Page 131 of Caged

I was halfway through Nathan Blaszek’s message when it clicked—This isn’t my phone. Blaszek was an applicant, so I figured it was okay to read the rest. According to the message, he was okay postponing his interview and wished everyone well.

I’d completely forgotten we’d scheduled his interview for this week. Blaszek was a former Navy SEAL, turned black ops civilian contractor. We all agreed he’d be a good addition to the team, but wanted to know why he was leaving the black ops unit. The job paid better than SSI, but was high risk. I knew because I considered signing a contract with one instead of joining the family business.

I’m glad I didn’t.

I shut off the screen.

“Everything okay?” Cate asked. “You look contemplative.”

“Yeah, reading Blaszek’s message reminded me of transitioning to civilian life.”

“We missed his interview.” She stated it as a fact, but it sounded like a question.

“No, Dad asked him to reschedule.” Cate yawned. “Go rest, I’ll help your father clean up, return the phone, and be back before you know it.”

“Okay.” She stood and kissed my cheek. “Thank you.”

I nodded. “Want me to pick up dinner on my way back?”

“You don’t need to do that,” her father said.

“I know I don’t need to, but I want to,” I answered. Turning to Cate, I asked, “How does a T-bone steak sound?”

“Like heaven,” she answered. I fell a little more in love when she added, “With a loaded baked potato.”

“Of course.”

Kissing Cate on the forehead, I promised to be back as soon as I could.

The first thing I did when I got back to the office was give my father his phone. Then, after setting up my replacement, I told a captive audience how things went with Cate. Leaving out the personal details.

“Is she still going to DC?”

Leave it to Meg to ask the hard question. “I don’t know. We didn’t have time to talk about it.”Yet.If I had any say, she wouldn’t go.At least not without me.We still had a lot to work out.

“But you two are definitely a thing?” AJ asked.

I didn’t love the phrasing, but answered anyway. “We’re together, yes.”

“So no more trying to kill each other?” Jack asked.

I laughed. “I wouldn’t go that far.” I waited for the laughter to die down. “I’ll be at Cate’s if you need me.”

“Tell her to file an expense report for her phone and I’ll reimburse her,” Dad said.

“Will do.” I grabbed my new phone, shocked at the number of messages.I’ll read them later.

As I was leaving, Dad said, “Your mother wants you to invite Cate and her father over for dinner before he leaves.”

“Copy that.” I ordered three steak dinners with loaded baked potatoes, roasted vegetables, and side salads to pick up on my way to Cate’s. There wasn’t much I could do to help her, but I could feed her and keep her company.

During dinner, Cate gave me an earful when I offered to cut her steak, but then had to eat humble pie when she realized it was a bitch trying to cut meat with only one good arm. I didn’t rub it in too much as I cut the fillet portion into bite size pieces and put them on her plate before cutting the rest.

Her father found the whole situation amusing. After helping her father clean the kitchen, we headed to the living room.

“Have you ordered replacement cards and IDs?” I asked, resting my arm on the back of the couch, behind Cate.

“I did. Luckily, the only things in my purse were my driver’s license, PI ID, one credit card and some cash.” She yawned. “What about you?”

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