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“Check your email,” Oscar says. “He sent me one this morning. It might be how he’s communicating while he’s out there.”
I lower the phone from my ear, putting him on speaker, then I pop open my inbox. Sure enough, I have an email from my boss. “Yeah, I’ve got one.”
“Call me a fucking mastermind.”
I’m about to joke back, but I start reading the email and my face just plummets. The bottom of my stomach falls out. My brain goes woozy, and I lean further back until my head hits the mirror.
“Don’t leave me hanging,” Oscar says. “What’s the prognosis? They make you Epsilon’s errand boy for a month?”
I can’t speak, thoughts evacuate, and I’m burning up. I grip the plain black tee I’m wearing, but I don’t take it off.
“Donnelly?”
“I am Epsilon,” I say.
“What the fuck do you mean? You’re fucking with me?” Oscar says, worried. “Ha-ha. Okay, now tell me what it really says.”
I scrape a hand down my face, nauseous. “I’m Epsilon. I don’t work for Kitsuwon Securities anymore—”
“They can’t do that,” Oscar cuts in. “They legitimately do not have the power to transfer you from one company to the other.”
I swallow a rock. “They do if I want to continue working in private security.”
“The client hires the firm. Your client is turning eighteen in two weeks, so Xander chooses who to pay, either Triple Shield or Kitsuwon Securities.”
“And if he wants me as a bodyguard, I’ll be employed by Triple Shield,” I tell him. “It says it right here.”
“Send me the email.”
“No.”
“Donnelly—”
“I can fucking read,” I shoot back.
“I’m not saying you can’t. This isn’t right. Why would Price even want you on his firm if he’s putting up a fit about you being with a client?”
I have these answers. Akara explained everything in the email, not leaving me in the dark.
“‘Cause he wants to keep an eye on me—that’s what Price told Akara, but Akara thinks he just wants a bodyguard who’s closer to the families on his firm.” The bodyguards that are dating clients have been known to have special privileges, and it’d be useful. Before Oscar speaks, I add, “He gave Akara a choice. It was me or Quinn, Frog, and Gabe all together on the table. He let me go.”
I’m not worth three bodyguards. Even the three youngest, greenest ones, and I’m trying not to let that get to me ‘cause I’d rather go instead of them. But I know—I know I’m worth more than that, and it’s ripping into my skin. Digging under the surface.
I could scream, but when I’m this upset, I usually crank down the volume.
Holding the phone loosely in my palm, I tell Oscar quietly, “Akara apologized over a dozen times in the email.”
“Love the guy,” Oscar says, “but he shouldn’t have to bend to Triple Shield…” He trails off ‘cause he knows why Akara needs to keep the peace with Price’s firm. We work so closely with them, it’d be detrimental to our daily operations if we couldn’t communicate effectively with Alpha and Epsilon. There might be bad blood and rivalry, but we’ve never let that compromise the safety of our clients.
If Price really felt offended or slapped in the face by another bodyguard getting with a client and not getting fired, then Akara needed to smooth things over the best he could.
I run my fingers through my hair. “At least I still have a job.”
“There has to be a way to combat this.”
Akara has done so much for me already. His hands were tied. I can’t even fault him for how this went down. “I’m not combatting it,” I say quietly.
Oscar lets out the heaviest sigh. “I can’t get Redford right now, but I’ll tell you exactly what he’d say. You don’t deserve this. Epsilon will try to make your life hell until you quit—”
“I know what they’re gonna do.” I hop off the sink counter. They’re the same pricks who think hazing is cute. At one point, they threw my luggage out of security’s house in the gated neighborhood. Just ‘cause they didn’t want me living with them.
Being Omega means I was protected, always, by Akara. Now he won’t be my boss.
I clutch the sink counter, staring at myself in the mirror. The persistence in my eyes, the determined lines etched in my forehead, I’m twenty-nine beautiful years old and I know what it took to see each one. I’m not easily defeated, and they’re gonna have to really work to get to me.
“Donnelly—”
“I’ll be alright. Gotta go.”
Oscar lets out another breath. “Yeah, text me when you’re in PA.”
After we hang up, I inspect the stubble along my jaw. Need a good shave, and so I dig through my dopp kit for my stainless-steel straight razor. I can’t…find it. Dumping the contents on the sink counter, I sift through floss, toothpaste, shaving cream—I know I brought my razor. I check underneath the counter. I didn’t drop it.
