"To put Aegis on retainer for security jobs. Run breach checks. Use our IT person out of Orlando to make sure his system is state of the art. Occasional bodyguard work. Some other shit."
"And that's a problem because?" Juniper could name a reason for that trouble, but she couldn't say it out loud. Buddy ran a tight ship. He knew the stakes when it came to Sterling. No one in that office knew who, if anyone, was watching, but they were particular with their client list.
"Because he came with a condition." Cullen blew out a breath. "He offered Aegis a three-year contract as long as we made a change to the team."
That certainly got her attention. "What kind of change?"
"I'm to be removed from any kind of employment." Cullen kicked a broken shell. It shattered into four more pieces as it sailed across the lot. "Sterling told him that our employees were not negotiable. A client could request who they wanted on a job, but no one got to tell them who sat at one of our desks."
"I can see Sterling saying exactly that." It was hard not to smile. Sterling was normally the kind of man who chose diplomacy over all else. But push him the wrong way, and he could be razor sharp with his tongue. And she'd seen him toss a nasty right hook before too.
"It was amusing." Cullen pushed off the wall. "But, I've spent two years getting back to where the court trusts me with my own kid. Where Tamara isn't calling me every ten minutes when I'm alone with Tyler. Where I'm not worried I'm gonna start seeing shadows coming for me in the middle of the day and not know how to handle it."
"You're a good man and a good father."
"I've come a long way," Cullen said. "Only, every time I believe I've put most of my problems behind me, somebodycomes along to remind me how easy it'd be for me to lose everything."
She inched closer and laid a hand on his forearm. The people of Calusa Cove had become her friends. It was a truth she struggled with because when the time came, she either had to tell them the truth or disappear. Either way, that would be the day she lost everything, again.
No one had prepared her for that.
"Don't you worry about assholes with shoes that have no business walking on crushed shells," she said. "You belong here, he doesn't, and the Aegis Network would rather have a good operative than an asshole giving them jobs they don't want, either."
"That's what my uncle said, right after he threatened to add those shoes to the pollution in the gulf."
"I hope he meant just the loafers and not what they’re attached to."
Cullen held up his hands and laughed. "No comment." He stood there for a moment, holding her stare. "You didn't follow me out here just because that asshole put me in a mood," he said. "What's going on with you? And don't say nothing, because friends take turns listening."
He was right about that, and she had to admit, it wouldn't hurt to express this one. "There's a customer at the bar. New in town. Looking to experience Calusa Cove. He's a chatty fella. Nice enough. But he said something that bothered me in a really odd way."
"What did he do?"
"It wasn't the hitting on me that bothered me so much. I shut that down pretty quick. It was that when I told him I had a date, he let me know he'd play second string."
"That's not cool," Cullen said.
"It's gross. Who does that?"
"Arrogant assholes," Cullen said. "You want me to send Sterling over?"
She burst out laughing. "Oh, God." She waved her hands. "That's not a good idea. I mean, I've never seen him be jealous, but I have seen him when he gets all riled up."
"Come on, it would be fun to watch Sterling sit on his stool and stare the guy down."
"You're being a menace."
"I'm a problem-solving menace."
"Go to work. Thanks for the air and the laugh."
"You just ruined the most fun I might have had with Buddy out of the office," he said with a big grin. "Sterling's a good man. He'd be crushed if you backed out tonight."
"I'm going on the date. You can relax. The whole town can relax," she said. "And while you're at it, tell everyone they better not show up at the Crab Shack."
"Oh, that's not happening." Cullen turned and practically skipped toward his truck.
She shook out her hands and went back inside.
