“And Roy wants you to visit him then?” Elijah asked, speaking of my friend who had gotten out a couple of years before me, and had sparked this idea.
“He has a very similar concept a couple of hours from us. I want to see how it works, and you should come with us.”
“So, we’re going to crash a wedding?” Everett asked.
“Well, I was thinking you and I could. And at least take some notes. Everyone else has to work, and I figured some of you guys might not be in the mood for a wedding.”
Evan grunted, and we all knew who I was talking about at that moment.
“This is insane,” Elijah began, but held up his hand when I started to interrupt. “But I could see it. We’ve all talked about getting out and working together. We just happened to get out far sooner than we planned.”
There was silence in that, but we were good about not talking about the whys of it.
“So we’re going to start over, work for ourselves, and we have the money to do this?” Everett asked as he pulled out his phone and started running numbers.
“We do. I hope. I’ll send you what I have. The owner doesn’t have any kids and wants to sell. He also wants to keep the business that he already has in place operating. He’s one of us. Retired Air Force.”
That made Evan’s lips twitch. “I guess we can listen to him then.”
I knew that would get Evan. We were a brotherhood, even those not by blood. I didn’t know if this was going to work or if it was just a lark.
I wanted us to be together. I wanted us to work towards a common purpose. And if that meant going out on a limb and trying something completely crazy and something that could risk everything, then I would do it. We had risked our lives for longer than I cared to admit. Why not risk something else to find a home?
In order to be settled.
Everett and I could see Roy and realize that this wasn’t what we wanted, and we’d find something else. This had shown up out of the blue, and it just spoke to me.
I was probably losing my goddam mind, but I didn’t have anything else.
I wanted my brothers settled, and I was the eldest. I needed to make sure that they were safe and had a future. None of us were married, other than Eliza. None of us had a family. We had spent so long protecting others. Now it was time to think for ourselves.
So we would. And I would make sure that they had a path—that they had a future.
First, however, it was time to go to a wedding.