Pointed Gun

Unhealthy bastards.

Boston

"I TELL ya, she's even prettier in person. The pictures just don't do her justice." Even with Ryder in the same room, I felt I was speaking no one else but myself. Busy eyes eating up the words of several contracts and payers information I didn't get the chance to analyze thoroughly enough before. Just to be positive there weren't any hidden instructions or things they just couldn't talk about aloud, written down.

Ryder chuckled at the other side of the table, flipping through files of his own. "Almost as pretty as the chick you were paid to take out?" He replied, smugly. I rolled my eyes at him, but I couldn't take him seriously. He had a shitload of bull floating in his crooked brain.

I groaned not frustrated but fed up with his nonsense. "You believe every female you see is pretty. That's all you're attached to."

"That just means I'm a nice guy." He shrugged a smile. I rolled my eyes.

"Or a very easy guy." I spit out a laugh despite my hardest will to hold it back.

"Hey wait a minute, weren't you that easy guy once?" Ryder brought something to my attention. And like most accusations towards me, I didn't absorb much of it. But that one froze me. I opened my mouth to respond but got slapped with interruption."Wait, don't answer that, I already know the answer."

Sealing my lips, I flipped through the pages of my notebook. Taking valuable notes and keeping a note of objectives usually helped calm my nerves. However, this time I felt out of sync. Possibly the reactions to one of Ryder's questions that never actually deserved an answer. Even when his comment was strictly to crawl underneath my thick skin and have a cheap laugh, I was forced to think. About being an easy guy and what it meant. Or who it meant, rather.

What a terrible time to dwell on it. I had to focus on work before the work killed me. Literary. Yet, I couldn't cease to ask. Actually giving a care about what the answer would come to be. "How is she, anyway?"

Ryder's eyes froze to the words on the pages, causing me to swallow. It had been a very long time since I'd asked anything like that. From the corner of his eye, I could see him trying to hide the fact that he was looking at me even when the evidence was bright. He didn't want to. Bringing her up could be farther from any one of our minds, but his? 

Nothing more was important.

"She's," He found himself stuck on the words following next. Frankly, I hadn't expected the moon. Like I said before, he wasn't used to me asking. In the world before, It felt normal. It felt like my life to ask, and actually care. Ryder cleared his throat and forced a smile. "Last time we spoke she was doing great. Says she misses home though."

I didn't ask much more after that. No need to ask questions that would make me sound weak. Does she miss me? Being a poor representation of who I was, and who I would like to stay.

Everything was solid for a while. A quiet little moment to allow both of us to look over folders without the weight of useless words or in my case, hallow questions. There wasn't much that I allowed myself to dwell on long besides the obvious. My missions. My work. My lifestyle. If it didn't fit allow the lines of those three things then guess where it went? Into a deep black hole in the back of my mind forever to stay.

"So, about this plan—" Ryder began, though, I interrupted.

"What about it?" I sounded cold and uninterested to be speaking about something I spent a little more than days mapping out. However, it was one of the only things I had found any real interest in, even without showing it.

"You think grabbing her will be a challenge?"

"Has anything ever been a challenge for us." It wasn't a question, but a statement.

Ryder stole a laugh, shutting his sleek black binder and shoving it aside. "Is that a trick question or are you dead serious?"

Been working with Ryder for some years now and he needed to second guess what we were capable of. Watching as he did what he did best and overcoming many things, he was the smartest guy I had on my team. Keyword being was.

"Sounds to me you might need some time off." Joking was more or less my thing. I enjoyed messing with those who made it so damn easy.

Ryder's eyes went to hockey pucks and with it, a huge frown coated the once joking smirk he held. "What? Why?"

"It seems to me that your beautiful memory has been shot, son." As if my mind worked both as a working genius and Polaroid, I captured his priceless face and hung it in a frame. The scared twisted turn of events playing on the screen in his eyes really brought out the moment.

Holding in a rumbling laugh was difficult, to say the least. He chuckled despite hate slowly growing in the background. "You can be such a dick sometimes, I swear."

"The best one around, I'm afraid." Serving another round of laughs on the house, Ryder pushed back in his seat to stand.

"Yeah, yeah." He moved his hair from his face then collected his folders. "I'm gonna go grab a bite, want anything?"

For a microsecond, I thought about it. I wasn't really in the mood for stuffing my face with anything less than healthy. And when living with the bunch of folks I had, they never actually agreed with my choice of mind fuel. Those unhealthy bastards. I had to keep my great build somehow. They just couldn't understand.

"A fat slice of peace would be great. You think we have any of that served down there?"

"I'm not even gonna answer that. See you later!" With that on play, he took leave out of the meeting room.

At that point, I was as alone as I could possibly get. With the meeting area surrounded by shiny glass, and other offices for the hell of it, I was forced to watch many run back and forth around their work stations. While stomaching the eyes of others watching me. It wasn't the best thing to have to endure whenever I wasn't in the right state of mind, but, that was what came with leading a group of people. Though, in my case, it was a whole building of people.

Having the rare chance to lean as far back as my chair could withstand while closing my eyes to rest, was my heaven-sent. Having followers was hard, but I was content. I sighed a breath of relief and relaxed.

I would guess that a few minutes or so had gone by before the quiet click of the meeting room door woke me. I felt myself jump under pressure as if I was about to be caught sleeping on the job.

"Ah, Boston. I didn't expect to find you here." A voice that only belonged to Gavin startled me to hell.

I groaned a sigh. Rubbing my tired eyes over and over, trying to diminish the exhausted burn that kept them. "You could see me." I replied, half annoyed.

He chuckled as he replaced Ryder's seat beside me. "I didn't mean to wake you. Just wanted to get some work of my own done."

With my arms outstretched above my head and a slow yawn escaping me, I tried to focus myself away from the irritation I felt. "No worries. I never get any sleep anyway. I close my eyes, then next thing I know, someone needs my help. You all always need my help."

To say the least, I never intended any of that to sound as bitter as it had. Bitterness just seemed to find me when I least expected. Even when I refused the notion to throw stones, there I was. Hurling boulders. It was alright to say I wasn't the easiest man to get along with. It was also alright to say, I didn't give a damn.