Page 63 of Shephard
“Yeah,” he admitted. “They come back to haunt you.” Sighing, he looked away. “I’ll get things locked down. There’s some big reception next week. From what Hunter mentioned, the kitchen staff is fighting. That’s his job for today. Keeping them from killing each other. Maybe he’ll learn something while he’s doing it.” His laugh sounded as bitter as mine. He walked closer to the kitchen island, obviously still with something else on his mind.
I wasn’t interested in arguing with him any longer, but I also didn’t have the bandwidth to bother trying to act as if I cared to be his friend.
“So this park ranger. She hot?” Jagger laughed. “From what I could tell from the report, she is.”
“She’s not important.”
“Uh-huh. I don’t believe you. You cut the fur off your face. For her?”
I snorted. “For me.”
“Sure. Maybe I’ll do the same thing.”
“You do that. Let me know if you find any other discrepancies.”
“You know, it’s okay to care about somebody.”
He was reminding me of what others enjoyed? I knew he was exactly the same way. “Too broken for that, brother.” I didn’t receive texts, especially given the limited number of people whohad my phone number. I knew military equipment and high-tech shit that very few people in the world knew existed cold. But an iPhone and its various resources were foreign and ridiculous to me.
When my phone emitted a strange noise, more like a stupid sound effect from some bad and very old science fiction program, I froze. I was staring at it, half expecting a bomb to go off.
“I’m surprised you’re not shooting it,” Jagger told me, already amused at my lack of understanding. Always the nosy one, he grabbed my phone from the counter. “It’s called a text. People type messages and send them to you. You can answer back or like everything else in your life, you can ignore them.”
I did nothing more than take a deep breath. Fighting him for control of the phone was beneath me.
He shrank back, not something my brother ever did under any circumstances. “Is there some shit you’re going through you’re not telling me about?”
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
“The murders I heard about? The park ranger is involved. I saw that too. Are you two into something dangerous?”
I snatched my phone from his hand, forced to exhale to keep from tossing it when I read the threat.
Unknown: Walk away from her or she dies.
“What is going on, Shep? Seriously. You’re surlier than normal, which is saying something. But this isn’t anything to fuck with.”
I lifted my gaze toward Jagger then back down to the phone. “Nothing I can’t handle.”
“I know you’re a tough guy and I doubt I want to know the shit you’ve done, but that’s a direct threat that has nothing to do with your past.”
My laugh pretty much gave away what I was thinking. Fuck this shit.
“Or does it?” he pushed.
“Let it alone, Jag.”
He laughed and it wasn’t about making light of the situation. “Do you want to get away from that former life? Do you want to live like a normal dude does?”
“What that fuck does that mean?”
“Having family and friends, maybe a relationship. Going on vacation. Purchasing a house. Going to barbecues and basketball games? Isn’t that something you’ve thought about before?”
I’d heard of guys who’d been gone from the action for a limited time who’d killed themselves or went back because they couldn’t handle the harsh reality of real life. I had a feeling Jagger was falling prey to the same condition.
“You don’t want that shit any more than I do.”
“Maybe not, but I know a threat when I see one. You’re alone now. I know this house is already wired to the hilt. So is mine. And I’m certain you brought plenty of weapons with you, but I need to remind you there are thousands of innocent civilians living near you.”