Page 83 of Whiskey

“No.” I held my chest to keep my heart in place. “Sorry. There’s still so many places I haven’t explored here yet.”

“Don’t be sorry.” He rubbed the side with a big soft rag. “I’m just glad it’s you who’s exploring and not one of my rugrats again.” He smiled. “They’re like stray cats in an open field. Impossible to control.”

“They’re pretty great.” I smiled back. “It’ll be interesting to see what they do for a living after growing up in a place like this.”

“Fingers crossed.” He patted the word Army across his chest. “You want to hop in?” He motioned toward the chopper. I nodded and climbed in then stood where he pointed. I pressed my back into the wall.

“Aren’t you scared of falling out?” I looked over the edge and thought about how it might feel up off the ground as it hovered over a gunfight.

“Nah.” He reached up and grabbed a strap. “We wear these, but you get used to holding on.”

“I can’t do heights very well.” I shook my head and looked around. “God, the things you guys must see.”

“It’s not always pretty, but we don’t focus on those parts.” He pointed to the wall behind the pilot’s seat. “We focus on these.” He tapped some scratch marks in the steel. “This here is how many lives we saved over the years. This was my grandfather’s team. My father’s team, and ours.” He smiled warmly as his thumb rubbed over the grooves.

“Your father’s?” I stopped and thought about how I wasn’t sure how his story connected.

“My family is confusing, but the best parts of it is that Abby was Cole’s nanny. She adopted me, and I lived with her and Cole’s family. To me, Abby and Sue are both my mothers, Daniel is my father, and Cole is my brother.” A warm smile spread over his lips for a moment, like he was remembering some good.

“Family is what you make it.” I wanted him to know I understood. My uncle was basically my father.

He suddenly stopped and ran his finger over the etched in dates. “You know what?”

“Mm?”

“We never added a date for Ty’s team.” He reached back and pulled a knife from his pocket. “Why don’t you do the honors and scratch in the year.”

“Me?”

“Yeah, why not? It’s good luck when a lady does it.” He winked playfully and pulled out his phone. “Ty can add the team’s name later.”

“Okay.” I slowly moved up next to him, then on tiptoe I tentatively pressed the blade against the steel. I gained confidence, and clearly as I could, I scratched in the year with the point of the knife. I leaned forward, closed my eyes, and gently blew the flakes away. “Be safe out there,” I whispered without thinking, then stepped back to rest on my heels.

“If that isn’t luck, I don’t know what is.” Mark beamed with his phone pointed at me. “Thanks, Ivy. We’re a superstitious bunch, so this will help.”

I nodded then climbed down from the chopper. As I stood next to the huge machine, I pressed my whole hand against its side for a moment.

“Can I ask you something?”

“Sure.” He came to stand beside me.

“At the risk of overstepping, I’m confused on something. Where is Lexi now?”

“Here.” He handed me a dime. “I just hired you to listen to me. So now you can’t repeat anything to anyone.”

“I would never,” I promised.

“Superstitious, remember?” He held out the dime, and I took it.

“The story we tell is if you leave, you’re gone. No second chances or protection. That’s more for the clients we bring back here to help. Some can be real assholes, and we almost hope they do leave.” He shook his head like he wished he hadn’t said that part. “But with the wives, it’s different. Cole even said it to Savannah when she first arrived, but I can tell you he would have tied her up and stuck her in the basement if she wanted to leave. He was in love with her before he even met her.” He waved his hand. “That’s a long story. Anyway, as for Lexi, Cole gave her the whole shebang in her exit meeting. She accepted everything. She signed a lot of paperwork and was escorted to her cousin’s house in Nova Scotia, Canada. She thinks she’s free of us, no second chances, no protection. But, between you and me, that’s not the case. She’s family and will never really be cut loose. We have and always will have someone watching over her.”

“Did she want to go to Canada?”

“Lexi is a lot of things, but she understood what it meant to leave.”

“How is she now?”

“Really good. She got her old job back at a local café. She even applied to one of the universities up there, St. Mary’s or something like that.”

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