“I’d still like to know who this anonymous donor is who’s funding our team,” Joel said, lifting his beer.
“I’ve tried. Ferris isn’t budging.”
Ferris was the mayor, and the man who’d brought this job opportunity to Ethan. Unlike Ward, the sheriff, Joe Ferris cared about this town. His father had been mayor, and before that,hisfather was mayor. No one wanted to see Deep River flourish more than him.
“They’re paying us good money,” Zac said. “So, whoever this is?—”
“Also has money. I know.” It was something Ethan had thought about a lot in the last week. “As far as I’m aware, no one in this town even has that kind of money.”
“Someone does,” Ryan muttered, gaze skirting the bar like the person was right there.
Connor tapped his fingers against his beer. “So essentially, we don’t know who our boss is?”
“We’re our own bosses,” Ethan said. “And that will work well, because no one’s more qualified to run this team than us.”
A couple of the guys grunted, while the others nodded.
Even this, sitting here, talking and planning with these men, felt good.
They carried the same scars. The same past and traumas. That created a bond that would forever live inside each of them.
There were three other guys on the team—Tate, Lincoln, and Kolby—but they were still active-duty SEALs. When he’d called his former teammates to tell them about Ferris’s proposal, all he’d asked was that they come up and talk about it. He hadn’t asked for a commitment. Not yet.
But now, sitting here with them, he prayed they stayed.
He didn’t want them to leave. He wanted them there, protecting his hometown beside him.
Connor leaned back, a grin on his face. “An anonymous boss paying my wage and a pissed-off county sheriff not doing his job. Sounds fun.”
Ryan dipped his head. “Yeah, life’s been too slow since getting out. It will be good to shake things up.”
Zac lifted his beer. “I do like a good black-and-white movie.”
They all looked at Joel, who was frowning. “Those pancakes really the best in the world?”
Ethan lifted a shoulder. “According to Basil.”
“Then count me in.”
Ethan’s lips twitched. “So you’re all staying?”
“I was looking for an excuse to get away from my neighbor’s dog,” Joel said. “So why the hell not.”
Something inside Ethan lifted. This weight that had been sitting on him for the last year. “We’d better get to that town meeting then. I’ll message Ferris on the way.”
The guys rose from the barstools, and Ethan couldn’t wipe the smile from his face. His friends—his brothers—were here to stay in his hometown. A town that was in trouble. A town that was bleeding.
Ethan wouldn’t need to shoulder that alone. It felt good. Better than good. It felt like the thing that would keep his head above water.
Ward wouldn’t be happy. Which made this even more appealing.
The guys stepped outside first. Ethan said a quick goodbye to Dusty before following.
The second he stepped out, he felt it. The shift in energy. The tension.
He opened his mouth to ask what was going on, but then spotted the woman in front of them.
The sight of her hit him so low and hard, it felt like an old injury flaring to life, one he thought he’d healed from. One he’d never stopped carrying, not for the entire eleven years she’d been gone.
