Parker
Tipping my glass back, I swallowed my scotch in one gulp. As soon as I dropped the glass onto the bar top, a fresh drink was placed in front of me. “Keep them coming,” I grumbled.
“Rough day?” Trevor asked casually, his gaze landing on me for a moment before going back to glancing at someone over my shoulder.
My day had been mediocre at best. Boring, for fucking sure. Work no longer held my attention like it once had when I’d first retired from the army. My career as a Delta Force specialist had been memorable, full of blood and war, but that shit got old fast. I’d thought building my own financial empire would replace that adrenaline high that came from dodging bullets, something I’d craved right after I’d lost my sister. But now my accounts were cushioned with billions that I dedicated to her name, and I was faced with the reality that not a single penny had eased the pressure that seemed as if it was constantly building inside me.
Something always felt like it was missing. It was why I’d chosen to go into the military fresh out of high school. Maybe if I’d found whatever was missing, I could have saved Alora. Regret sat like a stone in my belly, some days harder than others. I tried not to linger on the past, but feeling like I’d let my sister down was something that ate at me.
Back then, I’d thought it was just wanderlust. I’d been hopeful I’d find that missing puzzle piece traveling the world and serving my country at the same time.
Instead, all I found was a talent for spilling the blood of our enemies and two crazy-as-fuck best friends. Benson and Malcolm had the same talent as me, which had been exploited by our superiors straight out of basic training. Selection had been intense. Torture. But it had quieted the part that was pacing impatiently inside me. Searching. Always searching, desperate to find what was missing. Like a part of my goddamn soul had been stolen.
My first billion should have calmed me down. It only made the frenzy worse, made the regret more of a sickness that rotted inside me. What was money when I felt empty?
There had been only one moment in my life when that restlessness had calmed. But it was there and gone so soon, I hadn’t been able to explore what that quiet inside me truly had come from. Since then, however, that emptiness felt even hollower. That echo of loneliness had grown louder until I was close to clawing at the inside of my mind.
Malcolm picked up his own replenished drink and took a gulp, his jaw clenched hard as usual. How he hadn’t already broken off a few teeth, I’d never know. From the moment I’d met him, I’d wondered if he was made of titanium. With all the bullets and shrapnel he’d taken during our time as Delta Force specialists, it made me think the bastard was immortal.
As I tossed back my second glass and replaced it on the bar top, Benson joined our group. “Sorry I’m late. Had to shake the clinger. Trevor, man, you gotta make management vet clients better. That woman has been basically stalking me for months now.”
I rolled my eyes at my friend’s overdramatics. When we were discharged, he’d used his new skills to advance his family’s tech company into a personal security empire. He handled the security for all of Trevor’s businesses and personal safety. Even though we’d left the blood and war behind, he still chased the vermin of the world. Only now, he got to choose who he protected, served, and saved with a bigger paycheck at the end of each day.
But he didn’t know how to handle the unwanted attention of a young woman who had decided she wanted him, Malcolm, and me. Benson wasn’t wrong that she’d crossed so many lines in her mission to capture our attention that she was mere inches from a felony. She’d stalked us to and from Inferno for weeks, and she continued to annoy the fuck out of us. Only Malcolm and I had told her to fuck off already, while Benson had tried to remain diplomatic. Why, I didn’t have a clue, and he hadn’t offered an explanation.
Two decades into our friendship, and I still didn’t know how Benson’s brain worked. What I did know was that he repeatedly got in his own way when it came to his personal life.
Trevor didn’t answer, and I realized his attention was yet again pulled to something over my shoulder. Turning slowly, I scanned the room behind me. It took a few moments, but then I saw them. Two young women, probably college-aged, standing at the bar. One was a tiny thing in a sexy black dress that offered a nice view of her cleavage and a hint of her ass. Her choice of shoes stood out to me above anything else, though. Simple Converses had a smile trying to tip my lips.
But then movement beside her pulled my gaze, and suddenly, everything in the room dimmed, fading from existence, except for her .
I knew it was her as soon as I set eyes on her. The girl from Ignite a few weeks back. Even from across a crowded club, she’d stood out. Those long, richly dark waves of hair that fell halfway down her back. That face that had haunted my every waking thought. I couldn’t remember what she’d been wearing because she’d been sitting down and all I could focus on was that gorgeous face.
No one could look at this woman and call her an angel. Even if I were religious, there was no way an angelic being could ever compete with such beauty.
A heartbeat passed as I took her all in now. A husky laugh reached my ears as she giggled with her friend, her pouty lips lifted into a smile that stole the air from my chest.
And suddenly, that restless, unsettled sensation that had always been right beneath the surface, slowly driving me toward the brink of insanity, stopped. There had been no pause button like when I’d gone into the military at eighteen. Or again when I’d started my business. Every fiber of my being locked on her like a beacon.
Finally.
Forty years of searching the world, of warring with that part of myself that had known something was out there waiting for me. I’d nearly given up hope of ever finding that missing piece within, thinking that was something I would just have to deal with. Find a way of living without that vital part that kept calling to me like a siren’s song.
Another heartbeat pounded in my chest, vibrating through my entire body as she slowly shifted and tossed her hair out of her eyes. Those giggles were sending a quake of response all the way down to my knees, causing them to shake for a moment as she turned her head and let her gaze drift over her surroundings.
Boom, motherfucker!
Her gaze hit me like an IED, turning the world upside down right before my eyes. Our gazes locked, and just as quickly, everything around me made sense for the first time in my existence. Had I ever seen eyes that shade of blue? Sapphires might come close in comparison, but even as I thought that, I knew they didn’t do such exquisiteness justice. No. They couldn’t come close to describing such a rare and beautiful color.
Like a serene ocean, endlessly deep and still.
Those incredible eyes remained trapped with mine for another three heartbeats before she abruptly turned her head away. Her hair fell forward, blocking her face from me.
A mournful howl bounced inside my head, replacing that relentless voice that had been demanding we keep searching. There was no longer a need to find what had been missing. She was right there, waiting for me.
Malcolm released a hiss that sounded as if it was full of pain. Turning my head, I realized he was captured by the same sight I was. His fingers clenched around his glass so hard it was surprising it didn’t shatter in his grip. His chest rose and fell, sweat beading on his forehead like he’d just run ten miles through the desert. His brown eyes were locked on my missing piece.
Beside him, Benson seemed just as mesmerized. His brows pulled together, and he lifted a hand to squeeze the back of his neck, muttering something to himself that was too quiet for me to hear. Jealousy wasn’t something I’d ever felt before, especially where these two men were concerned. They had saved my life hundreds of times, and I’d saved theirs. We were a team. Family. We’d shared women all the time in the past without a second thought.
This one was different, though. I wanted to snatch her up and lock her away for myself. I didn’t even know her fucking name, but I knew in my bones that she was vital.
I’d known my two best friends had been just as affected as I had been the night we’d first seen this mystical creature on the more public side of the club. Fuck, Malcolm had almost charged over to her, but Benson had stopped him before he could make such an impulsive move. Apparently she was important to them too.
Was I okay with that?
I inhaled slowly, calming that small part that had asked such a stupid question.
Of course I was okay with it. I wouldn’t lose my best friends over anyone. Not when we could so easily share.
Mal jerked forward now, but again, Benson was the first to stop him. “Get your fucking hands off me!” Malcolm snarled. “You might be afraid of what you’re feeling right now, but I sure as fuck am not. I’ve been waiting on her my entire goddamn life.”
Benson’s face tightened with emotion I didn’t have time to assess before he tightened his fingers on our friend’s arm. “I’m not afraid of what I’m feeling. Take a breath and really look at her, man. See the bigger picture. She’s here with her friend. They are having a nice time. We’re not going to ruin that for her.”
“I’m not going to let you cause me to lose her again,” Mal growled back, his voice low and deadly.
Well aware they were seconds from brawling, I stepped in, putting myself between them and the girls farther down the bar. “He’s right, Mal. Take a breath, let go of the anger that is vibrating off you. We have eyes on her. She’s not going anywhere. They’re having fun. If you go over there like this, you’re going to terrify her.”
Those last words were what stopped him cold. His body sagged, his eyes darkening. “It would kill me if she was scared of me.”
“So don’t do anything that might cause her to be,” I cautioned.
“Ten minutes,” Benson said quietly, glancing from me to Malcolm before nodding in Trevor’s direction. Our friend was so lost in watching the other girl he hadn’t even noticed our near miss with Malcolm, and everyone else around us was so caught up in their own conversations, they weren’t paying attention. “We will give her that time with her friend, and then we move in.”
“She’s not some fucking mission, asshole.”
Benson meticulously straightened the cuffs of his shirt and jacket. “That’s where you’re wrong, Mal. She is the most important mission of our lives.”
At least he realized that.