“I’m getting back to work and leave you two to bicker,” Lilly said.
“Ok beautiful, it was lovely to meet Elijah’s new girlfriend,” Mickey called to her.
“Dude!” Elijah exclaimed.
Elijah looked at Lilly to apologise but was met with a shy smile, she wasn’t angry, she was happy. It made him want to take her out back and kiss her breath away.
“Earth to Elijah, stop staring at her ass, we need to talk,” Mickey said, bringing Elijah out of his daydream.
“Fine, can we start work on finding out about William now?” Elijah asked.
“No problem, let’s go to my office, I can do a better search there.” Mickey said and downed the last of his Whisky.
Elijah talked with Pete briefly instructing him to take care of Lilly. To make sure he called a taxi for her at the end of the night to get her home safely. If there were any problems, then Pete needed to call him straight away. He didn’t miss Pete rolling his eyes at his instructions and chuckled, Pete knew him well enough that he needed to say these things aloud even though Pete would already know to do this. It was part of the control that Elijah would always have in him. The military had trained him that way, never assume people know what you want, say it aloud to avoid any confusion.
It took a few minutes to exit the bar, Elijah talking to his regulars along the way, making vague plans to meet up for dinner and cards the following week. Mickey’s office was a shortwalk away from Blue’s. When they reached the outside of the bar, they could see it had been raining and the streets were soaking wet but the air was clear. Elijah and Mickey walked in silence until they arrived at his offices in a tower block. The security guard on duty knew Mickey well and buzzed them into the building. After briefly talking to Sid, the night security guard, they travelled to the fourteenth floor in the elevator.
The corridor where Mickey had his offices were quiet at night, he shared the space with an advertising company which he leased out. He spent very little time here as he preferred to be out and investigating rather than sitting behind a desk watching his stomach grow, through lack of exercise.
Mickey punched in the security code when they reached his office door. The metal box beeped indicating that he could unlock it. Mickey had a lot of security for his office. His company specialised in high-level security, protection and investigation and couldn’t afford any break in attempts. Mickey left the Navy at the same time as Elijah, they both had a lump sum on leaving and Mickey decided to open a security firm and Elijah opened the bar. Elijah and Mickey had spent their whole ten years in the Navy together. They met on day one and were in the same Regiment ever since. Once they left they still stayed near each other from that first day at boot camp.
“Let me fire up the laptop and see what we can find out about the Harrison family, there is bound to be some dirt we can conjure up on William.” He had to fake tapping the keys and searching. He already had all the information Elijah wanted, but didn’t want to reveal he had already done this search for Jack.
Elijah looked around the large office, itcould be mistaken for a financier’s office. Leather-bound books lined the walls, and the room was immaculate. A stark contrast to his own, he wondered at what point he became messy.
“What are all these books Mickey?” Elijah asked.
“They are my law books, why?” Mickey answered without looking up.
“You studied law?” Elijah squawked rather than asked.
“Try not to sound so surprised Elijah, I studied law before I went into the Navy. I didn’t want to be a lawyer after I passed the exams but have still kept up with what I need to. It helps in my line of work to know which side of the law I’m dancing down. Now let’s see what we can dig up on William,” Mickey said, changing the subject. Mickey had a lot more in common with Lilly than Elijah knew.
Mickey worked away at his keyboard while Elijah talked to his brother about the upcoming wedding. Jack was quizzing Elijah about his best man speech, and Elijah was doing his best to avoid the questions.
“Oh, fucking hell, uh, Elijah you may want to see this,” Mickey said quietly.
Elijah hung up the call from Jack, got up from his seat to look at Mickey’s screen. Mickey had put a picture on the screen for Elijah to look at. It was the best he could come up with to show him the link.
“Why am I looking at my father when he was young?” Elijah asked.
“Well, I need to know, is that your mother?” Mickey asked.
Elijah peered closer at the screen and looked at the blonde beauty standing next to his father. It was a group of five people dressed in their best clothing. They all had their arms around each other and glasses in their hands. They looked like they were celebrating something and his fatherlooked happy. He wondered who the woman was and what the other people were celebrating.
“No, that’s not my mother, but I have a feeling you already knew that, who is she Mickey?”
“The woman in the picture is Lilly’s mum. Did you know your dad knows your beauty’s mother?” Mickey asked.
“Well, it certainly is a small world, what else do you know?” Elijah asked.
“I know quite a bit but first things first, just to check, you’re adopted, right?” Mickey asked.
“Yeah Mickey, I’m adopted, show me the rest,” Elijah said, warily, wondering where all of this was going.
Mickey took Elijah through some of the information he had on the Harrison family and Elijah needed to take a seat. It was a lot to take in. His mind went straight to Lilly. He needed to tell her he was adopted, so she didn’t get the wrong end of the stick if she knew something connected their families when they were all in school.
Chapter Twenty
