Senior Year Box Set

“The same place where gunmen were just the day before?” Cassidy pressed.

Frick! She had a point, but I’d be damned if I would admit it.

“Let him up. He’s not going to make that mistake again … are you, David?” Manaia asked.

“No,” I grudgingly promised.

Cassidy let me go. I’d just made it to my feet when the back door opened, and Duke came bounding in, followed by Peggy with both Little David and Coby.

“Coby got into another fight at daycare,” Peggy announced.

“Did he win?” Cassidy asked.

“It sounded like it. He hit that girl who’s been picking on Carol.”

“That’s my boy. If only his daddy was as big and tough,” Cassidy said as she took my son from Peggy.

The little giggle-box loved the praise he was receiving. Little David reached for me, so I took him.

“Since you’re here, I’m going to go study,” Peggy announced.

Melanie came in the back door, loaded down with groceries. Manaia jumped up to help her.

“There’s more in the car,” she told him.

I could see where his priorities were … his stomach.

Cassidy wrinkled her nose and handed Coby to me. I couldn’t wait until the little ones were all potty-trained.

◊◊◊

We ended up with a houseful for dinner. Fritz had flown in to check on Paul, and my dad had invited him for our talk tonight. Paul had walked in with Fritz, and he both apologized and thanked me for all that had happened Saturday. He flinched when my dad wanted to have a word with him. Fritz followed them to act as Paul’s bodyguard.

Devin Range showed up with Lou, his head of research and development and the creator of the fun toys they let me try out. They were accompanied by Rex, a man I hadn’t met before. He was Lou’s equivalent at a company Devin had set up to bid on a government contract for ballistic shirts for the military. They wanted details on how their product performed in real-world testing.

“You took a 9mm round at close range, and you only have bruising?” Rex asked.

“Show him,” Cassidy urged.

I rolled my eyes when Melanie’s head snapped around as I lifted my shirt. Sometimes, I wondered if she might be a perv.

“Are you sure it worked?” Devin asked, concerned.

Rex nodded.

“The material we use as an underlayer would have stopped the bullet, but he still might have died from the impact. At the very least, he would be in the hospital with internal injuries. While our test showed positive results, I needed to see it for myself.”

“Can I get more gear for my security team?” I asked.

“I’m not sure that’s a good idea …” Rex began, but Lou cut him off.

“We’ve used David to test more than one of our products. I would say he’s gone above and beyond on this one. We just need several more yards of the ballistic material. We’ll make them in house.”

All eyes turned to Rex. He thought about it for a moment and then nodded.

◊◊◊

After dinner, Dad took my security team to the office. When I tried to go in, I got kicked out. Instead, I took Devin and Lou to the garage to show them my new toy, the motorized hydrofoil surfboard, or ‘eFoil,’ as the salesman had called it.

“I’ve seen the video of these. Do they really work?” Lou asked.

“With the electric motor, you can surf in any conditions. It’s a lot of fun,” I shared and then pulled out my phone. “I’ve got video.”

They both were glued to my phone as it showed me zipping around the bay in Greece.

“Can I borrow this?” Lou asked, pointing at my new toy.

“Don’t let him. He’ll take it apart and break it,” Devin predicted.

Sounded like Lou had some Dare in him. I was glad to see I wasn’t the only one who had to deal with a friend who broke his toys.

“For your information, we were twelve. Plus, I improved your bike,” Lou complained.

“You forgot to put the brakes back on. I had to wear a cast all summer.”

“If you hadn’t used that tree to stop …”

“I had to … because I had no brakes!”

Lou ignored Devin and turned to me. It sounded like they’d had similar disagreements over the years.

“I want it back by the weekend after next,” I said.

I would be in LA this weekend, so I wouldn’t get a chance to test it out here.

“Just remember, I warned you,” Devin said and winked at me.

He was pulling Lou’s chain. I would make sure there weren’t any ‘extra’ parts when I got the board back, like Dare seemed to have when he put the drones back together.

Fritz and Paul had come out of dad’s office, and Fritz motioned that he wanted to talk with me privately. We walked around the corner of the house and sat on a couple of lawn chairs.

“David, I wanted to be the one to tell you this. Paul is being reassigned, and I’m going to let everything cool down and let Paul recover before deciding whether I’m going to let him go. He knew this and wanted to apologize to you, but I told him I wanted to talk with you and that he shouldn’t hang around.

“There are two reasons Paul is being reassigned. First was what he blurted out about your taking ecstasy to people who hadn’t been around you when it happened. A security person absolutely cannot violate his client’s confidentiality like that. It’s one of the very first lessons you learn.