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Billy meets my eyes for a brief second, then looks away again. “Alright. The beginning. Well... I fell in love with someone.”
That’s the last thing we both expect him to say. Luke pauses in step to stare at him.
“What?”
Billy cringes. “Ok yeah, wrong starting point. Ok, how about this - You know back when I said I was leaving to go to the military?”
We start walking again, and I visually scan the shrubbery, calling Chase's name as we round out the building. “Yeah?”
“Well, it wasn’t exactly the military,” he says. “It’s an organizationlikethe military, though. But sort of more like a private security firm that protects the rich and powerful and sometimes occasionally takes out anyone who opposes them.”
That nearly makes me pause again, but Luke doesn’t even flinch. We reach the trash bins at the back of the building and Luke circles around them, yelling, "Chase are you here?"
“Wait I’m confused when you say ‘take out’.” My mind is torn between my son and the story. “What does that mean? Like, kill?"
“Not all the time,” Billy rushes to say. “But at least some of the time.”
“Mercenaries,” Luke says as he strides out from behind the trash bins.“That’s who you worked for?”
“Well, we don’t exactly call them that. We call them agents, but yeah, something like that.”
Luke grunts and says nothing else. I don't know why I'm the only one shocked by the reveal.
“You killed people? For money?”
Billy looks a little embarrassed but still shoots back defensively. “You preferred it when you thought I was killing people for the United States Military? News flash, they pay money too.”
"Yes but…” I'm struggling to wrap my head around the whole thing. Billy had always been so quiet, back when we dated, a little soft-spoken and shy. He could barely raise his voice and he’d never seemed like the type for violence. It was hard enough to understand him choosing to join the military rather than go to Caltech, like everyone thought he would. He was an IT whiz, it would’ve been easy for him to get in. But no, he chose to join the military. I thought maybe it was because he wanted to serve his country, or maybe needed them to pay for his college education.
Either way, that had been a lot easier to swallow than this.
A mercenary.
“I’m sorry,” I say even though I'm not sure I should be apologizing. "I don’t mean to judge you, it’s just a lot to take in. “
Billy looks uncomfortable with the apology too, scratching his head as he nods. “Yeah, don't worry about it. I understand. But to be fair, they offered a lot of money to join them. More money than I'd ever seen in my life, especially since I was recruited right out of high school. And I don't do any of the killing people part, at least not directly. I do more intel and find people's weaknesses. You know, putting my computer skills to use.”
"Then what's with the muscles?" I ask stupidly and a little growl escapes Luke. I know it's his jealousy talking but I don't mean it that way. I'm just curious and eager to get to the part where he mentions how he's endangered Chase.
"That's just for aesthetics," he says sheepishly. "I started hitting the gym and you know..."
"Yeah okay."
"Chase isn't here," Luke announces, as we’ve circled the whole building. We then head toward the bushes.
"Chase!" I call out when I see a bush rustle, like something dashed through. There's no answer. I almost follow but Luke restrains me. It’s not him. Anxiety is building in my chest.
"Ok, skip to the end of the story," I tell Billy finally running out of patience. "Why is my son in danger?"
Billy sighs. "The answer to that and your previous question is the same. Because I fell in love. With a coworker. Her name is Teairra, Tea for short.”
"I don’t care what her name is,” I tell him testily. “What does she have to do with the danger?"
"Sheisthe danger,” he says. "Tea is another agent. She’s one of our best, actually. Well,wasone of the best, until she left. Anyway, I'm not exactly telling the story in chronological order but essentially, we had a wild, hot affair. She got pretty obsessed with me, more so than I was with her. She got obsessed with you too, because you're the only other woman I've been in a relationship with. She said she was going to track you down. I thought she was joking until she sent me a picture of your house a week ago."
I blink at him, unable to believe what he's saying.
"The entire thing sounds like a bad action flick," Luke comments, darkly.
