Page 139 of Out Of A Fix

The boys went with them.

“So this is over?” Luke asked Jared.

He nodded. “Without question. We’ll take care of this end. I’ll call Chief Higheagle to make sure she sends some more officers over to Eena PD in case someone with a match thinks it best to burn down the building before the Feds show up.”

“Will the FBI see you on such short notice?”

He smiled. “They will. My security clearance is better than anyone on staff there. People tend to scramble when I walk into a building.”

Luke faced me. “This is done,” he said with a sigh of relief.

“It’s done,” I replied with a smile.

“I know if you hadn’t gone after Firmin, it wouldn’t be, but still. Please never again chase people out into the rain without your gun and wearing only your socks.”

I closed my eyes and hoped because he’d said it softly, that maybe, just maybe, my boss had missed that.

“I’m sorry, you did what now?” Jared asked with a bite to his voice.

Fuck. “Listen,” I said, turning to him.

“Griffin,” Jared said, picking up the bottle of ibuprofen and holding it out to him. “Are you still in pain, son?”

“No, sir,” Griff said, reaching the table.

“Then lemme have you put these in a baggie with the coffee grounds from the French press, and whatever’s in the kitchen strainer, and then throw them away. We don’t want old medicine around.”

“You don’t crunch them up in the garbage disposal?”

“No. We don’t want them to end up in the water supply now, do we?”

“Absolutely not,” he said quickly, compelled, as we all were, to do as Jared Colter said, and to call him sir in the process.

“That was mean,” I muttered.

“Running after someone without your gun… Are you insane?”

“It worked out.”

“That’s because your guardian angel puts in lots of overtime.”

I couldn’t very well argue.

When I walked Jared and Owen to the front door—they had declined to have breakfast with us, there was a crime to solve—after hugging Owen, Jared cupped the back of my neck and pulled me in for a brief tight hug.

“You got rid of the drugs, and now you wanna manhandle me?”

“Shut up,” he ordered, and I was laughing as I hugged him back.

Once they were gone, Griff got busy making breakfast with John watching him, very impressed with his sausage, cheese, and egg scramble. I convinced Viola to give me four of her ibuprofen tablets, and between those and more coffee, I started to feel a bit better. After Griff made me eggs Benedict, complete with sauce from scratch because he was showing off, but mainly because I was not a big sausage eater, Luke was asking me about my new job.

“You’re just happy I have a job and won’t be a freeloader,” I muttered.

“Of course.” He was indignant. “You taking care of us all couldn’t possibly be enough.”

I smirked at him, and he grinned back.

John was suddenly standing over us and then took a seat almost violently.