Page 237 of Unlucky Like Us
We’re both laughing, but the sound fades out with the distance. He’s back in the city that has my heart, but I’m here with the girl who has my heart and soul. Easy which one wins out.
I sniff the bath wash. Citrus again. “You see the Kitsulletti announcement?”
“Oh yeah, they dropped it today to help us here. Press is trying to hunt them down rather than mob the hospital. It’s a stroke of genius. Wish I could claim it as my own, but that one is Kitsuwon—or really, Meadows.” Akara and Banks took Sulli’s last name after they got married. They’re all Meadows now.
Their fitness app went live not too long ago too. Haven’t had much time to check it out, but it’s been buzzing online and hyped up.
Oscar asks, “You hear back from Akara about the deal he’s making with Price?”
“Nah, he said he’d call, but I figured the signal must be bad where they are.” The Meadows’ Costa Rican treehouse is remote. “Been thinking I’ll hear from him another day, maybe when he’s back in PA.”
“Check your email,” Oscar says. “He sent me one this morning. It might be how he’s communicating while he’s out there.”
I lower the phone from my ear, putting him on speaker, then I pop open my inbox. Sure enough, I have an email from my boss. “Yeah, I’ve got one.”
“Call me a fucking mastermind.”
I’m about to joke back, but I start reading the email and my face just plummets. The bottom of my stomach falls out. My brain goes woozy, and I lean further back until my head hits the mirror.
“Don’t leave me hanging,” Oscar says. “What’s the prognosis? They make you Epsilon’s errand boy for a month?”
I can’t speak, thoughts evacuate, and I’m burning up. I grip the plain black tee I’m wearing, but I don’t take it off.
“Donnelly?”
“I am Epsilon,” I say.
“What the fuck do you mean? You’re fucking with me?” Oscar says, worried. “Ha-ha. Okay, now tell me what it really says.”
I scrape a hand down my face, nauseous. “I’m Epsilon. I don’t work for Kitsuwon Securities anymore—”
“They can’t do that,” Oscar cuts in. “They legitimately donothave the power to transfer you from one company to the other.”
I swallow a rock. “They do if I want to continue working in private security.”
“The client hires the firm. Your client is turning eighteen in two weeks, soXanderchooses who to pay, either Triple Shield or Kitsuwon Securities.”
“And if he wants me as a bodyguard, I’ll be employed by Triple Shield,” I tell him. “It says it right here.”
“Send me the email.”
“No.”
“Donnelly—”
“I can fucking read,” I shoot back.
“I’m not saying you can’t. This isn’t right. Why would Price even want you on his firm if he’s putting up a fit about you being with a client?”
I have these answers. Akara explained everything in the email, not leaving me in the dark.
“‘Cause he wants to keep an eye on me—that’s what Price told Akara, but Akara thinks he just wants a bodyguard who’s closer to the families on his firm.” The bodyguards that are dating clients have been known to have special privileges, and it’d be useful. Before Oscar speaks, I add, “He gave Akara a choice. It was me or Quinn, Frog, and Gabe all together on the table. He let me go.”
I’m not worth three bodyguards. Even the threeyoungest, greenest ones, and I’m trying not to let that get to me ‘cause I’d rather go instead of them. But I know—I knowI’m worth more than that, and it’s ripping into my skin. Digging under the surface.
I could scream, but when I’m this upset, I usually crank down the volume.
Holding the phone loosely in my palm, I tell Oscar quietly, “Akara apologized over a dozen times in the email.”