Page 24 of Coming Home

I shrug my shoulders. “Honestly, he’s good right now, but he knows that when he opens and starts accepting clients, there are going to be things that come up. I told him we would do a donation and that I’d get with you guys and figure it out. It’s all non-profit, and the money goes straight to helping wounded soldiers. On a personal level, I’m going to set up a quarterly donation.”

Ford nods. “Blaze Whiskey will do the same. We’ll all meet, and Beau will give us a number.”

There’s more, but I don’t say it. I just sit here, and finally Ford says, “Go on. There’s something else?”

I nod. “Yeah. Walker offered me a job.”

Immediately, I see Ford tense. He tries to hide it behind a fake smile, but I see it anyway. “You don’t think that’s a good idea?”

He puts his hands on the desk and pushes back before shooting to his feet. He paces back and forth before stopping in front of me. “I’m not saying that it’s not a good idea.”

“Well, you're not acting like it’s a good one, that’s for sure.”

He crosses his arms over his chest, and he doesn’t try to hide the anger from his face. “We just got you back, Hudson, and you’re telling me that you were offered a job as a hired mercenary.”

“How did you—?”

He throws his hands up. “Yeah, not a lot of people know what Walker and his crew do, but it wasn’t too hard to figure out. So are you going to take it?”

I smile as I stand up. “Awww, you love me, big brother.”

He shakes his head. “Fuck you.”

I can’t help but laugh. “He offered me a job at the wounded hero facility. I wouldn’t be a mercenary.”

All at once, Ford looks as if a weight has lifted off his shoulders. “Are you going to take it?”

I shake my head. “I asked him to give me a few weeks to get settled in with my responsibilities here, and I’d give him a decision. The facility is not opening for another few months.”

Ford nods. “And the other thing you were going to ask him about?”

“Elle? He said he’d look into it and get back to me today, but I haven’t heard anything from him yet. I’m going to hang out here a little bit, okay? Elle’s using my laptop, and I was wanting to look into a few things.”

“Sure, use the computer in the conference room. You know you have an office here. It’s empty, but I’m sure we can fix that quickly.”

I hold my hands up. “Let me figure out what I’m doing before we go there.”

“Sure, sure. No pressure.”

I walk to the door. “See you later, big brother.”

His voice softens. “See you later, brother.”

I get almost out the door and stop. “Hey, Ford.”

“Yeah?”

“I just want you to know I’m not leaving again. I’m home, and I hope you all know that I missed you too. I’m glad to be back… to be with you guys again.”

Ford visibly chokes back his emotion. He’s my older brother, but the two of us were really close growing up. He nods, and I walk out of his office, closing the door softly.

My phone rings, and I look down the hall. Elle is already gone, and Lilian is typing at her desk. When I look at the caller ID and see Walker’s name, I step into the conference room. “Hey, Walker.”

“Hey.” He sighs. “I swear it’s only eleven a.m., and I feel like I’ve put in a full day. So I looked into what we talked about. Honestly, there’s not much I can find on Elle. She was born in Mulberry City, Texas, no family, she worked at a textile plant. Nothing that raises any flags, well, until after my tech guy did a little more research and discovered that there is someone searching for her.”

He pauses, and I grip the phone tighter. “Who is it?”

“His name is Marco Casey. He’s the mayor of Mulberry City.”

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