42. Nash
42
NASH
I t’s been a week living in Ibiza. It’s great hanging out with Brooks and working on locating the rest of the missing jewels, it’s even better that I get to work with Elena, too. Unfortunately, Anna has joined in, too, and as much as Brooks and I can’t stand the girl, she does have insight into the cartels and has filled in bits where the team was missing information, and because of that, we’ve had to let her stay.
Tonight is Sergei’s birthday, and we’ve just had a great Russian meal in the main house. There were a lot of tears from Sergei who is so happy that Anna is home. Bottles of vodka were pulled out in celebration, and before we all knew it, we were drunk.
“Fuck, my head is going to ache in the morning.” Brooks groans as we stumble in the gardens to go take a leak. The sound of Russian music and people singing and enjoying themselves echoes through the warm night.
“That shit tasted like fucking rocket fuel,” I curse, my legs feeling uneasy as we stumble into the darkness.
“Remember in Beirut, we drank Arak, that aniseed-flavored shit,” Brooks asks.
“I thought I was going to have to get my stomach pumped, never in my life have I ever been so ill.” I shudder at the memories. Just remembering that night makes my stomach queasy as we find a spot and take a leak.
“Good times.” He chuckles.
“Yeah, they were good times.” Remembering all the shit we used to do.
“You’ve inspired me,” Brooks states with a slight slur.
“Me?” I question him as I finish taking my piss.
He nods doing the same. “I’ve watched you and Ellie these last two weeks working together, looking happy, and I want that,” he confesses.
Oh shit, this is huge. “With Sophie?”
He nods. “We make a great team. I trust her with my life as she does mine. I’m in her bed most nights.” That is a revelation. “She’s my best friend and I fucking love her.” My jaw drops, I can’t believe he confessed that out loud to me.
“It’s only taken you fucking years to come to that realization.” I grin.
He flips me off. “I’m going to tell her tonight when she crawls into my bed.” Alcohol is a truth serum.
“I’m proud of you, buddy,” I say, slapping him on the back.
“I hope it doesn’t fuck up things.”
I shake my head. “I think she feels the same. Why else would she keep you around, especially not in her bed.”
Brooks nods. “Sophie is such a free spirit, though, she doesn’t like anyone tying her down.”
“That’s okay, you don’t need to label shit. Elena and I don’t have a label, but we also know we aren’t fucking anyone else. Is she fucking anyone else?” I ask him.
He shakes his head. “We are together twenty-four hours a day. In the past she has but not recently.”
“Kind of looks like you guys are something already, you both just don’t know it.” I laugh. He flips me off.
We still.
Two people are arguing in Russian in the garden. I didn’t learn Russian, but Brooks did. His eyes widen in surprise and the hairs on the back of my neck stick up. I can tell in the way his face changes that something is up. He goes to reach for his gun on his hip, but it’s not there, we didn’t think we would need to be packing for a birthday party.
“What is it?” I whisper.
He shakes his head, crouches down, and starts giving me hand singles, the same ones we used in the SEALs.
Fuck.
“It’s Damon and Anna,” Brooks whispers. “They know each other.” I stare at him in confusion. How the hell do they know each other? Then his face pales.
“What?”
“Everyone’s in fucking danger.”
I freeze.
“We’re compromised.” He looks at me with fear and anger in his eyes. He doesn’t need to tell me anything else. We quietly walk through the gardens to where Damon and Anna are talking.
“That’s far enough,” a Russian voice says as I feel the cold barrel of a gun pointed at my temple.
Fuck.
Without thinking, I kick the person in the gut, catching them off-guard as we fight to grab the gun that has fallen to the ground. I get a fist to the chin but shake off the reverberations and continue to fight this man dressed in black for the gun as we both grunt and curse.
Whack.
Everything goes black.