Page 44 of The Veteran
SAGE
“Hi.” I stood in front of Fiona’s desk, waiting for her to look away from her computer screen.
“I’ll just be a sec.” Her fingers moved furiously over the keyboard and she hit the enter button then looked up. “How are you doing?” Her eyes dipped to the bruises around my throat. “It must have been a hard day.”
“It’s been challenging, that’s for sure.” I smoothed my hands down the front of my shirt for lack of anything else to do with them. “Ronan has asked if we can put together a list of my father’s old buddies.”
“Okay.” Fiona glanced around, then got up and grabbed a chair from a desk around the corner. “Sit here. I’ll pull up a document.”
I sat and for the next ten minutes, I listed every person I could remember Dad bringing home and every name he might have mentioned in passing. Considering how long it had been, I couldn’t be certain how accurate the list was, but hopefully it would give us a starting point.
“Anyone else you can think of?” Fiona asked. “Did he play sports or have hobbies?”
“He liked to watch games on TV, but he never played sport as far as I can remember. As for hobbies, playing pool at the pub and coming up with get-rich-quick schemes were the main ones, and neither of them are very useful for what we need.”
“It would be worth checking out any pubs he used to frequent,” Fiona said. “Bartenders hear a lot, and it’s possible some of the same staff still work there.”
“That’s a good idea. He did have one particular favorite, Lucky Dan’s. Perhaps Kade and I should see if it’s still around.”
“It’s as good a starting place as any.” She stopped typing and swiveled her chair around. Her lips pursed. “It’s brave, what you’re doing,” she said. “It was courageous of you to testify against those men in court as well. You were only a kid, and nobody would have blamed you if you’d refused.”
I fidgeted, uncomfortable with her praise. It wasn’t the first time someone had said something like that to me, but it never got easier. “I just did what I thought was the right thing.”
“Yeah, well.” Fiona gave a half-hearted laugh. “A lot of people wouldn’t.”
I wracked my mind for a way to change the topic and landed on something I’d been meaning to ask. In Ronan’s office, I’d noticed that Fiona hadn’t seemed to like Zeke, and since Kade was also uncertain about the guy, that intrigued me.
“So, I know Ronan and Kade reasonably well, but not Zeke. What do you think of him?”
Her face instantly morphed into a scowl. “He’s an ass.”
“Oh.” I hadn’t expected her to be so direct.
She sighed and rolled her eyes. “If you’re worried about his loyalty, you don’t need to be. I might want to put poison ivy in his underpants sometimes, but he’s excellent at his job and he’d never turn on Ronan.”
“Thanks.” That eased my mind somewhat. I did have to wonder though… if Kade didn’t like him, and neither did Fiona, did others here feel the same? If so, that must be a lonely way for him to live.
Fiona smiled slyly. “Is there something between you and Kade? It looked like there might be, and he’s not one to give that impression unless there’s truth to it.”
A happy glow filled my chest. “There is. I’m not sure where it’s going yet, but I like him.” I lowered my voice and leaned closer. “The marriage lines on our palms are very similar too.”
Her eyes widened. “Is that so?”
I nodded. “Not that it necessarily means anything, but it’s a positive sign, I think.”
“Definitely.” Fiona glanced left and right, then held out her hands, palms up. “Could you read mine?”
I grinned. “Of course.”
I took each of her hands in mine and studied them one by one and then side by side for comparison. I frowned, unsure how much to say.
“What is it?” she asked nervously.
I pressed my lips together, then raised my eyes to hers. “You haven’t had an easy life.”
She looked stunned and stared at me for a few seconds before nodding slowly. “You’re right. I haven’t.”
“Do you really want to know what I see?” I asked. “Keep in mind, it’s open to interpretation. My reading may not be the same as someone else’s.”