Just doing my Job

When she awoke, her brain was foggy. The feeling was not normal and she didn’t like it one bit. She shook her head to clear it and noted the soreness in her upper body. She groaned. “What the hell happened?” Talking to no one and getting no answer, she cautiously swung her feet to the floor and stood up. She was shocked by what she saw while looking in her floor-length mirror. Her right shoulder was wrapped heavily. Testing her pain level, she shrugged her shoulders and immediately winced. Then it hit her.

The attack. The dead coyote. “Niall!” she exclaimed. Walking quickly but carefully, she made her way to his suite. He wasn’t in there. Glancing at the phone in her hands, she realized he was down in the basement. Then she heard the gunshots. Pulling a hidden pistol from underneath the decorative table in the hallway, she darted to the stairwell, taking them two at a time. Loud, pounding music invaded her ears, a heated conversation could barely be heard. She began clearing rooms and wondering where her partner was as he should have already been at the compound by now.

“Dammit” she heard. Jenson sounded frustrated. “I’m trying” came from the young Irishman. The gun range was occupied by the two. Letting out a shaky breath, she leaned against the doorway with the gun trained towards the floor. Her head was swimming. She closed her eyes and took a few steadying breaths. Noticing a presence standing before her, she looked up. “You look like shit boss.” Her eyebrow rose and she smirked, “Gee thanks buddy.” “Sarcasm. I like it.” Her eyes cut to the young man practicing his assembling skills on a small nine millimeter.

“Anyone want to fill me in on everything that happened yesterday? I’m assuming that was all yesterday.” Her partner began to speak but Niall cut him off. “You took on a coyote by yourself. Kinda bad ass if you ask me. Wicked scars by the way.” She chuckled at the way he sounded impressed. “Just saving your life like I was paid to.” The pop star snorted. “I could have outrun it if I had been given the chance.” “What I saw was not you trying. It was you frozen in fear.” He was slowly approaching her and his eyes were beginning to flash with anger. “What’s that supposed to mean? I’ve asked to be trained.” “And you’ve only been here a few days. I was letting you get settled.” “So it’s your fault you got attacked. Awesome job you’re doing.” “Look here junior” she paused, bumping his chest with her pointed finger for effect, “You’re my charge. You’re my job. I’m not going to let anything happen to you. Should I get hurt then so be it. So long as you, the young, naïve, cocky pop star remains healthy and intact, it doesn’t matter what happens to me.”

Her voice was loud and booming. He shrunk down a bit. Leslie felt the firm grasp of her co-worker squeeze her shoulder indicating she should calm down. She took a breath and sighed. “I’m sorry kid.” Blondie merely nodded and went back to the bench. “Boss, he’s right. He didn’t ask for this situation but he could be trained to help. From what I’ve seen both last night and this morning, there’s some potential there. You go shower and eat and I’ll begin with some basics. You good with him learning how to punch correctly?” She nodded and left with no more words spoken.

“Does she get bitchy like that with her other jobs?” Niall asked, using air quotes. “Dude, I would not let her hear you say that unless you want to end up flat on your back and have your balls up in your throat.” The younger man chuckled. Jenson continued on, “Do you know how to hit? Can you hit?” “Seriously? I’m Irish. Like you have to ask me that.” Just as the kid began to brag, the bigger male laid him out with a solid blow to his gut. “What the hell was that?” The muscled man remained quiet with a smirk on his face. Clutching his abdomen, he got to his feet. “That was a sucker punch. I wasn’t ready.” “Just imagine we’re in a bar and I’ve cussed you out.” “You’d already be laid out on the ground.”

The older man gave the young gun a moment to gather his wits and began to dance around him, bobbing and weaving. Niall swung out, barely missing Jenson. “Quit messing around and hit me, pop star.” They both laughed at this. “What’s so funny pretty boy? Afraid you’ll mess up your perfect hands? Don’t want to break a sweat? Come on and hit me!” He got dangerously close, practically giving the kid a free pass. He planted his hands on the young one’s shoulder and roughly pushed him. “Stop it mate. You’re just being rude now.” “Make me.” The anger that flashed in the kid’s eyes was just what man needed to see. Making himself deliberately distracted, the young man got a swing in. It stung and made Jenson see stars. He went down to one knee, cradling his jaw.

“Oh shit, I’m sorry.” “Don’t be. That’s just what I wanted to happen. I knew I had to provoke you to get a good hit from you. I needed to see what I’m working with. You need to be taught how to hit properly and you need to know how to take a hit. I’ve learned quite a bit in the past few minutes and I must say, I’m impressed. You always hear about the stereo-type of the Irish and their brawling skills. You definitely got that honestly. There a few necessary tweaks but in a few days, I’ll have you knocking grown men out like Mike Tyson and Sugar Ray Leonard.” “Sweet”. “Come on, let’s get a drink. Leslie should be calmed down by now. You look like you need some ibuprofen anyway.” “Yeah, that and a stiff drink.”

Notes

I hope this is as entertaining as I thought it would be.