Page 29 of Stars and Scars

“Thanks Charlotte, take care of yourself!”

“You too, Emory. Good luck!”

I end the call and Cole gives me an approving nod. I guess I’m not totally hopeless.

The sound of the door lock coming open draws both of our attention. Cole’s hand drops down to his side, near the hand cannon he wears. My mind tells me that it’s got to be Grayson coming back, but my heart pumps pure adrenalized fear telling me it’s the Order coming to make good on their threats.

Grayson appears, and both Cole and I relax. Cole moves toward the door and claps a hand on Grayson’s shoulder as he passes.

“Good luck, buddy.”

“She’s fine,” Grayson says, looking between the two of us. “You said there was something wrong.”

“And you ended the call and rushed back here before I could tell you what. Not very good planning for a CIA agent, wouldn’t you say?”

“Fuck you.”

Cole leaves, and Grayson turns to face me.

“What’s wrong? Why did Cole call me?”

I hesitate, knowing he's not going to like the answer.

“Um, well…I want to invite my content creation team along when we go to whatever safe location you have in store for me.”

Grayson inhales deeply, his nostrils flattening. He holds his breath for a long moment, exhales slowly, and then speaks with a carefully measured tone.

“I can think of about a thousand reasons why that is a terrible idea.”

“I knew you were going to say that,” I say with a sigh.

“Then you know that this is something you cannot do.”

I start to snap off a snarky response, then catch myself. If he’s trying to be reasonable, I can, too.

“I need my team, Grayson.”

“Why? It’s just point the camera and push the record button, right?”

I give him a long, slow, and decidedly hard glare. When I speak, my voice drops several octaves.

“If anyone could just slap videos online and become an influencer, everyone would do it. It takes a ton of planning, edits, and marketing to get eyeballs on those videos, you know.”

His eyes narrow, but not with anger. He’s thinking, and deeply. I am gratified that he’s taking what I have to say seriously, even though I suspect he’s mainly looking for ways to debunk it.

“Alright. Is there any reason your team can't do the work remotely?”

“Well, I guess, except for the actual filming part. Holding the camera myself or using a static tripod leads to boring videos.”

Grayson takes a long breath, and lets it out as a sigh.

“I’m probably going to regret this, but…what if I acted as your cameraman? Within reason, of course, my first job is to protect you. I still have to keep watch.”

“I…” I close my mouth and shrug.

“I guess that will work for me. It’s not my ideal solution. But I have to ask, why not bring my team?”

Grayson doesn’t pause or hesitate. He just rattles off his reasons as if he’s been practicing them for a week.

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