Page 41 of Anything But Convenient

“Figured.” He sighed over the line. “Am I in trouble, Dad? Do I need to be put in timeout?”

“No, but I’ll ask this: Do you need a psych eval?”

There was nothing on the other line besides his steady breaths. “I’m not sure how to answer that.”

“Honesty would be preferred.”

“Honestly, I’m not sure. Could it help? Maybe. Could it hurt? Also, maybe. I’ve done the therapy route and was fine for a while. It’s this case… it’s bringing back bad memories.”

I took the elevator down to my car as he spoke. Once I was buckled in, I switched to Bluetooth.

“We can put you on another case,” I said as I thought through our options. “We’re not in a place right now where you have to be all in. Would that help?”

He agreed without hesitation. “Yeah, it might. I have something I want to take care of too. Something I need time to research.”

I glared at the screen on my dash since Orion wasn’t here for me to scowl at. “What kind of research? Do you need Memphis to look into it?”

“No!”

His shout jolted me. What could be bothering him so much he had that kind of reaction?

Was there something else going on along with his past resurfacing?

“You’d tell me if you needed help, wouldn’t you, Orion?”

“Of course,” he agreed. “But this is just something I need to do on my own.”

“Like how you handled the kid you had me put in a safe house with a nanny?”

We hadn’t talked about it since we saved those women and children, but I needed to bring it up now. All he’d shared was that he knew the kid and the family wasn’t worth sending him back to. I hadn’t questioned it at the time given that the kid wouldn't talk, but now I wondered what connections he might have had.

How did two child trafficking victims know each other when there were that many years between them? And how was I going to explain Orion’s absence to the team?

“If you approve the time off, then I’ll get out of dodge now. I hadn’t gone back into the office yet. The guys will have too many questions I can’t answer.”

I sighed, then rubbed the bridge of my nose. “Fine. It’s approved. I’m on my way back now. They can wait for the details until I get there. Use the elevator in my office. Don’t let anyone see you.”

“Thanks, boss,” he said softly.

“No need to thank me.”

Ending the call, I focused on the rest of my drive. There would be changes needed to ensure no one on the team had to do more work with Orion gone. With this case being need to know, I was the only other able-bodied person who could step in for now. Takeshi was well enough, but with the language barrier, we weren’t going to risk sending him into the field just yet.

I parked in my reserved spot in the garage then pulled up my text messages. I clicked the one labeled with a heart.

Tank

Going to have to go underground for a bit. Team needs me. Will check in when I have time. Sorry.

Tucking the phone away, I trudged inside and went straight to my office. Since I had a private elevator, no one knew I was back. It gave me just enough time to grab the security footage of when I was away to decipher what the hell happened.

I was midway through watching when Ronan barged in my office. “Orion is gone,” he roared.

“Yes, I know. He’ll be away for a bit. I was going to come get you as soon as I finished this.”

He leaned over to look at my screen. I’d switched out the windows the second he walked in so he could see it was an email from the accounting team over payroll or something. To be honest, I hadn’t read the message yet at all. I just needed a cover, so Ronan didn’t pick up on what was going on.

Keeping secrets wasn’t good for the team, but I didn’t have an alternative.

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