AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I’d always wanted my other half to be someone who was like me, who understood the lifestyle I lived while in the Army, the same lifestyle I had a hard time letting go of. My willingness to help protect Christine and help find Mary was evidence of that. Abby wasn’t scared by the sound of gunshots or dying men; instead she confronted them head-on. She ran straight into danger and led the way.
Is Abby my perfect match? Does she have what it takes to be with someone like me?
If she could handle a gunshot victim, who knew what else she could handle with the same level of calm and confidence? For half a second, I considered telling her why Christine and Wells chose this island for their wedding. I considered telling her about our mission and asking if she wanted to help. But I thought better of it after a quick moment of insecurity. Plugging a bullet wound was completely different than hunting down a human trafficker. Not to mention, I didn’t want to do anything to put her in danger.
Guilt suddenly bloomed in my stomach, anchoring my feet to the ground. Why did I feel so guilty keeping something like that from her? It was none of her business in the first place. My friends would also kill me if I told her about our mission without running it by them first. We needed to keep our cover on the island—tourists, here for a blowout wedding. No one suspected the true purpose for our visit.
I was so desperate to keep Abby around, and close by, that I considered spilling my guts if it meant she’d stay to help us. That was a weakness, something I wasn’t fond of in myself, but I could admit it was there. We didn’t need any help, but I would let her think that if it meant I could convince her to stay—convince her to spend a few nights in my bed.
Yates would give me so much shit if he knew what I was thinking. Pirate fucker.
The whole group would, but he’d start making jokes about fucking her, and then I’d have to snap a perfectly good prosthetic leg and shove it in between his ears.
I shook my head to clear my thoughts as the island’s emergency services arrived. Their footsteps and voices had been what brought me out of my wandering head as they came into view. They crouched beside Abby and me, and they took over. Other hands replaced mine, and police officers guided us off to the side. The woman who had called for help allowed us to wash our hands in her sink before the police got a chance to question us. It turned out the victim was her employee.
“So you’re telling me you didn’t witness anything?” the officer asked. Abby was questioned separately. I could see the side of her face as she gave her account of what happened. The officer who spoke with her probably had more information than what I shared with the officer who questioned me. It was obvious what we did to help. I figured I didn’t need to describe it in excruciating detail. I didn’t think they truly cared what the man’s warm blood felt like between my fingers or what his groans of pain had sounded like.
“That’s what I’m saying. We heard the gunshot and went running. I’m a retired combat veteran and figured if there was anyone injured that I could help,” I explained again. It wasn’t quite true; I just followed Abby here. I had to make sure she stayed safe, but I wasn’t going to put any attention on her. I didn’t know who could be involved in the trafficking ring or if these cops were dirty. The less attention put on Abby, the better.
Given our group’s past experiences, I was a little critical of law enforcement. I was especially skeptical of them in foreign countries, where they liked to take advantage of tourists. I waited for him to try to trip me up, to try to pin this back on us somehow. At least we had a lot of witnesses to our arrival and no weapons on us. I half expected the man to try to extort money from us somehow.
“Did the victim mention who shot him?” the officer asked.
“No, he wasn’t able to speak, only shake or nod his head. He was barely conscious while we stabilized him.”
“Then that’s all I need,” the officer said. He already had my contact information should he need to reach back out. He closed his notepad and then walked back over to where the victim had been lying. He stared at the puddle of blood, inspecting for any further evidence. His partner soon finished his conversation with Abby and we were free to go.
Several people approached us and thanked us for what we did, but we kept moving. This place clearly wasn’t safe, even with a police presence. Not to mention, we had no idea who fired the round. What if they were mad we interfered and came back to get revenge? I could take a round, I had before, but I wasn’t keen on repeating the experience. I didn’t want that for Abby either.
When we were far enough away from the crowd, I sent a text to the group, giving them a one-line explanation of what happened. I left Christine and Wells out of the text thread; it was their wedding night, after all. Then I took a deep breath and steeled myself for a conversation that I may or may not like the answer to. Despite how in awe I was of Abby, I needed to shatter that opinion. She was too perfect, and I wanted to call bullshit. I wasn’t sure if this was self-sabotage or not. I may not have any real experience when it came to romantic relationships, aside from fuck buddies—but I knew enough about females to know that what I was about to do might piss her off.
“Okay, so how did you know how to do that?” I asked her. I trained my eyes on her in a hard expression, hoping she’d cave to my questions easily.
“Do what, put a tampon in a hole? Well, I don’t know if you were ever taught about the female body…” she said, trailing off.Cute.
Her answer would have been funny, if it were answering someone else’s question. The fact that she was using it to avoid mine had me a little frustrated.
“No, don’t do that deflecting crap. You demonstrated combat lifesaving skills, you ran headfirst into unknown danger, and you didn’t shy away when you saw all the blood. In fact, you just knelt in it and got to work. That’s shit that nurses, doctors, first responders, or service members do. You told me you are none of those things,” I said, my accusation just under the surface.What are you keeping from me, and why are you lying about it?
“I’m exhausted. Can we talk about this in the morning, once I can mentally unpack what just happened? I’m not unaffected by it, like you are implying. I just download this stuff differently, and it takes time,” she said. She sighed, and I could hear the exhaustion in it. It had been a long day, and we were well into a new one.
I huffed out a sigh. “Okay. But we are discussing this. There are some things that I want to tell you, but I can’t do that unless you are honest with me first,” I added. I really did want to tell her about our mission. I was going to talk to the group about it first thing in the morning. I had only known her for all of three full days, and I shouldn’t feel guilty about keeping our mission from her, but I did, and there was only one way to fix it. I knew my friends were not going to like the idea, but I’d fight for her. She’d be a good addition to the group; I just knew it.
“Fine,” she said with a whisper.
The rest of our walk back to the resort was silent. I wanted to reach out and grab her hand, but I didn’t. That was shit that couples did, and we weren’t a couple.
As the ocean breeze tickled my skin and rustled my hair, my thoughts began to wander to what Abby was keeping to herself and who she really was. Her tattoos led me to the conclusion that she could be a veteran. So many of us invested in the art during or after our service. Maybe she was a nurse or a doctor, but why lie about something like that? Why lie about prior service, or her job in general? I was just a stranger she met on the plane; why would I care what she did for a living?
We got back to the lobby of the resort and received strange looks. I looked down and saw blood on my white shirt and on the knees of my long khaki dress pants. She had blood on her knees and a little smeared on her chest. We looked like we just committed a murder.
“I’ll see you in the morning,” Abby said and took an elevator up to the room. I wondered why she had disappeared so quickly. I saw Jasmine and Jones standing in the lobby near the dining area, and Jasmine looked pissed. That answered my question; she left me to deal with my friends. Hell, if Jasmine wasn’t my friend, I might have high-tailed it out of there too.
I wondered what had happened to put that annoyed look on Jasmine’s face. The whole night had been great, all of my friends got plastered, and for once we enjoyed ourselves. The last time we did something like that was in Vegas after we recovered all the human trafficking survivors. What could have ruined that?
“Do you have a minute, man? We need to talk to you,” Jones said. He sounded a little nervous. I’d never known him to be nervous before, except for when his sister was kidnapped and Jasmine was in danger of the same.
“Uh, yeah, I guess so. Follow me up to my room? I’m kind of covered in blood,” I said.
