Page 21 of Hurry Up And Wait

He glanced at the screen and frowned. “He’s stating we need to joinyou on the campaign trail. For what purpose?” he asked, looking up at me.

“Just to fuck with us. He’s trying to prove he holds all the power.”

“He needs you just as much as we need him,” Eli stated.

“He could win without me.” I slumped into a chair, rubbing my hand over my face. What a clusterfuck. If this didn’t mean so much to Cash, I’d walk away. But this was what we needed to find out who was involved with The Syndicate. I couldn’t exactly tell him to fuck off. “This is all a power struggle to him. If he controls me, then he wins. If he controls you also, I’m really fucked.”

Red nodded, then looked up at me sharply. “Do we have to wear one of those monkey suits?”

“Fuck, I hate the monkey suits,” Eli groaned. “With the tie.”

“And the white shirt. Why is it always white? Why not black?”

“Or blue. I could definitely go for blue.”

“Or gray,” Red countered. “White is so…”

“Pretentious.”

“Exactly, it’s fucking pretentious.”

“You wear white all the time,” I cut in.

“Name one fucking time,” he said angrily.

I quirked an eyebrow at him, nodding to the shirt he was wearing.

He glanced down and cut me a dirty look. “This is a T-shirt. It doesn’t matter what fucking color it is.”

“You can’t see the fucking shirt under the suit. What does it matter?”

“They’re not comfortable,” he snapped. “This is fucking comfortable.”

“So, wear a fucking T-shirt under the suit!”

Eli shook his head. “Nah, I don’t think we can do that. It would totally blow the op.”

“In what way?”

“Well…it wouldn’t look right.”

“Then what the fuck are you bitching about?”

Eli looked at me strangely. “Isn’t that what we do?”

I couldn’t believe this. I was losing my fucking mind, and they were acting like this was some fucking comedy hour. “How the hellam I supposed to go on the campaign trail when I have two of the three stooges with me?”

“As I recall, it was you who freaked out over a mummy.”

“Those things are fucking scary as hell,” I snapped. “And that’s beside the point.”

“What exactly is the point?” Eli asked. “We’re just trying to keep things light. Unless, of course, you want to tell us what this is really all about.”

He kicked up his heels, waiting for me to tell the story, but that wasn’t going to happen. “The story has nothing to do with the job.”

“I beg to differ,” Red grinned. “The story is what has you wadded up tighter than a pair of panties in the washer.”

“Whatever it is, you have to let it go.”