Winning His War

17

Jem's POV

It had been a pretty shitty day so far.

I woke up from a nightmare to find that Charlie had ripped apart one of his toys and had strode the stuffing all over the house which made me miss the majority of the sun set. By the time Andrew left for work I had only downed half a cup of coffee and by that time I had to head to the warehouse so there wasn't time to drink another cup.

The warehouse had been a whole different problem.

We had a weapons shipment come in last night but who ever had been working last night hadn't stored them right. They just threw thousands of dollars of guns on a shelf at random, not caring about how much weight the poor shelf could manage. Needless to say, I came in the morning to men picking up guns from the floor in a hurry; in attempt to get it clean it up before I got there.

Luckily there hadn't been significant damage. A few of the guns on the bottom had chips and knocks on the barrels and stocks but nothing that couldn't be covered up and sold at regular price.

Still, the fact that it had happened was enough to piss me off.

Ramsey had assured me that I didn't need to worry about it and that he would deal with punishing the ones who made the mistake but considering his job was to make sure this didn't happen to begin with, I was a little pissed off with him too.

I tried to remind myself that this was the night shift people and that Ramsey's crew wasn't to blame but I could feel myself getting more pissed off as the day went on and little inconveniences continued to happen.

Usually on days like these, Dev and Barrett were here to keep me in line with a well placed joke or a reminder to take a smoke break but now that they were babysitting Patrick and Andrew, there was nothing to stop the anger from rising.

Orders were barked instead of told. Suggestions sounded more like nagging than helpful words. Praise and approval for good work turned into sarcastic side comments until I finally couldn't stand being at the warehouse anymore.

"Heading out already?" Ramsey asked as he looked down at his watch. I looked down to mine too, noting that I had worked everyone through lunch and dinner now that it was 9. Since we work 12-hour shifts, these guys still had a good two hours left of their shifts and I couldn't help but feel bad for them.

"Yea and you are too. Call Donavan. Tell him to get his crew down here, they're working over time to fix the fuck up they caused this morning. Tell your guys to go home but don't let them worry, they'll still get paid their normal wage."

My voice carried around the warehouse like it always seemed to do and when my words hit their ears, you could almost hear the collective sigh of relief.

"Donavan's not going to like that," Ramsey sighed.

"If he tries to tell you no, tell him to call me but warn him that if I have to go all the way back to the house to drag his ass down here, I'm going to be fucking pissed."

"Understood. I know you aren't about to stop working for the day so where are you headed," he asked as we started heading to the exit, being followed by a hoard of over worked men.

"I have a meeting with Ask Dunham tonight. He's supposed to have some information for me."

"I know Barrett and Dev," he spat Dev's name out like a curse but I couldn't help but chuckle at his hatred for my friend, "are busy, do you need me to come with you?"

It was a good offer and I would take him up on it most days. Without Dev and Barrett when I was in a mood like this, this meeting could get out of hand quickly. Ramsey wouldn't be as good as the other two but it would be better than nothing. Still, I could see how tired he was. I didn't just work his men to death today; he got a good bit of the action too.