The Entrust

One Together

A/N: Lunch, everyone!

Enjoy the second update of the day!

***

Beam received a letter of invitation to meet with a new modeling firm on the other side of town later that week. They appeared dying to work with him and wanted to set something up as soon as possible. Since he'd already enjoyed a small break from work, Beam readily agreed.

Part of Forth's job as Beam's bodyguard was to be alert and well informed of the places the heir was going. He had their tech guys pull blueprints or at least building layouts, as well as basic information on any location he wasn't familiar with. This was a modeling agency that the man hadn't worked with before, so he had their techs send over the information and examine it the evening before.

The business was lawfully-begotten, everything on the face of it, standard. But something struck him as a little unusual. They had called late on Saturday and asked for a meeting the next day, Sunday. Their offices were listed as being closed on the weekends. It wasn't particularly odd for a company to open their doors solely for Beam; many taken his need for privacy or simply wanted to increase his comfortableness in the hopes of impressing someone from such a powerful mafioso clan. So while the choice of day gave him pause, it was not a direct red flag. The fact that it was so quickly thrown together, nevertheless, had him evaluate the situation sensibly. He'd asked Beam for the information and he claimed they'd said he would be filling in for an unnamed actor who had to drop out of a project unbelievably last minute. Forth decided he was likely being paranoid and decided to let it go.

The next morning, when Knot pulled up with them in front of the building, that gut feeling of his didn't go away.

The building seemed spookily quiescent in spite that there were different sleek black SUVs in the parking lot. When they entered, there was a single person at the security desk who welcomed them in a immobile sort of tone and asked them to sign in, letting them know to head up to the fifth floor. Beam written his name too nonchalantly before walking toward the elevators, still sipping at the Starbucks coffee they'd bought on the way there. Forth's eyes trailed over the man behind the desk as he signed in. A few things were off about his badge, but nothing caught his eye quite like the uniform. There was a certain stiffness to the fabric of the collar that stood out to him. He couldn't always explain his empirical observational skills to others, but he knew something was unambiguously erroneous.

He look over to Beam, who was already across the room pressing the elevator button. Forth mentally cursed. This was about to go sideways and his entrust had no idea.

"Fifth floor." The man reminded huskily.

"Thank you." Forth replied with a stiff but sincere smile. He closed the space between himself and Beam as quick as possible without eliciting suspicion, his hand sliding into his jacket as coolly as he was able.

Several things take place at once: the "guard", whose eyes hadn't left him, seemed to notice something was off. The elevator doors opened. Both men drew their guns.

Forth dove, protecting Beam and forcing him into the elevator just as the shots rang out. Forth returned fire, hitting the man in the shoulder before the elevator doors closed. He counted the bullets lodged in the back of the elevator car precisely the number the man had fired. None had hit his entrust. There was no blood just the coffee splattered all over the floor where Beam had dropped it.

He glanced down at the man he had pressed between himself and the elevator wall, his hand cradling the back of the younger's head so he didn't bang it against anything. He didn't look any bad for wear but he was breathing hard, eyes as wide as dinner plates.