Venti, despite having been a chatterbox inside, merely nodded when thanked and stepped to one side. He allowed James to close the door and direct their actions. It wasn't obvious that Venti was doing much more than walking either a half step ahead or behind whenever they went anywhere. He slouched slightly and sucked on his lower lip, looking even more like a teen than he had before. 

The heat outside would have melted a popsicle in two minutes flat. Venti didn't seem to notice it much, despite having on jeans and a tee. Still, teens were good at hiding that kind of thing. He shoved a hand into his pocket and surreptitiously turned on the GPS tracker which was broadcast to both Amel and to Harper, then went around the truck and yanked on the door easily. When it popped open, he paused and looked at it for a moment with a slight frown on his face. 

He opened his mouth, intending to say something, but at the last moment, chose instead to close his teeth around the words and get inside. With care, he pulled the strap and shoved it into the sun heated receptacle. 

“All right,” he looked around them and then gave a grin back at James. “Off we go!” 

To where, he didn't ask. It wasn't all that necessary to know where they went, so much as it was to know what things were supposed to look like and Venti's particular skills ran toward how any social setting was supposed to look. He was the “heart” in their triad and as such, was often the first on the scene to gauge the ways of things. Amel would be there when they settled in, just like Amel would probably also be in James' office as soon as the GPS proved to him that they weren't there any longer. It helped Amel not be so... loomy, if he knew he had the technology to back his own self up. 

Venti just relied on his senses. He casually looked around them while they backed out of the parking space and hummed to himself, some variant on the latest hip hop song on the Top Forty music program. 

~~

James started the car as soon as rainbow teen was inside. He didn't pull out right away, instead he left it idling while the AC kicked on. James had learned if he pressed the truck too fast with the AC, something would give. (And if it was the engine he was going to be out of a truck for the next three years saving desperately.) James shifted the car into gear and slowly backed out of the parking lot, then accelerated onto the road.

"I was surprised." James started slowly. "You can not say something." The older man turned and smiled at the teen before looking back on the road. "And we're going to Avery Higgins' place." 

A sudden idea occurred to James that had him rethinking taking along the teen. What if the shooter was back, waiting for James and the kid got stuck in the crossfire. God. He'd never forgive himself if he got a kid killed. Even if said kid was supposed to be a bodyguard. He exhaled heavily and changed his mind. "Right, no. Zero's. We're going to Zero's." The bar wouldn't be open, not during the afternoon, but in his surveillance of Higgins and Kara he had become friends with the bar owner. The owner, a older woman named Alice, would be in her loft above the bar, and hopefully she had heard something about Higgins and why the hell someone had been waiting to shoot...

James drummed his fingers on the wheel. How did he know he was the target? What if it was Higgins, or someone else who lived in the complex. If it had been for Higgins, the man might be long gone. If it had been for him? Well, that was what paranoia was for. All this was thought and over in about three seconds. "We can get some information there about," He pulled a face. "Higgins and the shooting." He didn't bother to state that he was hoping Alice could tell him if he was the intended target or not. 

~~

“Higgins,” Venti said with a frown. “That is the case you're working on that got you shot, then? I'm assuming, cause you're still hard at work this soon after getting shot. Well, and you said them both, you know, together and all.” He gave a quick smile over the man driving, then leaned against the window in a casual pose. 

“Anyway, I'm okay with being quiet sometimes. It's possible. Not usual,” he snickered, “but it's not unheard of. Maybe more when we got something to do. It'd kinda suck if I was talking and missed something.” 

Saying that, and fully unable to hold himself back, he reached down and drew his tee shirt up to his middle, then tapped his side. He was rail thin and as muscled and tan as a Cali swimmer under it all. Still, with the gold of his skin, it was that much more difficult to miss the obvious scar on the side of his stomach. “Got an innie and an outtie,” he grinned, turned his body slightly so that if James were looking, he could see the exit wound. 

With a glance at James, he gave a comfortable shrug than let the shirt fall once more. “It only took once for me to figure that running my mouth when I'm not secure is sorta stupid. So I'm not gonna talk if there's work to be done. 

“Anyway, you'll figure that out eventually. Amel doesn't talk at all, really. And Harper, he's a doll, but he's so serious all of the time. I gotta talk to keep up with the silence, really. You don't look much like a talker either. But you gotta. I mean, if you want us to know who might be dangerous and all. You'll have to tell one of us about this Higgins character. Well, and your case. We're not investigators and we got a strict confidentiality rule. We can't give anyone your info. Not even the person who hired us. It's up to us when you're safe and we gotta contract that states that. It also says that if we let anything slip to anyone, like even a priest or something, cause Amel's Catholic, then you can sue the pants off of us. But it's sort of our code, you know? We don't talk about work no where but in places we know is secure and over secure lines, so your information remains yours. That's part of being a bodyguard that a lot of folks don't get. The way we gotta keep things confidential. It's important.” 

He scratched the side of his nose. “So what's up with Higgins?” 

~~

James' eyes flickered over to rainbow head briefly before going back to the road. He sighed and nodded. "Yeah. Same case." Then the kid kept talking and James started to tune the kid out. So far a lot of his babble hadn't been relevant and he kind of wanted to stay sane.

James blinked as the kid lifted his shirt, then he saw the gun shot wound. James' hands tightened on the steering wheel. His mouth went dry and he wondered why the hell his brothers had even let a kid like rainbow head go into the protection business. He also was slightly angry at them too, truth be told. He had seen too many kids die during the war and it wasn't something he wanted to see back home. Ever. The fact the the kid was completely unconcerned by it bothered James even more. It was those who didn't worry that died the quickest. He was going to have to have a talk with the kid's brothers about this. Mainly taking the kid off the case, and if they wouldn't they were going to have a problem. A big one.

[b]"...Higgins?"[/b]

James forced his fingers loose with the change of topic. He hadn't really heard much of what the kid was jabbering bout, but he didn't hear Higgins' name. The older man took a deep breath. "Higgins is dating a woman named Kara Smith who's dating a wealthy older man." James didn't say the man's name out of client confidentiality and all. "The guy's daughter came to me thinking Ms. Smith is conning her father out of his money. So far all signs are pretty much pointing in that direction. That Smith and Higgins are behind this."

James stopped talking as he pulled into Zero's parking lot. He turned off the truck before taking a deep breath and continuing. "As I dug into Ms. Smith I saw her most often with with Higgins here. But they weren't friendly, not like they were in public." He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. "Nine times out of ten they'd end up in a screaming match that left Ms. Smith in tears. Not at all like the happy couple conning an old man out of his fortune. So I decided to pay Higgins a visit and got shot at." James shrugged. "All there is really. Until I was shot at I was willing to agree with the daughter." He shrugged and popped open the door. 

~~

Venti cranked open his door on his side, again mentally noted the issue as being significant. He popped his bright head over the top of the hood and grinned across at the P.I. “This is cool!” 

Whatever else he might have thought to say was lost as instead of continuing, he quickly made his way to the other side of the vehicle and tucked up near James. He smirked at the older man and sucking on his teeth, turned all the way around in a slow circle, looking a lot like a kid casing out a joint for whomever might have been interested in looking at him. Classic center of the universe. 

Harper would have a field day, was enough of a thought without being too distracting. The nuances of the little bit the man had given him spoke to something a bit above and beyond a classic blackmail case. Not that Venti did any detective work, so maybe things like that were par for the course. 

Venti skipped ahead with a small hop and jump to the door where he opened it for his “boss” and with a quick look inside, got out of James' way to allow the other man entry. He was rather close to James as they walked in and he did nothing to appear a day over the already too young age he already looked. Again, once the door was closed and he'd given the place a good, hard look, fixed his attention on potential trouble spots, he sucked in breath to let out an entire barrage of questions. 

“So... then what is this place? If he's the one you are looking into, why not just go to his place again? You're probably thinking the whole deal will happen again, but it'd probably be a good thing for us to go by there too, just to get a GPS dot on our trackers. Should get you one too,” he paused as the bartender froze and Venti, like a deer sensing a lion, went still and silent. 

Bar. Bright, multi-colored hair. The two things inevitably did not mix well. There was something about the man at the bar that screamed red warning lights at Venti in particular. No menace toward James, just a good deal toward a loud-mouthed kid walking into his establishment. 

~~end of doc~~