Given time, I might crack it, but we’ve lost that luxury.
The beaten man shifts in his seat, then moans and clamps a hand to his belly. “Get yourselves to a hospital,” I tell the men, then gesture to Kyree to join me in a makeshift office out the back. “What’s your read on this?”
“We could try at diplomacy, but it’ll work better if we strike them back, and hard, before we set up any meet.”
I sit and stare at the window. In it, I can see Kyree’s reflection. I keep my eyes fixed on it while asking, “And if that works?”
He shrugs. “Then we sit down somewhere safe. That storage park on Broadhurst is close enough to their headquarters for them to feel comfortable but still gives us choices for surveillance.”
The man has good instincts. He helped keep the team together while I was inside and didn’t raise his voice when I got out and stepped straight back into my role. Just stepped aside.
I need a good second in command to keep things stable. Much as I hate to think of the possibility, if I’m arrested again, then someone needs to take over and I’d rather it be someone of my choosing. Leave the space empty, and the entire silo could disintegrate while they’re battling it out for leader.
Delegating a task this important to him will show my men where their allegiance should lie if I’m taken out. More than that, his willingness to step aside without being asked means he won’t be jostling to overturn me. Not without good reason.
It also gives me space. If he proves himself an able leader, I won’t have to spend every hour of the day working. Won’t need to worry if I take some time for myself.
Briefly, I think of the man who I tumbled to get to my current position. If he’d let me spread my wings wider, I wouldn’t have been so eager to roll him. Not that I would have done anything if he’d proven up to the task, but a series of mistakes had given me an opportunity.
I can keep my head in the game without running every single operation.
“Set it up,” I tell Kyree. “Including a pay-out for the mole.”
The beaten man in the other room won’t be useful to anyone again. Not now his cover is blown. Even if the gang is open to talks, nobody likes a spy.
The pay-out will come with a side note about getting out of the country and staying out.
Kyree looks satisfied as I make my way outside, getting back in my car. Good. I find myself rooting for him to succeed in a way I haven’t experienced with a team member before. Maybe this is what mentorship is meant to feel like.
I hope so. A week ago, I would have crawled out of my skin if someone had told me that I’d be delegating something so important to anyone. Even a trusted man within my own silo.
Now, I welcome the experience. It will give him traction for future endeavours. It will give me a wider structure at the top of my silo.
It will give me more time with Crimson.
The thought pops into my head out of nowhere, making me laugh. Not even two days into this relationship and she’s already remodelling my life. Even if she doesn’t know it.
I carry the smile with me back to the apartment, where I stand outside her bedroom door, concentrating hard enough that I believe I can hear her breathing on the other side of the wall.
My heart is a thousand pounds lighter when I finally get back into bed; falling asleep a moment after my head hits the pillow.
* * *
My morning coffeestill hasn’t taken effect when I call my mother. She immediately upsets Agnes’s crafty plan by vetoing my suggestion that she come over for lunch.
“Not likely,” she says while I’m still trying to explain the importance. “I don’t want to get trapped in your apartment for hours while your staff judge me.” I presume by staff she means Agnes and by judge she means accurately assess. “And what’s this I hear about a fiancée? Please tell me you’ve not been that stupid.”
Temptation sneaks into my mind but I bravely fight the urge to hang up the phone. Whatever quick pleasure it might bring me, there’d be years’ worth of torment after. Every time we meet, I’m sure she’d insert the anecdote and extract her petty revenge.
“I’ll only answer that question if you agree to meet us for lunch.”
An exaggerated sigh comes down the receiver, then she tells me the restaurant to book. “But not today, I’m swamped.” With what? The woman doesn’t work. “Make it tomorrow and I need to get gone by one. One-thirty in a pinch.”
“Fine. I’ll book it for ten in the morning, shall I?”
“Honestly, honey. More than an hour in my company will frighten your spring deer off, so don’t complain. You think after this long, I don’t know what I’m doing?”
A fair point and it’ll give Crimson a bright line if she flounders in my mother’s company. I ring off before I can harm our relationship and make the booking for midday before tossing my phone aside. There are a thousand things vying for my attention but for the moment, I rest my eyes.
