Freeze (The Jewel Project #4)

4.3|| New Leader

Kyle walked past the grinning receptionist in the agency lobby and used his access card to get inside the designated elevator that would take him into the unseen part of the fake real estate business. As soon as the doors closed behind him, he leaned against the metal wall and let out a sigh. He hated this.

He wasn't even sure how and why he'd suddenly wound up the leader of the team, but Herrsion was bombarding him with administrative mumbo jumbo, and everyone was coming to him for progress reports regarding their departure. What sucked most was that he actually had them.

The elevator dinged and the doors open to reveal the pristine hallways of the research department. Kyle pushed himself off the wall and headed for the engineering lab, sure he'd find Jimmy there. Over the past few months, he'd made the place his second home. He'd probably sleep there if their mom didn't bug him to come home.

As expected, Jimmy was there, joined as usual by his new best friend and mentor, Steve Turner, the head of engineering. They were both bent over a huge magnifying glass, while Jimmy was using some tiny tools to work inside what looked like a watch.

"More to the left," Steve said, waving his hand in the opposite direction.

"Dude, shut up, I got this," Jimmy mumbled, closing one eye and bending his head under the magnifying glass. A buzz followed his words and he pulled back, a satisfied smirk on his face. "Told ya."

"You self-satisfied brat," Steve said, affectionately. "I have no idea how you could see that without the magnifying glass. I'm impressed by your hardware skills. Too bad your coding sucks."

"My coding does not suck."

"Hey guys," Kyle said before the argument could start.

"Hi Kyle," Steve said with a dazzling grin. "How's things?"

Good question. He had no idea how things was. "Not sure." He looked to Jimmy questioningly.

Jimmy frowned back at him, a sudden worried look crossing his face. "You look worried. Did anything happen to Sam and Tom?"

Kyle jolted, feeling like he'd hit a huge bump in the road which drove his stomach into his throat. A sudden fear grabbed hold of him because he hadn't thought about it. Crazily enough, ever since his little brothers had left, he hadn't once thought that something might've happened to them. They'd been gone for three days. They could be dead.

"I don't know. I have no news," he finally said. Was he an idiot? But to him, Sam and Tom together were indestructible. Sam was brilliant and Tom turned out harder to kill than a cockroach.

Jimmy visibly relaxed and leaned back, joining his hands behind his head, his elbows spread out. "You still look worried though."

He was, but it was such a stupid reason.

"Do you guys need space for bro talk?" Steve asked with a concerned air that didn't fool anyone. He was one second away from laughing.

Kyle squinted at him. "That would be nice, smartass."

Steve grinned some more, ruffled his flaming hair, stretched dramatically, then basically skipped out of the room. Kyle shook his head. He'd never seen such an overgrown child in his life. Well, Billy was close, but the missions had matured him a lot.

"Did you really want to talk to me in private?" Jimmy asked.

"No, he just annoys me," Kyle answered with a laugh.

Jimmy smirked. "So what's going on?" He waited for an answer, and when he didn't get it, let out a sigh. "Kyle, it's not stupid. You're worried about Kay, aren't you?"