Caleb

Chapter Forty One

Caleb ~

The next morning Caleb, Lainey and James headed up to Knight Security. Ricardo's attorney needed Lainey's signatures on a few things so they were going to use one of the empty offices.

Lainey seemed so much brighter than she had the day before and Caleb knew it was a combination of a good night's sleep and the unconditional support she had received from the girls. She seemed more content and at ease as he walked them through Knight giving them the grand tour of the gym, garage, gun range and offices.

Caleb was pointing to things with one hand, but kept the other wrapped around Lainey's hand. Since he no longer had to hide his affection for her, he started to realize how difficult it was to be around her and not touch her in some way. It was like her hand screamed for his and he loved the soft hums of contentment and warm smiles he got in return for every touch he gave.

They passed by Pierce who was sitting in his office signing a bunch of paperwork that Alpha team needed from their secondary mission in Colombia.

Caleb stuck his head in the door, pulling Pierce from his paperwork.

"This is Pierces' office." Caleb said, letting Lainey peek inside and wave.

"They gave this joker an office?" James scoffed.

Pierce let out a laugh and leaned back in his chair, lacing his fingers together behind his head.

"Got my name on the door and everything."

"And you have a fish?" Lainey asked, eyeing the fish tank in the corner.

"That's killer, Hollywood won it at a carnival game two years ago and brought it up here, but the damn thing won't die." Caleb laughed.

"He can hear you, you know." Pierce said flatly. "And he's part of the team now."

Lainey covered her mouth to conceal a laugh as they left Pierce's office and headed down the hallway.

"So protective of that damn fish," Caleb chuckled as he led them into a conference room.

"That's amazing that it's lived that long. I didn't think goldfish lived very long, especially the ones you win at a carnival." Lainey said with surprise in her voice.

Caleb leaned over and looked down the hallway from his seat at the conference table then lowered his voice to a volume level just above a whisper.

"Oh the fish died within the first few weeks Pierce had it here, but he got so attached to the damn thing, none of us had the heart to tell him, so we just replaced it. In fact that fish you just saw is Killer number twelve to be exact. We just keep replacing them every time they die and Hollywood has got no idea."

James let out a loud laugh and Lainey, stifled her own with a hand over her mouth.

"Aww that's really sweet actually." Lainey said.

Hunter and Axel came in seconds later, both holding files.

"Pulled these off the printer for you Lainey, once you sign them I'll send them back for you." Hunter said, sliding a few documents over to Lainey who quickly grabbed and pen and started jotting down her signature on the flagged pages.

"I know it's none of our business, but what are you guys gonna do about your fathers companies? You don't have to tell us, but we're all genuinely curious." Hunter asked both Lainey and James.

Lainey and James looked at each other briefly before James spoke up first.

"I mean it's all what Lainey wants to do really, but you've got options, Bug. You can go back and run them yourself, you can sell them, or you can just be a silent shareholder and let someone else in the company run the day to day operations." James said, looking at Lainey and searching for her reaction.