Chapter 19 #2
Elijah left Mickey and went behind the bar to get his friend a drink.
He stood next to Lilly who was looking at the array of spirit bottles in confusion.
The frown knitted between her eyebrows made her look adorable.
He wanted to smooth out the crease with his thumb but resisted the urge, too many eyes on them.
“What’s got you frowning sweetheart?” Elijah said and nudged her with his hip.
“That guy over there wants a double Port but has asked for a particular make and I don’t think you have it, Pete told me you have everything,” Lilly said.
“What did he ask for?” Elijah asked.
Lilly told Elijah the make he had asked for and Elijah’s face turned red.
He asked her to point out the customer and then marched down the bar to the man with the conceited grin and pulled him close enough to whisper in his ear.
The customer backed away holding up his hands and shaking his head and shrugging.
He wore a smile that angered Elijah further.
His next words wiped the smile of the customer’s face and he backed away from the bar and back to his mates without a drink.
Elijah walked back to Lilly and told her he no longer wanted a drink.
Lilly looked at Elijah confused and watched him pour a Whisky and move away without another word.
“What was that about?” Mickey asked.
“Some arsehole trying to take advantage of Lilly being new, asking for a drink that didn’t exist, so I told him he wouldn’t be served here again,” Elijah said.
“And that is you not rescuing the beautiful woman who is looking at you with utter confusion,” Mickey asked, chuckling softly.
“Yes, that’s not me rescuing her. I would do it for any of the staff.”
“Sure, so is that my drink?” Mickey said and nodded to the tumbler in Elijah’s hand. Elijah handed Mickey the drink and Mickey beckoned Lilly over to him. She walked towards the two men, smiled at Elijah and looked back to Mickey.
“Sweetheart would you get me some ice please?” Mickey asked.
“I can get that Mickey, you didn’t need to get Lilly over,” Elijah said.
“It’s ok Elijah it’s what you pay me to do,” Lilly said.
“Don’t trust him, he has an ulterior motive, I’ll get the ice,” Elijah answered.
Elijah walked back down the bar, put two ice cubes in Mickey’s drink and walked back, in that short time Mickey had Lilly bent over laughing and it made him insanely jealous.
He didn’t know why he’d left them alone, then it dawned on him.
Mickey had done the double bluff just to get him away for a few minutes.
Mickey knew he wouldn’t allow Lilly to be ordered around and he fell for it.
“What you are you two laughing about?” Elijah asked.
“He was telling me about the time you went to the Great Barrier Reef and didn’t actually see it,” Answered Lilly.
“Oh, that, well that wasn’t my fault. Stop telling her stories, you’ll make me look bad,” Elijah snapped.
“It was a funny story, maybe when you go back you will be awake enough to see the coral,” Mickey added.
“Not likely.” Elijah added grumpily. “Mickey and I had travelled up to Cairns from Sydney to see the Great Barrier Reef. I suffered from seasickness that is ironic being an ex-Navy man. The crew on board were handing out tablets to help with the sickness. I didn’t wait for instruction and swallowed five.
Once I got into the water and lay down to see the fish and coral, I fell asleep.
I was wearing a snorkel, so no one noticed for a while until it was time to leave.
I had to be hauled into the boat and I never did see the coral,” Elijah said, giving his version of events.
“Aww, poor Elijah,” Lilly said and stroked his cheek.
“See Mickey, this is what your stories do, they make me look like an ass,” Elijah said.
“Oh, calm down, it wasn’t your fault as such,” Mickey said.
“I’m getting back to work and leave you two to bicker,” Lilly said.
“Ok beautiful, it was lovely to meet Elijah’s new girlfriend,” Mickey called to her.
“Dude!” Elijah exclaimed.
Elijah looked at Lilly to apologise but was met with a shy smile, she wasn’t angry, she was happy. It made him want to take her out back and kiss her breath away.
“Earth to Elijah, stop staring at her ass, we need to talk,” Mickey said, bringing Elijah out of his daydream.
“Fine, can we start work on finding out about William now?” Elijah asked.
“No problem, let’s go to my office, I can do a better search there.” Mickey said and downed the last of his Whisky.
Elijah talked with Pete briefly instructing him to take care of Lilly.
To make sure he called a taxi for her at the end of the night to get her home safely.
If there were any problems, then Pete needed to call him straight away.
He didn’t miss Pete rolling his eyes at his instructions and chuckled, Pete knew him well enough that he needed to say these things aloud even though Pete would already know to do this.
It was part of the control that Elijah would always have in him.
The military had trained him that way, never assume people know what you want, say it aloud to avoid any confusion.
It took a few minutes to exit the bar, Elijah talking to his regulars along the way, making vague plans to meet up for dinner and cards the following week.
Mickey’s office was a short walk away from Blue’s.
When they reached the outside of the bar, they could see it had been raining and the streets were soaking wet but the air was clear.
Elijah and Mickey walked in silence until they arrived at his offices in a tower block.
The security guard on duty knew Mickey well and buzzed them into the building.
After briefly talking to Sid, the night security guard, they travelled to the fourteenth floor in the elevator.
The corridor where Mickey had his offices were quiet at night, he shared the space with an advertising company which he leased out. He spent very little time here as he preferred to be out and investigating rather than sitting behind a desk watching his stomach grow, through lack of exercise.
Mickey punched in the security code when they reached his office door.
The metal box beeped indicating that he could unlock it.
Mickey had a lot of security for his office.
His company specialised in high-level security, protection and investigation and couldn’t afford any break in attempts.
Mickey left the Navy at the same time as Elijah, they both had a lump sum on leaving and Mickey decided to open a security firm and Elijah opened the bar.
Elijah and Mickey had spent their whole ten years in the Navy together.
They met on day one and were in the same Regiment ever since.
Once they left they still stayed near each other from that first day at boot camp.
“Let me fire up the laptop and see what we can find out about the Harrison family, there is bound to be some dirt we can conjure up on William.” He had to fake tapping the keys and searching.
He already had all the information Elijah wanted, but didn’t want to reveal he had already done this search for Jack.
Elijah looked around the large office, it could be mistaken for a financier’s office. Leather-bound books lined the walls, and the room was immaculate. A stark contrast to his own, he wondered at what point he became messy.
“What are all these books Mickey?” Elijah asked.
“They are my law books, why?” Mickey answered without looking up.
“You studied law?” Elijah squawked rather than asked.
“Try not to sound so surprised Elijah, I studied law before I went into the Navy. I didn’t want to be a lawyer after I passed the exams but have still kept up with what I need to.
It helps in my line of work to know which side of the law I’m dancing down.
Now let’s see what we can dig up on William,” Mickey said, changing the subject.
Mickey had a lot more in common with Lilly than Elijah knew.
Mickey worked away at his keyboard while Elijah talked to his brother about the upcoming wedding. Jack was quizzing Elijah about his best man speech, and Elijah was doing his best to avoid the questions.
“Oh, fucking hell, uh, Elijah you may want to see this,” Mickey said quietly.
Elijah hung up the call from Jack, got up from his seat to look at Mickey’s screen. Mickey had put a picture on the screen for Elijah to look at. It was the best he could come up with to show him the link.
“Why am I looking at my father when he was young?” Elijah asked.
“Well, I need to know, is that your mother?” Mickey asked.
Elijah peered closer at the screen and looked at the blonde beauty standing next to his father.
It was a group of five people dressed in their best clothing.
They all had their arms around each other and glasses in their hands.
They looked like they were celebrating something and his father looked happy.
He wondered who the woman was and what the other people were celebrating.
“No, that’s not my mother, but I have a feeling you already knew that, who is she Mickey?”
“The woman in the picture is Lilly’s mum. Did you know your dad knows your beauty’s mother?” Mickey asked.
“Well, it certainly is a small world, what else do you know?” Elijah asked.
“I know quite a bit but first things first, just to check, you’re adopted, right?” Mickey asked.
“Yeah Mickey, I’m adopted, show me the rest,” Elijah said, warily, wondering where all of this was going.
Mickey took Elijah through some of the information he had on the Harrison family and Elijah needed to take a seat.
It was a lot to take in. His mind went straight to Lilly.
He needed to tell her he was adopted, so she didn’t get the wrong end of the stick if she knew something connected their families when they were all in school.