“Yeah?” I ask, turning to face her as we walk to the main doors. “Why is that?” I grit my teeth, trying to hold in what I really want to say but I need to remember that it’s not her who did this to me, it’s Scott.
“Why would you just walk up to him? That’s not like you.” Her face is a strange mix of apology and pissed. “And you know that Scott can’t stand him.”
I snort at her; she’s apologizing but in the same breath she’s trying to make an excuse for everything that happened? Is she saying that it’s my fault?
“One,” I say, holding up my finger and standing at the top of the steps as we walk through the main doors. “Your boyfriend gave me a black eye.” I point to my eye and hold up another finger. “Two, Jackson is one of the Mackenzie brothers.” I wait for her to make the connection because she knows about Elena and Trevor and I’ve told her stories about them and spoken about the family as a whole, even the elusive brother that I hadn’t met at that stage.
“Mackenzie...” I say with a shake of my head. “As in Elena and Trevor? Jackson is their youngest son.”
Her eyes go as wide as saucers and she steps back, ever the drama lama. “Holy... fucking... shit.”
“Yep.” I nod and smirk at her.
“Girl... you need to fill me in. Start from the beginning.” She hooks her arm through mine and practically pulls me out of the room.
I’m completely still, frozen to the spot. Taking a deep breath, I ce
nter my whole body.
I’m exceptional at staying still for long periods of time, something that takes practice but after years of it, it’s now automatic.
I’m laid out on my front in the muddy ground as low as I can possibly get. Squinting one eye, I look through the scope of my sniper rifle, placing my pointer finger on the trigger, I take another breath and pull, aiming for the middle of the makeshift target.
I’ve been lying down here now for over an hour, shooting at the same target trying to waste time while I wait for my turn on the only computer we have in our small compound.
There’s only five of us on this mission; a mission that we’ve been on for the last eighteen months. Being together and working as a team for that long, living every day and night in each other’s pockets, means that we’ve become really close; we’re basically a family.
That’s the thing when you have a team like I do, you have to build trust but when you have it, you have it for life.
When Daley, my boss, put me on this mission he said that I’d be home within nine months. Those nine months came and went, with another nine following after.
With my job, I have to go dark a lot and my family, which compromises of just my little sister and my nephew, know how it is. This time though, talking to them hasn’t been often, the last time I spoke to Kay was about six months ago. The only reason that I’m able to talk to her now is because tonight will be the end of this particular mission.
I have no idea whether it will go good or bad but either way I won’t be telling her that. There’s no reason to make her worry, I need to keep my head in the game.
Taking a breath, I pull back and drop my head thinking about what waits for me at home.
Before this mission, I’d got out of the special forces, I’d served my time and even though I knew it would be an adjustment, I wanted to spend some time with my family and also start to make a solid life for myself.
I’d bought an abandoned warehouse and completely renovated it in preparation for when I was out but when Daley called in his favor, I was pulled back in with his private company and I had no choice but to leave my project in someone else’s hands.
As much as I wanted to stay at home, I didn’t have a choice but to go work for Daley. Some fucked up shit went down with my sister and her ex, the father of her son, Eli. When I found out what had been happening between them over all those years, it killed me that I hadn’t been there to protect her. I was glad I was out but when I was given the choice between her life and working for Daley, it was a no brainer. I knew asking Daley for help would pull me in further but I didn’t think twice about it.
Family first. Always.
Daley’s a man that you’d never want to cross so when he said that I’d owe him, I knew he’d collect and he did, several days later.
As much as I didn’t want to be back in the game again, running this team for him is something that I enjoy. I love my job but there are always drawbacks. The danger and the enemies that I make while doing it means that I have to be careful and it’s the sole reason why no one even knew I had a sister, not even the men from my old squad and they’re still like family to me.
They soon found out though, when I sent Kay to their compound under the guise of her needing a job, when really I knew something bad may be coming her way.
Luckily, I dealt with that shit and made it home just in time for me to be there for her when she was in danger with her ex.
The loneliness is the worst out here, sure we entertain ourselves and could talk about things that you’d never think we could talk about but that doesn’t mean that I don’t lay there sometimes at night and imagine me being part of a regular family, a man with a wife and kids, living in the suburbs. But that really isn’t me. This is who I am. It’s who I’ll always be, no matter when I get out.
Tonight’s mission involves going to a targets house and I have a feeling in my gut, something that I can’t explain.
Shaking those thoughts from my head, I set my sights on the target again, shooting it once more, right in the middle.