Page 47 of Target Me
Fuck.
He was right.
I couldn’t help but push out the denial, though.
Bear chuckled. “Trust me when I say I can hear your mind ticking over, and I know for a fact that’s bullshit. I saw the way you looked at her after the car accident. You’ve been a goner for a while, which means I know you’re going to fight me on this next thing.
“She’s a distraction. You may think having feelings for her makes you the best man to protect her, but you know that’s not true. Your attention is inside on her instead of outside on the threat. You need to be neutral on this one, buddy. If you can’t be the objective third party, it might be time to assign someone else for the duty. There’s a reason we weren’t supposed to fuck around with others in the company when we were deployed.”
I grunted. Why had I called this prick again?
Bear chuckled. “I can hear you thinking from here, and fuck you for insulting me in whatever way you just did. Just promise me you’ll think about it, yeah?”
I sighed, groping for a packet of cigarettes I hadn’t smoked in a long time. Damn, I could have used a smoke.
“Sure. I’ll think about it. Not right now, though. Tell me what’s going on with you? Distract me from my clusterfuck of a life.”
A rabbit darted across the drive and under my truck’s front wheel a moment before an owl swooped past on silent wings. The night critters chittered and scurried around the nearby trees, and I breathed the first deep breath I’d allowed myself all day. Bear murmured something, his mouthpiece scratching like he had covered it to converse with someone in the room with him.
“Is someone else listening to our conversation?”
I knew Bear was trustworthy, but if someone else had heard what we’d discussed…
“Nah, man. Of course not. I stopped by to see Charlie tonight, and she was just asking if I wanted a beer. She’s gone back inside now.”
The name of Adrien’s widow turned the blood cold in my veins. I’d been so wrapped up in my own shit I hadn’t even bothered to check in on her. And didn’t that make me a shitty friend?
“How is she?”
“Charlie? She’s good. Well… she’s better than she was. Trying to move on and learn to live without Adrien. Money’s been a little tight for her, so I’ve been helping out some. Fixing the house up and stuff. I don’t think Damon’s been able to face her yet.”
Talk about a reality check.
The lesson I should have learned with Lana had been reinforced with Adrien. You could lose people in an instant. Instead of fucking around with Avery, I should have been working on eliminating the threat. Going on the offensive was the only option.
Decision made, I surged to my feet, only to realize it was late in the evening and any action plan would have to wait at least until first light.
“...come along.”
“Sorry, what?” I asked, realizing Bear had been engaged in a one-sided discussion while I brooded.
“The baseball match for suicide awareness we played tonight. It’s a shame you couldn’t come along. It was wild. Smouch ended up with a black eye, and Jones broke a finger. The other team looked worse, though. It was the most full-contact game of baseball I’ve ever seen. Even the mascots got into it. We’re looking at making it an annual thing. Bringing the other services into it. The paramedics who attended were interested in joining in next year.”
I chuckled. “Did they want to play? Or be on hand to fix injuries in a more timely fashion?”
Bear hummed as though thinking through his answer. “Nah, they want to play… except for the one who rolled his ankle tripping over home base. I don’t think he was much of a sportsman. We’re talking about doing a friendly match in a few weeks. You should come.”
A nearby thump caught my attention, and I moved around the house as I said my goodbyes to Bear, promising to think about the upcoming match.
“Sounds great, man. I’ll talk to you later. Say hi to Charlie and give her a hug for me, will you?”
“Can do. And think about what I said, yeah? If you’re too close, you won’t get the perspective you need to get shit done.”
“I know. Thanks for the chat, man.”
As I lowered my arm, a stinging pain registered in my neck, and a tingling numbness spread across my jaw and down over my chest. An arm wrapped around my body, taking the weight as my legs buckled, lowering me to the ground. My thoughts felt like molasses, slow and confused, as I squinted up at the dark figure above me.
Through the soup of my thoughts, one word emerged, giving me a surge of energy that allowed me to reach out toward my attacker before my eyes rolled back, blackness closing in from all angles.
