Page 121 of Badd Love
"No, sir. Just curious."
"I'm interviewing a candidate for a special project, and he lives in Ketchikan. He doesn't know I'm coming. I've been putting him through several rounds of interviews with various subordinates, and now I need to meet him in person. It's a surprise. I'm unconventional, you see.” A pause. “I also have wedding details to iron out in person.”
"I'm noticing that, sir."
He sighed. "How long will it take you to stop saying 'sir' every time you address me, Commander Tiernan?"
"As long as it takes for you to call me Tea." I glared at Albert as I pronounced my name:TAY-uh.
He winced, avoiding my gaze.
He rounded the desk and stuck his hand out to me. "Call me Linus, for now. If we decide we like each other and get along, you might eventually end up calling me Mags, which is what my inner circle calls me." He glanced at Albert. "The candidate, Albert. I've forgotten his name."
"Jax Badd, Mr. Thorvaldsen."TORE-vahld-son.
"Right, right. Jax. Jax. Jax." He glanced at me. "I'm great with faces but not so much with names sans faces." A shrug. "Anyway. Welcome to LMT, Tea."
Jax Badd? Really? He's probably a douchebag.
I shook Thorvaldsen's hand, putting the odd name out of my mind—I'd fallen into a weird name portal, clearly, and I was used to being the one with the weird name, so I wasn’t sure how to feel. "Thank you for the opportunity. I look forward to flying for you, Linus."
He glanced at me. “Would you like to know when I knew I'd hire you?"
I nodded. "Sure."
"When you corrected me."
I wasn't expecting this. "Really?"
He nodded. "Yup. I made that same, simple addition error in every interview. No one corrected me. You did. You're not afraid to speak your mind, to tell me if I'm wrong. I need that in the people closest to me." He sat behind the desk. "You'll drive for me, too, as needed. Is that an issue?"
"I can handle that. I don't have a defensive driving cert, but I could get it easily."
He laughed. "You're very serious, aren't you, Tea?"
"Except when I'm not, Linus."
Another laugh. Despite everything, I was starting to like this guy. He was weird. I like weird. He didn't take himself seriously, but he also did. Not sure how to explain that any better, but it felt true.
"Albert will onboard you, introduce you to the relevant people, show you the office and garage, and introduce you to my aircraft. We're wheels up for Ketchikan tomorrow morning."
"Time?"
"Eight…ish. I’m not the most punctual man, you’ll find.”
I was, but no need to mention that. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Linus."
"See you tomorrow, Tea."
I waited until I was alone in the back of the Uber on the way to my hotel to do a self-congratulatory fist pump—I'd gotten the job: Private, personal pilot for Linus Magnus Thorvaldsen, billionaire and professional weird guy. I'd get to fly to cool places, and, if the rumors about his fleet were true, I'd get to fly some of the most cutting-edge aircraft on the planet.
If he had a Roth jet, I'd shit my pants. I'd read that Thorvaldsen had a personal relationship with Valentine Roth, who designed the very best luxury jets money could buy—each one was bespoke, hypersonic, invisible to radar, some with VTOL capability…I was salivating to get my little mitts on the controls of one.
And rumor had it, Thorvaldsen hadthree.
I hadn't been this excited in a long, long time. I'd needed a change of life after what happened, and this was definitely that. No more arrogant superiors, no more saluting and all that shit, no more bullshit orders from out-of-touch brass.
No more watching entire fireteams get mowed down.
