The BFF Job
Chapter Six
Kenna sat in the window seat of the hotel room. It was a rotten spring day and it didn't look like it was going to get any better. A steaming cup appeared in front of her face and she looked up to see Parker with a crooked smile.
"It's Hot Chocolate. Made with milk." Kenna took the cup from the young thief and smiled.
"Thanks Parker." The woman sat down in the small space that was left on the seat and compacted herself to a fairly comfortable looking position.
"Eliot made me my first cup of hot chocolate." Parker answered off handedly.
"I believe he made me my first cup too." Kenna returned. This made Parker smile.
"I think he thinks it will solve all your problems."
"I do believe your right." Kenna said as she looked into the cup. There were six mini marshmallows in it. Exactly the way Eliot used to make it for her.
"Why do make Eliot so angry on purpose?" Parker asked innocently.
"I guess it's because I can." Kenna answered and took a sip of her coco.
"Why would you want to? I mean when he's angry it's…scary. I've seen him fight his way out of a building full of bad guys and the rage that builds up in him…sometimes I feel like if we weren't there at the end of the day…" Kenna looked at Parker. The younger woman didn't like seeing the side of Eliot that he needed to do his job. Kenna understood that. But she had also known how to contain that side of the man she knew.
"I know he would never hurt me. He's yelled, screamed, thrown things, broken things, all in because I pissed him off but at the end of the day I know the boy I grew up with would never hurt me." Kenna looked up to see Eliot in the door way."Just be there for him at the end of the day Parker and don't ever be afraid to give the big lug a hug once in a while. Even the hardest of hitters can't resist a hug now and then." Kenna smiled. Eliot cleared his throat.
"Parker, Nate needs you." He said as he put his emotions in check. The petite thief stood up and bounded to the doorway. She stopped in front of him and with all the love in her sneaky little heart she hugged him. She didn't even notice how stiff Eliot stood or the exasperated look on his face. She just hugged him for all she was worth and bounded off to find her boss. "You really shouldn't encourage her."
"She worries about you. I think she's afraid all your pent up anger will cause you to combust one of these days." Kenna looked into his piercing blue eyes. "She likes that you make her hot chocolate."
"She likes anything she doesn't have to make herself. Why do you think she lives on cereal?"
"I think that's about all she had when she was a kid. It was the easiest thing to steal and store." Kenna answered. "You and I have been there."
"We had our best times sitting in the barn eating Fruit Loops." He smiled. God she missed his smile. And the way he stood behind you and touched the small of your back for encouragement when he knew you needed it the most. Or when he held you close and waited for your sobs to die down so you could hear his soothing words. Kenna felt a shiver go down her spine. She wasn't fourteen anymore and Eliot…he wasn't that boy.
"It's going to take the rest of the day to set up the mark. I thought maybe you might like to take a walk. "He knew what it was like to be caged and he knew Kenna was no better at it then he was. Unfolding herself from the window seat she slipped on her boots and grabbed her jacket. Eliot grabbed his and headed for the door. He checked the hall before they headed to the elevator.
"I feel like we should be checking around every corner like when we were little and played cops and robbers." She put both hands together and made a gun, holding it up by her cheek she quickly checked the next corner before giving Eliot the all clear. He had to laugh.
"I distinctly recall you and my baby sister wanted to play Dukes of Hazard. You would fight over who got to be Daisy." Kenna had forgotten about that. They both got in trouble for cutting their shorts to short.
"Those were the days." They got to the elevator and Eliot pressed the button.
"Have you heard anything from your family?" Eliot asked.
"Well you know mom had another batch of kids after I left." She sounded so bitter. "All the deserving people in the world who would love to have a child and she had fourteen she didn't give a damn about." The elevator opened and they got into the empty car.
"Did any of your brothers or sisters make it out?"
"I found that keeping my distance from the people who never gave me anything but nightmares was easier than I thought. I go back now and then to see Jodi and Kyle. I ran into my mother a few months ago. She barley said three words to me. She had a baby on her him and two in the cart." Eliot resisted the urge to put his arm around her. He couldn't risk getting close to anyone let alone his old friend.
"She was pretty messed up."
"More then we will ever know." The door opened and they stepped out of the elevator and headed out the door.
"How about the park?" Central Park was three blocks over and Eliot needed the fresh air to clear his head.
"Yeah. Remember we always talked about coming here and going to a Broadway show and go to a Nix game at Madison Square Garden."
"You wanted to take the Greyhound out here when you were twelve. It took all I had to convince you to wait." Eliot had to drag her back from the bus station kicking and screaming. Kenna laughed.
"I was kind of a brat."
"Kind of?" Eliot answered.
"Okay, I was a brat." They walked to the entrance of the park. It was busy for the middle of the day but all Kenna knew was the two of them.
"Where did you go that night?" She didn't have to tell him. He knew everything she did after that fateful night but he wanted to hear it in her own words.
"I took a bus as far as my run money could get me. Denver." Kenna took a deep breath. "I waitressed worked a factory job for a little while. I went to Aspen for the winter and made enough cash to go to Seattle for the summer. I end up joining the Army for college money."
"The Army?" Eliot smiled. "I knew I didn't teach you all those moves you used back at Jimmy's."
"Yeah well you taught me how to survive Eliot. I would have never made it though those first few years if you hadn't taught me how to take care of myself. And that no one had the right to push me around, no matter whom they were." She wrapped her arm around his and leaned on his shoulder. "You taught me that my life was worth living."
"You brought me back from the edge more than once Kenna. I guess that makes us even." They walked again in silence. They had always been comfortable with each other but the years apart had been hard on both of them.
"I know life wasn't easy for you after you left either. Do the others know about the things you've seen?" She felt him tense.
"Parker knows some. Nate knows more. Sophie has a way of making me open up when I don't even know I'm doing it. I never told them about you…about us because that was something that was mine alone. You were always there. In my mind." He chuckled. "Haunting me." Neither one of them would mention the night they had spent together. The night before he left Kentucky. She had been afraid that without him there to protect her one of her mother's boyfriends would take her innocents. So she had given it to him.
"I never meant to do that."
"Darlin' I know. I just want you to know you were never very far from my thoughts. And that if I seem a little on edge it's because I need to know you'll do everything in your power to stay safe until we get this thing cleared up."
"I promise." She would promise him the world if it meant the haunting look he had would stay away. He would get that way after the beatings he took from his step father and it hurt her to be the cause of that look now. Kenna saw some of the tension leave just then but she knew until Eliot knew that she was safe it would always be there.
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"If this deputy chief has a hard on for Kenna, what's stopping him from just snatching her up?" Hardison asked Nate who was standing behind him.
"He needs her for something or he wouldn't have gone out on a limb like this. He can't think that she was stupid enough to think the death of a cop, dirty or otherwise, would go without notice."
"She skipped town the day after the dirty files appeared. That can't look good for her."
"That's what's bothering me the most." Nate looked at the files on the screen in front of him. "Something isn't adding up."
"That's because she must have seen or done something she doesn't even know about." Eliot said in Nate's ear.
"What brought you to that conclusion?"
"The fact that the hotel is surround by cops and they're headed your way. You have two minutes to clear out."
"Get some place safe and we'll meet up." Nate said as he and Hardison started packing.
The team scatted and Kenna hopped that she didn't bring a world of trouble on Eliot and his friends.
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Short but sweet….I'm getting it all together now.