Page 4 of The Spy Ring

TWO

Jagger

“Take a Chance . . . on me.” Tennessee bent over in his swivel chair with a full belly laugh.

My eyes slid to my partner. He was wiping the tears from the corner of his eyes. His breath was coming in gasps as his laughter dulled.

“Oh, man, that joke never gets old,” he said with a stammer still trying to ease back the chuckle.

“It’s definitely old,” I said trying to finish the paperwork so I could leave a little early.

I had tickets to an improv show at IO theater in Wrigleyville with Cate. Good old Cate. I smiled at the thought of making my fuck buddy come on my cock in her office above the theater.

The great thing about Cate, she was boring. I don’t mean her personality but her life. A squeaky-clean history and no outstanding debt.

There was no way she could be bribed and give me away. Not that she knew anything about me. I told her once I worked downtown and that’s all she cared to hear.

Bonus points to her for not wanting a relationship. In the line of work I did, a relationship just brought desk duty.

And who wanted that? I didn’t. Sure, it sounded nice to one day have someone to come home to or discuss problems with, maybe binge-watch a television series. But I worked over a decade to get where I was in the government. That love stuff could wait.

Besides, relationships, even family, weren’t always what you hoped they’d be. I learned people were selfish from my job, giving up on their loved ones when things got tough.

“Here, I have a good one you might like,” Tenn said as I tapped away on my keyboard and continued to ignore him. “Why was everyone so tired of April first?”

He’s not going to stop until I acknowledge him. That was the thing about Tenn, he craved attention. He should be up on that stage tonight trying to be funny with how much he performed for everyone. Of course, Tenn wasn’t adult funny. He’s five-year-old funny. Perhaps he should perform for kids’ birthday parties like a clown or a pony.

“Because it isn’t funny?” I asked.

Like that joke he was telling. But that didn’t stop him. I could almost smell his eagerness. There was a gleam at the corner of his mouth, and I wondered if it was drool.

“No. Because they had just finished a March of thirty-one days!” He dissolved into laughter before he could get out the last word, his blond hair falling onto his face.

The door to our shared office opened, and a petite woman with short graying black hair and the boxiest looking jacket I had ever seen stood in the doorway.

I felt both fear and relief at the same time.

“Chance, I need to see you in my office. Now.” Katlin Chester’s deep voice clattered the window on our door before she turned and walked off.

“Uh oh, is there a chance you’re in trouble with the boss.” Tenn chuckled but stopped once I glared at him.

I stood and turned to him before I left. “You know Jagger Chance isn’t my real name. Just as Tennessee Golden isn’t your real name. The government gave us all aliases when we started working at the Inter-Terrorism Agency, yet you keep making fun of what they gave me. Why?”

He shrugged. “Because you’re my partner. I always joke around with people I like. My therapist tells me it’s a defense mechanism. I don’t let people close to me and keep them at a distance with my jokes.”

“Personal or Randy?” I asked.

“Personal.”

Everyone here had to meet once a month with our in-house psychologist, Dr. Randy Tenner. Randy worked for the government to make sure the stress of the job hadn’t gotten to us and we could still do our missions.

“Tell your therapist to try to work with you on better jokes,” I said before turning to leave.

After walking across the cheap brown carpet to the corner office, I knocked once before I heard my boss, Katlin Chester, yell back to come inside.

I took a seat in the small black pleather chair across from her as she leaned back and stared at me.

“What is this, Chance?” Katlin said just before her lips pursed into a hard line holding up a piece of paper.

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