Controlled Burn (Blackbridge Security 8)

With Finnegan gone, I pull out my phone and shoot off a text to my boss. I’ve avoided doing this, but if I want to be on my own and no longer dependent on anyone else, I can’t wait any longer.

Me: I’m hoping to get more shifts.

It takes a few minutes for the bubbles to pop up, and I want to scream with the return text I receive.

Sasha: You have to expand your duties at work.

I want to throw my phone across the room, but that wouldn’t solve any problems. Plus, I can’t do exactly what Kason got into trouble for earlier in the week. Being a hypocrite is the worst.

Me: I’ll consider it.

She sends back a smiley face emoji, and it seems a little juvenile with what she’s asking of me.

“Are you over your little snit?”

I spin around to glare at Finnegan, prepared to give him more than a piece of my mind, but I have to snap my jaw closed when I spot another guy standing beside him with a wide smile on his face.

“Hi,” the stranger says, his eyes darting between Finnegan and me. “I’m Kit Riggs.”

I return his smile and shake his hand. “Kendall Stewart.”

“Nice to meet you,” the man says. “I’m the muscle Finn hired.”

“Oh, thank God,” I huff out on a breath, relieved he’s not one of the guys from the office.

“He works at Blackbridge,” Finn says as if he can read my mind. “He was sitting on the sofa during your visit yesterday.”

My cheeks flame with embarrassment when Kit chuckles.

I’ve never been a violent person, but Finnegan makes me want to throat punch him. He’s still behaving like the child I accused him of being not long ago, trying his best to get me riled up and force a reaction out of me.

Instead, I grin back at his coworker. “Not one of my finer moments. Please forgive me.”

“I thought it was wildly entertaining,” Kit says. “Feel free to stop by anytime.”

“Can we get to work now?” Finnegan asks, his accent gruff and annoyed.

Since I’ve already helped move out all the smaller things and the kids’ clothes, I step to the side and watch as Finnegan and Kit move the furniture from one condo to the other. They take direction well when asked which room they should put certain things in.

In less than an hour of Kit helping, the only thing that’s left is me sorting through the things in the two bedrooms. I know I won’t be here long, but now that we have a little more room to spread out, I plan to unpack, hoping it’ll help with Kason’s attitude problem.

“Nope,” Finnegan says, blocking the doorway to his apartment when I walk across with Evie in her smaller cage. Her big cage is already setup in the corner of the room that Kayleigh and I will be staying in.

“What?”

“That bird isn’t staying here.”

I huff a laugh. “Of course she is.”

“She’s not.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” I tell him, but he somehow makes himself bigger when I try to slide around him.

“I’m serious, Kendall. You and the kids, nothing else.”

I narrow my eyes. “Her cage is already inside. You didn’t say a word when I rolled it in there.”

“As far as I’m concerned, you can roll it right down to the street, or it can stay, but the bird isn’t welcome. I’m not going to be attacked in my own home.”

“She’s family,” I say.

“She’s a bird, and not welcome.”

My throat threatens to close.

“Vagabond,” Evie snaps, not helping the situation.

Finnegan raises his eyebrow as if to prove his point.

“What am I supposed to do with her? It’s not like I can just set her free. She’s not a wild bird.”

“I have the perfect place for her,” he says. “Wait right here.”

My mouth is hanging open when he walks back into his condo and shuts the door in my face. He hasn’t given me a key yet, so there’s nothing I can do but stand in the hallway and stew.

Chapter 10

Finnegan

“I’ll have to find someone to stay with the kids,” Kendall mutters almost absently on the drive to Blackbridge.

I don’t know if she’s hinting that she wants me to watch her kids while she works, but I don’t open my mouth to offer. I don’t know shit about kids, so she shouldn’t want that anyway.

“I’m thinking of taking on more shifts, too. I’m planning to get my own house, and the quicker I can do that the better.”

I don’t disagree with her, not even when she sighs and rubs her hands over her face.

Telling her she could stay with me yesterday was an off-the-cuff spontaneous reaction to seeing her break down and cry in my office. I never expected her to take me up on it, and I was relieved when she left yesterday without agreeing. Her showing up at my door this morning was a complete surprise. Agreeing to hold up my end of the offer was an even bigger surprise.