The Ties That Bind by T. Starnes Read Free Book Online

outpace everyone else.
    "Slow it down there, turbo. Being in good shape is one thing, but if you start putting down Olympic record times, people are going to notice."
    I slowed down to a walk, and she slumped against me, forcing me to put an arm around her to hold her up.
    "Damn, I am in the best shape in my life, and catching up to you almost killed me."
    "Sorry, Tami, I was just thinking and stopped paying attention."
    "Well, you need to be able to do both. This is important!" Her hard tone of voice then softened a bit, "Are you still worried? I thought we cleared the air last night."
    "You cleared more than the air."
    That statement earned me a punch in the shoulder, "Seriously, no I am not brooding about last night. You were all right; all three of you seem fine in spite of my influence. I was just thinking I wanted to make sure I didn't infect anyone else until we knew more."
    "Okay, just no more brooding. We like happy Cas way more than grumpy Cas."
    She punctuated that with a deep kiss. As we started to walk towards the locker room area of the school to get showered and changed, I felt another tug on my sleeve. I turned to find Vicki and Zoe.
    "Hey, where's ours?"
    Both girls were smiling big.
    After such a crazy several days, the next few were thankfully pretty quiet. We got everyone in to get tests run by Alex, did homework, and just spent some much needed quiet time, together. It was really nice. Wednesday after class, I had to catch a ride over to Ted's offices for my first company meeting with him and Marcus. They were both in Ted's office when I arrived.
    "Hey, guys, sorry you had to wait on the school kid."
    Ted was laughing when he stood up to shake my hand.
    "Well, I do have my own company to run, Cas. I managed to keep myself busy."
    I dropped my backpack next to a chair and flopped down.
    "Well, I am here now so let's get to it. You guys are way more versed in this kind of thing than I am, so you kick it off and I will see if I can follow along. Now that we have the money squared away, what's next?"
    Marcus pulled out a notepad with his chicken scratch written all over it, "While we were waiting for the money to get into the accounts I went over all my information and sat down with Jonathan. I have to say he is quite the find and he has agreed to handle our legal issues. As long as they don't conflict with your interests he doesn't see there being a conflict."
    "We have gone over all my notes and started working on patent findings. He is currently looking up prior patents to make sure we are in the clear. Once that comes back we will file the patent and be ready to start building the prototype."
    "Good. I am glad Jonathan was able to jump in. He has had my back before and I trust the guy. So you are on the patent already. Once we are ready to start development of the prototype, what will we need? I am assuming we will need people to help you build it, a space to build it in, and parts?"
    "Yes to all of those."
    Ted was making notes, "Marcus, get me a list of what supplies you think we will need. For most of it, I will check with my existing buyers first and we can expand past that for items they can't supply. What are you thinking of, as far as crew?"
    "I need at least one other engineer, preferably someone who specializes in aeronautics or planes. We will need a couple of good mechanics, one who knows body work and one who knows engines. It would be good if both had experience with military hardware, perhaps someone in or just out of the reserves working in a technical position."
    Ted made more notes, "Okay, I will take the lead on finding those guys. I have an idea on the engineer and will start looking hard for the mechanics. Once we have them under contract and get the NDAs signed, I would like for you to go over the specs with them. I think it best if we get second opinions on your plans for the prototype, and their estimates on supplies we need to build it."
    I wasn't making notes but was keeping track