Between a Rock and a Hard Place
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120_minutenTitel: Between a Rock and a Hard Place
Team: Machine
Challenge: Orte – In der Klemme (Für's Team)
Fandom: Mayans MC
Charactere: Kevin Jimenez
Sprache: Englisch
Wörter: 650
Kommentar: Whee, neues Fandom! Musste KJ ein bisschen leiden lassen…
He had needed to get out of his office, but he didn’t want to go home either.
Between a Rock and a Hard Place
He slammed the car door shut behind him and put his head down onto the steering wheel.
For a moment he just sat like this, trying to calm his racing heartbeat. He could hear another car leaving the garage, but he stayed motionless until the sound of screeching tires had faded away and his breath didn’t come in gasps anymore. Only then did he sit up to rub one hand over his face.
He felt like shit. Probably looked like shit, too, at least according to the looks his coworkers had given him today. One glance into the rearview mirror confirmed his suspicions: His face was pale with dark rings underneath his eyes, and his hair was sticking up in all directions because he kept running his hands through it. No wonder everybody thought he was losing his marbles.
He felt like it, too. He hadn’t slept properly in weeks, and what food he could keep down hadn’t exactly been healthy either (not speaking of the alcohol). Stress had always had a way of upsetting his stomach, but recently it had been particularly bad. He had thrown up his lunch into the toilet next to his office, and now he couldn’t seem to get rid of the bad taste in his mouth, let alone the burning behind his breastbone.
He dug around in the glove compartment until he found the bottle of antacids and swallowed one with some sips of stale water from a bottle. Then he leaned his head against the head rest and closed his eyes, trying to focus on his breathing.
He had needed to get out of his office, but he didn’t want to go home either. No matter how much he managed to get himself together, his wife would see right through him, and he couldn’t face her questions right now. He couldn’t tell her anything anyway.
He couldn’t talk to anyone else, either. His superiors were leaning on him to make choices that could only lead to disaster. His coworkers couldn’t be trusted. EZ kept evading him and treated him like an enemy even though he was just trying to help. And any goodwill Felipe might have felt for him simply because they were family had evaporated the moment Kevin had threatened the people he loved.
He truly was alone in this.
“Fuck”, he mumbled not for the first time that day, and bounced his head against the head rest. “Fuck, fuck, fuck.”
How had he gotten into this mess? He couldn’t tell where he had made the mistake that had led him here. EZ was his cousin and he had only been trying to help him, but now it looked like he had signed his death warrant instead. He couldn’t think of another way to get him to cooperate after Felipe had called his bluff. But if he didn’t, the feds would just throw him to the wolves. And Kevin knew enough about the MC to be able to imagine exactly what they would do with a traitor.
He mentally ran through the details again. Pushing Felipe had been his mistake, he thought, not that it mattered. But he hadn’t known about the man what he knew now…
He opened his eyes. Maybe it was time to be honest with someone, if he couldn’t be honest with his wife.
Of course he wasn’t allowed to talk about an open investigation with someone who was related to an integral part of it. But if there was someone who wanted to protect EZ even more than he did, it was his father. It was just that until now, they hadn’t seen eye to eye as to what that protection should look like.
Maybe he could get him to understand if he put all the cards of the table. Even if it meant that in the end, he’d have to put his badge down, too. That was probably inevitable, anyway.
Sangre es sangre, he thought wryly. His own immediate family hadn’t been what he had hoped for or needed, but family ties still meant something to him, for better or for worse.
He turned the key in the ignition and led his car out of the garage of the agency. As he turned onto the highway, the pain in his chest was slowly fading away.
Team: Machine
Challenge: Orte – In der Klemme (Für's Team)
Fandom: Mayans MC
Charactere: Kevin Jimenez
Sprache: Englisch
Wörter: 650
Kommentar: Whee, neues Fandom! Musste KJ ein bisschen leiden lassen…
He had needed to get out of his office, but he didn’t want to go home either.
Between a Rock and a Hard Place
He slammed the car door shut behind him and put his head down onto the steering wheel.
For a moment he just sat like this, trying to calm his racing heartbeat. He could hear another car leaving the garage, but he stayed motionless until the sound of screeching tires had faded away and his breath didn’t come in gasps anymore. Only then did he sit up to rub one hand over his face.
He felt like shit. Probably looked like shit, too, at least according to the looks his coworkers had given him today. One glance into the rearview mirror confirmed his suspicions: His face was pale with dark rings underneath his eyes, and his hair was sticking up in all directions because he kept running his hands through it. No wonder everybody thought he was losing his marbles.
He felt like it, too. He hadn’t slept properly in weeks, and what food he could keep down hadn’t exactly been healthy either (not speaking of the alcohol). Stress had always had a way of upsetting his stomach, but recently it had been particularly bad. He had thrown up his lunch into the toilet next to his office, and now he couldn’t seem to get rid of the bad taste in his mouth, let alone the burning behind his breastbone.
He dug around in the glove compartment until he found the bottle of antacids and swallowed one with some sips of stale water from a bottle. Then he leaned his head against the head rest and closed his eyes, trying to focus on his breathing.
He had needed to get out of his office, but he didn’t want to go home either. No matter how much he managed to get himself together, his wife would see right through him, and he couldn’t face her questions right now. He couldn’t tell her anything anyway.
He couldn’t talk to anyone else, either. His superiors were leaning on him to make choices that could only lead to disaster. His coworkers couldn’t be trusted. EZ kept evading him and treated him like an enemy even though he was just trying to help. And any goodwill Felipe might have felt for him simply because they were family had evaporated the moment Kevin had threatened the people he loved.
He truly was alone in this.
“Fuck”, he mumbled not for the first time that day, and bounced his head against the head rest. “Fuck, fuck, fuck.”
How had he gotten into this mess? He couldn’t tell where he had made the mistake that had led him here. EZ was his cousin and he had only been trying to help him, but now it looked like he had signed his death warrant instead. He couldn’t think of another way to get him to cooperate after Felipe had called his bluff. But if he didn’t, the feds would just throw him to the wolves. And Kevin knew enough about the MC to be able to imagine exactly what they would do with a traitor.
He mentally ran through the details again. Pushing Felipe had been his mistake, he thought, not that it mattered. But he hadn’t known about the man what he knew now…
He opened his eyes. Maybe it was time to be honest with someone, if he couldn’t be honest with his wife.
Of course he wasn’t allowed to talk about an open investigation with someone who was related to an integral part of it. But if there was someone who wanted to protect EZ even more than he did, it was his father. It was just that until now, they hadn’t seen eye to eye as to what that protection should look like.
Maybe he could get him to understand if he put all the cards of the table. Even if it meant that in the end, he’d have to put his badge down, too. That was probably inevitable, anyway.
Sangre es sangre, he thought wryly. His own immediate family hadn’t been what he had hoped for or needed, but family ties still meant something to him, for better or for worse.
He turned the key in the ignition and led his car out of the garage of the agency. As he turned onto the highway, the pain in his chest was slowly fading away.