Chapter 84

Book:Foolish Me Published:2024-5-28

A soft kiss brushed my forehead. “What’s wrong, babe?”
I peeled open an eyelid. “You ask me what’s wrong? Fine fiancé you are! What the fuck do you think is wrong?”
“I don’t know.” Another kiss, this one on the hinge of my jaw.
“And don’t kiss me. I must have the world’s worst case of morning breath.”
“Love means never complaining about things like that.”
“Asshole.”
He gave a snort of laughter.
“Not funny,” I groused.
“No, I guess not. Now tell me what’s got your shorts in a twist.”
“My head hurts, my stomach’s upset, my ass hurts…”
“Are you sure?”
“‘Course I’m…” I paused and stopped to take stock of my aches and pains. My head…No, not the slightest ache. My stomach…steady as the rock of Gibraltar. My ass…Not a twinge there either. “Huh?”
“Don’t you remember? I gave you a couple of Tylenol when we got home and made you drink a glass of water. Dad always said that would help with a hangover.”
“Yeah, I remember that, but what about my ass?”
“What about your ass, Theo? Did you really think I’d have you for the first time while you were unconscious? That’s too much like rape for my taste. I’d never do that to you.”
“Then last night…we didn’t?”
“No. But once you’re feeling better,” he pinched my chin, “we are gonna have such a good time!”
I nuzzled against him. “Thank you for taking care of me.”
“That’s my job.” He wrapped his arms around me. “I love you, Theo.”
“I love you too. And what about your job?”
He sighed and let me go. “Here. You’d better have some coffee.” He held his cup to my lips, and I took a few sips.
“It’s that bad? Okay, what do you do? Are you an ambulance chaser? A quack? A used car salesman? If you tell me you’re a politician, we’re breaking up.” He looked amused and shook his head for each one. “Okay, how about a centerfold for Playgirl?” He choked on the coffee he was drinking. “Well, I think you’d make a damn fine centerfold.” I looked at him thoughtfully. “Would you consider posing?”
He mopped the coffee off his mouth and chin. “Only for you, babe.”
But that reminded me of the video we’d watched, and I turned my face away.
“Theo, what’s wrong?”
“How can you love me after what I did?”
“Put a hole in the wall and run away, you mean?”
I shook my head, unable to meet his eyes. “You saw that video.” What Franky did to me on tape, what I’d let him do to me…My stomach churned, and I wanted to throw up the few sips of coffee I’d had.
“It broke my heart, Theo. You were so young, and for that bastard to take advantage of you like that, to hurt you…” His voice was stone cold, and I shivered. “He deserved to die harder than he did.”
“How did he die? You told me Haskell took care of him.”
“Not Haskell.” Wills got to his feet. He was pale. “I lied to you.”
“Then who…” I might have been drunk last night, but I remembered what Wills and Vince had said. “You? You took care of him?”
“Yes.”
“What did you do?”
“You don’t want to know, Theo.” He was looking grim, and I decided that maybe he was right and I really didn’t want to know.
“Suppose you tell me what it is you do for a living.” He was silent. “Obviously you’re not a troubleshooter.”
“I am. I just don’t troubleshoot computers. Well, not all the time.”
I supposed I’d known that on a subconscious level. The gun, the foreign currency I’d sometimes find in his pockets, the times I was unable to reach him, even by cell phone. I’d been so used to not questioning whoever was in my bed, but it wasn’t only that. I wanted him to be a geek, wanted to be the sophisticate to his innocent.
An ominous thought struck me, and I shivered again. “You’re a…a spook. That’s why you didn’t wear the chain when you left for that last job, isn’t it? It could have endangered you in some way.”
“No. Yes.” He ran a hand through his hair. “I’m not CIA, Theo. I work for the WBIS, the Washington Bureau of Intelligence and Security.”
“I’ve never heard of them.”
“No one in the general public has. Most agencies in DC haven’t either.”
“Why?”
“We do the jobs no one else wants or no one else can handle.”
“You’re a…a wet boy?” I’d had some FBI agents as clients, and even one or two men who worked for the NSA. I knew the kinds of jobs those agencies handled. For the WBIS—for Wills—to be dealing with the ones they couldn’t…I didn’t want to ask what they entailed.