Page 12 of No More Lies

Steve had lost count of his drinks as the hours passed.

Jerry said, “Hand them over Steve.”

Demanding his truck keys. Steve did as asked, appreciating Jerry looking out for him, making sure he didn’t do anything stupid.

The booze had calmed his temper, but it had done nothing to ease the pain in his chest. He felt ashamed as hell about what he’d said to Diane. Losing his shit was not going to bring them closer together, but he was at a loss what to do. The nagging feeling in his gut had not gone away. Something more had to be going on. She said she wasn’t cheating, and he believed her. So what the hell could it be, and why wouldn’t she tell him?

He glanced up from his beer when someone sat beside him.

“Tough loss for the Sox.”

“What the hell are you doing here?’ Steve looked back at his drink. Shit, he really didn’t want his team leader seeing him in this sorry state.

Dex had a light smile, though his eyes were sharply studying Steve. “It’s a bar. Fancied a drink.”

Bullshit. Jerry had obviously called him.

“I’m good, Dex. You don’t need to be here.”

“No? Jerry, any chance of a couple of coffees?”

Jerry nodded.

“I don’t want a coffee, and Jerry shouldn’t have called you.”

“No, he shouldn’t have called, you should have. I told you to if you needed anything.”

“I don’t need anything, Dex, except a fucking drink. I’m on leave remember, so I can get drunk if I want to.”

Dex said nothing while Jerry placed two black coffees in front of them and took away Steve’s beer and whiskey glass.

Steve didn’t protest. Yeah, he knew he’d drunk more than enough. He never got drunk. With Onyx, they never knew if they would be spinning up, so one or two beers was all anyone ever had. Damn, his head was going to hurt like a motherfucker tomorrow. He groaned, remembering he had to pick Megan up for breakfast. Rubbing a hand over his face he picked up the coffee.

“Sorry,” he mumbled.

“Want to talk about it?” Dex asked.

“Not really.”

“OK. But to be clear, I gave you leave to sort your marriage out, not to haul up in a bar and get pissed.” Dex’s voice was calm. Very little ruffled this man, something Steve had the utmost respect for.

“It was a rough day.”

“You mean worse than getting in and out of North Korea?”

Steve smiled. Yeah, that was a challenge, though, thankfully had gone smoothly. But he’d rather go do that again blindfolded, than try and get Diane to talk. It would be easier.

“I tried to talk to her, but it didn’t go as planned. I said some shit.” Although, the sex had been great. Diane was right, sex was never an issue with them.

“And getting drunk is going to fix that?”

Steve sipped his coffee. “No, but it helps numb the pain.”

“How’s that working out for you?” Dex glanced at him. Steve didn’t answer. “Yeah, thought so.”

“If I knew what was wrong, I could fix it. Fixing things is what we do. But I have no fucking clue what’s going on here.”

Dex raised his mug to Jerry, asking for more.