Shades of Gray by C. Dulaney Read Free Book Online Page A

amount of time. It was quickly apparent to me that Mia was still pissed, as was Jake. Michael looked annoyed and John just seemed very tired. Only Abby and Jonah appeared to be totally at ease. That made sense. Abby didn’t give a shit most of the time and Jonah was hard-wired with a slow temper.
    “Was I interrupting something? I can leave if—” I started to say. Michael’s hand flew up and stopped me.
    “No. Stay. This concerns you.” He looked at John and signaled him to continue with whatever it was he’d been saying before I showed up.
    “Alright then.” John glanced at me and leaned against the corner of the desk, lifting one leg and resting his thigh and part of his ass on the old walnut. He chewed on his bottom lip and rubbed one large hand against his pant leg, glancing around again, this time to everyone. “We were going over assignments for the week, Kasey. I’ve already given out theirs.” He waved a hand, gesturing to everyone but me. “Apparently some people aren’t happy with them, but it’s not up for discussion.” He glared hard at Jake at this last bit.
    I made sure to make eye contact with Mia before speaking up. “Yeah I know what’s going on. I could’ve saved you a lot of trouble, if I’d known about this little meeting.”
    Everyone except Jake gawked at me with doubt. I pointed a finger in his direction just as his mouth flew open.
    “No. Shut it. Now.” I kept that finger pointed at him until he gave in, then turned my attention back to Michael and John. “I meant to talk to you both about taking a break. Looks like you beat me to it.”
    The room grew very quiet. I suppose they were embarrassed, or nervous, or maybe they thought this was too personal of a topic to be discussing as a group. You’d think they had been talking about my period, as stupid as they were acting. I couldn’t help but laugh.
    “So…John, why don’t you tell me my assignment so I can shower up and get some rest?”
    A few people cleared their throats; Jake literally bit his lip and squeezed his eyes shut. Everyone except John was doing their level best to look at anything other than me. After a couple minutes of this I started to get worried. What the hell did they have planned for me?
    “C’mon,” I said, my voice rising in pitch. “John?” I settled my eyes on the big man and noticed Michael was moving around the other side of the desk, coming in my direction. My eyes flicked back and forth between the two, then stopped on Mia. “What the hell did you tell them?” My hands were gripping the chair arms by this time and I had leaned forward in the seat.
    “I didn’t tell them anything I haven’t already said to you. So just chill out, alright?” she answered.
    It occurred to me then that I might have misunderstood the situation and as a result, was overreacting.
    “You always overreact,” Ben said on my left. I refused to look, hoping his ghost would go away. It didn’t. “You overreact, then you get your friends killed.”
    “Yeah, Kasey, let’s just all relax,” Michael said, suddenly at my right elbow.
    I snapped my head around and stared at him, then leaned back and turned my attention to John. The only way I could get out of that room with even an ounce of credibility left was to sit there and keep my mouth shut. To literally force my body to settle down. I’d fake it if I had to.
    After waiting a long moment for the air to settle, John finally dropped the hammer. “Waters wants you off the rotation. For good.”
    Suffice it to say, I wasn’t expecting that. “Wait, what?”
    “He thinks you’re a liability.” He held up a hand. “His words, not mine. Apparently, we’ve lost more ‘live’ ones during rescue missions than he thinks we should’ve. He says the majority of those deaths occur—” John grabbed a paper from the desk and scanned down the page. “Here it is. Blah, blah, ‘deaths occur while Miss Stratford is in command.’ End quote.” He tossed the