The job was simple—I could do it in my sleep—but Little Miss Sunshine with her strawberry blond curls and her “I don’t believe in bad days” attitude was anything but. I’d never met anyone that was so … happy. The woman acted like the world wasn’t going to shit and like her go-nowhere job handing out drinks and smiling at drunks was the best thing to ever happen to her. And what really got to me was the fact she wanted to be my friend. What in the actual fuck? I only had a handful of those and sure as shit none of them were women. I wasn’t friends with people I wanted to fuck, and even though she wasn’t my type, her optimism alone was enough that my dick had no business getting hard when she turned her pretty fawn-colored eyes in my direction. Big doe eyes that were so soft and warm that they made me want to believe in things I knew weren’t real. I’d left anything that looked like hope and faith in the desert when my last platoon had been attacked and I’d buried pretty much every single man I’d been in the war with for the last eighteen months. It didn’t matter; Dixie spread her sunshine around, tried to get the rays to break through the perpetual black cloud that hovered around me, and I wanted her. I wanted to show her how rough and ugly the world and the people in it could really be, and since I wanted to tear apart what made her who she was, I stayed away while everything inside of me ached to get as close to the sunny little cocktail waitress as I could.
My being able to kill time and lay low at the bar was running out and not because I was bored and restless. My time was up because it was getting harder and harder to stay away from the girl and I refused to be the reason any of her pretty and infectious light went out.
“I didn’t call the cops, I called a cop. Royal said she would wait for my call but would have guys ready to roll as soon as we give her a status update.”
I tapped my fingers on my knee and nodded. “You really don’t miss this?”
Rome turned his head towards me and the edges of his mouth pulled down. “No. I have people I need to be around for now, and I want to see my kids grow up. Catching bullets and putting myself in danger are two things that are so low on my list of things I want to be doing with my time they don’t even rank.” He lifted the ruined eyebrow at me. “You do?”
I shrugged a shoulder and turned to look out the window as he pulled the truck to a stop around the block from where Darcy’s modest home was located. “I was in for a long time, longer than you. Sometimes I think the fight and the fear changed my blood. It doesn’t seem to move through me the way it used to. I can only feel it when the adrenaline kicks in.”
His dark eyebrows snapped down in a deep V and his mouth pulled tight. “That’s not any way to live, Church. You shouldn’t have to chase after things that can kill in order to feel alive.”
No, I shouldn’t, but I did, which meant I was a dangerous man, far more dangerous than I had been when I was working for good ole Uncle Sam.
We climbed out of opposite sides of the truck and I cocked my head at Rome as we rounded the back. “You take the perimeter and let me go inside.”
“We don’t know what we’re dealing with. We should both take the perimeter and then work our way inside together.”
I shook my head at him. “No way, brother. There is more unknown happening inside the house. Brite’s a big fucking dude. It woulda taken more than one guy to get him down. You’ve got those people you need to be around for, so there is no need for you stick your neck out any more than it already is. I’ll go inside—you make sure the outside is clear.”
He scowled at me and I could see the argument in his eyes before he said anything. “I don’t like this plan … at all.”
I chuckled drily and clasped a hand on his beefy shoulder. “Well, you aren’t my CO anymore and I’ve got more tactical strike experience than you, so this is how it’s going down.”
He blew out a breath of resignation. “Let’s hope we don’t need your tactical experience.”
If I was able to hope for anything anymore it sure as hell wouldn’t be that. “Let’s do what we do so we can focus on figuring out where Avett went because we both know that wasn’t any kind of hired car she jumped into. This situation is a full-on shit show and we’re in the stink neck-deep.”
He grunted his response as we split up and maneuvered our way around the block from opposite directions. Rome had changed since leaving the service but one thing that was ingrained in the man regardless of his situation in life was his need to protect those that needed it. Brite wasn’t only Rome’s mentor and savior; he was the man’s friend and there were no lengths the former soldier wouldn’t go to in order to make sure his friend was safe. I considered it my job to make sure that no one that mattered, no one that had someone to lose, got hurt. I would storm the castle and I would take the shot of adrenaline, the surge of fire and focus, that the first action I had seen in over six months brought with it.
I cut through the backyard of the house behind Darcy’s and dodged a barking German shepherd as I scaled over the privacy fence that separated the two yards. Luckily, Darcy’s yard had plenty of big elms scattered throughout the landscaping so I ducked behind one as quickly as I could in case whoever was in the house with the captive Brite and Darcy went in search of what had the dog going nuts.
I waited a beat to see if anyone was going to come out of the house guns blazing, but when nothing happened, I moved my way closer to the house using the trees and then the deck at the back of the house as coverage. I made sure to keep my head below the window lines since I was tall and would be easily spotted by anyone looking out. I crept along the side of the house and found my way to the back door. I didn’t think I would be lucky enough to find it unlocked, but fate apparently wanted Brite out of harm’s way as much as I did because the knob turned easily under my palm. The interior of the garage was dark and I could clearly make out the outline of Brite’s Harley and the bulk of Darcy’s Chrysler 300 parked next to it.