Treacherous

Get Your Head Straight

I went to work the next day. I couldn't bear the thought of spending the day in a hospital waiting room or in my apartment alone. That morning, my dad had called to inform me that Galina was refusing to see me. He said it was best if I gave her the day to calm down. Sure. I could do that. The problem was rather or not I was going to be able to keep myself from going crazy.

Jordan looked up at me with a confused expression when I entered the conference room. I ignored him and walked over to the coffee pot and pouring myself a cup. I downed it and poured another one. The previous night hadn't been too kind to me. A restless night on the couch with a spring poking into my back the entire time.

"Hey," Jordan said softly as he walked up to me. "I thought you were going to take today off."

"Change of plans," I replied as I downed the second cup of coffee. I went to get a third, but he blocked me.

"The last thing you need right now is to have a caffeine crash," he told me. I didn't want to look at the expression on his face. Pity. Concern. None of it was going to help me.

I turned away and watched as our colleagues streamed into the room. There were ten people who were supposed to be in the meeting, but there were only three of us who it really concerned. A new suspect in the gang wars had been apprehended, according to our supervisor. Dylan had told me that he had only wanted Catherine, Jordan, and myself in the meeting, but he had been overruled by the higher ups.

It didn't matter to me. I just needed something to take my mind off everything. "Let's just get through today, Jordan, okay? We can talk about my personal problems later."

"You can take today off, man," Jordan replied. "Dylan said himself that he could step in so that you could deal with everything that was happening."

I shook my head. "I don't need to deal with everything. Nothing has changed."

"Blaise--"

"Don't. I've had enough lectures to last me a lifetime," I replied before I walked away and took a seat near the head of the table. Jordan lingered near the coffee pot before he moved to sit across from me just as Catherine took the seat on the opposite side of me.

When Dylan walked in, it was all business. The techniques that they were interested in using. The techniques that we were not to use. This man was more valuable alive, not dead or close to it. We would need him later if he had anything that was useful or we would have to turn him over to the prison authorities and they would not take kindly to us beating him to death.

Not that we did that.

It was against the rules, after all. We never disobeyed the rules.

We just bent them a little to fit the cause.

Dylan dismissed everyone, but pulled the three of us off to the side to tell us that he would vouch for us if we did whatever it took to get the information from this man.

"You will be free to leave at any time if you need to, Blaise," he said in a low voice. "I don't know how long this is going to take, so if there's something you need to take care of, just let one of us know, okay? We're not going to force you to stay."

"It'll be fine, Dylan," I replied. "She doesn't want to see me, anyways. It's better if I'm here, trust me."

He studied me for a moment before nodding. "Okay. If you say so."

I nodded and turned, following the other two out of the room and down to the basement of the building.

This was where I preferred to spend my time. Being in a room with the suits and ties wasn't something that I had wanted to do. I already had decided that I didn't want to accept any promotions. Sitting behind a desk and a computer, going to meetings and never being in the building wasn't something that appealed to me. Doing this, getting my hands dirty--or, bloody in this case--was what I needed to be doing.