“What sting? We’re doing low level securitywork. Mall cops could have handled this gig.”
“I never said Dragomirov was a genius.”
Taylor was silent. Then he said, “How thehell would that bitch recognize you?”
Will shook his head.
Taylor’s face screwed up in anger. “Fuck!”He turned and kicked a white and blue, half-deflated child’s ballthat had rolled out of the pile of trash bags. The ball shot to theleft, bounced off a green brick wall and landed on the pittedpavement with a flat, angry smack.
Will said nothing. What could he say? Taylorhad not wanted to take this job in the first place. But they hadneeded the money and Will had talked him into it. End result: theyhad put in ten days, working a bodyguard detail for a guy who,though maybe not a crook, was certainly a scumball — and they wouldnot be getting paid for the privilege.
He opened his mouth to apologize, but no. Hewas already on defense over the Paris thing; not smart to furtherweaken his position. Anyway, he wasn’t going to apologize for beinga realist. They were not in a position to pick and choose clients.How was he supposed to have known their arch-nemesis would show up?He hadn’t realized they had an arch-nemesis until he’dwatched Gretchen Hart freeze in recognition and then morph into theBorg Queen.
Taylor turned back to face him, fistsplanted on his narrow hips, eyes glinting the same shade as aMojave Green. “Fuckin’ A. What now?”
“Find a new client, I guess. Shower. Sleep.”They were short on sleep these days. It wasn’t helping.
Taylor bit back whatever he started to say.This unusual restraint was almost worse than hearing him voice hisfeelings.
“Look,” Will said. “I couldn’t predict this.Nobody could predict this. We’re independent contractors now, andsometimes things are going to go wrong.”
“Does that mean sometimes they’re going togo right?” Taylor inquired. “Because so far…not so much.”
Now it was Will’s turn to hold his tongue.He said shortly, “We’re done here, let’s grab our gear and get thehell out of Dodge.”
* * * * *
“I’m going to talk to Richard,” Taylor said,breaking the silence of their drive back to Ventura.
Will shifted painfully in the passengerseat. His tailbone felt bruised. Along with his ego. “About?”
Taylor didn’t answer. He didn’t have to.“Richard” was Richard Lamprell, owner of Geo-Gulf Oil and Taylor’sstepdad. Taylor’s parents had divorced when he was in junior high,and his mother had remarried a multimillionaire. A fact whichalways seemed to make Taylor uncomfortable, and never more so thanwhen Richard had offered to lend them the start-up capital fortheir security consulting business after they’d left the DSS.
Taylor had turned the offer down flat.Knowing his feelings on the subject, Will hated that Taylor was nowhaving to rethink his position. He hated that his own initialreaction was relief. Anyway, it was only his initial reactionbecause he did not want them beholden to anyone, even family.
“No. We’re okay. We’ll work it out,” hesaid.
Taylor’s hands whitened on the steeringwheel. “No, we’re not okay, Brandt. We’re taking jobs we don’t wantto take because we can’t pay our bills — and then we can’t pay ourbills anyway. We’re not okay.”
“Throwing money at a problem is not asolution.”
“It sure as shit is, if the problem is youdon’t have enough money.”
“I don’t want to be in hock to Richard.Nothing against Richard. I don’t want to owe anybody. I don’t wantto be obligated.”
Taylor gave a short laugh. He glanced awayfrom the shifting parking lot that doubled as the 101 Freeway.“Really? Because we’re already sixty grand worth of obligated toour mutual credit card companies. At twenty percent interest.Unless you plan on cashing out our retirement funds next, we’re outof resources. Which means we’re out of options.”
“MacAllister. Taylor —”
“We could try and get our old jobs back, Iguess,” Taylor added tersely. “It won’t be Paris, of course, giventhat you already turned that posting down for both of us.”
There it was again. Fucking Paris. Right onschedule.
“Christ. Enough with Paris.” Will couldn’thelp the edge in his voice. In fact, he didn’t want to help it. Hewas tired, in pain, and sick of feeling guilty over a decision hehad made with the best possible intentions.
“I guess so,” Taylor said. “I guess you hadenough. I didn’t get a choice.”
“Did you want that posting?” Will snapped.“Because if you did, if you do, I will talk to Alice Stone myself.I will move heaven and earth to get you your job and that goddamnedposting back.”
“Not the point, Brandt,” Taylor said coolly.“The point is, you didn’t give me a say. You didn’t tell me Stonewanted to offer a posting, that maybe we could have worked togetherin France. You —”
Will broke in, “Are you telling me you wouldhave made a different choice?”
“I don’t know.”
“The hell.” Will stared at Taylor’s profilefor a long moment before turning to scowl out the side window.Office buildings and restaurants and billboards and busy sidestreets slid past while he tried to deal with that.
“Not about us. Obviously.” Taylor’s voicesoftened briefly. “But you hustled me into this freelance gig, andwe don’t have the assets or the contacts or the experience.”
Will started to protest, but Taylor cutacross. “We’re experienced field agents, sure. We’re notexperienced business owners. We’re not even experienced officemanagers. We’re sinking. We rushed into this and we did it for allthe wrong reasons.”
What Taylor meant was, Will had rushedhim into it for the wrong reasons. Not true. Not fair. Noteven close.
Was it?
“I did it because I wanted us to start ourlife together. Our real life together. I wanted us to have controlof our future. Of our fate.”
“You did it because…” Taylor didn’t finishthe thought. But, again, he didn’t have to. They could usually readeach other’s minds.
Will let it go. If he answered Taylor now,it would not go well. They were both tired and frustrated and, yes,worried. He put his head back and let Taylor take his aggressionsout on the other drivers crowding into the sluggish river of metaland glass.
He didn’t sleep, but maybe he did dozebecause the next time he opened his eyes they were pulling intoTaylor’s driveway and the security gate was rolling shut behindthem.
Actually, it was
