The Order

31

We sat in silence as Monroe gently and carefully stitched up my arm for me. He had already stitched up my hand, and wrapping it tightly. Of course, I fought him on it, but after the fourth time he threatened to strangle me, I finally gave in and let him help me.

He was good doctor, and instead of any pain killers, he instead handed me a bottle of whiskey to ease the pain.

"So how are things at Corporate?" I asked, looking over at him. There were more grey hairs adorning his hair and beard. He looked tired, the bags under his eyes and his sunken in face told me that he hasn't been taking care of himself. His reading glasses hung low on his nose, and his chin was pointed upward as he carefully worked on my arm.

"Chaotic, as usual." He simply said.

"I don't like that you're there still." I said after a moment of silence.

"Neither do I" He said softly.

"Then leave." I said.

"And go where?" He said as he furrowed his brow, concentrating on the stitch he was preforming.

"Stay here, with the me, with the Knights... we can figure it out." I said before I took a swig of the whiskey.

Monroe took a deep sigh before he pursed his lips.

"I wish I could, kid." He said before he looked over at me with a small smile.

"Why not?" I said as I tilted my head. He finished up the last stitch before he gently grabbed the scissors on the table beside him. He remained silent for a moment before he finished up my stitches, tilting his head as he examined his work.

"Someone has to feed them false information about your whereabouts." Monroe said as he looked up at me.

"The higher ups at Corporate have been... skeptical of me lately. They think that because I mentored you and your sister, that our relationship, clouds my fucking judgement. So they gave me a task to test my loyalty." He said before he clenched his jaw.

"And what task is that?" I said before I took another swig of the bottle.

"To get information on you. Your location, cars, assets, family, friends, anything they could use to find you." He said before he took a deep breath.

"And when did they assign this to you?" I asked as I looked up at him.

"Four months ago." He said before he chuckled under his breath. "They knew they were going to be cutting ties with James, it was only a matter of time. They wanted to be prepared for when they actually did, to have all this intel on you so they could send everyone they could once that contract was terminated."

"That's why I couldn't reach out, I was scared that if I messed up one fucking time, that if they found that burner phone, or found any trace of me reaching out to you, they'd find you." Monroe said with his brow furrowed.

"I know." I said, gently placing my hand on top of Monroes. We stayed there, silent for a moment.

"Kenji posed the biggest threat. He didn't trust my intel, so he went out on his own to find you. When he reported that he made contact with you in Greece, I did everything I could to throw them off your trail." He said.

"But now that he's dead, I should be able to buy you a few more months. Their may be some assassins that slip through the cracks, but it'll be nothing compared to the amount of people who are hunting you down right now." Monroe said seriously.

"So who did they replace James with?" I asked, taking another swig of the bottle.

"Some Cartel leaders, a trio of brothers who are missing a few fucking brain cells." Monroe said he raised a brow.