Page 41 of Fool’s Gold

“Well, you could probably show up at his place with the cats. Just a thought.”

“I can’t do that.”

Jack could see it now. Walking in like he’d just been out on a job, like he belonged there. Matt greeting him with a kiss, a smile of delight at the sight of the cat carriers.

That was someone else’s life. Jack didn’t go back to anyone. His bridges stayed burned.

He tugged at his collar, glad Irvine couldn’t see his discomfort. “I was actually kind of hoping you might take them by?”

Irvine went silent. For a minute, Jack thought he might have hung up. Irvine disabused him of that notion with howls of laughter.

“That’s awesome. Adorable and hilarious too. Jack Vessely, who once walked into a camp of cartel operatives armed with nothing but a piece of piano wire and walked out leaving no survivors behind him, is afraid to face an ex.” Irvine wheezed. He was laughing so hard his lung capacity was compromised. Awesome.

“Look, the guy has been through enough. The last thing he needs is to see my face.”

“I think that’s exactly what he needs, actually.” Irvine’s humor died away like its throat had been cut. “Dude’s miserable. Why would you start something with him if you weren’t going to follow through?”

“I—” Jack bowed his head. “The job was to fake it.”

“Okay, and you’ve done it a thousand times before. But this time you got attached. So what? It’s okay to get attached. It’s actually awesome. Look at me. I know you don’t think guys like us are supposed to do the home and family thing. I thought the same thing. But we can make it work. Kingston and Marshall are doing it and they’ve got actual kids, for fuck’s sake.”

Jack gave a full body shudder. “Ew.”

“I know, right? We got a dog and that’s gross enough. We’re not going to have to chaperone Doggy Prom or whatever. Can you imagine?” He laughed, but then he sobered. “We get to have this too. It doesn’t matter what kind of fucked-up shit we’ve done in the past when we were working for the government. We’re good people. We were trying to help people then, we are helping people now, and we deserve the same thing anyone else deserves. We deserve love. We deserve compassion. We deserve respect.

“And we deserve to give those things to other people too. We’ve got a lot to offer. I know it doesn’t necessarily feel like it all the time, but we’ve got so much to give.”

Jack pinched the bridge of his nose. He didn’t have anything to give. Not like that. He didn’t have a home, he didn’t have a family, he didn’t have anything he could leave to niblings or an animal welfare society or anything else. He had a few guns and his brains and a lifetime of trauma both received and dealt.

“I’ve got cats, Irvine.”

“How about you get that perky little ass of yours on a plane and bring those cats back down to Atlanta? We’ll deal with the rest when you get here.”

Jack sighed and bowed his head. He was going to do it. He didn’t want to—rather, he wanted to, but he knew he couldn’t do this. Not in any realistic version of the story anyway.

And yet, where else was he going to go?

* * *

Irvine methim at the airport. “Kingston’s got an eye on Sam right now. He’s in New York, believe it or not, interviewing on one of those late-night shows. Yeah, he’s hot, but I’m not sure how I feel about the whole country swooning over him.”

It was a lie. Jack could see exactly how Irvine felt about Darrow becoming a public sex symbol or whatever. That smug little smile left nothing to the imagination.

It seemed that even one of the cats in its carrier could pick up on the lie because it mewled a sound that almost sounded likeliarfrom its carrier.

Irvine chuckled, red popping into his pale cheeks. “Wow. Called out by a cat. Who knew? So anyway, we’re meeting him at this little cafe near Hammer. It’s called Anvil. Same ownership.”

Jack pinched the bridge of his nose. “Judas Priest fans, I suppose?”

Irvine blinked. “I can’t believe I didn’t pick up on that.”

Anvil turned out to be a cute little place with a lot of wrought-iron decor and seating. Jack and Irvine arrived first and got a seat out on the patio, as the cats weren’t allowed inside thanks to the board of health. Jack understood, although he didn’t like the idea of having Matt so exposed.

Irvine shrugged. “The contract’s over, right? The bad guys are being held in Club Fed without bail.”

Jack smirked. “Actually, they’re in the Fulton County Jail. They were deemed to be flight risks. Go figure. They’ve already had to be transferred to a secure unit after someone spilled the beans about them being Besse board members involved with the whole flu thing. Turns out that stuff spreads like wildfire in a prison environment.”

Irvine raised his eyebrows. “Huh. Gossip or influenza?”

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