Fit for the Job (6 page)

“Yeah,” Bodie said. “Like Snoopy’s doghouse.”

Jay cocked an eyebrow at him.
Did he just crack a joke?
But Bodie was focused on the woman.

“Hey, Evelyn,” he called out. “Got someone I want you to meet.”

Dropping the weights with a clank, she looked up in surprise. “Oh, Bodie, hey!” She stood, wiping her forehead with a rag, then sauntered over to them. “Eben said I could work out here before my shift, am I in your way?”

“No, we’re just passing through,” he said. “This is Jay Capello. He’s the one who’s gonna be working with Sassy.”

Evelyn wiped her palms on her shorts then offered him her right hand, along with a pretty smile. “Nice to meet you, Jay. I guess we’ll be seeing a lot of each other.”

Jay shook her hand, silently admiring her physique. Damn, this woman was buff. “Good to meet you, Evelyn.”

“Evelyn shares my job duties,” Bodie said. “She works nights.”

Jay was hesitant to push Bodie, since he was
so
not warm and fuzzy, but the guy seemed to be opening up at least a little, so he took a chance and turned to him. “What exactly are your job duties, if you don’t mind my asking?”

Bodie raised a pierced eyebrow at him.

Evelyn let out a throaty laugh. “Oh honey, why do you think I’m working out so hard?” she said. “We guard the kid.”

Bodie chuckled, an uncomfortable sound. “Yeah,” he said. “Speaking of, you ready to meet her?” He looked at Jay.

“Sure, sounds good.”

“It was nice to meet you, Jay,” Evelyn said. “I’ll see you soon?”

“He starts tomorrow,” Bodie said with assurance, and quickly turned and headed for the door.

Jay blinked, following Bodie with his eyes, then glanced back at Evelyn, who offered him a smile. “Good
luck
,” she whispered, then turned and headed back into the gym.

Jay left the gym and caught up with Bodie in the hallway. “What did she mean by that?”

Bodie kept walking. “By what?”

“That she’s working out so hard to guard the kid.”

“Nothing,” Bodie said. “She’s just joking.” He stopped before a closed door. “We’re about to go back into the main house. Can I have your phone?”

Jay continued to stare hard at Bodie as he pulled his phone out of his pocket. “Here you go.”

Bodie avoided his eyes as he slipped it into his pocket. He stood there a moment, hands on his hips, staring at the closed door but not opening it. Finally, he turned to Jay. “Any other phones on you? Cameras? Record—”

“No,” Jay said. “Nothing else.”

Bodie’s lips tightened to a straight line, and he let out a breath through his nose. “I’ll have to pat you down.”

Jay’s mouth fell open. “Excuse me?”

“It’ll only take a minute.”

“What the hell are you talking about pat me down? You didn’t do that when I was here yesterday.”

“You weren’t going in to see Sassy yesterday.”

Jay stared at him, stunned. He let out a breathy laugh. “What are you afraid I’m gonna do? Take pictures of the kid?”

Bodie kept his gaze steady. “It’s nothing personal. Just the rules. This is in the contract you just read, if you’ll recall.”

“I don’t recall,” Jay said. “I don’t recall anything about you
patting me down
.”

“Submitting to searches as necessary,” Bodie said.

“And you think it’s necessary?”

“I don’t like it any more than you do,” Bodie said. “Eben’s rules, not mine.”

Jay felt a tiny spark of embarrassment at the ‘
I don’t like it any more than you do’
. The vague humiliation buried his protests. “Fine,” he said. “Search away.”

“Raise your arms out to your sides,” Bodie said. “Please.”

Jay did as he asked, sighing heavily for Bodie’s benefit. Bodie leaned in and patted his tee shirt under his armpits, then slowly moved down the sides of his torso. It was the closest the man had gotten to him thus far. Jay examined his hair as he crouched down and felt along his thigh. The dreadlocks were random, four or five of them weaved throughout his loose, thick locks.

Then Bodie moved to Jay’s other ankle, and his hands patted their way up, over his knee. Jay sucked an involuntary breath in as Bodie’s fingers drifted up his thigh, nearly to his crotch. Glancing up, Bodie paused for a moment, meeting Jay’s eyes. He quickly released Jay’s leg, then stood, stepping back. “Turn around. Almost done.”

Jay gave Bodie his back. He struggled not to shiver as Bodie lifted his hair behind his neck, then slid his palms down his back. He did a quick pat-pat around his waist, checking his belt. Then the hands were gone. “Okay, you’re all set.”

Bodie pulled open the door before Jay could say anything.

Jay followed the guard through the door, trailing three feet behind as they turned a corner and up a short set of stairs. Jay felt strange after the pat-down. Not violated exactly. Not aroused exactly. Just strange, awkward, like something intimate but not altogether wholesome had happened between them.

Bodie’s stoic silence seemed to have returned as they rounded a corner into the main house. Jay recognized the double doors where he’d met with Eben. Bodie moved past them and Jay followed until they reached a wide staircase. The house seemed quiet, empty.

As they took the stairs, Bodie glanced back at him, slowing his steps, allowing Jay to move up alongside him. “Sassy’s a kid, and she’s immature like a kid,” Bodie said softly. “But she’s smart. So don’t talk down to her, no matter what.”

“I wouldn’t,” Jay said as they crested the top of the stairs, standing in a wide corridor.

“But don’t let her bait you, either,” Bodie said.

Jay scowled at him. “What do you mean?”

“No matter what she says to you, don’t let her see you react. She’ll try to mess with your head. But that’s all it is. Don’t let it upset you.”

Jay laughed. “I come from a family of loud Italians who’ve made an Olympic sport of poking fun at each other. I’m sure I can handle it.”

Bodie did a double take at Jay. “You don’t look Italian.”

“Yeah, I know.” Jay nodded. “I’m kind of the white sheep. So...is Sassy just a wise ass, or is...is there something wrong with her?”

Bodie frowned at him. “Yeah, there’s something wrong with her. She’s fifteen.”

Jay blinked, then nodded. “Okay. Got it.”

Letting out a relieved sounding sigh, Bodie moved ahead, stopping outside a closed door. He knocked. “Sassy? It’s Bodie. I’ve got Jay with me, the fitness instructor. He wants to meet you.”

Jay crept hesitantly up behind him. He could hear what sounded like a loud television beyond the door. They waited, but no one answered.

Bodie knocked again. “Sassy? I’m coming in, okay?”

“Maybe she went out,” Jay said when there was no response.

Bodie glanced at him and shook his head. “She’s in there. Come on, follow me.”

Pushing open the door, Bodie stepped inside. Jay followed, looking around. There was no sign of the girl, but a wide screen TV chattered on before a sunken living room with a huge L-shaped sofa and soft, puffy chairs. Jay had been expecting a bedroom, but this was more like a suite. He could see a pristine, shiny kitchenette on the far end, and a hallway leading to somewhere unseen.

“Sassy?” Bodie called out.

“What do you want?” a female voice shouted back angrily from somewhere within the suite.

Bodie let out an exasperated sigh, muscular shoulders tensing. “Can you wait here a minute?” he muttered to Jay.

“Sure.”

Bodie moved through the room and disappeared down the hallway. “Sassy, I’m coming down.”

Jay stood stiffly, waiting. He looked over at the big screen, and recognized the science fiction move
Pandorum
playing out. The mutants were swarming a crew member, tearing him apart. Jay turned away.

“Jay?” Jay turned as Bodie reappeared, a short, dark haired girl trailing behind him. “This is Sassy. Sassy, this is Jay. Your new fitness instructor.”

The girl stopped there, arms crossed over her chest. Bodie reached back and gently grasped her elbow, pulling her forward.

Jay blinked at the girl, too stunned to speak for a moment for his confusion. What struck him silent was that Sassy Wright was
not
overweight. She wasn’t a waif by any means, but her curvy little body was well within healthy range for a girl her age. Clad in black yoga pants and a red tank with a black skull on it, she was adorable. A babyish chub rounded her cheeks, but that was just youth. Her hair was parted in the middle, falling in thick, black, Scarlett O’Hara curls to just above her shoulders. Her blue eyes were Eben Wright’s—no mistaking whose child she was.

“Nice to meet you, Sassy,” Jay said.

Sassy finally moved, breezing past Jay to the sofa and dropping down onto it, pulling her knees up. She crossed her arms in front of her chest again, eyes on the television.

“Say hello, Sassy,” Bodie said.

Her head turned and she sneered at Bodie. “What am I, a fucking puppet?” She glanced at Jay. “
Hello
, Jay.”

Jay shook himself out of his stupor and approached the sofa, taking one of the puffy chairs alongside it. “Great to finally meet you,” he said. “I’m looking forward to our workouts. Tell me, what do you like to do for exercise?”

“Masturbate,” she said, eyes still on the television.

Jay glanced at Bodie, who gave him a hard look.
No matter what she says to you, don’t let her see you react.

Jay chuckled, and looked at the girl. “Besides that. Do you like to work out?”

She shrugged, which he took as a good sign. At least it was a response.

“Well, I plan to work around what you’re comfortable with. It’s not my journey, it’s yours. You’ve got a nice gym downstairs. I just saw it. Pretty amazing.”

She rolled her eyes.

“I’ll be back tomorrow. Do you want to arrange a time to meet me in the gym?”

“I’m not setting foot in that fucking gym,” she said.

“Sassy, come on,” Bodie said. “You don’t need to swear.”

“I’m fucking sorry,” she muttered under her breath.

“You don’t want to train in the gym at all?” Jay asked. “There are a lot of different things we can do. I’m not gonna ask you to bench press a truck if that’s what you’re worried about,” he said, trying lighten the mood.

Her eyes slid to him briefly, then returned to the television. “I’m not going to the gym. It smells like feet in there.”

“Okay.” Jay clapped his hands. “No...gym then.”
No gym? What the fuck am I supposed to do with this kid?
“Do you play any sports?”

“Field hockey,” she said in that same monotone, still staring at the screen.

Jay perked up. “Oh really? Cool. I like field hockey.”

“I hate field hockey,” she said. “I’m quitting the team.”

Jay raised his eyebrows. “
Okay
.” He glanced at Bodie, who nodded at him, he supposed in encouragement. He rolled his eyes at Bodie, then turned back to Sassy. “Any other sports you like? Swimming?”

She shook her head. “Hate it.”

“Tennis?”

“I don’t play tennis,” she said.

“Well, I could teach you to play,” Jay said. “I’m pretty good if I do say so myself.”

Sassy finally turned to look at Jay. “I didn’t say I couldn’t play. I’m sure I’m better than you. I said I
don’t
play. It’s fucking boring.”

Jay struggled with his frustration. This was a young girl. He had to be patient. “Well then tell me what you do like. Do you have any ideas what you’d like to do for exercise?”

Sassy shifted her position on the sofa so she faced Jay. She stared into his eyes, then looked him over from head to toe. “How much is my father paying you?”

Jay huffed out a laugh. “Um...well that’s not really important.”

“Are you a prostitute?”

Grinning, Jay took a deep breath. “No, Sassy. I’m not a prostitute. I’m a fitness instructor.”

She leaned toward him. “You’re neither,” she said in a gruff voice. “You’re a pony. Purchased by my father. To distract me.”

Jay stared back at her for a long moment, then threw his head back and let out a belly laugh.

“What’s so funny, Pony?” Sassy snapped.

“Oh, God,” Jay said, laughter trailing out of him. He pointed at the girl. “You’ve been watching
Apocalypse Now
, haven’t you?”

Sassy’s rounded cheeks flushed pink, and she turned away. Curling in on herself, she crossed her legs, then her arms. “What are you talking about?”

“
You
know,” Jay said, waving a finger at her. “You were just doing Colonel Kurtz.” Jay pulled a scowling face, and doing his best Brando imitation, said, “‘You’re neither. You’re an errand boy. Sent by grocery clerks. To collect a bill.’”

Sassy’s cheeks dimpled, clearly struggling to suppress a laugh. “You’re a freak.”

“Come on, Sassy,” Jay said. “What do you like to do? Basketball?”

She shook her head.

“Soccer?”

“Pssht.” She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, right.”

“How about rollerblading? Everyone likes rollerblading.”

Her head turned abruptly, sour sneer disappearing for a moment. Then the frown returned to her cute face. “There’s nowhere to rollerblade around here. There’s nothing around here.”

“You’re wrong,” Jay said. “I live around here. You’ve got a bike path right up the road, we could go there tomorrow. You have rollerblades?” He looked around the lavish suite. “Of course you do. You have everything, I bet.”

Sassy perked up, straightening her back. Her eyes were on Bodie as she said, “Why yes, Jay, I would
love
to go rollerblading on the bike path tomorrow.”

Jay looked at Bodie, who shook his head. “Sassy...”

“
What?
” She stood, tiny hands clenched to fists. “What, Bodie? Jay is my new trainer. He wants to take me rollerblading. Dad’s
paying
him to take me rollerblading.”

“You know you can’t leave the property, Sassy.”

“She can’t?” Jay asked, turning to Bodie. “Why not?”

Bodie gave him a warning glance.

Jay shrugged. “Is it because of who she is? Being in the public eye?” He looked up at Sassy. “I’m sorry, Sassy, I’m new to this. If it’s not safe for you—”

“Not
safe
?” she shrieked, and Jay jumped. “That’s not why! No one out there knows who the hell I am. It’s because these fuckers are keeping me prisoner!”