Page 96 of Worth the Wait
Nathan didn’t answer.Couldn’t.
The room felt too quiet, like the moment after an explosion.
He’d spent years making hard calls. Sending lads into danger. Risking lives to protect something bigger. But this wasn’t a briefing. This wasn’t strategy.
This was hisson.
And yet, the truth pressed in like a blade to the ribs.
Alfie was already in the war zone.
The only question left was whether Nathan had the guts to pull him out the right way… or keep dragging him deeper.
He exhaled, slow and tight.
Protect him. Finish the job.
God help him if he got this wrong.
Chapter nineteen
Locked and Loaded
The rest of the shift dragged like wet cement.
Freddie finished the paperwork from the raid fallout. His statement on the Carter arrest was reviewed and counter signed by DI Carrick, then filed and locked down in the system.
Then came the calls. A public order issue outside the Co-op, a suspected break in at a garage that turned out to be some poor sod looking for his cat, and an overdose behind the bus station. He assisted the paramedics, had a chat with Trent who always, somehow, ended up talking about Reece, but Freddie moved on quickly, told him it was definitely over this time, then logged the report, and waited with a kid who couldn’t have been a day over sixteen until her mum arrived, screaming and crying in equal measure.
It was a night that clawed at his patience and picked his soul apart one small, gutting moment at a time.
Becca was covering a Domestic Violence call in Northworth where they’d needed a female officer to attend, and she didn’t make it back until changeover. They’d nodded to each other outside the locker room. Nothing said. Nothing needed.
He might have lost her trust. Maybe her friendship.
He hoped he hadn’t but fully understood why she might back away. And by the time he signed out just after seven, Freddie was beyond wrecked. His muscles ached, and he peeled off his stab vest and uniform in mechanical layers, folding them into his locker, tucking away a version of himself he didn’t want to take home.
Then he grabbed a flat white from the café by the station, didn’t drink it, just held it between his hands as the sky shifted from black to slate grey, bleeding pale light across Worthbridge’s tired rooftops.
No one told him what had happened with Nathan.
So when he pulled into the narrow bay outside his maisonette, he wasn’t expecting to see him there, sat on the concrete steps, knees to chest, eyes closed.
Freddie locked his car, walked up with cautious steps, but Nathan didn’t stir. He stayed folded into the brick as if he’d grown from it. So Freddie crouched and patted his shoulder. “Hey.”
Nathan snapped up, eyes wide. “Sir…shit.”
“How are you asleep on my doorstep? It’s the most uncomfortable place on earth.”
“Slept in worse places.” He rubbed his face as if he wasn’t sure if he was dreaming. “We’re trained to sleep anywhere.”
“Then on your feet, soldier.” Freddie handed Nathan the coffee. “Still warm. Ish.”
Nathan took it while Freddie stood to open the door.
“When did they let you go?”
Nathan hopped up, stretched, and cracked his neck from side to side. “Late last night.”
