Travis Starnes
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No Good Deed (Destiny Saga #5) - Chapter 3
🕑 Added 2017-12-16 18:03:34 +0000 UTCI stormed out of the offices and headed out to the sidewalk in front of our building. I’d had enough of this preacher, and I was ready to tackle him there on that sidewalk and beat the shit out of him. Which is why it’s a good thing that as I came out the front door of the offices I was body checked by Jawarski.
Planting her palms on my chest, she pushed me with each step, almost knocking me on my ass, back into the reception area.
“What the hell?”
“Get a grip. What do you think’s going to happen if you rush out there and do what I think you’re planning on doing?”
“Get a shit ton of satisfaction,” I said, starting to go around her, only to get another palm slapped into my sternum.
“And then you’ll go to jail. And after that, the Preacher’s going to get a big ass payday, when he sues the hell out of you. You’re supposed to be some kind of genius. Think this through!”
It pissed me off that she was right. As soon as I stopped my headlong charge, my brain had caught up, and I knew it was a bad idea before I made it to the lobby, but by that point, I had built up a head of steam. It was a good thing she was there to stop me and give me a second to think about what I was doing.
Which gave me another thought.
“What are you doing here?”
Last I’d seen of her she was working her final days on the force and figuring out how to start a security business with Levi and Carter.
“They’re at your house, too. Angel called and wanted me to get to you, to keep you from doing something stupid.”
“It’s a good thing you got here then, I guess.”
“Well, enjoy it, now. Pretty soon you’re going to be paying me a shit load of money to keep you from doing stupid shit. Of course, with you, I’ll be earning that money.”
I gave her a fake smile and started to walk past her again, only to get slapped in the chest a third time.
“I can do this all day,” she said.
“Fine, fine,” I said with a sigh and turned to Ted. “Can we call the meeting for the day? I’m going to head out of here before I end up doing something Jawarski here makes me regret.”
“Sure, Cas, we’ll see you later,” he said with a sympathetic pat on my shoulder.
Thankfully, the parking lot was on the other side of the building from where the preacher and his flock were protesting, so I could ignore him. Back at home, the protesters were all gone by the time I arrived.
“Jawarski said there were protesters here,” I said to Mom when I walked in the door, trailed by the ex-cop.
“They were. We called the police. There isn’t much public property here unless you stand in the street, which is also against the law. We were able to have the cops run them off. I take it they were at his office, too?”
She directed the last sentence at Jawarski.
“Yeah. He was charging out the door to go after them when I showed up and kept him from doing something stupid.”
“Thank you, Beth,” Mom said, giving her a hug.
“Just doing my job. Or at least getting a jump start on doing it.”
I begged off and headed upstairs to get my homework done, and call it an early night. Tami was pretty upset about the preacher popping up again, so the girls comforted her and gave me some space, which was all right by me.
My only real problem was I couldn’t figure out what to do about the man. Jawarski was right. What he really wanted was for me to over-react and do something stupid so he could come after me. So far, he hadn’t done anything outright illegal; at least, not that I could prove. The previous brides were, of course, illegal; but with the parents keeping quiet, there wasn’t much I could do.
Then, the Syndicate had shown they were ready to pounce on anything we did to get rid of us. After the CPS scare, the idea of doing something extralegal to deal with the preacher seemed like a bad idea. Everywhere I’d turned over the last year, I kept stumbling over people who worked for them. The last thing I needed to do was help them find a way to hurt us.
It was still a rough night, and neither Tami nor I got much sleep, something that didn’t go unnoticed by our friends.
“You two look like hell,” Rachel pointed out at lunch, as I slowly ate my food, not talking to the rest of the gang.
Tami hadn’t even gone that far. She skipped getting lunch altogether, and just put her head on the table.
“It was a shitty day,” I said grumpily.
“It was that preacher who was after Tami’s sister,” Vicki told them. “He showed up at our house and at Cas’s work, protesting with some awful signs.”
“They can do that?" Rachel’s boyfriend Jacob asked from down the table.
“Well, not around the house. It’s all private property there, except the street; but you can’t block the street, so the police ran them off. There’s nothing they could do about the people at Cas’s office.”
“That’s who those guys are. I go by there on the way to work, and I saw some people with signs and stuff gathering out front. I was going to ask what was going on.”
“Yeah,” I mumbled. “I talked to our lawyer. Apparently, as long as they don’t stop people from coming into our building, don’t attack anyone, and stay out of the street and on public property, there is nothing we can do.”
“That sucks,” Amanda said, patting my arm.
“I’m dreading going to work,” I said and then looked to make sure Tami was actually asleep. “She’s a wreck, though. I don’t think she slept all night. Every time that guy's name comes up, it just destroys her a little bit more. I swear to God, I am going to lose it and go kick the shit out of him.”
“CAAAaaasss!,” Zoe said in a warning tone.
“I know, I know. I'll keep away from him. Still, it pisses me off.”
I went back to eating and being grumpy, while everyone else commiserated, listing all the possibilities, and some fairly impossible, failings the preacher might have; along with a wish list of things that should happen to him.
I’m not going to lie, it felt good hearing them run the man down. It was nice to have friends at my back.
Or, at least most of them. Josh was surprisingly quiet, which also pissed me off.
I skipped going to work that afternoon. Ted understood but reminded me we had an important meeting the next afternoon which I couldn’t miss. I watched the girls practice, except for Tami. She begged off, claiming health issues. She spent the practice stretched out on the bleachers, asleep, with her head in my lap and her feet on Vicki’s lap.
When Zoe finished, we all headed home. The nap had done Tami some good, and she was looking halfway human again, but I was dragging and wanted to head straight upstairs and fall into bed.
That, however, turned out not to be an option. Walking in the door, we found Jawarski and Mom sitting in the living room, apparently waiting for us.
“Sit down, kids,” Mom said as we came into the room. “We have something we need to talk about.”
“Is everything ok?” I asked as I squeezed in between Zoe and Vicki.
“After the break-in, I told you something was going to have to change. I know Beth mentioned my request, and she has agreed. As of today, she will be responsible for personal security for you specifically Cas, but as well as the rest of us. I know you don’t want this and think you can take care of yourself, but I will not be changing my decision. You are still a child. A remarkable one, to be sure; but you have the feeling of invincibility that all young men have, and you have genuine enemies out there.”
“I get it. Pretty much everyone seems to think I need a bodyguard, but me. But can I ask a few questions?”
“Sure,” Mom said while Jawarski rolled her eyes.
“How are we doing this? I thought you were going to go in with Carter and Levi?”
“I am. We talked, and I made it clear that this was a priority. Jonathan set up a subsidiary, well the framework of it. The paperwork hasn’t gone through, but I can operate through that. You are paying up front for my services, and that will fund what I’m doing until you guys figure out how to pay for everything.”
“So I’m paying for a bodyguard I don’t want?”
“Cas!” Mom said, giving me her most stern look.
“Sorry. What about your job at the department. I thought you were going to put in notice?”
“I did. In their infinite wisdom, the department decided they didn’t want a short-term officer who wasn’t headed to retirement on the payroll. I think it’s more that I’ve ended up being peripherally involved in a lot of the screwed up things that have happened there over the last year, and because I started making inquiries about some of those I, or rather my connection to you, finally got noticed.”
“So they just fired you?”
“Allowed me to quit quietly, is more like it. I haven’t accrued any pension, but they offered to pay me for the rest of the time I would have worked and pay out my accrued vacation. I was at the point where I couldn’t stand walking into that building anymore, so I took the money and ran.”
“So how’s this going to work? I can’t imagine you following me to and from school.”
“For now, we’ll assume you’re safe at school. I’ll drive you to and from school, including stops at the office, and to any other appointments you have. I’m working with Carter to find a better security system for the house, and he’s going to have one of his guys sit on your house at night and on weekends when I need a break from listening to your yammering. Although if you have something notable on weekends, I’ll be on hand. I want you to inform me of anything notable that happens, security wise: someone weird following you, or hanging around the cars, or the house seeming like it's been broken into or tampered with, or even if things just feel weird. Angela has already promised to keep me up to speed, but you need to do it, too. This goes for you girls, also.”
They were all nodding, which wasn’t surprising since they’d all been in agreement with the idea of me having a bodyguard for a while. I, however, remained unhappy.
“So, I’m going to have you with me everywhere I go?”
“Pretty much. Most of the time, I’ll just hang in the background, and stay out of your way. I’ll only make my presence known if I’m needed. The exception is, I am always the first through any door you walk through. Do you understand?”
I didn’t answer right away, and Mom spoke up, “This is non-negotiable, Cas. I love your goal of trying to make the world a better place, and everything you want to do. It makes my heart so happy, I can’t even explain it. But, if you don’t agree to this, it all comes to a stop right now. You quit your job, become a regular student, and spend every day till your eighteenth birthday on lock down when not in school. I’m not joking!”
“Fine,” I said.
“This doesn’t mean I’m going to carry your bags or open your doors or anything stupid like that,” Jawarski added.
“I had no doubt,” I said, refraining from frowning.
“There’s one other thing, and this affects everyone. You guys need to move.”
“Move?” I asked, looking at where we were sitting, not sure what she was talking about.
“Houses, genius. You need to move to a new house.”
“We just moved,” Zoe said. “Why do we need to move again?”
“Because this house is impossible to secure, and you can afford it. You’re in a neighborhood. You have houses on both sides and right behind you. There is no perimeter, and with all the people living around you, surveillance becomes next to impossible to stop. You have serious people with serious resources behind them. You need to live somewhere secure, preferably with a large wall and gate to control access.”
“Are you kidding me,” I said.
“I’m not. This is not the last time you’re going to get broken into. The house is just too vulnerable. Then think how much danger you put the families around you in. If they decided to stop beating around the bush and come at you hard, the collateral damage here is going to be huge. Also, there are too many of you living in this house. It’s ridiculous.”
She wasn’t wrong. The house seemed huge when we bought it last year, but then we added Judy, and Vicki and her mother. Now Judy and Tina shared a room, all the girls had moved into the master bedroom permanently so Tami could give up her room to them, and Zoe gave up her room to Vicki’s Mom. It was a problem I had noticed before. I just wasn’t thrilled with Jawarski being the one to point it out.
“Mom?” I said, throwing the question to her.
“We'll have to think about that. We just finished moving in here. I really don’t want to have to pick up and move again.”
“Well, think fast,” Jawarski said. “Ideally, you’d build a place, preferably out towards that new property you bought. It would be away from populated areas, and you’d be able to build it to be secure. I’ve already started talking to Levi and Carter about what you’d need.”
“So we’d have to leave all our friends? What would we do about school?” I said in a rush.
When she talked about moving, it didn’t occur to me that she meant something so extreme.
“Honestly, those aren’t my problem. I’m sure you could all figure out something. I’m just telling you this isn’t some school bullies or even industrial espionage any more. These are dangerous criminals, with truly scary connections! They have managed to pull off stuff I wouldn’t have thought possible. If you want to keep your family safe, this is something you should do.”
“Beth, let’s table that for now, ” Mom said. “Let's start with you getting this house secure, and providing security for Caspian. Then we’ll think about moving. It’s a big step.”
“Well, don’t think too long. Building is still your best bet, but that takes time, also. If it were me, I’d want you out of this house this year.”
With that, we broke up the family meeting. Between the shitty night over the preacher yesterday, and having to deal with Jawarski every single day for who knew how long, I continued to be in a pissy mood, and just went straight to bed. Tami joined me and was out almost as soon as her head hit the pillow. I wasn’t far behind her.
I was still pissed off the next morning. I was ignoring Jawarski as she dropped me off, in my own car, at the school. I got some confused looks from some of the people who knew me, and wondered why some random adult was driving my car. I skipped lunch altogether; telling the girls I had to catch up on some school work, and then hiding in the library until the next period.
To cap it all off, I had to go to work today, and that meant dealing with more protesters. I knew that Jawarski would try to stop me, but I was pretty sure I wouldn’t make it without punching one of them.
Thankfully, I had a stop to make before the office, so I could put off dealing with the protesters for a few minutes more. I, however, wasn’t sure I wanted Jawarski with me for what I needed to do.
When she picked me up from school, I asked her to let me drive, because I had a stop to make. Pulling up to a beautiful house in the ‘good’ section of town, I parked and turned to my new shadow.
“I need you to wait here while I go in,” I said, trying to sound authoritative.
“Like hell.”
“Look, this isn’t going to be dangerous. I just need to go and talk to someone real quick. I’ll be in and out.”
“Cas, do you think I’m an idiot. I was a non-com in the Marines. I had numskulls straight outta boot try to pass every lame ass line and pull every lame ass trick they could think of. If this were a nothing type of meeting, you wouldn’t ask me to stay in the car. This is a meeting you don’t want me present for, meaning it’s potentially dangerous. So, you better have a damn good, non-lame ass reason for me staying in the car.”
I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose. There was literally no way she was going to let me out of the car without telling her what I was doing, and no way she’d let me out by myself once she knew what I was doing.
“This is Judge Davis’s house.”
“The judge from the CPS hearing?” she said in surprise. “What the hell are we doing at his house.”
“Since we changed him and got the verdict reversed, we haven’t really had any contact with him. But now that these guys have come into our home, we need more information on them. He is as close to an expert as we’re going to find.”
“Fine, let's go.”
Since that was about as close to approval as I was going to get from Jawarski, I got out of the car and headed up the walkway.
Davis himself answered the door this time instead of his wife, and he looked genuinely shocked to see me.
“What are you doing here,” he said, grabbing my arm and pulling me into the house, with Jawarski trailing behind. “If they see you come in here, I’m a dead man.”
“True, but they don’t have any reason to be watching you, do they?”
“Still,” he said, peeking out the window curtains looking at the street. “What do you want?”
“I need a name. Someone in the Syndicate that can get us more info on them than you have.”
“How would I ...”
“Think. You have to have met a few of them. You have no idea who any of them are?”
“I don’t know.”
“Well, think about it. I’ll be back tomorrow to get the name. And the next day. And the next.”
“You can’t ...”
“Judge. I want you to work with us. This is for your own good, too. The longer the Syndicate is around, the more danger you’re in. Think about it.”
I turned and walked out the door, followed by Jawarski.
Once we were in the car, she turned and said, “That was a lot more confrontational than you’ve ever been before.”
“I’m in a bad mood, so I used what I had.”
“I don’t disapprove. You’re right, you guys have been screwing with really dangerous people, and you’re wandering around totally blind. Glad you finally got some balls on you and manned up.”
I grunted at her and pulled away, steeling myself to deal with the protesters out front and the guff I was going to keep getting from next to me.
Sure enough, as we pulled up, we passed a group of them out front, yelling some of the most hateful bile I’d ever heard.
As I parked and started to get out, Jawarski thrust her arm out and pushed me back in my seat.
“You are going to ignore them. You don’t even need to go by them. Just go in the back entrance, and pretend they aren’t there. If I even think you are going to head out to the lobby, I will take you down to the ground. Clear?”
“Yeah,” I mumbled and started to get out again, only to be roughly forced back into the seat.
Jawarski arched an eyebrow in a mute question.
“Yeah, I get it. Don’t talk to the protesters, don’t look at the protesters.”
“And stop bitching about them while you’re at it. It’s getting old,” she said, letting go of my chest and getting out of the car.
I rolled my eyes and followed after her, wondering what I’d done to the universe to deserve all this bullshit.
Once inside the building, I tried to push my irritation at the protesters, Jawarski, and pretty much everything else down and get my game face on. Once in my office Charles and Jonathan came to see me.
“So, I had to be here for something today?”
“Yep. We need you to sign off on these final docs from MilTech, and the deal is done.”
“You said everything was set to go, right?” I asked Jonathan.
“Yes. We’ve dotted all the I’s and crossed all the T’s.”
“Well, then,” I said, signing my name to the contract.
Technically, I didn’t have to sign. Being a Minor, Jonathan was my proxy for everything. However, he and Ted had both put their foot down on the subject early on. They were determined for me to actually be the CEO, which meant I had to sign off on everything.
“What’s got you in such a good mood?” I asked Charles.
“This does. I know I was busting Ronald’s chops the other day about expenditures, but his system allowed us to close this deal, and since they are doing all the actual production, it’s just pure money rolling in.”
“So we’re doing pretty well, then?” I asked.
I made it a priority to stay on top of what was going on around the office, but even a full-time CEO has to go to his money guy to find out how the company's really doing. There is a point where you can’t just look at a spreadsheet and know how much money you were making. We’d already crossed that point.
“We’re doing excellently. Some smaller stuff is still coming out of the machining section of the company, and it's all in the black. It's actually enough to cover a fair amount of our daily expenses. But this ... this is going to be a big money maker for us. The monthly payments are sufficient to cover everything Ronald is doing out there, even if we weren’t to get a cent from their government, and still show a healthy profit. I’m hearing your Mother and Alex are in the works to start FDA trials for a new cancer therapy. I don’t have any idea how long that will take, but we’ve already gotten inquiries from some of the big pharma companies about it.”
I was pretty happy with everything Charles was saying until that. I hadn’t been to their lab in some time, and no one had mentioned anything to me about an experimental therapy they were working on. In fact, I knew of only one thing they were working on, and that’s what concerned me. I made a mental note to get over there tomorrow and talk to the two of them.
“Good. And once Douglas is ready to go to prototype, we can speak to them about getting us into NASA, too?”
“Yep. All in all, this is a good year. Even if nothing else happens, as long as our expenses hold, we should clear just shy of three hundred million, before taxes of course.”
“Excellent.”
“Although, it doesn't look like our expenses will hold precisely where they are. I got a call from Zoe just before Thanksgiving. Evidently she’s looking for some additional funding for the charity you have them running. Something about building a center of some kind.”
“I hadn’t realized she was that far along; but yes, we do have plans for that. I’ll get her in here next week, and we’ll sit down and work it out.”
“Ok. I know we talked about some serious outlays for the charity work you wanted to do, but the numbers she was throwing around were pretty serious.”
“I know, but it’s important.”
“You’re the boss.”
“You should try passing that around, because sometimes ...”
I let the thought trail off as I let a little of my grumpy attitude seep through, but Charles was in such a good mood he didn’t seem to notice.
“But like I said, that was if nothing else happened. We are looking at one or two other projects coming to fruition after Christmas, and by that point, Ronald’s plant should be up and running, and money should start coming in from there too. We’re looking pretty good.”
“Well. That’s great. We'll sit down next week with Zoe and get that figured out.”
“Sounds good.”
“Hey, Cas,” Jonathan, who had wandered over to the window of my office, called. “You should come see this.”
I got up and went over to the window, wondering what the preacher had done now, and stopped in my tracks. Standing in front of the protesters was a new group of people, what looked to be a much larger group, maybe sixty in total. They were all carrying signs too, but signs carried messages of support for the company or general ‘togetherness’ with a few scattered in that pointed out some of the preacher’s failings.
I particularly liked “Elementary schools are NOT dating services” and “Don’t Drink the Kool-Aid.”
They were chanting and yelling back at the protesters, outnumbering them easily two to one, and formed a wall between the offices and the protesters. Someone even set down a large, portable radio and cranked up the rock music.
What’s more, although I couldn’t see everyone from the angle we were at, those I could see I recognized. It was mostly kids from school and some of the teachers, with a few people from around town I knew thrown in.
The cult protesters had already started thinning out a little after the first day. As I watched, many of those who remained started trickling away, those that remained looked really pissed, as they stood there and watched the counter-protesters start an impromptu party, with many of the kids dancing to the music coming from the radio.
I turned and started heading out of my office to go join them, and was intercepted by the perpetual buzz-kill, Jawarski.
“No,” she said, standing, so she blocked the hall.
“Come on, I’m not mad any more. I’m not going to attack anyone. I just want to say hi to my friends and tell them all how much it means to me.”
“I get it, but still no. The few protesters that are left are extra pissed right now. All they need is you showing up and throwing a match on that powder keg. You don’t need to be anywhere near them. You can talk to your friends tomorrow. The woman who works at the front desk ...”
“Mary Ann,” I supplied.
“... Marry Ann went out to tell them how much you appreciate their support, and explained why it wasn’t a good idea for you to come out. You're covered. In fact, I’d like to get you out of here now, just in case. Those protesters are fuming hot, and are looking to do something stupid.”
“Fine,” I said.
I wasn’t going to let her rain on how good I was feeling, so I let her lead me out of the rear exit of the building to my car.
I was having one of those days where you find out just how much your friends are behind you. I made a mental note to tell each and every one of them what it meant to me the next day.
