22
Liam
Seated on the recliner, Kyle pressed the bag of peas against his face where I’d nailed him good, while I tended to my own cheek where he’d offered a solid left hook.
Ty applied some antibiotic ointment I’d grabbed for him to the injury on his arm. And just when that bruising on his face was nearly entirely healed up. Fuck Kyle for being so goddamn reckless.
Although, now that I knew Ty wasn’t hurt too bad, a part of me was glad for the opportunity it provided for me and Kyle to have a good ol’-fashioned go at it, even as he gave me an angry glare and mutteredmotherfuckerunder his breath. His slick smile assured me he’d missed old times just as much as I had.
Ty and I sat beside one another on the sofa, Tara on the arm opposite us.
Mick finished setting up his gear on a foldout table in the corner beside the fireplace, then began keying away on his laptop. Most of my memories of Mick involved him on a computer, laptop, tablet…any electronic device, really. He was our main IT guy. Best in the IPB, which was the reason I trusted his encryption pad so much to begin with. And apparently, it was worth having faith in him.
“You’ve secured our network, right?” I asked him. “I did the best I could, but you know I’m shit with that stuff.”
“Did I secure the network?” Mick snickered. “Child’s play. Anyone who finds this place through that, fucking deserves to, because they’re smarter than me…and I’d love to shake hands with them.”
“Right before they blow your brains out,” I reminded him.
He glared at me. “It’s not gonna happen, Banner.”
“Banner?” Ty asked.
“Incredible Hulk? David Banner?” Mick explained. “You haven’t seen this guy lose his temper?”
“He’s seen a little bit,” I said, thinking of the night we were jumped, and when I thought Kyle was the enemy.
“This has been a little bit?” Ty asked, his eyes wide in apparent surprise.
Oh, he had no idea.
How could he? Jesus, just a few days earlier, he hadn’t even known about the secret organization I was a part of.
“You did a good enough job with the network before I got here,” Mick said, bringing us back to the topic at hand. “Pretty good for a guy who was basically still operating off a shitty nineties IBM when we started working together.”
“She was good to me. She did everything I needed her to do.”
“Do you screw someone who can do everything you need…or the best? Come on, Liam.”
I laughed at his comparison.
“Touché,” Ty added.
“Oh, thank God. Someone else to appreciate my jokes,” Mick remarked.
“We all appreciate your jokes just fine. We’ve just known you long enough to not cave to low-hanging fruit.”
“I think pretty much everyone in here has caved to some low-hanging fruit,” Mick quipped, which evoked a laugh from Tara too.
“Hey, if you can cut the crappy stand-up act, maybe we can get back to the point of coming here,” Kyle barked.
“Ah, sore loser just wants to get back to business, I guess,” Mick teased. “But that works fine because we have a lot of ground to cover, and a little noob who needs some hand-holding.”
“I’m gonna warn every one of you now that if you’re thinking of giving Ty a hard time, you’re gonna have to go through me.”
“Oh, nonsense,” Tara said. “We have no doubt you’ve given him enough hard times that he deserves a break.”
She had the cleverest little smile on her face, and Ty laughed at her remark, so it was easy to let it slide.
