Page 3 of A Labor of Hate
Mr.Starched Shirt spared him a glance before turning his narrowed eyes back on me.“Don’t encourage her, Alec.”
“You can’t deny there’s a bit of a resemblance, Colt,” another agent teased.This one was a brawny man with a ready grin and sympathetic eyes as he extended a box of tissues toward me.“You look like you’ve had quite the morning.The bathroom is down the hall and on the right if you want to clean yourself up.”
I accepted the box with stiff movements as I sent another scathing glare toward this Colt guy.“Thank you.”
“I promise we’re notallboneheads,” the nice guy said, his grin almost enough to lift the crushing weight off my shoulders.
Almost.
I held Colt’s stare, making my intended subject clear.“Just some of you, right?When the stick up your butt lets you bend enough to address the peasantry?”
The muscle in Colt’s jaw flickered.“It’s royalty that you bow to.There’s no need to bend for peasants.”
“Oh, my mistake, I thought you’d have to if you wanted to be heard from that high horse you’re sitting on.”
Alec whistled and clapped the shoulder of an agent with the most intense stare I’d ever seen.“Looks like we’re going to have our hands full with these two!”
Colt spared me a contemptuous glance.“Assuming she lasts long enough to cause any more trouble.”He turned back to his paperwork, effectively dismissing me.“I imagine trouble tends to follow her wherever she goes.”
“Well, shedoesleave a trail, so it should be pretty easy to find her,” Alec added, snickering to himself.
I pinned my glare onhimnow, and he wisely shrank away.
The brawny agent shook his head wearily, leaning back in his chair and tapping his pen against his desk.“Well, that was probably the worst welcome ever.”
I laughed humorlessly.“You’d be surprised.”
My last unit in Philadelphia wasn’t exactly a walk in the park, but everyone was a little mean to the rookies.It was part of the initiation.
But I wasn’t a rookie anymore.
Another man entered the cluster, effectively taking everyone’s attention away from me.The dread in my gut hardened into a rock that overpowered any relief I felt.Only a handful of people had the sort of influence that would make others voluntarily forget the newbie, especially when said newbie was soaked in her own coffee.
As if confirming my suspicions, the man cut through the unit like butter—straight toward me.He flashed a smile, his silver hair catching the light overhead and providing a stark contrast against his dark suit coat.While I’d seen some certified “silver foxes” in Hollywood as celebrities aged, this guy made the cut without any of the expensive skincare products or cosmetic surgeries.
“You must be Lex Piper.I’m your supervisory agent, Jonas McBride.”He offered his hand for me to shake, and I accepted it on autopilot.“We’ve been looking forward to you joining the team.”
At the mention of “supervisor,” my professional mask had slipped into place.It wasn’t foolproof, and it certainly wasn’t as unbreakable as it normally was, but it would be enough to convince him I was worth keeping here.
I hoped.
“Thank you, sir,” I said woodenly.“I apologize for my tardiness.It won’t happen again.”
He let my hand drop, pausing a second as he inspected the smear of now-cold coffee I’d apparently transferred to it.
Kill.Me.Now.
Being late on your first day?Not ideal, but surely it was forgivable.Butting heads with your new colleagues?Those were inevitable growing pains.But slathering your boss’s hand with coffee after doingbothof those things?I was so screwed.
To my surprise, he simply pinched a tissue from the box I still held and wiped the coffee off as if that sort of thing happened all the time.He stepped closer, dropping his voice to a murmur and meeting my eyes with his piercing blue ones.“I read your file, Piper.I know what today means for you.”
I gulped, the sting returning to the back of my eyes.My professional mask was dangerously close to slipping.I could already feel my bottom lip starting to quiver, so I bit it to keep it still.When I got back to the safety of my car tonight,thenI could break down.But not here.Not now.
“I know it isn’t easy adjusting to a new team,” he continued, “but I’m looking forward to what you can bring to our squad.”
If Colt’s judgment had broken me, then McBride’s unexpected warmth delivered the killing blow.My knees threatened to give out from the weight of my grief.I needed to turn this train wreck of a morning around—stat.
McBride, noticing my buckling legs, stepped even closer, graciously shielding me from the majority of my new squadmates.“You got it?”
