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)
“Really, though, when all is said and done, this is going to be easy,” my boss assured me. “You’ll see.”
First off, no job was ever easy. That was a given. Something was always going to go wrong. Second, my boss had a tendency to downplay things when he thought one of his fixers would balk, especially unspeakable, brain-numbing horrors like, say, Maine in early March.
“It’s not like you’re going as a caretaker. You’re simply the man’s plus-one.”
I was concerned he was having a stroke, and before his nuptials too. I coughed softly. “Aren’t weddings normally two-day affairs at most? Rehearsal dinner, then wedding?”
“No, they’re normally four days long and filled with different activities,” he informed me, and I noted a trace of judgment in his voice, like I should have known that.
“Great,” I said instead of I’d rather sit through another of Owen’s tech seminars. In my opinion, Owen was missing his calling by not working with people with insomnia. He could put anyone to sleep in seconds when he started talking about gadgets. “So what you’re telling me is that Lennox is not in any danger at this wedding.”
“Probably not. The venue in Castine has been completely rented out for the nuptials, and they have a regular on-site security team.”
“They rented the whole hotel?”
“Inn. It’s an inn.”
Of course it was. “This is a tag-along-and-guard situation.”
“Correct.”
I took a breath. “Sir, if this man—”
“Ashford Lennox.”
“If Lennox needs a fake boyfriend and not an actual bodyguard, wouldn’t it be better if we handed this off to—”
“He’s a huge movie star, so there could always be danger.”
I could tell from his clipped tone that I was treading dangerously close to questioning him, and that wasn’t what I meant to do. My boss was not in the habit of wasting our time, or his, so if he was sending me, there was reason in his mind.
“I expect this to be simple, Cooper.”
I should have let it drop there. “You know who loves weddings? Rais. I bet he would do really well in—”
“I just shipped him off to pick up a bounty hunter who ran off with the woman he was supposed to bring in. That might take a bit.”
Of course it would.
“Everyone is assigned to something except you.”
“Do you know how much I hate other people’s families?” I asked my boss.
“Families are wonderful. You’re going to love meeting all the people I consider family who are coming in for my wedding.”
That was what had been taking so long. It was a daunting task, coordinating schedules for people who worked at the State Department, who worked for the CIA, Army Intelligence, the FBI and all the other alphabet agencies, plus the folks working with black-ops extraction teams and some who, to put it gently, were contractors who killed others for a living. June had been the earliest it could be done. There were also all the flowers. I had listened to Owen explain how this specific one from Greece would honor his mother, and this one from Ireland his father, and how they would be woven together along with one for Jared and another for Owen to signify union and happiness…and on and on. The whole thing was unnerving. In the past, my conversations with Owen had been about technology and muscle cars. Now they were about boutonnieres and orchids and how black tie the event would be. It was weird.
“Make sure you pack a tuxedo, as I understand the wedding is formal, but the rest of the time, other than the rehearsal dinner, it sounds like business casual will get you through.”
“I—”
“It might even be relaxing.”
It would not.
“Maine in the off-season will be lovely.”
I had to bite my tongue so I didn’t say anything snarky.
“It’ll be fine,” my boss said, completely jinxing me. “You’ll be fine.”
Why did he hate me?
“Did Owen tell you the whole story about how far and why he and Benji were running from trust-fund babies? I mean, you asked me if they were okay, and they are, but if they hadn’t run into me, there might have been real trouble.”
Was that true? Not at all. Did I think Owen could have kicked the shit out of at least three of those guys, leaving the last one for Benji? I did, yes. But I could see everyone, and Jared could not. He had no idea what they looked like. The sudden silence on the other end of the call told me that Owen had, most assuredly, left out some pertinent details about his and Benji’s flight from the four men.
It took a moment for all of it to sink in.
“Boss?”
Nothing.
“You want to talk to Owen again?”
He grunted, which I took as affirmative.
Walking back to the table, I held my phone out to Owen. He looked up at me in question.
“My boss would like a word.”