Hey all, I've changed my mind and decided to post this chapter early as it is on the small side and I can introduce you to Damon. 
I'd also like to apologize for my lack of knowledge on security protocols so if you could overlook any of my fopar's in that area it would be much appreciated. 

Chapter Two – Damon

My roommate and work colleague, Kelly, sat on the bench in front of his locker bent over massaging his big bald head. Already in shower shoes and a towel wrapped around his waist with his shower kit sitting beside him.

“You okay?” I grunted opening my locker to rustle up a towel and my own shower kit.

He forced his body to sit up and look at me. “Yeah. What a fucking shit show, man.” He had moved on to massaging his forehead aggressively with his fingers.

“Mm.” I agreed.

“We better get a shower in before Chet storms in here raising hell,” he told me with an exhausted sigh grabbing his kit heading for the communal showers. Following him into the room, I placed myself a couple of heads away.

Today had been a complete crap fest. Kelly is right about that. Our boss, Chet, is going to lose his ever-loving shit over this. It’s not the first job to go sideways lately either. The water ran down over me, soothing my achy muscles while going over the job in my head. I’m at a loss. There was nothing that we could have done differently with the exception of walking away when we first arrived. The damn client took that option off the table by bringing his very young son with him. If we’d have left the asshole would have taken that kid into a dangerous situation, that’s for damn sure.

When we first got to the job, the client had his kid with him. A big fat, hell no in the keep your client safety handbook. He was delivering diamonds for fuck sake. The whole damn thing was shady from the get-go. I’m not too sure we weren’t helping a guy fence stolen gems. The fucker. We told the guy he couldn’t bring his kid, the man chucked a hissy fit any toddler would have been proud of. Not to mention when I told him we wouldn’t do the job without the bosses okay the guy started name dropping from the mayor to police commissioner and threatened to sue us for breach of contract. Blah, blah, blah. Kelly didn’t give a shit who the guy knew. It’s all about safety first. When I couldn’t get through to Chet, our boss, or the office, Kelly sent a group text. He explained the situation and asked if we should proceed or tell the guy to ‘shove it.’ We didn’t get a response in time and followed orders as we did in the Marines.

The day went from crappy to complete shit once we reached the jewelers. Kelly and I planted ourselves at the door of the office inside the shop while the client went about his business. The guy had left his kid in the hands of one of the shopkeepers without a second thought. Made me want to punch the asshole right in the fucking throat. His kid was sick with the flu and should have been in bed. Not dragged all over creation sniffling and coughing over everyone and everything. Poor little tyke.

“I have a bad feeling about this Rhodes. I don’t understand why he didn’t use an armored car service like a normal person.” Kelly stated angrily, checking for a response from the boss for the millionth time. “If anything happens, grab the kid and get the fuck out of here, man. I don’t want to be responsible for a kid getting hurt.”

I nodded, keeping one eye on the kid and the other on the shop. Not two minutes later, I shit you not, two men dressed in black wearing ski masks and wielding guns entered the place. Which in itself is strange since at the time the only way in was with an electronic key to the airlock. I lurched forward grabbing the kid and shoving the sales assistant toward the back door, pushing her into a crouch as we moved toward the back exit. I opened the rear door pulling her through trying to hand her the kid but he wouldn’t let go. Checking our surroundings again to make sure it was clear, thankful it was fenced behind the shops with the securely locked gates. I was relieved when the door opened to the back of the bakery across the private parking lot. A guy sporting an apron and dusted in flour emerged to have a smoke. Gross, but fortuitous.

“Go.” I pointed her to the man staring at us from the bakery. “Call 9-1-1.”

“I pressed the silent alarm.”

“I don’t give a shit.” I hissed behind gritted teeth. I didn’t even think about the young boy in my arms when the words left my mouth. I hope he uses the bad word at the most inopportune time around his father. Like in church. Asshole. “Call 9-1-1. Give them as much information as you can.” I talked into the side of the young boy's head while he whimpered in my arms, he was so frightened and rightly so. I tried to make my voice as soothing as possible. “Hey, little guy. It’s going to be okay. I need you to go with…” I looked over at the woman, and she mouthed her name. “Sheila, okay. You’ll be safe.”

“No,” he whimpered clinging to me tightly like a spider monkey but shaking like a leaf. “My dad.” He cried. I’m going to kill the kid’s father myself. Fucking selfish prick.

“Your dad’s fine. My partner Kelly is with him. I need you to be brave, okay.” I rubbed my hand gently on the back of his head. The barely-there movement of his little head when he nodded, shifting his weight to go to Sheila broke my heart. My focus didn’t leave them or the back exit to the jeweler until they were talking with the guy from the bakery, and he escorted them inside, giving me the okay signal. Huh, a military guy working at the bakery.

Thankfully, I hadn’t heard any gunshots just some muffled yelling while I was outside. I slid inside the opening to the back entrance of the jeweler closing the door silently behind me. With my weapon drawn, I pied the corner of the hallway into the shop, I huffed out a laugh while warily entering the room with my gun still drawn and the safety on. Even though I was amused, I didn’t let it distract me from the seriousness of the situation.

“What the fuck, Kel?” I grinned with my firearm pointed at the unconscious man on the ground. Our client. The two armed men were facing the wall with their legs and hands bound together with plastic ties. Kelly had kicked all their guns out of reach and behind him as he had his gun trained on the shop owner with the other because I was covering the two would-be robbers and our client.

“Any other weapons?” I asked.

Kelly shook his head as we both holstered our own weapons since there was no remaining threat. “I checked.”

On the other wall, the jeweler also bound and hogtied looking very pissed off. Probably because Kelly had duct-taped his mouth. That’s gonna hurt like a bitch when it comes off.

He shrugged a shoulder tilting his head to the shop owner. “This asshole knows these two geniuses. I have a feeling we messed up his insurance job.”

“Right, and the client?” I raised an eyebrow.

He pursed his lips, shaking his head slowly as his gaze fell to the prick laid out on the ground. “He, uh… fell?” My friend said as the sides of his mouth turn down but his eyes twinkled in amusement when he looked up.

“Right…” I stretched out my response, knowing he was full of shit. That guy fell right into Kelly’s weapon, whether it was the butt of his gun or his fist I’m sure I’ll never find out. I know one thing though the guy is lucky it was Kelly. If it had been me, it would have been a whole lot worse. Who puts their kid in jeopardy like that? I’d have shot him right in the dick. Probably should have. I still want to.

After the cops arrived, it was a lot of hurry up and wait. They kept us there for close to three hours questioning us over and over again. That is until Chet finally showed up so we could be released. I just know we are going to have to go to court for this one. I hate that.

The hot water of the shower was doing a nice job on my muscles. They were achy like when you get sick. I hope I haven’t caught that kid's flu. The tickle in my throat and the complete feeling of fatigue tell me otherwise. If I ignore it, it might go away. I could just be tired after coming down off the adrenalin. And then the most telling symptom was the cough that caught me by surprise.

“Man, I hope you aren’t getting sick,” Kelly said, turning off the water and wrapping a towel around his waist.

“Me too,” I answered doing the same as Chet entered the room with smoke coming out of his ears.

“What the hell happened today?” He bellowed looking between Kelly and me his eyes bulging in anger. A vein at his temple visibly pulsating one wrong word and that sucker is going to pop. I do not want to be around for that. No, sir, I do not.

Kelly straightened to his full height crossing his arms over his chest. He’d seem more imposing as an over six-foot muscled black man if it weren't for the light pink towel with embroidered ‘Hers’ wrapped around his waist. A gag gift from the guys last Christmas.

“Don’t even Chet,” Kelly spat angrily, “we tried to contact you and the office when we couldn’t get you. What the fuck did you expect us to do?”

The boss's gaze went steely with authority taking a deep breath trying to calm himself. “You should have walked the fuck away and dealt with the fallout later.”

“Bull-shit,” I said angrily, “that asshole had his kid with him.”

“What?” Chet asked, taken aback.

“Yeah, his kid was there. What would you have us do? Lucky we followed through or that kid could have been hurt or dead.” I pushed my way past the boss without another word back to my locker. Kelly and Chet were still going back and forth when I called out to notify them I was leaving. I’m not hanging around for this shit. It’s done. All I want to do is get home change and go to McGee’s our friend Tommy’s club to unwind meet up with our friends and have a drink to end this ridiculous day. I left Kelly’s ass there to deal with Chet, I am done with the day.

I really need a drink.

Thanks for reading the little introduction to Damon and his crap-tastic day before he gets to the club. I hope you were at least entertained for a few minutes.
I'll still post the next chapter on Sunday and we'll be back to Cole. 
 
Stay safe all.