Page 3 of Rough Trip

He zoned in on one detail - the beds. All clean beds he noticed, clean, empty beds.

“My team? Where is my team? Where is Laura?” he asked, panic rising in his voice.

“Private Anderson, I’m sorry to inform you but you’re the only one who made it,” the doctor said.

“No, no don’t tell me that,” Sage said as tears started filling his eyes.

“I’m so sorry, Private.”

Sage closed his eyes as tears started streaming down his face. She was gone, Laura was gone and he would never get her back. He would never say goodbye, he would never kiss her, touch her or hear her voice ever again. His chest began to feel tight and he felt a pain deep within.

Why had he survived? He should be with his team. He should be with his team and not in the hospital getting patched up. How could he be the only survivor? He didn’t deserve to be alive.

“Please leave me alone. I need to be alone,” he said. He could not bear being so vulnerable around people. He felt as if his whole world had crumbled around him.

“Yes, of course. Please press the red button next to your bed if you need any assistance,” the doctor said as he turned to leave and closed the door behind him.

Sage was left in the room by himself as he broke down and sobbed for the loss of his team, the loss of Laura.

3 years ago

It had been two years since the attack in Afghanistan. Sage had managed to get his life back in order and his head healed although he was left with a scar. His heart had never been able to fully recover from the loss. He still had the constant feeling that he needed to protect something, to fight for something. It had been the one thing he had been trained to do and that sort of training never goes away, even after everything he had been through. He had been in and out of security jobs until he had found Hamilton. Having the opportunity to join the Screaming Demons was not something he could easily just walk away from. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity and he took it with both hands.

It was the first time Sage entered the Screaming Demons bar. He had no idea how well the meeting with Max would go. He wouldn’t walk into a place like that without doing his research first. He liked to be prepared. He liked to know who he was dealing with. And this place, the people who ran this place, were not people he wanted to be on the wrong side of.

The place had a rundown, old school look about it. The walls were half mahogany with bricks going toward the ceiling, generously lined with photographs that looked like they had been taken at least 30 odd years before, completely vintage looking. The light fixtures hung low from the ceiling, with dim bulbs to create a dark and mysterious atmosphere which suited the Screaming Demons perfectly. There was a large mahogany bar just off-center from the entrance that had ceiling to floor shelves filled with only the finest liquors around the world. The Screaming Demons had to have the best there was and Sage knew that. And although there were a few stools at the bar, the place had mostly booths that were covered in pure leather and detailed to perfection; each booth looked plush and extremely comfortable. The bar itself would never be filled to the brim but there would always be just enough people to make it buzz like a hornet’s nest.

Sage decided to take a seat at the bar as he waited for Hamilton who had gone to speak to Grier, and Sage had been ordered to wait for their return. He had thought about ordering a drink. A whiskey neat would be great but Sage knew better than to drink on the job. Also, he had laid off the booze for quite some time so it wouldn’t be smart to start as he was just entering a new job.

“Anything I can get for you?” the bartender asked as she approached Sage from across the bar.

“Oh, nothing for me thanks. I’m here for Hamilton,” Sage said.

The bartender who had fiery red hair nodded knowingly. “All right,” she said as she walked back to the other side of the bar.

“Sage, over here! Max is expecting you,” Hamilton shouted and the room went quiet. All the Demons watched as Sage slowly dragged his body across the room, passing all the Demons, toward Max’s office. He could feel each one of them, breathing down his neck, sniffing him, checking him out. He knew they couldn’t touch him. Not when he was there to meet their king. Not until he’d had a chance to prove his worth to their club.

“We could use a man with your skill,” Max coughed while pointing at the whiskey at the table. The woman next to him quickly poured him a glass and at the same time thew him a you-shouldn’t-be-drinking-this look.

“Just do what you’re told,” Max took the glass and signaled Sage to leave the room. Those words were for him as much as the woman. Max was an undeniable genius, he chuckled to himself.

Unlike the other Demons, his first meeting with Max was short and kind of sweet in that there was no bloodshed. Max was too exhausted to even look at him for another second. Maybe he didn’t care about the club anymore as he was dying. Maybe he trusted Hamilton, his judgment of character.

Either way, that was ancient history…

Now… he works for Fiona.

* * *

“What can I get you?” a female voice asked from behind him.

As Sage turned around, he saw a pair of brown eyes looking straight at him. The brown eyes glistened with mischief, and he sensed trouble. As he continued to examine the rest of the face he noted a head of short black hair, with slight flicks at the ends just meeting the female’s collarbone, freckles splattered across the bridge of her nose going slightly onto her cheeks and small, pixie-like ears popping out of the sides. Although her eyes were just brown Sage couldn’t help but be slightly captivated by them. They looked like pools of honey; he could probably get lost in them for hours and he knew that that could be bad news. It took him a while to bring himself back into the moment. He had almost lost track of where he was.

“Where’s Autumn?”

“She’s gone to a different chapter. I’m her replacement,”

“Since when?” Sage moved closer to the woman as if interrogating her. She moved even closer in response and he could now smell her perfume.