Page 7 of On the Double

“Does it even fucking matter at this point?” Scottie asked.

“If you want to be paid, it does,” Lock argued. “But the main thing you’re missing is that Cash has final approval on all jobs.”

“Cash is hiding away in his office,” I shot back.

“Because he’s hurting. You fucking know what he had to do,” Lock snapped. “He shot his own twin. That’s gotta be eating him alive.”

I stopped walking and spun on them, getting in Lock’s face. “I get that. I really do, and I feel for him. I’m not suggesting a mutiny or anything. I’m saying maybe we need to take the reins and keep the ship afloat while he’s dealing with his own issues so he still has a company when he finally comes to terms with what happened.”

Lock stayed silent at that. He knew I was right.

“Alright, let’s say we do what you’re suggesting,” Brock said, “how do we even find jobs?”

“How does Cash find jobs?”

“People call,” Lock retorted.

“Right, but he also advertises.”

“What if we offer our services to people in town?” Scottie suggested.

“You just don’t want to fly anywhere,” I snapped.

“Yeah, make this about me.”

“Clearly, it is.”

“Obviously, you’re a little prejudiced,” he grumbled.

“Alright!” Lock snapped. “We are not going to turn into Fox and Dash!” He took a deep breath and got in business mode. “If we’re going to find work, we need to dig through the files and find something that’ll work for us. And in order to do that, we need to get Cash out of his office.”

“That’s not gonna be easy. He refuses to go anywhere,” Brock pointed out.

“We could fake an emergency,” I suggested. “Maybe one of us is injured.”

“Ooh, Eva could be hurt. He’d leave for her.”

“So soon after his brother died?” Lock said, staring at Scottie like he was an idiot, which he was. “Somehow, I don’t see that going over well.”

He was right about that. “Okay, then we say his father needs to see him. We’ll call Michael and set up a meet.”

Lock shook his head. “That won’t work. He doesn’t want to see any of his family.”

“What about Libby?” Brock asked.

“She won’t come to see him. She doesn’t give a shit if Cash is hurting,” I sighed. “She walked out of the fucking funeral. Nobody even knows where she went.”

“If family won’t draw him out and neither will jobs, what other options do we have?” Lock asked.

I had an idea. It was fucking batshit crazy, and would probably put me on Cash’s shit list for all eternity, but it might just work. “I’m going to talk to IRIS.”

“About what?” Lock stiffened.

I backed away from him. “I can’t tell you. Plausible deniability.”

“Edu—”

“Trust me on this.”