Chapter 2
CHAPTER TWO
CHASE
My last mission had been well, my last. But that wasn’t the plan. A bullet had fast-tracked my retirement. And had it been a hair's breadth to the left, I’d be in a wheelchair right now or worse. Instead, I had a limp and constant muscle pain I refused to numb with prescription meds.
After an hour of mindless driving after seeing Astrid, I drove up Pineville Mountain with the window of my new truck open. I hadn’t driven a new model in years, always using mass transit or making do with the ancient wrecks that kept me under my enemies' radar.
But thanks to a payout for services rendered and a pat on the back for a job well done I couldn’t discuss with another soul, I drove the latest model truck from my boyhood dreams and inhaled the pine-scented air laced. I liked to think it was laced with possibilities.
And yet, the irony wasn’t lost on me that had I not been severely injured, I wouldn’t be experiencing any of this.
Buried within layers of deniability and alternate personalities, the thought of being Chase London again had been weighing heavily since I’d been airlifted out of my last mission under enemy fire.
That assignment wasn’t supposed to be my final ops, and yet here I am.
Back in the one place I could never stop thinking about, and all the what-ifs that came with poor choices in my youth.
And I’d thought plenty about the girl who had never left this place. Finding out how her life turned out since the night I’d walked away had been the easy part. But now, getting closer to my brother's place high up on Pineville Mountain, the harder part would begin.
Apologize to Kane, meet his wife, Chassie, ask for a place to stay, to heal and maybe, just maybe, get a chance with Astrid again.
That hadn’t been my original plan after I was forced to leave the SAC three weeks ago. Hell, I had no plans other than to get myself out of the hospital bed, back onto my feet and see if there was anything for me to do in my hometown.
But somehow, call it fate, coincidence, or maybe it’d always been inevitable that we’d cross paths again. I ended up at the clinic she worked. Now I was stretched out on the hard therapy bed and itching to capture her reaction when she walked through the door.
It had been my first stop because I hadn’t bothered to tell Kane I was coming. Or our younger brother, Ross. He’d been a kid when I left. As far as I knew, they both still thought I was working back East for some fancy security firm, my original cover story when I first went undercover.
Parking my rig outside Kane’s rustic cabin on the grounds of the Triple R Lodge, my gaze took in the compound and the surrounding cabins scattered amongst the Ponderosa pines.
I’d done my research on this place and before I’d decided to come back to Idaho. One benefit of my position was that I knew ways of finding intel on just about person, and if I needed more, I knew the right people who could dig further.
All if seemed unnecessary now as I absorbed the quiet setting. The contrast was not lost on me compared to most of the locations I’d been living. But I still scanned for threats. Anything that seemed out of place or shouldn’t belong in the mountain setting.
But the only thing that didn’t belong was me.
“You lost or something?” Kane’s question came out with barely restrained disbelief seconds after I clocked his presence behind me.
“Or something. How are you?” I turned slowly, doing my best to hide my injury, schooling my features even as my emotions swirled. Would I be welcomed or cursed out? Probably both knowing Kane.
“Well, damn, leave it to you to show up in dramatic style and timing.” Kane closed the distance between us and grabbed me in a bear hug. Gritting my teeth, I held back a protest as my body tensed from the contact.
Breaking apart, he looked me over, his gaze landing on my face. “What’s wrong?”
Jeez, didn’t expect him to clock my injury right off the bat. “Nothing that time and some physical therapy won’t fix.” I gave him a fake smile as my nerve endings and muscles bunched, then spasmed, even as I willed them to settle.
“Are you kidding me right now?” Kane shook his head, then waved me toward his cabin.
“Come inside and take a load off. I’m sensing a long story.
Chassie, my wife, is in town right now, so we have some time to talk.
But once she meets you, sees you, she’s going to want to know all about you and, lord help us, take care of you like a stray cat. You’ve been warned.”
Swallowing the unexpected lump that had appeared in my throat, I shut the truck’s door behind me and slowly made my way behind my brother, his eagle eyes not missing a step or my limp. But he held his tongue and didn’t treat me like some damn invalid.
I asked about our youngest brother before I got into the heavier stuff. “Do you happen to know what Ross is up to these days? I’d like to tell my story just once, if I can help it.”
Kane strode through the great room and into the kitchen, opened the refrigerator, and grabbed two beers.
Pausing behind the oversized leather couch situated facing large windows overlooking a peaceful tree-filled view that none of us brothers could have ever dreamed of as we struggled day to day in our youth, my brother released a strangled snort.
“Yeah, not in a while. When I came back last year and then finally reached out to him, all I got was a cryptic text and a lame promise of getting together in the future. That was about ten months ago. Seems all the London brothers share the same gene for keeping secrets. Sit. I’m sure whatever you want to tell me can’t be that bad, right? ”
Before I sat down, I lifted my shirt. Kane let out a low whistle. “Yeah, that looks bad. All that damage from one bullet?”
Sitting, I raised my left leg with both hands onto the footrest, then took the beer. Raising the can, I grinned, “Here’s to secrets. May only the boring ones see the light of day.” He returned the salute, and we took long pulls before I began.
Only years of training and having the unwritten motto of the SAC drilled into my brain ad nauseam kept me from spilling the entire story as I told Kane how I ended up back in Pineville.
Stoic and silent, he took in everything I shared like a man who’d served his country and knew that there was more but knew better than to question me.
Accepting that the passage of time and distance had been necessary for my work.
“Okay, so first, I’m glad you’re alive, and second, and probably the freakiest thing about your appearance, is that Astrid Johannsson has a new home less than a mile up the mountain, and all of us are helping her move in tomorrow.
Karma, huh?” Kane’s eyes flashed with barely contained humor.
He drained his beer, then checked his phone.
“Chassie just texted me. She’s on her way home. You're sticking around, right?”
Of course, in the brief interaction with Astrid, I hadn’t included any personal details.
This was another sign that I made the right choice in coming back to Pineville.
Fresh start, another chance with the woman I regretted leaving behind.
Time for the truth of why I left all those years ago to come out and see if the spark that had flowed and reignited between us in her clinic could be enough for a second chance.
“Yeah. At least for as long as you can stand me. And Kane, I’m sorry.
I’m sorry I wasn’t around more. That I left you to deal with Ross after I left for boot camp.
All of it.” Damn, my hands were sweating.
I took a long pull of my beer and settled back into the couch to relieve the low ache in my back.
I was ready for whatever he wanted to get off his chest.
“I appreciate it. You had a hard choice to make, and seems to me, minus you getting shot, it was the best choice.” So, maybe now that we’re both out, you can share some stories about living deep undercover?”
Not the response I expected, but I’d take it.
Maybe married life had mellowed out my daredevil of a brother.
“Sure, it’ll be heavily redacted, but there are plenty of things I can share while keeping my oath.
You’ll be my own personal therapist.” Thank God Kane hadn’t judged me for staying radio silent all this time.
And it would be nice to talk to someone finally who had a halfway idea of what I’d done. What I’d given up for my country. And maybe now that he was a married old man, he could give me some pointers on winning back Astrid.