Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 83986 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 420(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83986 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 420(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
“Gross,” I muttered, passing my phone to Owen. “Here, take it.”
His smile lit his face. “Hello there,” he answered in a sultry voice I’d never heard from him before.
I’d let Owen take the call because for one, it was easier than saying later, Oh, Owen’s here, and having to explain the whole thing when Owen could just tell him now. Second, ever since the announcement came about my boss and our tech guy getting married, both of them were different, more open, and I liked the new reality.
It was funny to look back at what I—and everyone else—thought about them before we were all told the story of what happened to Owen’s parents.
All of us, current and former fixers, thought Owen was young, around twenty-four at most, but he was actually a worldly thirty-two. For guys who were supposed to be observant, we all sucked at noticing things that were right in front of us.
Locryn Barnes, another fixer who’d left, thought Owen had blue eyes when they were very clearly green, and Barnes used to be a cop. I’d found that unless you really looked at people, something like eye color wasn’t something anyone retained. Like Benji. I had no idea what color his eyes were. If someone had a gun in my face and threatened to kill me unless I told them, I’d be dead. It was why, when I used to take witness statements at crime scenes back in the day, it had always been hit or miss. People saw what they conjured in their minds, not what actually occurred in front of them. That had been my whole problem with my last relationship. I’d only seen what I wanted to.
My boss, badass Army Intelligence supersoldier, was no better. Jared Colter had seen nothing at all past friendship with Owen until Owen was kidnapped and Jared had to save him. Somewhere during their adventure, my boss’s eyes had been opened to what was right under his nose, and I couldn’t be happier for them. Watching Owen smile as he talked into my phone gave me a warm, fuzzy feeling in my chest. Just because love wasn’t currently in the cards for me didn’t mean seeing it in full bloom wasn’t nice.
“Here you go,” Owen said with such forced cheerfulness that I couldn’t miss it, giving me a look of sympathy like I was going to the guillotine.
I groaned. “What?”
“Nothing,” he said, using a creepy happy tone, his smile more of a grimace.
“You’re a terrible liar,” I assured him.
“What?” So much over-the-top mock surprise, I rolled my eyes at him.
Clearly, whatever my boss was about to say was going to be a horror. “Hello,” I greeted him briskly, girding for bad news.
“Are Owen and Benji really injury-free?” my boss asked first. Owen was the love of his life and Benji worked for him, so I understood his concern.
“Yeah. They’re good. I promise.”
Quick breath. “Okay, then listen. I’m sorry for the late call, but I need you in Maine tomorrow, so you should probably get home and pack.”
It took me a moment to process his words.
“Davis? Are you there?” he said, using my last name. I was pretty sure it was a habit picked up from the military that he saw no reason to break.
I had to reboot. “I’m sorry, did you say Maine?”
“I did.”
There were questions. So many questions. But my boss didn’t like those. And all I could think was, Maine? In early March? Was it raining? Was it cold? Colder than Chicago? And why on earth did I need to go there?
“Listen, I know what you’re thinking, but it won’t take long. It’s a few days. Five in all. There’s a wedding, and I think a small amount of time after that or before, I’m not sure. The timeline is a bit up in the air.”
A wedding? Oh dear God. And what the hell did “a bit up in the air” mean?
“Why is that?”
“It’s because we were hired by our client’s agent, Mr. Klein, and he didn’t have all the details to give me, just that it’s Tuesday through Saturday.”
This was getting better and better. “Who is our client?”
“Ashford Lennox, the actor. Levi Klein, who hired us, is his agent. Have you heard of Lennox or seen him in anything?”
Only my boss would ask if I’d heard of one of the biggest actors in Hollywood. What was impressive about Lennox was that seven years ago, he was not yet a household name, even after a very successful series on HBO and many big-budget Hollywood blockbusters. What changed things for him and put him on everyone’s radar was first a turn as the intrepid Jack Ryan, and then playing a gay doctor dealing with an opioid addiction after he and several others had been attacked in the hospital where they worked. I’d seen that same scenario played out in other movies and on TV, but somehow, Ashford Lennox breathed new life into that trope. When he received his Oscar for best actor, he officially came out, though he hadn’t been hiding the truth before.