He’s done talking, though I’m no less in the dark than I was before his explanation. His eyes lock in on mine, like he’s trying to communicate telepathically or expecting me to just know where his mind is at.
“Saw who…?”
“The Queen of fucking England, Kade,” he sasses, his face pulling into a scowl. “She was chillen’ on the beach, watching the fight and getting a tan.”
He must notice the lack of humor in my expression, because he reins himself back in, shifts on the couch to face me and starts again. “C’mon, dick for brains! You’re the smart one here! Bear, of course…”
My eyes widen in surprise as a ball forms in my throat. Bear… our bear… no it couldn’t be, could it? I would have known, I would have seensomething.I have my programs running twenty-four seven within the city limits. Hunting for her face, her cards, her name. I would know if she was here…
“…very toned and tanned. Her hair is longer, which makes sense, but it’s still that jet-black color that made her look dark and mysterious. Oh man, and her eyes, fuck I missed those eyes. It was even the same smile. I know I must sound like I’ve lost my damn mind, but I’m telling you man, I swear it was her.”
I have to play this right so I don’t make Max think any worse about himself while getting him to realize the likelihood of this insane notion. It’s there in his eyes, the flutter of hope that I really don’t want to crush. The pain he already feels from believing she was there. His mind is telling him it was real, that she was in fact on the beach of Miami watching a fight… but the chances of that and my systems not catching her, are very unlikely.
“Well… did you go to her, try and catch her, talk to her?” I ask, slinking down onto the couch beside him. There’s a good chance Max will get agitated when I confirm his delusion, and the last thing I need is to look intimidating by standing over him.
“Yeah, of course I tried! But, by the time I got to her, she was gone. I looked everywhere, but it’s like she disappeared into thin air. I lost my line of sight when the meatheads fell to the sand and started rolling around. It knocked a bunch of us over, and poof.” His hands fly out, fingers wide as if I need the visual to know what he’s talking about. “When I made it back to my car, I waited for a while to see if maybe I just missed her, but the crowd started to disperse and it was clear she wasn't there.”
I nod, placing my hand on his shoulder in support. He’s really taking this hard. “Well, I’ll focus my search on Miami tomorrow. See what I can come up with.”
“I swear, I’m not crazy, Kade. I really thought I saw her.”
“I believe you. Who knows, maybe you did see her and she just got away. If I don’t find anything in Miami, I’ll start on the whole of Florida.”
Giving his shoulder a couple of pats, I return my arm to my lap. I’m trying to be positive but in the back of my head I’m almost sure it was his imagination. My computers search day and night, twenty-four seven, three-sixty-five. If she had stepped foot into the city, I’d know. I’ve been monitoring Miami for years, as we all had a dream to move here together. This is the first place I looked for her, believing she would come here eventually, but it has been eight years of algorithms and codes, and I still have nothing.
We all took it hard when she went missing, but Max has been the most open about it. He’s the one who wears his emotions on his sleeve and has never had an issue expressing them. The rest of us tend to keep ours locked up tight. A box never to be opened and see the light of day.
“Don’t worry yourself over it, man. We haven’t given up in twelve years and we aren’t about to now.” He half grins and bobs his head. I know he’s still stuck in his mind, turning the occurrence over and over again. Trying to see it from every angle and make sense of it. “C’mon. Let’s go play a game or something. I ordered pizza to be delivered in a couple of hours because I couldn’t be bothered to cook. Which means we have some time to kill.”
We settled in the game room, playing Borderlands for the last two hours. Losing ourselves in the battles and mayhem of our characters. I’d been so engrossed in the game, I never noticed that Zane and Ryder had returned home. It wasn’t until the water could be heard draining through the pipes, both having a hot shower after vigorous training, that I clued in.
Questionably loud plumbing aside, the doorbell goes off right as my character gets mauled and kicks the bucket.
At least it was good timing.
Max and I head to the kitchen, Ryder having already collected the pizza and placed it on the counter.
“Hey, Max?” Ryder starts, grabbing some water bottles from the fridge and handing them out. Max takes a sip, his mouth already full of cheese and sauce when he mumbles out a contorted “mmm” in response. I can’t help but shake my head at the man. Less than a few hours ago, he looked as though the world was ending and someone kicked his dog. Now, he’s shoving pizza in his mouth like it’s a race to see who can eat more, with bright eyes and a goofy grin.
“The mustang is making that popping sound again. I know you’re supposed to have tomorrow off, but think you could take a look at it for me?”
Max swallows, clearing the lingering food particles from his mouth with a chug of water before collecting himself to answer. “Yeah, but I dropped my ride at the shop today for the guys to use, since the shop truck is out doing a pick up. If I’m taking yours, how are you gonna get around tomorrow? Didn’t you mention you have another agent meeting?”
“Eh, yeah, but it’s downtown. I’ll get a ride with Z into the city and then bus it to the core.” Ryder shrugs, clearly not bothered by extra traveling.
“You will?” Zane pipes up from the side. “Was anyone going to even bother to ask me?”
“No,” all three of us reply, laughing.
Max catches the other two up on his beach hallucination, with both seemingly agreeing it was probably nothing more than his mind. They don’t say it out loud, but their faces are like open books as they listen to his re-telling. Sharing a lookwith each other and then with me, a silent agreement forming that we won’t bring Max down. Her day is coming, and we’re already moody, so no one says anything about it, and truthfully, I don’t think we ever will.
Chapter Six
Mikayla
My close call with Max seeing me yesterday, was well… too fucking close. I have to be more careful, and make sure to stay among the shadows. If I were to ever come across him again, God only knows how I’d explain my way out of that one.
I wonder if he still talks to the others, if their friendship stayed intact all these years or if they went their separate ways. Thoughts of them hit me often, wondering what type of men they’ve become. If they followed their dreams, or if they still think of me.
