Page 29 of Confessions of Pain

Sadly enough, I wasn’t entirely sure I had been kidding. Kidnapping him and tying him to my bed wouldn’t be at the bottom of my list of favorite things to do. Fuck, at this rate, he really would have me arrested before all this was finished and this time, I’d deserve it. I’d dodged a bullet ten years ago, only to walk straight back into the line of fire on my own accord.

A knock at the door interrupted anymore of our useless conversation. We were going around and around and regardless of what anybody said, I knew I was in love with Kelsey. I also knew it didn’t make one damned bit of sense and would end badly for me, but I was in love. The ache in my heart had never really gone away.

One of the workers stuck his head in the door after Ethan barked out a rude “Enter!” Clearly, it hadn’t bothered the guy standing outside my new office. He looked as bored as fuck and sounded even worse when he said, “Uh…yeah…two of the simplex machines are down and I don’t have anybody to fix them. What do you want us to do?”

What in the hell was a simplex machine?

The guy kept looking in the other direction. I assumed he was looking down onto the production floor, but I guessed he could also be looking for a weapon to kill us all with. Neither idea would surprise me—not after what I’d done.

“Who can fix the machines? Don’t you have a mechanic on the floor today?” Titus asked quickly. “Those simplex machines have to run. Our biggest orders are in simplex. The military contracts that Kelsey bid on are all for simplex. Call in a mechanic if you don’t have one scheduled today.”

The guy rolled his eyes. “Wayne laid them all off. We don’t have any knitting mechanics left and I seriously doubt you could convince any of them to come back. Should I just shut the rest of them off and send the crew home?”

“Uh…no? We can’t send the crew home. Orders are sparse; we can’t be poor performers on the few we have in-house.”

This time, the guy barked out a disgusted laugh. “Yeah, okay. Maybe you could take your suit jacket off, roll up your delicate, white sleeves, and look it over yourself? How does that sound?”

It sounded like the guy was being a total smartass. It also sounded like Titus felt it was highly important that the simplex, whatever the hell they were, needed to be in operation if I was ever going to dig myself out of this mess I’d jumped headlong into. Well, shit.

The guy glanced down at the production floor again and a smile spread across his face. “Oh, nevermind. Kelsey’s here. He can take care of it.” He waved a hand in our direction. “Go back to doing whatever you were doing. The machines will be up and running in no time at all.”

The door shut in our faces and I sat there, my head tilted to one side, telling myself there was absolutely no way humanly possible I heard him correctly. Kelsey wasn’t here…not after how I acted this morning. And yesterday. A strange, excited feeling caused my stomach to flip-flop when faced with the opportunity of getting to see Kelsey again.

“I thought you said….”

“Yeah, I did say he wouldn’t be back. I can’t believe he’s here.”

“Well, well,” Titus said quietly. “This should be fun to watch.”

I stood up and started toward the door.

“Here we go,” Ethan muttered. “Fire in the hole.”

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