Isaac took a sip from his lemonade. He’d had one Guiness, but had spent the rest of the time drinking the sweet, but sour, beverage. “Lots of changes since I’ve been gone.”
Ox’s and Angel’s children were now toddling around. The last time he’d seen them they’d been babies. Growler and Astrid had twins. So far the other guys on the team were still single, apart from Julian who was now with Lilith.
“Tell me about it. Never would’ve picked this for me,” he murmured as Ox’s gaze tracked to where his wife stood talking and laughing with Lilith. The love shining out of his eyes hit Isaac in the solar plexus. He’d long since believed that he wouldn’t have what Ox and Eveline had found.
Maybe if you’d stuck around something might have happened with Marie.
Isaac firmly ignored his conscience. Marie met Samuel, she didn’t meet Isaac Warner.
“It’s good to see,” Isaac said after a few more beats of silence.
Ox directed his attention back to him, and Isaac waited for what he was going to say next. “What are your plans now you’re back? I take it going back to the DEA is out?”
The last place Isaac would return to was the DEA. He’d gotten out without any thanks for the way his life had been turned upside down. All part of the job, he’d been told on numerous occasions. One he’d accepted knowing that anything he did, while appreciated, wouldn’t be exalted or anything.
“You’re right, I’m done with the DEA. I’m not sure what I’ll do.”
Leaning forward, Ox rested his forearms on his thighs. A casual looking gesture, but Isaac knew it was anything but that. “We could use you.”
Ox never said anything just for the sake of saying something. He always had purpose. “You want me to work for Alliez Security?”
“Yes. You know how to melt into a crowd. How to be seen, but also not seen. Not only that, your experience with how the darker side of society works will be helpful.”
The last thing Isaac wanted was to be reminded ofhis knowledge, but Ox was right. He’d seen and had been involved in some of the shitty things in life. “What use would I really be? It’s not like I can reach out to the contacts I had. Javier Cortez is dead. Not to mention, word is he betrayed Gomez Ramirez causing the cartel to collapse. No one would want to be associated with him if they wanted to live.”
“And another cartel was created in its place. You know how that world works. One is taken down and another three appear. Besides, we’ve heard buzz that things are ramping up again in terms of drug and sex trafficking. There are a couple of new players on the block.”
Isaac got up and paced around the small corner of the garden. Coming to this party was a bad idea. He liked everyone, but he didn’t want to be sucked back into a world where he lost the essence of who he was. He wanted to try and find out who he was as a man now. Who he could be. He wasn’t sure he could do that if he became a part of Alliez Security. “I don’t think that’s a good thing for me.”
Ox stood as well. “I get it. You don’t want to be dragged back to a world you’ve spent the last, however long, hiding from while what you did settled down. But you have to rememberwhatyou did while there. You did good stuff, Isaac.”
“And a fuck load of bad shit,” hecountered.
“Yes, but you did that so you could survive. We’ve all done shit we didn’t want to do to survive. We all have our demons and ghosts that sit on our shoulders reminding us of what we’ve done. But they also remind us of the good we did. How doing that one bad thing turned out to be something good for others.”
What sort of bullshit was Ox saying?
He killed people in cold blood because they hadn’t done what Gomez Ramirez had wanted. Men who were fathers. Sons. Brothers.
“You can’t say what you and I did are the same. They’re completely different things, Ox. Different situations. I should be locked up; didn’t matter what I did. It was all part of my assignment. The things I did…” Isaac paused and shook his head, as if that would dislodge all the memories.
“You did what you had to do to survive. To ensure your cover wasn’t blown. You did your job, just like me and all the others here.” He waved his hand toward the men congregating a few feet away, all former special forces men who still did jobs that required them to get in and out without being seen.
“Yeah, but you didn’t almost get one of those guys and his team killed.” That particular event still stuck in Isaac’s craw. Deliberately sabotaging a Navy SEAL team felt like treason to him.
“And it’s in the past,” Ox reminded him softly. “We could use you, Isaac. Think about it okay?”
Isaac nodded, even though he knew what the answer was going to be.
“I mean seriously think about it. Don’t just give me a perfunctory nod and expect me to believe that’s what you’re going to do. Insights on people’s behavior is invaluable.”
“Fine. I’ll give it some thought, I promise.”
“That’s all I ask. Come up to the office any time, you know where it is.” Ox walked away leaving Isaac with a lot to think about.
Chapter Six
The soundof endless traffic was something Marie was still getting used to. She’d been back in Los Angeles for a month now and she longed for the quiet of San Carlion, where rush hour was when someone was moving some cattle.
