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She was resilient, scrappy, and tough, but also a fantastic support, someone I could always count on to cut straight to the chase; her no-nonsense attitude and advice were invaluable.

‘Damn. Of course.’

‘It’s messing me up.’

‘Come over. Now.’

‘Your place?’

‘Where else? I’ll have a chai tea ready.’

‘You’re the best.’

She hung up, and I focused on navigating the traffic to her home.

Shalini lived in Green Hills, in a charming three-bedroom, two-bathroom cottage perched on a sloped lot with generous street frontage and a deep backyard.

I found her standing outside the front door in shorts and a T-shirt when I pulled up.

I got out of my ride as she walked toward me, hugged me, then stepped back and studied me, her unusual eyes filled with concern.

‘You look like shit.’

‘I might have shed a tear in the car.’

‘That bad?’

‘Close.’

‘Inside, now, woman. I’ve got tea waiting. You need to drink it before it gets cold.’

I rolled my eyes at her briskness as I locked the Audi.

Shalini could come across as hard-edged, but she was one of the most caring and generous women I knew.

She was striking, with dark brown and blonde curls spilling down her back, high cheekbones, and honey skin.

She was also blessed with heterochromia, two different-colored eyes: one dark brown and the other a vivid blue.

This was due to a genetic variation, common in her mixed ethnicity.

That said, she’d had a challenging life.

My eyes fell on her prosthetic right leg as she marched into her house.

She was a kick-ass security specialist, with an impressive resume as a former special forces soldier in the Australian Army.

However, she’d lost a limb during a mission in Niger years ago, when militants bombed her squad.

She never hid her disability or her scarred thigh at home, though she wore trousers to work most of the time.

We’d met through Deacon, when he and Shalini became friends while she was working protection for the band.

Now, we crossed her hardwood floor and entered her gorgeous living room, which overlooked her established garden.

The air-conditioned room was refreshing, a relief from the afternoon heat outside.

We sat on her huge sofa as Shalini pushed an oversized cup of hot chai across the coffee table towards me.