Chapter 3
Chapter Three
JACK
Twenty-eight years old – December
How I still had a job was beyond me.
After that night in the club months ago, I’d expected to be fired. It would’ve been totally justified, given the appalling way I’d spoken to Arlo. My client.
I’d never behaved so unprofessionally in my life.
Even at sixteen, when I’d been nothing more than an army grunt, I’d known better.
Okay, so my lip had got me into a few situations after I’d first signed up.
I’d learned quickly to keep my mouth shut though.
Running laps of the Aldershot barracks at three in the morning with nothing on other than my underwear, boots and a full kit bag would do that for a guy.
And in the SAS? Fuck me. That behaviour would have you court-martialled before you’d even finished speaking.
High stress situations were my bread and butter. Two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan weren’t exactly what you’d call relaxing. The unimaginable horrors I’d seen…they still haunted me. Not in the same way they did with some of my friends though.
After that last tour in Afghanistan, a few of us had decided to take a shot at civvy life. Wasn’t something I’d ever considered when I’d signed up, figuring I’d be in until retirement, just like my dad. And his dad. And his dad.
I came from a long line of army brats.
Turned out twelve years of sleeping on hard floors and MREs for dinner that varied by label but rarely by taste…
that was enough to have me dreaming of a different life.
I’d been planning on rounding it out with another eight years.
Twenty years seemed like a respectable amount of time.
Dad would still be pissed, but he wouldn’t be able to say I hadn’t given it a good shot.
But then we’d been sent into the warehouse that night in Kabul.
Our missions were dangerous. We knew that. Every building we walked into, we knew one of us might not be walking back out after. That mission hadn’t even been the first time we’d lost someone from our unit.
But it’d been the first time it had cut us so deep none of us knew how to carry on.
I’d met Mike, Corey, Alex and Will the very first day of SAS training. We’d bonded instantly, not quite believing it when we were all assigned to not only the same branch, but the same unit.
We’d known the risk that we might lose one of our little group, but it hadn’t been anything more than a lingering thought in the backs of our minds.
You couldn’t focus on shit like that too much.
If you did, you’d never be able to get on with the job.
You had to control that fear, otherwise it’d control you.
So we might’ve walked into the building knowing one of us might not walk out, but none of us had believed it. Like most twenty-something year olds, we thought we were invincible. Better than, even, given our training and the weapons strapped to our bodies.
All the training and weapons hadn’t been enough to save Mike. All the knowledge that this had been a likely outcome hadn’t made it easier for Corey.
The scream he’d let out as he’d cradled Mike’s lifeless body to his chest had never quite faded from my ears.
We’d all been close, but the bond the two of them had shared had been special. Unique.
And in an instant, it was gone.
None of us had left that building as the same men who’d walked in. When our tour was over, the rest of us who remained chose a civilian life over one of war.
Well, three of us had, anyway. Sure, Corey had left the SAS the same day I had, but he wasn’t living. I wasn’t sure he knew how to anymore. Not without Mike at his side.
Going into personal security had seemed like a logical next step for me. I hadn’t expected to land this job, but it was good money. I had no intention of fucking it up.
Mind you, I also hadn’t anticipated Arlo.
I’d been warned what to expect. His manager, Kevin, described him as a “loose cannon.” A spoiled teenager who had more money than sense. My role was as much to keep him in line as it was to guard him.
Not my ideal gig, if I was being honest, but my savings had been running thin, and this was the best paying role I’d been offered.
In truth, I’d known next to nothing about the band.
Being stationed overseas, I hadn’t really paid attention to pop culture.
And since I’d returned home…well. I’d been trying to adjust to being a civvy.
Trying to teach my body that I didn’t have to wake at four a.m. To convince my brain that sleeping in a bed would be more comfortable than the hard floor.
Still hadn’t accomplished that one, but I was working on it.
All I’d had to go on was Kevin’s briefing. That had been my first mistake. One I knew better than to make.
When had I ever walked into a situation without knowing every minute detail? The risks, the pitfalls, the dangers?
Never.
And yet that was just what I’d done here. Gone into that meeting room with the image Kevin had painted of Arlo in my mind and nothing else.
I’d barely looked at the drummer, giving him nothing more than a cursory glance. He was just a kid. All gangly limbs that he hadn’t quite grown into, floppy curls and wide blue eyes under lashes so long and dark that I wondered if they were fake.
I saw nothing to suggest he was anything other than what Kevin had told me. He certainly behaved like a spoiled child most of the time. Rehearsals were missed thanks to late-night drinking sessions. Shows and meetings were attended late because he’d been distracted by his games console.
As for his…personal life? The less said about that the better.
And not because he was gay. Several of my friends were LGBTQIA+, Will and Alex included. Mike had been too. Sex with a man wasn’t my cup of tea, but I had zero issues with others around me doing it.
Those tent walls were thin on tour. I’d heard all sorts of things, whether I wanted to or not.
My issue with Arlo hooking up had nothing to do with the gender of the people he was choosing, and everything to do with how little he knew about them. Half the time he didn’t even seem to get their name, let alone anything else.
The few times I’d slept with someone, I’d at least tried to get to know them a little first. That Arlo didn’t seem to think that was important horrified me.
I got that he was technically an adult. That really it wasn’t in my job description to prevent him from having sex, but when he chose to do these things in public, he took the decision out of my hands.
Things had been bubbling away between us in the lead up to that night in the club.
It’d started out okay, but once Arlo had realised I wouldn’t be sharing anything personal with him, he’d changed.
His friendly demeanour had been replaced with the stuffy and sneering one I’d been expecting.
He’d also made no attempt to hide how little he thought he needed me around.
He’d given me the slip on more than one occasion before that night, but I’d never lost sight of him for longer than a minute.
That time though, it’d taken me three hours and forty-seven minutes to locate him. I’d had to pull in favours from both Will and Alex to track Arlo’s phone to the club I’d found him in.
I should never have let him walk away. Should’ve insisted I followed him to his parents’ door, the way I’d been paid to do.
The only logical reason I’d come up with was that I’d been in shock. Kevin had led me to believe that Arlo had had a cushy upbringing, one where he’d never had to work for anything.
The estate Arlo had led me to was so far from that it was laughable.
I think I’d been trying to puzzle out how the version of Arlo I knew matched with the Arlo who’d grown up in this place. Trying to work out what was real and what was not.
When I’d realised I’d been had, I’d assumed he hadn’t even grown up there. That it had been a decoy to distract me so he could get his rocks off without me putting a stop to his fun.
My temper had climbed higher with every minute of the two hundred and twenty-seven Arlo had been out of my sight for. Still, I should’ve been able to keep it together. Should’ve been able to deal with the situation, with him, in a professional manner.
Then I’d seen him.
Not only had his back been to the entrance, meaning anyone could sneak up on him, but he’d had his dick out.
In a club.
Even worse, he’d been straddling some stranger, who also had no problems with public indecency. The light in the VIP area had been dim, but even from several feet away, I could see Arlo’s long fingers wrapped around both their cocks, the way his hips had bucked forwards, fucking into his grip.
I’d frozen. For the first time, I was aware that Arlo wasn’t a kid.
No. He was a man. One who seemed to have no shortage of confidence in the bedroom.
My temper, already stretched wafer thin, began to slip.
Then I’d spotted the drugs on the table.
And it had snapped entirely.
I couldn’t even recall what vitriol I’d flung in Arlo’s direction. I knew it had been unprofessional. Disrespectful.
Hurtful.
What I couldn’t forget, even all these months later, were the words he’d thrown back at me.
“I don’t deserve it. Any of it.”
Two sentences, and everything I’d thought I knew about Arlo had been turned on its head.
The following morning, I’d waited to get hauled into a meeting with management, but when my phone finally did buzz, it hadn’t been a call from Kevin, but a text from Arlo.
Arlo
Where r u? Due at studio in 30.
That had been it. No mention of what had transpired the night before.
In the following days, I’d tried to address it. Tried to apologise for my piss-poor behaviour and lack of professionalism.
Arlo refused to listen to any of it, either walking away or putting headphones on whenever I broached the subject.
It was only when I offered to hand my notice in that he finally paid attention.
“No.”