Code Blue

Lexi vs. Roller Skates

Straps of my wedges hanging from two fingers to my side, I squished my bare toes into the half sand, half grass combination of ground beneath my feet and chewed on my lower lips nervously as I watched the impressive display of athleticism before me.

Despite never having been particularly good at sports, I could understand why Quinn enjoyed them so much; there was competition and action and bonding no matter if you won or lost. That kind of camaraderie had to be comforting.

She lifted her chin at me as the game ended, running to the side of the court to grab her shoes and water bottle before walking my way, panting slightly as she spoke. “Hey, what are you doing here?”

“Just thought I’d come check you out,” I shrugged. Which was a lie. The reason for my presence at her game was nowhere near that casual. “You guys are good. Can anyone play?”

“Yep!” she grinned as we began to walk. “It’s an intermural league, so all you have to do is show up to practices. You thinking about joining?”

I scrunched up my nose and shook my head. “I don’t know that you want me to.”

“Why not?” she laughed, taking a swig from her water bottle. “You’re athletic.”

I wouldn’t go that far. I was healthy and fit because I had to be to pass the agency’s physicals, but that didn’t mean I was automatically good at sports. “Team sports have never really been my thing.”

Lifting one shoulder in a shrug, she resigned herself to that being the best she was going to get. “Okay. If you change your mind, you’re always welcome.”

“Thanks,” I said quietly, thinking that she really was an excellent friend and I hadn’t been. “Hey, I’m sorry.”

She quirked one eyebrow upwards in confusion. “What for?”

“For being kind of a b***h to you lately,” I replied, figuring being direct was the best approach. “I want you to know that I’m not intentionally shutting you out, I’m just not used to people caring about me.”

That wasn’t meant to sound as sad as it did, especially because it wasn’t as though I felt sorry for myself. I’d been on my own since I was a teenager and one of the reasons the agency recruited me was because I didn’t have any emotional attachments. So I’d always seen being alone as an asset, because it allowed me to work quickly and efficiently. And although I knew that none of this was real, and eventually, once the mission was complete, I’d have to leave the people I’d met here behind as well, I didn’t want to be isolated while I was in the thick of it. Plus, these connections could end up being useful to me later on.

“Well, I do,” Quinn assured me, “and honestly, I understand the distance thing. Everyone deals with stress differently.”

“Good,” I smiled gratefully. If she hadn’t been super sweaty, I would have hugged her. “Because you’re like the only friend I have.”

“What about Max?” she asked, a small smirk playing at her lips.

Well, that was just complicated.

“Max and I aren’t really friends.” I actually wasn’t sure what we were. Just because we were going on a date tonight didn’t mean that he wasn’t also dating five other girls. It didn’t matter to me, though, whether there were other girls, as long as I could get him to trust me enough to keep me around. “We are going out tonight, though.”

“What!” Quinn squealed, grinning widely. “Wow, I’ve been out of the loop. Tell me everything.”

So I did. I told her about the girl at the party and meeting Trevor and the tutoring sessions and the kiss in the kitchen and my confession in the stacks. She helped me pick out my clothes and watched me do my hair and makeup and hours later, she watched me pace the length of our dorm room as I waited for Max to arrive.

“Will you chill?” she said, the epitome of cool and collected as she sat cross legged on top of her bed and flipped through the latest issue of Cosmo. “It’s like you’ve never been on a date before.”

What a ridiculous statement. Of course I’d been on a date before….in high school. Training for the agency didn’t leave much time for socialization, so I’d been out of the dating game for a while. It didn’t matter, though. I could get through this. I just needed tonight to go well enough for Max to ask me out again.

In all honesty, it wasn’t even the idea of the date itself that was stressing me out, it was the fact that tonight was kind of make or break for me, as I’d been reminded by Evan multiple times when I called to tell him what had happened. If this date ended disastrously, then I’d burned a bridge which could have led me straight to Daniel Stafford and I would have to entirely reevaluate my mission plan. On the other hand, getting a second date would get me one step closer to my end goal of getting Max to trust me entirely.

“Yeah, you’re right,” I sighed, shaking out my arms to calm my nerves. “I don’t know why I’m nervous. It’ll be fine.”

A knock on the door saved me from spending any longer worrying and I inhaled and exhaled deeply as I shot Quinn a tense glance and stepped forward to answer it, smiling widely at Max when I pulled the door open. “Hello.”

“Hey, gorgeous,” he grinned, keeping his gaze steady. “Ready to go?”

“I am,” I returned his smile, glancing over my shoulder to wave goodbye to Quinn before stepping into the hallway and shutting the door behind me. “Where are we going?”

He refused to tell me any details about the date when we made the plans yesterday, and I wasn’t sure if it was because he genuinely hadn’t figured it out or because he enjoyed being secretive. My bet was on the latter. Keeping secrets was probably celebrated in his family.

I mentally cringed at that thought. It wasn’t fair to judge Max by things I knew about his family that he didn’t tell me himself. But the truth was that I needed to remember the bigger picture. Because the more I thought about how Max seemed to be nothing like his father, the more I liked him as a person, and the harder it would be to complete my mission at the end. And eventually, it would have to end. I couldn’t live in this surreal world of kissing in the stacks and going on dates forever.

“It’s a surprise,” he smirked, reaching out to grab my hand and lace our fingers together as though it were the most natural thing in the world.

I wondered what it meant and if I should ask him exactly where we stood, but decided to see how the night progressed and smiled in response. “I love surprises.”

That was a lie. I hated surprises. I liked to know exactly what was going to happen so that I could mentally run through every possible scenario. But here I was, going on a date with the son of a crime lord and having no idea where we were going to end up.

It turned out to be the most innocuous place ever: a roller rink.

“Not what I expected,” I admitted as we changed out of our shoes into roller skates.

Pausing on his mission to tie up his laces, he lifted his eyebrows in surprise. “What do you mean?”

“I don’t know,” I shrugged, finishing with one foot and starting on the other. “I guess I had you pegged for more of a pub and pool kinda guy.”

“That’s probably fair,” he laughed, standing up straight when both his skates were on and rolling over to hold out his hands and help me up. I slipped my fingers against his and shakily rose to my feet, holding my breath until I found my balance. “I don’t usually bring girls here, but I thought you’d appreciate it.”

I wasn’t sure what that meant, but I figured it was a good thing because it meant he thought I was worth being vulnerable for, so I leaned forward slowly and pressed my lips to his, mostly because it had been an entire day since I’d kissed him last and I already missed the feeling. He returned the pressure eagerly, squeezing my hands as we kissed and turning his lips upwards against my mouth. Smiling as I pulled away, I said, “Are we gonna do this, or what?”

“Yeah,” he chuckled, pecking my lips one more time before slowly tugging me towards the rink. “Have you skated before?”

I stepped cautiously onto the wood beside him, holding on to his hand a little tighter than necessary as we began to move. “Not since I was a kid. A lot of my friends had birthday parties at these kinds of places. What about you? Do you come here a lot?”

Chewing on his lower lip, he shook his head, keeping pace with me despite the fact that I could tell he was itching to go faster. “Not as much as I used to. I came here a lot as a kid, too. With my dad.”

It was the first time I’d ever heard him mention his father and I knew I couldn’t waste the opportunity to learn more. Once I’d found my footing, I increased the length of my slides to indicate he could speed up a bit as well. “That’s sweet. Was it a tradition or something?”

“Something like that,” he replied quietly, looking a bit saddened at the mention of his dad and I almost felt bad for asking about him in the first place.

I couldn’t let that be the end of this part of the conversation, seeing as I’d learned absolutely nothing about Daniel Stafford. “Are you guys close? You and your dad?”

Max thought about that for a moment, and I was grateful that he didn’t seem suspicious that I was digging. Apparently I was good at subtle date conversation. “Yeah, I mean, we’ve always been a tight knit family, my mom, my dad, and my sisters, but the older I get, the more we seem to argue.”

I recalled the picture in his room with two women, and it occurred to me that I knew very little about his sisters, so I made a mental note to carefully read over the case file at Evan’s the next time I got the chance.

“About what?” Finding out that Max and his father were close was good because it meant that it was pretty likely Max knew something about the illegal activities his father participated in, but perhaps I could get him to shed a little more light.

Hesitating, I could tell he was trying to figure out just how much he should reveal. “It’s kinda the normal parent-child stuff, actually. He wants me to take over the family business and doesn’t think I’m living up to my full potential.”

There it was; the confirmation that Max was being groomed to take over the Stafford crime syndicate. The only catch was that he didn’t seem to want it, and I wasn’t sure if that was good or not.

Wanting to keep his distance from the family business meant that it would be much harder for me to dig up any inside information on it, but it also meant that I was much less likely to end up hating him, which was a dilemma all its own. Because if Max didn’t turn out to be an awful human being, would I be able to live with myself when I ultimately put his father in prison?

It was a question I didn’t get much time to ponder, because he had stretched his lips into a smile and pulled me close, dropping his hand from mine to rest his fingers at my waist and leaning in to kiss me softly.

“Hey,” he said as we pulled apart.

I cursed internally as I fought back a blush, all thoughts of undercover missions and crime families forgotten. “Hey.”

And it was like a switch flipped. We stopped talking about tense family relations and did a lot of laughing as we raced around the rink and he twirled me in circles and kissed me when he pulled me close. He told me about how he’d been a reckless child and it was actually because of a skating accident that he’d become friends with Trevor, after they’d collided in the rink when they were five because they were trying to outdo each other. I reciprocated, telling him the details of the backstory Evan had created for me with some realness sprinkled in and wondering what it meant that a part of me wanted to tell him the whole truth.

We sat in the diner style eating area on the side of the rink and ate large slices of extra cheesy pizza and made up backstories for all the people skating around the rink and when it was time to leave, I realized that I wasn’t ready to say goodbye.

Still, I knew that sleeping with him was an absolute last resort, so I needed to find another reason to go back to his place. Luckily, I was saved from coming up with a completely transparent excuse when, as I slipped into the passenger seat of his Range Rover, he said, “Did you know that I make the world’s best cup of hot chocolate?”

“World’s best, huh?” I replied once he’d settled himself into the driver’s seat and stuck his key in the ignition. “Someone’s sure of themselves.”

His lips twisted into a cocky smirk and he quirked his eyebrows upwards. “Cause its true. Care to test it out?”

Narrowing my gaze challengingly, I stared him down. “You’re on.”

He laughed as he turned on the engine and drove us back to his place, parking his car on the road in front of his townhouse and grabbing my hand as we walked towards the front door. Once we had stepped inside and he had closed the door, he grabbed my waist and pulled me towards him, lowering his lips to my neck as he walked me backwards towards the kitchen and I clutched the front of his shirt as I slowly listed off the prime numbers in order in my head to keep from getting too flustered.

“I should have known that when you said you had your hands full at school, this is what you meant.”

The soft but stern sound of an unknown voice startled us both and we looked to find its source sitting in a chair in the living room, looking not at all pleased. I froze as I recognized the figure, my heart racing as pushed himself out of the chair and fixed his gaze on Max.

Max, who had visibly tensed, his jaw sharp and his lips set into a thin line, his eyes frosting over with daggers and ice as he spoke. “Hello, Father.”

In person, Daniel Stafford was a lot shorter than the image I had cooked up in my head. In fact, apart from the blue eyes which held so much ice that they could probably cause an arctic level blizzard, he wasn’t particularly intimidating. Not at all how I imagined a major crime lord, or at least, not what The Godfather led me to believe they looked like.

Though his presence definitely increased the amount of tension in the room, seeing as Max looked like he was about to launch a full frontal attack.

Hands placed casually in the front pockets of his black slacks, Daniel stared down his son, his face completely expressionless. “Max.”

“What are you doing here?” Max spoke through gritted teeth, his eyes flashing in stark contrast with his father’s.

Daniel’s expression softened and he actually looked quite offended by that question. “Can’t a father just visit his son at school?”

It was a legitimate reason to be in Max’s living room, but I was willing to bet my entire shoe collection that it wasn’t why he was here. The heads of crime syndicates weren’t exactly known for making nostalgic visits to their children’s homes.

“Sure,” Max responded, squeezing his fingers into a fist and then relaxing them again to keep himself calm, the car keys still in his hand leaving an imprint in the palm, “during parents’ weekend like everyone else, not by showing up unannounced.”

His father shrugged, looking unperturbed by his son’s anger. “I’m just checking in.”

“What do you want?” Max asked again, the annoyance in his tone becoming more pronounced. “I’m kind of busy.”

“I can see that,” Daniel smirked in amusement, his gaze shifting towards me as he spoke and I felt as though he’d frozen the blood in my veins. “Are you going to introduce me?”

“Evie, this is my dad,” Max sighed, giving in to his father’s request. “Dad, my girlfriend, Evie.”

I froze at the use of the word ‘girlfriend’. I supposed it was a good thing that he thought of me that way, but we’d also never actually discussed it, so for all I knew, he was just saying that to prove a point to his father and when we were alone again, we’d go back to being…whatever it was that we were. But I didn’t have time to ponder the intricacies of my relationship with Max because it was obvious that his father was waiting for some sort of reaction from me, so I stared him straight in the eyes and put my friendliest smile on my lips. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, sir.”

A smile stretched his lips as he nodded in my direction and I was a bit caught off guard by the amount of warmth which had now flooded his eyes. “The pleasure is all mine, Evie. What are you studying?”

I didn’t expect for him to continue the conversation, so it took me a moment of blinking and clearing my throat before I responded. “Economics.”

“Just like Max,” he smiled brightly, seeming happy with himself for knowing such intimate knowledge about his own son. “And what do you plan to do with your degree?”

“What is this, an interrogation?” Max interrupted with a scowl, none too happy that I was even speaking to his father at all.

“It’s alright, Max,” I reached out to gently touch his upper arm and assure him that I could hold a conversation with a major crime lord without falling apart. Not that Max knew that I knew what his father did for a living. But seeing as interacting directly with Daniel Stafford would actually be quite beneficial to my investigation, I couldn’t afford to let Max keep us apart. “I want to work at an investment firm as a stock trader until I’m 35 and then open an afterschool program for kids.”

Of course, none of that was actually true, so I mentally thanked Evan for making me repeat my backstory to him about a hundred times before the mission began.

“Impressive,” Daniel pursed his lips, his words seeming genuine before his gaze narrowed and floated back towards Max. “Maybe some of your motivation will rub off on my son.”

Max rolled his eyes and sighed, repeating the same question once again. “Dad, why are you here?”

Figuring he’d danced around the subject for long enough, Daniel finally explained the reason behind his surprise visit, his face expressionless as he spoke, his gaze stony and cold and directly matched with Max’s. “I wanted to make sure we’re all set for next weekend.”

The words were cryptic and vague and slightly sinister sounding, but they meant something to Max, because he tensed slightly before he spoke again, making sure his gaze matched his father’s in steeliness. “And you couldn’t have just called?”

“Have I taught you nothing?” Daniel spat out, sounding extremely disappointed. “It’s always best to check up on business in person.”

I thought that was cold, so I wasn’t surprised by the amount of venom in Max’s response as he curled his fingers into a fist at his side. “So visiting your own son is business now?”

“Don’t twist my words,” Daniel sighed in frustration, lifting one hand to use his thumb and index finger to pinch the bridge of his nose as though he had the onset of a migraine, “you know I hate that.”

“You said it,” Max shot back, like a six-year-old would when trying to win an argument with a playground nemesis. I felt as if I was watching an old western movie and any moment now, one of them was going to pull out a pearl handled pistol so the duel could really begin.

It was Daniel who seemed to realize I was still in the room first, shooting me an apologetic glance as he spoke. “I’m sorry, Evie, we’re being very rude. Will you be gracing us with your presence at the ball?”

I blinked in confusion, partly because I myself had forgotten that I wasn’t observing all of this from afar and partly because I had absolutely no idea what he was talking about. “Ball?”

He briefly glared at Max before returning his gaze to me, all warm and smiley again, the sudden change of emotion giving me a bit of whiplash. “I see my son has told you absolutely nothing about our family.” That was true, and most likely purposeful. Though I was surprised that Daniel wouldn’t seem to mind if Max had told me more. “Yes, the annual charity ball we hold at our estate. It benefits all the children’s hospitals in the area.”

Now it all made sense. Of course Daniel wouldn’t mind Max telling me about all the charity work the Stafford family did, as long as none of the not so legal activities were mentioned. Stretching my lips into a wide smile, I replied, “that’s amazing,” though I honestly felt conflicted. Because, on one hand, helping a children’s hospital was never a bad thing, but on the other, the fact that all of the money going towards the hospital probably came from pretty shady sources was unsettling.

“So you’ll come?” he asked hopefully.

He seemed pretty trusting for a guy who had every reason to be suspicious of any person with whom he crossed paths. Considering he’d met me a total of ten minutes ago, I hadn’t expected him to be so quick to invite me to a family event, but I knew I couldn’t pass up that kind of opportunity. The ball being held at the Stafford estate would give me inside access to their world. If this event was as gigantic as I imagined it would be, then chances were nobody would notice if I slipped away to do some investigating.

“I’d be honored,” I grinned, thinking that today was turning out to be a pretty great day for me.

“If that’s all,” Max cut in, tapping his foot impatiently. “I really should get Evie home.”

Considering what we had been doing when we’d been interrupted by his father, I knew that wasn’t true. Max was just trying to get rid of Daniel, which was understandable, because in all the time I’d known him, I’d never seen him so wound up.

“I can tell when I’m not wanted,” Daniel replied breezily, stepping towards the back door. I momentarily wondered how he’d gotten in before remembering that he was a master criminal and picking locks was probably pretty low on his list of impressive skills. “I’ll see you next weekend. Both of you.”

“It was nice to meet you,” I called out after him.

“You too, Evie,” he flashed a smile as he stepped through the door, closing it behind him and disappearing into the night.

Max let out a shaky sigh as he turned to face me, reaching one hand upwards to tug his fingers through his hair in frustration. “So that was my dad.”

“He’s…” I hesitated, unsure that I could even come up with a word that accurately described Daniel Stafford.

“An ass?” he offered, lowering his hand to place it on my hip and drawing me towards him.

I let out a short laugh and shook my head, flattening my palms against the panels of his red and black flannel. “Kind of intimidating.”

That wasn’t entirely true. Based on stature alone, I wouldn’t find Daniel Stafford terrifying in the slightest, but the way he interacted with those around him was confusing, to say the least. He seemed to have the ability to charm just about anyone, seeing as, after talking to him for a grand total of fifteen minutes, I’d nearly decided that if he ever ran for office, I’d most definitely vote for him.

And that scared me shitless. Because I knew what he did for a living and I knew exactly why it was that I was put in this position in the first place, yet, there was a part of me that had wanted to win his approval– that had wanted him to like me.

“Yeah, that was my second guess,” Max muttered, the pads of his fingers massaging my waist.

Seeing his father had drained him of his usual brightness and I didn’t like seeing him so down, so I changed the subject. “So… are you really taking me home or do I get some of that famous hot chocolate?”

“Do you mind if we raincheck?” he scrunched up his nose apologetically. “That entire interaction made me exhausted.”

That was understandable. And to be honest, I probably needed some space as well, seeing as Evan would want a debriefing immediately. So I shrugged and smiled. “Okay, no worries.”

“You’re the best,” he exhaled quietly, leaning in to kiss me softly on the lips before dropping his hands from my waist to reach out and grab my hand and pull me towards the front door.

“I know,” I laughed as I slipped into the passenger seat of his car, waiting for him to climb into the driver’s side before I brought up the next most important topic that needed to be addressed. “Hey, so, I couldn’t help but notice that you introduced me to your dad as your girlfriend.”

His eyebrows lifted in surprise as he stuck his key into the ignition, shifted gears, and began to drive. I was about ninety percent sure he didn’t think I’d bring it up, but apparently he wasn’t too upset about it, seeing as his lips were just twitching to kink into a smirk. “I did, didn’t I?”

“I get it if it was just to prove a point or whatever because your relationship with your dad seems kind of tense.” I felt like I needed to give him an out, even though I hoped he wouldn’t take it, because going to that ball would be the first step in me making some actual progress with this operation.

He waited to respond until after he had parked his car in the lot outside the dorm next to mine, twisting his torso in his seat so he could face me more fully. Grabbing my hand, he rubbed his thumb lightly over the back of it as he spoke, his voice quiet, but filled with sincerity. “I didn’t tell my dad that you were my girlfriend because I thought it might piss him off or make me seem like I have my s**t together. I told him you were my girlfriend because I want you to be my girlfriend.”

“Yeah?” I breathed out, surprised I had managed to speak at all considering I was pretty sure my heart wasn’t beating anymore.

“Yeah,” he assured me, his smile widening. “What do you say?”

“I say yes,” I replied, leaning forward to kiss him firmly and mumble against his lips. “I’d like that.”

I could feel him smile against my mouth as he returned the pressure. “Me too.”

We kissed softly for a few more moments until I pulled away, feeling a bit lightheaded and wondering if he’d accidentally turned on the heat in the car. “And the ball?”

“You don’t have to come if you don’t want to,” he shrugged, letting go of my hand to tuck a strand of hair behind my ear. “Honestly, it’s super boring. It’s basically a collection of all my parents’ snobby friends telling slightly exaggerated stories about themselves as they try to one up each other to mask the fact that their lives are completely empty.”

“Wow, someone’s jaded,” I laughed.

He deadpanned. “Yeah, well you would be too if you had to go to one of these every year since you were five.”

“Well,” I smiled softly, reaching up to push his hair off his forehead, partly because the strands were getting into his eyes and partly because I just wanted to touch him, “if you want me to come, I’ll come.”

“You’d do that for me?” He seemed genuinely surprised and I wondered why that was, because going to a fancy ball didn’t seem like that huge of a chore.

“Of course,” I grinned. “What are girlfriends for?”

“You’re amazing, you know that?” He shook his head as he leaned forward to kiss me again.

“I know,” I replied matter of factly, pecking his lips one more time before unfastening my seatbelt and turning to open the car door. “Call me tomorrow?”

That seemed like the kind of thing a girlfriend would say to a boyfriend before they parted ways. Not that I would know, but I was going off my extensive knowledge of romantic comedies and coming of age movies that take place at university.

Nodding, he lifted a hand in a wave as I swung my feet to the ground. “Will do. Goodnight.”

Bringing the pads of my fingers to my lips, I blew him a kiss before I shut the door and turned towards my dorm, thinking that this night had taken quite a fascinating turn for the better.