Davis probably isn't happy either," Barrett said with a frown. "He was our weapons dealer before we changed to our new guy. It cost him a lot of money, we would be pissed if someone did that to us."
I wrote down their names quickly before nodding and leaning back in my seat.
"That's all we can do tonight then I guess. Go get some sleep and keep an eye out for tomorrow. I want hourly updates and call out any patterns in people you might see."
They nod as I go back to my computer but when I don't hear the sound of leather shifting as they got up to leave the room, I looked over my screen at them.
"What?"
"We aren't the only ones who need to sleep," Devon pointed out, his bored expression back again but I only rolled my eyes.
"I'm fine."
"You're not fine, you need sleep; probably even more than we do. Did you even go to bed last night," Barrett asked with a frown of his own.
"I did actually."
"For how long?"
"A few hours, it's more than usual."
The two of them looked at each other for a while before nodding and standing up. I sigh, knowing I'll be able to work in peace now until Devon comes up behind me.
His hands grip my shoulders before pulling back, making the chair roll back. The small bit of room allows Barrett to wrap his arms around my legs. Before I had a chance to tell them to knock it off, I was being lifted into the air.
"Put me down," I sighed but I knew my words were useless at this point.
Devon leads the way to my room while Barrett jokingly hits my sides against every corner we passed until Dev was throwing my door open.
I barely have time to brace myself before I'm hitting my bed.
Barrett looked rather pleased with himself while Dev looked mildly annoyed as he stuck his hand out.
"Give me your phones. There's no point in carrying you in here if you can still work."
"I'm not even tired," I said but I start pulling phones out at random. Work phone, personal phone, my burner phones that I only use for drug or weapon deals; all of them pile up in Dev's hands.
"And to think you pride yourself on your ability to lie," Barrett teased before rolling his eyes. "You must be more tired than you think if you thought that was a good lie."
"You'll get these back in the morning. They'll be on the breakfast bar."
"Let me keep one, I won't use it but I need it." Devon's eyes bare into mine as if he were looking for something before his eyes soften.
"Which one do you want?"
"The work one," I said as I settled into the mattress, my eyes already feeling heavy. I barely have time to shut my eyes before Dev is leaning over to plug the phone into its charger.
"I'm checking the screen time report on that in the morning. It better not say you were on it all night."
"What are you going to do if I do it anyway," I teased. "You gonna punish me or something?"
Devon doesn't bother saying anything else as he turns around with Barrett not too far behind him.
The door closes only a few seconds later, forcing me to be alone in the dark room.
My heart speeds up as soon as they're gone and the heaviness in my eyes disappears.
I hate nights so much. Everything always happens at night. Warehouses get attacked, raided, and burned down, good men die for nothing, people go missing; it almost always happens when the rest of the world turns a blind eye in their sleep.
It's not that I don't want to sleep but my own body won't allow me to. All I can think about is the fact that I'm in here, sleeping while my men are hard at work. It made me feel guilty. It made me feel even worse when I didn't have a phone on me just in case.
On the off chance something happens, everyone knows that if they call me and it's actually important, I'll be there in a heartbeat.
If they were to get in a bind and I didn't have a phone for them to call me on and they died because of that- I don't even want to think about that.
I forced myself to close my eyes as left hand reached out to grab my phone. I leave it plugged in but it's clutched to my chest. My right hand moves under my pillow and wraps around the cold metal of the gun placed there. The safety is still on but just it being here is enough to make m heart rate slow a bit.
I wait there for hours until the heavy feeling in my eyes returned and I'm able to drift off into sleep.
Last updated November 10, 2021
Comments (1)
See all