Chapter 22
William
It was one of those days that went from bad to worse. I started the morning burning my tongue drinking coffee since I was too busy looking over some vendor contracts, it took nearly two hours to get the cow unstuck from a ditch by the creek, and an irate French couple was staying with us whose demands were getting ruder by the day. I thought things with Nairie were improving. We got into a semi-regular rhythm of texting again, and although she never brought up whether or not she loved me back, I was still grateful she was in my life. Except I hadn’t heard from her all day, and it was starting to fray my nerves.
Instead of pushing through the discomfort I decided to reach out to one of my brothers from the service. Finn and I were closest out of our tight-knit group. We enlisted around the same time and grew through the ranks together. He was medically discharged after one of his missions went cock up and now runs his own private security business. We both tend to bury ourselves with work so having one-on-one chats didn’t happen as regularly as I would have liked.
But I wanted to be a better friend and a better man for Nairie, someone who invested in his relationships. So I took an actual break from work and sat at one of the picnic tables outside the edge of the forest. It was one ofour more popular lookouts because you could walk down some stairs along the cliffside and reach a private little beach. The ocean waves lapped gently as seagulls floated on the air currents above.
“Well if it isn’t my old pal, Will,” his Irish accent boomed over the other line.
I chuckled. “It’s been too long you Irish bastard.”
It sounded like he was in the car either driving to a job or back to whatever hotel he was squatting in for the time being.
“Aye, you’re not wrong. Everything ok?”
I shifted uncomfortably. “Yeah, everything’s fine. Just wanted to make a better effort at reaching out is all.”
There was a long pause. “Are you dyin’?”
“No,” I said rolling my eyes.
“Well something’s up.”
“Nothing’s up,” I shifted my phone to my other ear, “It’s been a while and we both work too much. How’s your leg? Have you talked to any of the other guys?”
Finn got shot in the knee extracting an Arabic translator and his family on a mission in Afghanistan. I was already out of the service at that point and when I heard, it was one of the scariest moments of my life. Our small circle of friends visited him every day in hospital. It was the last time we were all together in the UK and that was nearly two years ago.
We were all shaken up seeing Finn in a hospital bed. The carefree Irishman was always the first to joke.
In his half-conscious state one of the first things he said when he saw all of us was, “You’re not the hookers I ordered.”
Finn cleared his throat. “My knee is stronger than ever. Titanium and all that. You’re the first of the boys I’vetalked to in a while, at least over phone.”
We still texted one another in a group chat from time to time but it was hard to keep up an actual conversation with everyone’s differing schedules. Finn was usually on some protective detail at all hours of the day, Theo was in MI6, Archie was a big shot professor at university, and Noah was still undercover on a case.
But when you go through half the shit we went through together, that bond never fades.
I hummed. “Where are you off to now?”
I could hear him shift his parking break as he took a big sigh. “Just going to catch up on some sleep. This client has been a nightmare. Some actress everyone’s obsessed with. The girl has stalkers on every corner. I’m actually considering hiring more guys if you’re interested.”
Out of the corner of my eye I could see a young couple walking hand-in-hand down the trail towards the loch. I raised my hand and they waved back. They just got in yesterday for their honeymoon and my heart ached thinking of Nairie.
“I’m busy enough as it is but I appreciate it.”
“So are you going to tell me what’s really wrong.”
I scratched my beard and took a beat.
I didn’t know how to phrase this without sounding like a total idiot. “I met someone. I mean I’ve known her for a long time but it just recently developed into something more and she’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me. But I feel like a washed-up old soldier with a criminal record. Between all the illegal shit I did with Angus before I joined the service and the fact that the bastard is still harassing me and my own—”
“We’ll take care of that cunt soon enough. Have you followed up with Noah at all?”
Noah was undercover investigating Angus’s human trafficking ring.
“He’s been keeping an eye on the situation. They’re wrapping up more surveillance footage and should make all the arrests soon.”
