Page 125 of Coff

“Yeah,” Thunder says, still grinning. “You remember that assignment Lightning had where he had to wear a fox costume?”

Remember? Hell, we’ll never let him forget.

“Well, the guy is coming to town again and has requested Lightning for protection.”

“Please tell us he has to wear the costume again,” Ozzie says.

Thunder laughs. “He does! Can you believe Reed okayed that?”

Frankly, no, I can’t. “Wow, Lightning, what did you do to piss off Reed?”

Lightning grabs the phone and steps away. “It wasn’t my fault.”

“Yes, it was!” Thunder yells from behind him.

“I thought it was Ozzie’s mustard. I didn’t realize Reed had brought in his own bottle.”

Ozzie shakes his head. “Why do you always come after me? You know what, never mind. I’m glad you got caught and have to pay the price. I’ll let Reed know we need photos from this assignment.”

Durango grabs the phone and appears to be running. A door slams shut. “Hey, I’m in my office. I have to tell you the best part. They don’t know.” He grins. It isn’t often we see Durango smile. He’s a fairly serious guy. “I removed Ozzie’s label from his and put it on Reeds. I knew Lightning was going to do something while you were gone. Before Reed’s lunch break, I switched the label back.”

“Damn. You guys really get into this, don’t you?” Delaney asks, as she readjusts the blanket she has wrapped around herself.

“You have no idea,” Ozzie says.

Durango holds a finger to his mouth, telling us to keep quiet. Then he exits his office and blinks a few times. He turns the phone to show us Lightning standing there with his arms crossed.

“I heard every word, asshole.”

“You heard nothing,” Durango says.

“You’re on my list now,” Lightning says.

Durango holds the phone up to his face, and Lightning is following behind him down the hall. “It was worth it.”

“Give me that.” The phone shuffles around, and it’s back to Thunder. “As you can see, you aren’t missing anything. Stay safe. If you need anything, let us know. You know we’ll hop on a plane right away.”

“Thanks,” I say. “Hopefully, we’ll see you soon.”

“Sounds good.”

Thunder ends the call, and I stand up to stretch. Finally, the place is warming up.

“Well, I guess we should see what food Harding packed for us.” I walk to the cupboards and find a couple of boxes of protein bars. After checking all the drawers, that’s all I find.

“Well, I hope you like protein bars.” I toss one to Delaney, Ozzie, and Brian, who finally opens his eyes.

No real food, no games, and we can’t go outside. I shouldn’t complain since I’ve had much worse. But I really doubt Delaney has any experience roughing it. I guess I’ll find out what my girl is like when she gets hangry.

My girl. I smile as I watch her. She’s finally my girl again.

CHAPTER29

Delaney

I wakethe next morning when Logan gets out of bed. Despite the fact the beds are small, he stayed with me because I couldn’t get warm. It’s so cold here, and I can’t seem to warm up even when I stand next to the stove.

Instead of going to the bathroom, Logan puts on his shoes.

---