Chapter Four
When she pulled into the parking lot of the agency, Alana was not happy. It was six thirty in the morning and she’d not yet had her caffeine fix. Someone would be feeling her wrath soon. She could feel it. She let out a sigh as she pushed her hair back off of her face.
She was no stranger to early mornings. She had been in this business for almost five years now. But this was the first time that she’d ever had her vacation cut short for a new assignment. For lack of a better word, it sucked.
She pushed the door to the agency open, a little harder than she’d intended. The hinges groaned loudly as the door was pushed past its limit and all eyes turned to her.
“Oops.” A crimson blush covered her cheeks as she glanced around. She was surprised to see the agency so busy. Most of her coworkers kept a late schedule, unless they were working on some major case. It was definitely a little strange.
She ignored the glances that were being thrown in her direction as she made her way through the lobby and down the corridor to her supervisor’s office. It was a rare occasion that she found herself here. In the last couple of years, she could count the number on one hand of how many times she had been in his office. Luckily for her, each time was to commend her for her speed and precision with a number of cases, but there had been times she’d watched coworkers go in and come out a wreck.
She took a deep breath as she raised her hand to knock. The sound of a booming voice beckoned for her to come forward. She pushed the heavy oak door open and stepped inside.
Charles Landry was not a force to be reckoned with. She had heard rumors about him when she had first started at the agency. He had been one of the top agents in his time, before he eventually moved up the ladder and became who he was today. While it was rare for him to go out and do any solo field work, there were several occasions when he’d worked closely with one of her coworkers. He was amazing, though a little bit scary.
“Sit down, Berkeley,” he commanded. She didn’t need to be told twice. Immediately, she moved before him and took the only seat available: directly in front of him.
Alana let out the breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding when he lifted her folder from her desk. Was she going to be reprimanded? Would it go on her permanent file? There was no other reason to have that out!
“I’ve been going through your file,” he began slowly. Alana almost gave in to the “duh” that was on the tip of her tongue but realized that this was neither the time nor the place.
“Yes sir.”
“The case that I’ve called you in about is rather unusual… for our agency anyway,” he said quietly. In fact, he had never accepted a case like this before. He had had plenty of requests in the past, but he’d always turned them away.
Unfortunately, the agency had received a bad reputation over the past couple of months. There had been quite a few botched cases and they could use all the good press they could get. He was confident that Alana would be just the girl for the job.
“After reviewing your file in great detail, I have decided that you are just the agent I want to put on the case.”
To say that Alana felt flattered would have been a lie. While she was grateful that her supervisor thought that highly of her, she wasn’t pleased to be called out of her vacation. And besides that, if there were no other cases on file at the agency, where would she go for a reliable source of information if she needed it?
“Sir, with all due respect, there are other people who have been here longer than I have who would surely—“
“None of them have the skills that are necessary to complete the job. To be perfectly honest with you Berkeley, you know as well as I do that we haven’t been painted in an exactly positive light over these last few weeks. I need someone who I know can get the job done, and get it done right. You’re just the person.”
The blush crept onto her cheeks once more at his comment but she nodded her head in thanks. There was no way she could back out of it now.
“What… exactly is the nature of the case?”
“Well it’s a little complicated, but keep in mind, I have nothing but faith in you,” he said as he pushed the document towards her.
She let out a beaten whimper as she pulled the document containing the case towards her. She paused for a moment, looking back up at her supervisor, before she glanced back down at the folder. She flipped it open and let her eyes skim the contents. All at once, her eyes widened as she slammed it shut.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
~*~
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“I told you what the plan was before I went ahead with it, so don’t act so surprised,” came the clipped response.
JC looked over at the older man and rolled his eyes. “You told me what you were doing, yes. But I didn’t expect it to happen so soon,” he grumbled childishly.
“I told you earlier. You may not take this seriously, but I do. I’ve been with you boys forever, it seems like. You’re family to me, and I don’t want to take a chance of letting something like this go.”
Though what Johnny was saying made perfect sense, it didn’t mean JC had to be happy about it. However, no amount of griping and complaining could change Johnny’s mind, so with a beaten whimper and slumped shoulders, he voiced his question. “When does he get here?”
“He’s flying out tomorrow morning. We’re going to meet up with him at the hotel tomorrow night after the show,” he explained. “And JC, I know how you are, okay? I know the moods you get in when you think I’m forcing you to do something you don’t want to do… but please… These guys are doing us a huge favor and it certainly wouldn’t kill you to at least pretend to go along with it.”
JC rolled his eyes once more. He was starting to get a headache from all the eye rolling he was doing as of late. “I’m always willing to go along with things,” he retorted.
Johnny gave a laugh. “Right. Like the time we switched hairstylists in the middle of the tour. Or how about the time we had to get a replacement dancer when Melanie threw her knee out? Or what about the time—“
"Oh would you just shut up?” He grumbled. “I’ll be good, okay? Can I go now?”
“You know, you sound an awful lot like a petulant five year old, rather than a grown man,” he teased, smirking when he saw that red glow to JC’s cheeks. He was growing accustomed to seeing the color there, as of late!
“When you treat me like a five year old, that’s how I’ll act,” he responded before he headed down the hallway, grumbling. “…Last time anyone heard of a grown ass man having a babysitter…. Utterly ridiculous...”
From where he was standing, Johnny just laughed and shook his head before saying a silent prayer that the new guy knew just what he was getting himself into.
