Disastrous

23

Colby didn't talk about why he was upset, and I wasn't going to press him to get him to talk. He was clearly upset, smoking cigarrettes often and constantly in his office.

Devyn was doing the same thing, though she was having more fun with it. She'd have quiet, calming music playing in her office downstairs while she looked over his documents and scanned things. It was by far more fun to be in her presence than his, but my heart was telling me he needed me right now.

Usually, Colby would ask me to do something, like go and train with Corey.

Corey was fun, he was cool. He gave me a gun which I threaten to shoot him with often so I'm starting to think he regrets it.

"Alright," Corey shouted from across the training room, "Don't shoot me, shoot the targets,"

"Don't be a dick and I won't shoot you," I said before adjusting the noise canceling headphones over my ears.

Corey shouted something I couldn't hear due to the headphones and the machines running to operate the moving targets.

"I CAN'T HEAR YOU I'M TOO BUSY DOING BADASS SHIT!!!" I said before holding the gun with both hands, aiming to the left or right of the targets slightly depending on where it was moving.

The key to shooting a moving target is to shoot slightly to the left or right of the bulls eye. So by the time the bullet got there, it would hit the center or close to it.

After shooting a round, I reloaded and stepped to the next station, where I shot standstill dummies with different people's faces on pieces of paper stapled to the head.

I shot the one with Corey's face the most, being that it was one of the ones in the back yet easier to shoot. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Corey as I shot the dummy him in multiple places on his body. Wherever I shot, he reacted to which was quite amusing so I aimed below the beltline until he fell on the floor and I couldn't contain my laughter any longer.

I ripped off my headphones, bending over to try and silent my laughs but it was useless.

"Why would you do that?" Corey whined from the floor, "You know my nuts are sensitive!"

"Simply for my joy and entertainment," I replied sarcastically, walking up to him and tossing my headphones which he grabbed once he sat up.

"How rude," He scoffed, standing up. I could tell he was joking by the way he shook his head, so I knew not to take his words to heart.

"Well, I'm gonna head upstairs. I had fun, we should do this again sometime," I clapped happily with a smirk on my face.

"Maybe next time let's play "don't shoot corey" and I might consider it," Corey said as I set the gun on the shelf by the door and walked out of the training room and up the stairs.

Since I've been here for so long it's been getting easier to navigate this mess of a house.

I made my way to Colby's office, and as I assumed that's where he was.

"Hey," I announced my presence quietly.

"Hey Kiara," Colby glanced up at me as I walked over to him, scooting his chair back.

There were no words to exchange between us, and it wasn't uncommon for that to happen. We didn't always need to talk using words, eyes or lips gave equivalent messages.

Colby reached over, grabbing my hand to pull it towards himself, my body following willingly. He pulled me to sit in his lap, letting my legs hang across and off his legs.

"What have you been up to?" He asked, putting my hair behind my ear as he stared at me.

Colby's eyes were filled with exhaustion, the bags under his eyes dark and his eyes tinted red. I knew he hadn't been sleeping, getting up in the middle of the night and going off to his office. I didn't say anything out of fear of upsetting him.

"I've really only been doing shooting practice. Jake let me fight him once or twice though," I shrugged, not mentioning that Jake and I practically physically fought all the time. There was no hard feelings behind our fighting, simply doing it out of boredom, "What about you?"

Colby motioned to his papers and computer screen with a hand, letting it fall once he went to speak, "Same old, same old. But I need to talk to you about something,"

I didn't know if this was a good or bad thing, so my brow furrowed with concerned, "What's going on?"

"Would you like to help us?" He tilted his head at me, letting me consider what I was taking in, "Corey, Sam, Jake and I have to fly out to Florida this weekend for some business that needs to be handled. And I would take Devyn but she isn't as skilled with a gun as you and Corey claim," He reasoned.

"What are you doing?" I asked, and when he didn't respond I rephrased the question, "Why are you going down there,"

"There's a hotel that has some sketchy business going on," He says bluntly, "A big drug deal is supposed to go down there this weekend. And we're going to stop it,"

"Why? Can't people just use drugs in peace?" I asked, not seeing the good reasons for taking care of this issue like Colby does.

"Okay. I'm going to explain something to you quickly. Kumar had some drug trafficking and things going on in Florida, which was incredibly risky but he knew his way around. Now that he's dead, the cops are getting on their case about it. So, they either sell what they have to us or they die. And their new boss has made it clear he isn't giving us squat," Colby didn't look at me as he spoke, as if he was ashamed of his business.

"Did he do this anywhere else? I heard something about how you guys had ties to him in New Jersey or something," I wiggled my feet aimlessly, Colby putting a stop to it by putting his hand below my knees.

"New York," He corrected, "And yes, kind of. Shea actually is the one with ties to Kumar in New York, I don't know exactly how simply because I don't care. But anyways, she was raised in New York which is probably a big part of it," He sarcastically chuckled even though nothing was related to humor, "Most of his profit came from New York. Florida didn't become as big because of the police but right before we took him out it seemed to calm down down there,"

"Do you think Shea would try and betray you for New York?" I asked as the thought popped into my head.

"No, she's the reason we found out he lived in Kentucky. Which is how we found you," He said with a small grin, his blue eyes staring into my soul.

"Why are you suddenly telling me all of this?" I asked, snapping myself out of the trance he put me in and focused on anything else in the room.

"You're coming with us to Florida?" Colby said, though it came out as more of a question.

"Yes," I nodded, "I think it'll be a good experience for me,"

His smile grew, and it gave me butterflies to know I made him happy.

"Then that's why"