Heart in Wire: A by a Thread Companion Novel (26 page)

“Jamie has requested to be able to talk to you every week, once a week. Undoubtedly, he went ballistic on Burns when it all went down. He’s worried about his girl. Wants to keep tabs on her through you. Burns agreed to it for you.”

“Are you fucking kidding me, Kevin? Do I really have to agree to this?”

Kevin was quiet.

“Fucking fine.” He blew out a long breath. “Do I get a bonus for all this shit?”

“Not likely.”

“I just think this is all a little too much.”

“Yeah, I know,” Kevin agreed.

“I’ll be back Monday and we’ll go through it.”

“You have training Monday, but we’ll talk before you head home.”

“Fine.”

“Patrick?”

“Yeah, Boss.”

“I’m sorry this is all falling on you.”

“Whatever.” Patrick disconnected the phone and drained his third beer.

Billy shook him out of his daydream by reminiscing about one of the times when El was drunk and Patrick had to go get her from the bar with Lisa in tow.

“Fuck, Lisa…” Patrick shook his head at the memory of that mistake. “That was a blunder of epic proportions.”

“Well at least you got laid on the regular for a while.” Billy laughed. “You needed to work out some of your frustration.”

“You knew that was the only reason I was seeing her?” Patrick was shocked.

“Of course, dumbass, you were falling for El. That much was obvious. It was a smart move, just the wrong girl, I guess.”

“And Millie?” Patrick asked.

“Right girl,” Billy commented. “You fucked that up yourself.”

Patrick leaned his head against the cold glass of the moving truck and sighed, remembering the day he met Lisa.

Patrick and some of the agents from work were sitting at a bar near their office. It was happy hour and Patrick had been drinking whiskey for about an hour when a twenty-something woman rubbed up against his leg in order to get to the bar.

“Excuse,” she said as she flagged down the bartender.

“Vodka tonic, please. Grey Goose.” The woman’s breast brushed his arm as she turned to smile at him. She was attractive, but not too attractive, though he could tell her body was amazing under her tight green sweater.

Patrick shifted uncomfortably in his chair.

“Hi,” she greeted as she waited for her drink.

Patrick took a sip of his whiskey. “Hi.”

“I’m Lisa,” she said with confidence, as if she knew he wanted to know what her name was.

He didn’t, and he could fuck her without knowing her name, but he had to play the game.

“Patrick.” He held out his hand to shake hers.

“Patrick.”

The bartender came with her drink and she put her card on the bar. He examined her perky ass when she turned around. She wore a black skirt that he imagined would be easy to pull up. He shook his head to get the thoughts out of his head. He felt like a boy just hitting puberty lately with all his dirty thoughts.

“Just put it on my tab,” Patrick said before the bartender grabbed the card.

The bartender nodded and walked down the bar to help other customers.

Pulling her drink toward her on the bar, she turned around. “Thank you.”

“Anytime,” Patrick responded. He’d found that the less he said sometimes led him to get laid easier.

“You live here?”

He nodded. His friends from work noticed the exchange and started paying attention to Lisa. He leaned into Lisa’s body and whispered in her ear, “I’d love to get out of here.”

Lisa’s smile gave him all the information he needed to know.

“Drink your drink while you tell your friends you’re coming with me.”

Lisa’s hand ran up his thigh and she leaned into his ear. “I don’t even know you. You could be a murderer,” she quipped and lightly bit his ear, then walked away.

Holy shit. He was hard already. He thought about his grandmother for a few seconds to get that problem under control, then waved the bartender over and closed his tab. He felt eyes on his back, but didn’t turn around. He told his friends he was heading out.

He’d walked a few yards when he heard the clicking of heels rapidly approaching him. Turning around, he was faced with Lisa, whose cheeks were red from the cold.

“What now?” she asked.

“I’d like to push you up against that wall and lift your skirt right here,” he growled.

She looked both taken aback and turned on at the same time. “I live a few blocks from here.”

He flagged down a cab and let her get in first. When she slid across the seat her skirt hitched up her thigh. She had on knee high black leather boots that made him want to fuck her in the back seat.

He ran his hand over her cheek and claimed her pouty mouth. They kissed the entire ride to her apartment and didn’t make it to the bedroom before they were naked and exploring each other.

Billy pulled the moving truck into the driveway of a massive house in an impressive, gated neighborhood.

“It’s easy to forget who Jesse is for a few minutes, isn’t it?” Billy asked as he parked and pulled the keys out the ignition.

“Yep, until you look at him or his house,” Patrick answered. He slid out of the truck and stretched his hands to the sky, immediately feeling better just being out of the truck. It was cold, but not that cold. He looked toward the garage and saw his sister’s Toyota Camry in the driveway. “I hope Katrina isn’t embarrassing me.”

“I’m sure she is.”

They walked up the drive and up the stairs to the front door. The door flew open and Katrina bounded into Patrick.

“Hey, KK,” he said, putting his chin on her hair.

His sister was gorgeous. She had their mother’s hair and their father’s features, making her look exotic. People usually couldn’t tell what ethnic background she was, but it didn’t matter because her loveliness took their breath away.

“Hey.” She smiled and moved to Billy and hugged him.

“Did you consider my offer?” Billy asked.

She laughed.

“What offer?” Patrick took a step back and eyed Billy.

“Don’t worry about the love that’s between us,” Billy answered playfully.

Patrick pulled Katrina out of Billy’s arms just as Jesse appeared at the door. Katrina laughed at Billy and hit her brother’s arm. He hadn’t seen her since he’d gone to Savannah to see his family for Trevor’s birthday.

It’d been too long.

He’d gotten caught up with El’s life and put his on hold. Katrina had told him that his brother was getting worse, but they all knew that would happen. He’d lingered on longer than any of the doctors had expected. What was so difficult for his family was that Trevor was so mature and had helped raise Patrick and Katrina, who were younger. Then he was shot and he turned into this 6’2” eleven year old. He didn’t understand social cues and his parents couldn’t take him anywhere. His parents also couldn’t really go anywhere because there were no babysitters that would sit with him after the first couple had called in the middle of his parents’ dinner to come home because Trevor had grabbed their ass or groped them inappropriately. Trevor just didn’t have the cognitive ability to understand what was appropriate anymore, and it fueled his parents’ divorce.

Patrick grabbed Katrina’s arm and pulled her in for another hug. “I missed you,” he said. He looked at Jesse. “I guess you already met Katrina?”

Jesse nodded, smiling in Katrina’s direction.

“Well, maybe since you’re moving closer it won’t be seven months between our visits,” she said, stepping back to look at him. “You look like total shit.”

“Thanks,” he said sarcastically.

“I’m serious.” Katrina pulled her long black hair into a bun. “Billy, what the fuck? Why does he look like this?”

Billy looked between the siblings. “He’s had a rough month.”

“Well, come in, Sandra cooked dinner for us,” Jesse spoke up, ushering them inside.

Katrina pulled on Patrick’s arm, keeping him outside. “What’s going on?’”

Patrick cringed. He knew he wouldn’t be able to keep anything from Katrina and cursed himself for allowing her to weasel her way into this move.

“Nothing.” He shrugged. “Millie broke up with me and I’m moving. It’s been a rough couple of weeks.”

“You’re lying. I can tell when you’re lying,” she hissed at him.

“Katrina, come on. Give me a break, okay?” He brushed off her grasp and walked into Jesse’s mansion, making his way toward the smell of food.

Once inside, he took a left and saw Jesse and Billy in the kitchen, which smelled like someone had made a feast. It was the most savory dinner he’d ever smelled.

“Beef tenderloin, mashed potatoes and creamed spinach. She needs to feed this growing boy.” Jesse patted his belly and started taking plates out of cherry cabinets.

“You know where the plates are?” Patrick asked, laughing.

“Well, of course I do, how else would I eat?”

Patrick didn’t know, but the last time he was there, he just assumed that Sandra did everything for him. “I don’t know.” He shook his head. “Sorry.”

“You’re crazy.” Jesse began putting food on his plate and moving down the kitchen counter.

Billy picked up a plate and started piling food on it. “This is awesome,” Billy enthused.

“Thanks for having us, Jesse,” Katrina said, looking at Patrick.

“I do appreciate it, man,” Patrick agreed.

“Well, this will be something different for me. I haven’t had a roommate in ages. You’ll have to ignore all my bad habits.”

“Like bringing random girls home?”

“Women, man. Women. I don’t bring random
girls
home. Plus, I’m very careful about who I sleep with, let alone bring back to my house,” Jesse said, comfortable with the topic.

Billy and Katrina squirmed and went to the table.

“You weren’t careful with El,” Patrick stated.

Jesse cocked his head at Patrick and smiled. “Of course I was. It was Stella,” he said, as if it made all the sense in the world.

Chapter Twenty-Two

GETTING UNDER TO GET OVER

Patrick drove south on 85 and cussed. Traffic in Atlanta was just as bad as DC and there wasn’t a Metro station anywhere near Jesse’s house. He got off at the right exit and pulled into the parking garage of the non-descript office building that housed the Atlanta ATF office. He had on his uniform of khaki cargo pants and black ATF polo and his gun was strapped to his waist on one side, his phone on the other. He showed his badge at the security desk and rode the elevator up to the seventh floor, then used his key card to gain entry to the office.

The receptionist looked him up and down. “Can I help you, hun?”

“Yes, ma’am. I’m looking for my office.” Patrick fell right back into the Southern accent he’d been trying to get rid of for the past eight years in DC