“What was Dean freaking out about?” I asked the next morning, reminded by his absence at the breakfast table. Stryker, with his pale complexion and stark dark circles under his eyes, evidently hadn’t slept a wink. He squinted at me, then groaned quietly “he was put on a case not long ago and keeps having nightmares about it.” He mumbled “something to do with a chopped off head in a cupboard.”
I flinched, trying not to imagine something so gross, turning my attention back to my syrup-filled pancake, “he was having a panic attack.”
“Accurate assessment.”
“Hm. So…is he okay?” I asked.
“Yeah.” Stryker muttered “he’s okay. Asleep.” He added.
I nodded slowly.
Jack sat beside me with a long, drawn out sigh “guess what?”
I didn’t need to turn to look at him to know that he was talking to Stryker. I had noticed that habit of his- he didn’t see me as his equal, so he didn’t speak to me as his equal, meaning that anything he retained important would be seen to with Stryker or one of the more experienced soldiers. It was a bit of a dick move, in my personal opinion, though I may be biased.
“What?” Stryker asked, sipping from his mug of coffee.
“There’s a case. Matt was reading through it last night.”
Speaking if,hewasn’t at the table either.
“Kidnapping.”
I heard Stryker snort into his coffee.
“What’s so funny?”
“We, kids, have to deal with akidnapping case?” Stryker snickered “ironic much?”
“We’re not kids, you ass.” Jack protested “anyway, it’s presumed to be. In particular there’s a missing boy, twelve, uh…Oliver Jackson, I believe? He was the last one to go missing. Last night.”
“Hm.”
I watched Stryker from the corner of my eye. He didn’t seem particularly concerned.
“John hasn’t said anything.”
Ah. That was why.
“It’s new.” Nick piped up from the other side of the table, slathering a scone with jam “I heard about it too. Johnathan won’t have read it yet. Matthew was separating urgent cases from non urgent all night.”
“And where did he put this one?” I asked curiously.
Nick shrugged, glancing towards Jack who rolled his eyes “urgent, obviously. Or I wouldn’t have said anything.”
“We can’t just take on a case without consulting him.” Stryker pointed out flatly “I’ll speak to him this afternoon. If he agrees, I can schedule an appointment with his mother.”
“Good idea.” Jack bopped his head in agreement.
I felt an elbow in my side and turned to glare at my partner.
Stryker seemed unbothered, as always, “you down for that?”
“For what?” I asked through a mouthful of pancake.
The prince sighed in exasperation “talking to the mother?” He said in a ‘duh’ voice.
“Oh.” A nod “sure. Cool.”
