“What?”
Dan shifted, his gaze uncharacteristically grave. “Shit, I didn’t mean to piss you off. It’s just… Nick, he’s….”
Jed held up his hand. “Trust me, I get it. He’s an ass.”
Dan’s smirk was brief. He understood. “So…not that I’m complaining, but why did you come back? I’d kinda figured I was never going to see you again.”
Guilt cut another painful path through Jed’s conscience. “I don’t know, man. It seemed like the only option at the time.”
“And now?”
Jed shrugged. His first few days in Ashton had been sleepless, awkward, and tough, but the two cherubic faces that greeted him every morning were nearly enough to convince him to stay. “I have two nieces, so I guess it isn’t all bad.”
Dan grinned. “Yeah, those kids are awesome. If they weren’t so much like you, I’d never believe they came from Nick. Kim’s cool, though. She hangs with my sister sometimes. Carla works at the hospital in Portland. She turned twenty-six last week. Can you believe that shit?”
Jed couldn’t. The last time he’d seen Carla Valesco, she’d been a skinny little kid who hadn’t quite grown into her legs. Then again, the last time he’d seenDan, he’d been a sports-crazy track star, not the shrewd businessman he was now. The Valesco family auto garage had been on the verge of bankruptcy when Jed left town. It was triple the size now, and thriving.
“Kim’s pretty hot, you know,” Dan said, breaking a silence that stretched too long. “I’ve never figured out why she let herself get saddled with Nick.”
Kim’s face flashed into Jed’s mind, reminding him that he needed to pull some cash from an ATM for the clothes she’d bought him. It had been a week since he’d found them on his bed, and he still hadn’t found the words to thank her. “You know Max?”
“Yeah,” Dan said. “He takes the kids to softball. Tess has got a damned good swing, but Belle won’t play without Max there. Flo’s the best of the lot, though. That girl can catch anything.”
“Flo?”
“His dog,” Dan clarified. “He’s pretty tight with my sister. They used to take their dogs to fly-ball together, before Loki got too old. You haven’t met Max yet?”
Jed shook his head. “No. Nick wants me to rent his spare room, so I guess we’ll cross paths eventually. What’s his story?”
Dan drained the last of his beer and dropped the bottle on the table with a thud. “Now that, I don’t know. No one does, not even my sister, and they’re, like, best friends. All I know is he turned up with your bro one day, started fixing up boats, going to school, and teaching my sister to hide vegetables in my food. They never said why he came here, and I never asked.”
Jed processed the information in his mind. Kim was British—from London, he thought—but as far as he knew, Nick had never left the US.
Interesting.
“Renting his room doesn’t sound like a bad idea, though,” Dan went on when Jed didn’t respond. “Max is a good guy, and I know Kim doesn’t like him being out by the lake on his own.”
Jed opened his mouth to ask why Kim was so worried about her adult brother living alone, but his words were cut off by a loud crash. Jed cut his gaze to a group of close-knit young men who seemed to be looking anywhere but at him.Ambush? Sniper?No. He looked again, spotting a lone man with a cell phone pressed to his ear.Remotely detonated bomb?The mounted flat-screen TV caught his eye, and the muted ball game and distinctly American rock music filtered into his brain.
Yeah, or maybe you’re just a freak.
It took all of ten seconds for Jed to scramble unsteadily to his feet, and the cacophony of ridiculous scenarios to run through his mind. By that time, Dan was beside him.
He put his hand on Jed’s arm. “Come on, dude. Let’s go home.”
Chapter Three
October 2004
Southern Iraq
“IT’SAquick job. Get in there and get it done. You’ll be back up north in a couple of days.”
Jed scowled and tightened his grip on his weapon as the voice of his commanding officer echoed in his head. The guy was a tool. No city, no town… hell, no single man was a safe bet in a war-torn country. Any fucker with a gun could blow your damned head off.
He signaled to the man behind, calling him forward to take the lead. They were exposed out in the open of the town, targets for the hidden eyes that lurked behind the cracked windows and closed doors, tracking their every step, but the Iraqi Security Forces weren’t going to train themselves.
The Iraqi soldier moved ahead. Jed followed him along the eerily silent street until their patrol of twelve reached the end of the main road. Their base came into sight. He could smell ration packs being cooked over gas, and cheap, freeze-dried coffee. Coffee, yeah. That sounded good.