The Damaged (The Insiders Trilogy #2) - Tijan by Tijan

Kash stepped to the side, squaring against his grandfather.

He didn’t speak. He didn’t move again. He was simply waiting for something.

Then Calhoun exploded.

That’s what Kash had been waiting for.

Calhoun looked from the security guard to Kash and back, then back to Kash, and his restraint vanished.

He didn’t say a word. That was the scary part of it. He simply lunged for his grandson, but again he was blocked—by his own guards. His own guards! Not even the one that moved in the first time to block Kash, but the other three around Calhoun. One barked a command. The door to Calhoun’s SUV opened. The three guards caught their employer and half carried, half guided him to his SUV.

Into his SUV.

They closed the door.

The SUV took off; the one before it, too. The last one waited.

The first guard looked at Kash and I heard Kash’s one word. “Stay.”

The guard nodded, moving to the driver of that SUV. They exchanged words, and then that SUV moved on, too. The guard remained, stepping back onto the sidewalk, but waiting.

Those guards, Calhoun’s guards, were Kash’s. Not Calhoun’s.

They worked for Kash!

And now Kash was coming to me.

I realized it with a jolt. I’d been watching the guard, and then he looked at Kash and I looked at Kash, and Kash wasn’t as contained now. His face wasn’t granite. The seething I saw in his eyes was all over his face, and the crowd felt it. People moved back a step. The path was cleared right up to me, and he turned, said something to the university staff. Their gazes moved to me, back to him, and they nodded. The man shook Kash’s hand before all of them left.

Kash was coming my way, striding over in a few steps.

He reached forward, his hand grabbing my arm, and he led me briskly and with purpose to his car. The front passenger door was opened. He was not messing around, and he set me inside, waiting while I quickly pulled my feet in. Then he was rounding the car for the driver’s side. Calhoun’s guard shut my door. Erik and Fitz descended on Kash, listening and getting orders.

Erik nodded, and both he and Fitz hurried away.

Kash’s hand went to his door handle but didn’t open it. He spoke over the hood of his car to Calhoun’s now ex-guard. I couldn’t catch what he said, but the guard moved away. He disappeared into the crowd of students who were still lingering. A third of them were watching the guard that was heading into my building. The rest of our audience was gawking at us, some with phones pointed at us, others with their phones pressed to their ears.

Kash took a pause. I couldn’t see what he was doing, but then the door was opened. He was inside, and he didn’t say a word before he pulled away.

I knew he was furious.

I was bracing myself, because I didn’t know if he was mad at me, mad I was there, or just mad at his grandfather. I was guessing the last two were definites, but I wasn’t sure about the first and I was holding my breath, waiting. A sick feeling was in my gut.

He waited until he was on the freeway before starting.

His voice was low, back to being controlled, but he didn’t look at me. “I knew he was coming to your school today. Knew he was going to make a move to approach you again. I knew all this because those guards on him work for me. He knows about the one, but I gotta make the decision to pull the rest or risk him figuring it out and executing them all.” He swore, and it was savage. He punched a button on the car’s phone.

The dial tone filled the car, and then it was ringing.

“Boss?”

Kash was grimacing as he spoke. “Pull everyone. I can’t risk him doing anything to you guys. Everyone, Connor. Everyone.”

A moment of quiet on the other end, then, “Got it. Disperse, or new job location?”

“Disperse, except you and Monty. Both of you come in. I want you at the estate.”

“Got it, boss.” Another beat, and then we could hear his smile when he said, “Have to say it was a pleasure holding him back from you today. I’ll send the word and we’ll dump him. He’ll get picked up within minutes, but the guys will take off and wait for your new orders.”

“Good.”

The call ended, and without blinking, Kash was filling me in. “I had six men guarding Calhoun. He thought they were a gift from a family friend. They weren’t. They were sent by me, and through them, I was told his plans for today. I’ve known about his plans for the last week, and even before that. His stop at the apartment was not announced to his team or I would’ve been told that ahead of time, too.”

He flashed his turn signal, smoothing his car over two lanes of traffic and onto the exit ramp.

I was half taking in our surroundings before he started again. “I didn’t want to lose my guards on him, but he upped his trip today. I had to move in, drop my news to your school, and he would know that the first time might’ve been a coincidence but the second time was not. He would’ve known. I had to burn six guards I had on him. The trip to Brazil was a calculated guess and a move to strike a better relationship with who I think he might pull a brand-new security detail from. It’s a guess. He won’t trust anyone else from this country, since your father and I are the two people who most want to be aligned with, not aligned against. I guessed at who he’d approach, just didn’t know it’d be so fucking soon.”