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“It was good, intense like it always is. I’d like to think we’re making a dent, eliminating some of the evildoers in the world, but as fast as we go after them, they recruit more, have more little bad guys. Teach them starting as toddlers to hate us and everything we stand for. I just do what I’m told. I wish I had a little more say so as to what our missions were. But I’m not complaining.”
“As I recall, you didn’t want any part of leadership, so I guess you get what you pay for, right?” she asked him.
“True. And I’d rather have it this way than being responsible for the whole team. I’m just not made out to be that kind of a leader. I can jump in and do things and be very present, but I really don’t want to run anything. Those days are over, my friend.”
“Makes it simpler. Some of the firms I’ve worked for, they have partners who get involved in every last detail from personnel issues to office policies. Honestly, getting a bunch of attorneys to agree to anything, well, it’s impossible. It’s like the way they run the government,” Sally said with a shrug.
“The military too. None of us, none of our teams go unscathed. Is there ever a ‘nice’ way to go to war? To be protectors? We either do such a good job we get into trouble or not enough and get ourselves and our Teammates or hostages killed. Either way, there is no perfect solution, yet that’s what we’re tasked with—do it perfectly. Execute it exactly how it’s supposed to be, when nothing works that way. Not ever, because the enemy always gets a vote.”
“Well, Harper, I’m in your camp. I just do my own thing, and I guess I’m enough of an oddball they leave me alone. At least I get to take off when I want, take the cases I want to win. Venom and I went up to Mendocino for a weekend trip, and he loved it. Even likes the new car. It’s beautiful up there. Bought some artwork and just enjoyed the scenery, the art galleries, the coffee shops, and little country stores and eateries.”
Harper looked down at Venom, who was turning his head toward Sally and trying to figure out what she was saying. Then he focused on Harper, who bent over. “You go on a trip with Sally? You enjoy riding in the car?”
Venom stood, wagging his little stub of a tail and looking from Harper’s face to Sally’s. Harper knew he thought perhaps he was going to go for a car ride. The dog sat and barked one time. That was his signal for “yes.”
“So is your dad otherwise doing well? How’s his memory holding up overall?” asked Sally.
“No, it’s getting worse each visit, but it was more dramatic this time. He’s lost a lot of weight, and he seems to be drifting off a little bit more. I’m embarrassed to say, he started drawing pornographic pictures on the wall with a felt marker, apermanentmarker. I practically burst out laughing, except it’ll cost us some serious dough to get that wall resurfaced and repainted. No sense doing it until he’s done with his artistic phase,” he answered.
Sally crossed her arms and shook her head. “Like you said, the hits just keep on coming. At least he’s not lying there like a vegetable like so many people there at their end of days. That would be harder, I think. He’s a rascal, but I guess that’s where you get it, right?” She looked at him with the twinkle in her eye and a smile on her lips. “Speaking of which, I’ve got another prospect for you.”
Sally was good at hooking Harper up with some of her lady friends. She even set up a blind date with him with one of her clients, until it went horribly wrong and she promised never to do that again. Harper was fairly sure Sally was gay, but they never discussed it, except they both liked looking at interesting, beautiful, and strong women. She never commented on men in that way.
“Sally, you know that never works out. I am done doing blind dates.”
“Oh, you’re going to like this one. She’s a yoga instructor. Beautiful, slender, and graceful, she does yoga out at the beach. ‘Yoga by Moonlight,’ she calls it. A lot of couples go, not just women. I think you’d really like her. She’s almost twenty years younger than you, in her mid-twenties, and she’s got a figure that—well, she could be a model. And think about her flexibility, Harper.”
Sally couldn’t help but give him a wink.
Harper was embarrassed for her and saw that she was as well.
“Sally, do you think that’s all I care about?”
“Oh, I hope it’s something you care about, Harper. It’s not right for a man like you, so handsome and full of life, to be single. I just think it would be a shame for you to miss out on some wonderful loving and nurturing times. There’s got to be a woman out there somewhere who wants that, Harper. And it just breaks my heart to know that you aren’t even trying. Unless you’re getting sweet on men.”
“Hardly, no offense.”
“None taken.”
“Sally, come on. You know there was only one woman for me.”
“But until you met her, you didn’t know that. And look, it happened. What’s to say it couldn’t happen again?”
“Because I’m not that lucky.”
He took Venomin the truck with him, cautiously driving up the rest of the driveway until they came to his electric gate. Punching the remote on his key fob, the gate drew back and lights turned on along the driveway and the front of the house. As he drove through into his inner sanctum, the gate closed behind him.
“We’re home. I’ll bet you’re happy to be back here, right, Venom?”
The dog was sitting in the passenger seat, all nearly hundred pounds of him, erect, his ears pointed toward the ceiling, scanning the driveway and paying attention to any small critters that might chance invading their space. He looked at Harper and then searched the grounds. Looking off to the sides where, even though there was no light, he was able to see things in the woods surrounding them. Nothing of interest caught his eye.
Harper had pulled up to the garage and grabbed his keys. Venom followed him and waited by the front door. He punched in the alarm code and disabled the security system. Once he stepped inside, he stopped to see if he could detect anybody in the house, just a habit he’d always had. He didn’t hear a sound or smell anything unusual. One time, he’d come home to find out he’d left a pot of water boiling, and it had completely smoked the house out.
This time, he smelled the candles, those frosty vanilla ones that Lydia liked so well, the scent of their wicks wafting through the air. He walked through the living room and into the kitchen, checked doors and windows downstairs, and then went back to the front door, locked his car remotely, and armed the whole perimeter.
With Venom behind him, he jogged upstairs to the bedroom and started stripping off his clothes, putting them in the laundry. He would get his duffel bag in the morning. Everything else he needed was at the house. His weaponry was locked in a bolted case underneath the front seat and would be safe for now. Besides, he had a small armory in the house he could use to defend against a significant militia attack.
On the bed was a note from Sally.
