Still, I have to admit that most of their business recommendations over the past years have only helped to multiply the value of my stock.Basically, I am a billionaire without having to be actively involved in the running of the business.Something which suits me fine, right now.
Seven years ago, I walked out of the Kings of the Alley showdown and joined the army.Nineteen years old.Meeting Archer had been pivotal in my decision.He had offered me a way out of the situation I had found myself in.Emotionally trapped in my head, unable to move beyond the throes of the nightmare the incident had been, I’d been on a downward spiral, risking my life with my need for speed, addicted to the rush of adrenaline that laced my blood with every skydiving jump I’d taken.And it hadn’t stopped there.I’d embarked on sampling every possible adventure sport that I came across.Cliff diving, BASE jumping, rock climbing, even shark diving…
The last...Okay, I hadn’t enjoyed it much.Turns out, I prefer it when I’m not in a cage...on the ocean floor...surrounded by sharks.Kind of makes me feel like I’m not in control.I’d much rather be on the outside, swimming with them.After all, I’d been hanging out with the Seven for a good part of my growing years, if you get my drift?
Over the years, whenever I had time off from my tours, I had taken to coming into London without telling anyone.It was much simpler that way.For me, for them… Particularly, for Edward.He doesn’t need a reminder about just what had been done to us during the incident.And I am better off not having to re-live what had happened every time I run into him.No, this is best.
I keep in touch with Edward and the rest of the Seven with the occasional snail mail letter.I haven't told them the details of what I’ve been up to, but have shared just enough in the letters that they know I am alive.Of course, I haven’t revealed where I am based either.Just a precaution, so none of them have any chance of finding me, in case they are tempted.
And maybe it had been cowardly of me not to tell them face-to-face of my decision to join the army, but in all honestly, until I'd walked out of that warehouse, I hadn't been sure about it either.Not until I had spent half that night walking about the city, had I realized what I needed to do.
The Army was exactly the right place for me.A space where I could dedicate myself to a cause bigger than me.A way to forget my past, subsume my needs and wants in favor of the greater good, a means to not having to think but simply follow orders, do as I was told, make sure I had the backs of my fellow soldiers.It had been better for me than I had expected...My years of participating in extreme sports stood me in good stead.I didn't take risks unless they were well-calculated ones, and it turns out, I have a deadly eye for shooting.Not to mention my proclivity for being a hacker meant I was exceptionally good at interrogating and getting information from enemy soliders.Everything was going well, until I was captured and became a POW for two years.
Unsurprisingly, that triggered the demons in my mind to come roaring back, and once I was discharged from the army, I found I craved silence.The chance to simply live in the moment while I cherish my solitude.
I found myself an apartment in Madrid, spend my waking hours either working out at the gym or teaching self-defense classes at the local community center.As long as I keep moving, I can keep the ghosts in my mind at bay.The ghosts that have haunted me since the incident, and which had only gotten worse when I had been captured and held as a prisoner of war.They had tortured me, to unlock the secrets I had carried inside my head, but I hadn’t broken.Turns out, even a war enemy cannot torture you as much as those bastards who had kidnapped us.
Should I be grateful that I had faced, possibly, the worst test of my life so early on?Or should I simply look forward, and try to move on from what had happened to me?Can I do that?
"Heathrow Express will be ready to depart from platform two in five minutes.Passengers, please make your way to the platform now."
I square my shoulders, heave my backpack over my shoulder and rise to my feet, when a peal of laughter reaches me.The hair on the back of my neck rises.I whip my head around, try to place the source of the laugh.
A crowd of men pass me by.One of them claps the other on the back of his head and the rest of them chortle in amusement.They remind me of the Seven, of how it had been when I was one of them.
I had made the choice to leave for the army, at the same time that Edward had decided to become a priest.We’d gone our separate ways, and that’s fine.This way, neither of us had to bear the burden of being reminded of the incident.This way, we could each find our own path in life… Or what passes for that.
Another peal of laughter cuts through the thoughts in my head.Only when my feet hit the ground, do I realize that I have stood up and am moving forward, following that sound of laughter.I sweep my gaze across a gaggle of girls talking to each other; no, she’s not among them.
I brush past them, catch sight of a family walking ahead of me.The father and mother are followed by two girls.One of them wears a dress that falls to just below her knees.Her auburn hair flows past her shoulders.A beam of light bounces off of the rippling locks, highlighting the red in them and haloing her head.She’s not very tall, maybe five feet four inches, at the most.Her curves are highlighted by her outfit, enough to indicate that she is a woman.She’s not that old… Not that young either.Maybe seventeen—or eighteen?
She turns her face to speak to her sister and I catch a glimpse of her profile.The upturned nose, the curve of her lips, the creamy skin that glows in the late afternoon light.She throws her head back and laughs, and my heart begins to pound in my chest.Sweat beads my palms and I wipe them on my jeans.Shit, what is this reaction to her?I don’t know her, have not even properly met her, yet something inside me insists that I know her.That she is the same as the little girl I’d seen all those years ago at that pub.
The girl who I have tried hard not to think about, for in my mind, she had stayed little.But she is all grown up.Still younger than me, but at least, I don’t feel like a perv anymore as I gaze at her across the distance.
A few men in business suits walk toward me.They hide the family from sight.I dodge around them, past a woman clinging to a man who seems reluctant to leave her.
Ahead of them, the family piles inside a car and I hasten my pace, until I am almost sprinting.Can it be her?It has to be her.The girl I’d gotten a glimpse of so many years ago.That laughter is the same, yet throatier.This is crazy.
A mother and her son walk toward me.The kid’s ball slips from his grasp.It bounces toward me, heading for the tracks.He cries out, races for his toy, but his mother pulls him back.I glance up at the girl in the distance, down at the toy, then jump forward to stop it with my foot.I scoop it up and toss it at the boy.He catches it and his face breaks into a grin, "Thanks Mister."His delight showcases a big gap-toothed smile.
I nod, glance up toward the compartment where the family had disappeared.I jog toward it when, with a beeping sound, all of the doors of the train slide shut.Shit, shit, shit.I race forward, but I am too late.The train starts to move.
Bloody hell.I draw in a breath, drag my fingers through my hair.Goddamnit, I lost her a second time.Will I ever see her again?
To find out what happens next read Billionaire’s Sins HERE
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Ava
"Each blossom still blooms in its field; each child still clutches your hand; each friend still lingers in your heart.And that…is where time goes."
I glance at the words I’ve scrawled out in my diary.
