The Boot (Book 1)

Chapter Twenty-Four

TIM

"Aaron? What the hell are you doing here?" John asks.

I look Aaron up and down. "In nothing more than a towel, no less!"

"Baby? Who's at the door?" I hear my sister's voice call out from another room.

I raise my brow in challenge. "Go ahead. Answer the question."

"Uhhhh... pizza delivery guy."

I roll my eyes at him while John scoffs.

"What? We didn't order pizza-" Genn's voice gets louder as she appears in the doorway across the room, wearing nothing but a towel. She gasps when she sees us. "Tim. John. Hello."

I glance back and forth between the two of them before my eyes narrowed in a threatening glare at Aaron. "What the hell do you think that you're doing with my sister?"

"Woah, man. Chill out. Let's all just take a deep breath and talk about this calmly. Would you like to come inside?"

"That depends. Is there anything breakable in there, besides you, that we should be worried about? Y'know, because I am going to have to kick your ass."

Aaron's eyes go wide. "What?"

I outrank him, have significantly more experience than him -both with fighting and just the force in general- and I am much more muscular. I'm also a lot bigger than him.

I give him a tight, taunting smile before reeling my hand back and punching him square in the face, which resulted in a loud crunch. I'm almost positive that I broke his nose. I'm about to go for a second hit when Genn hurries forward, stepping between us while John catches my arm, holding it back.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Genn shouts.

"I think that I could ask you the same question!" I counter, trying to free my hand from John's grip, but he holds steadily onto it.

Aaron recovers from the initial shock, his fingers wiping his nose, finding it to be bleeding. Genn turns around and cups her hands on his face. "Are you okay, baby? What about your nose?"

"Don't you f*cking call him that!" I squirm in John's grip, only resulting in him tightening it and grabbing my other arm with his free hand.

She snaps her head back at me and sneers. "I can call him whatever the bloody hell I'd like!"

I take a deep breath and look at Nolan. "I'm good, man."

He raises a brow in question. "Are you, though?"

"I promise."

He hesitantly releases his hold on me, staying close in case he needs to intervene again.

"Why are you even here?" Genn asks, changing the subject.

"That's not important," I say, and John tries-and fails-to hide his chuckle in response to the irony. It may seem like I was just saying that to bring the conversation back to what I wanted to talk about, which granted, I was, but why John and I are here really isn't important. It's like what I was telling him earlier. We're only doing this to please the higher-ups by 'investigating' this 'suspicious' activity. But now, whatever activity is going on is starting to seem a hell lot more suspicious.

"I don't see what's so funny about this," Genn moves to stand in the doorway completely. "Go get an ice pack out of the freezer, babe. We'll take care of your nose in a minute."

Aaron spares a wary glance at me before turning to the kitchen.

"No, no, he's right. Why we're here isn't important at all," John says, and this time it's my turn to snicker.