Alex (In the Company of Snipers) (36 page)

As she straightened, she saw a man walking up Louise and Phil’s gravel driveway, which was very odd. They were so far out in the middle of nowhere. The driveway was more like a road; it was so long and winding. The man’s profile looked familiar, but it couldn’t be him. Not all the way down here. Harley? As he came closer she was sure of it. Dressed in his usual jeans and western shirt, his worn out boots kicked up small puffs of dust as he walked. Kelsey set the laundry basket on the porch. He strolled up as casual as if he just happened to be passing through the neighborhood.

“You’re certainly a long ways off the beaten trail, little lady,” Harley drawled like the cowboy he wasn’t.

“It’s good to see you.” She shielded her eyes from the sun. “What brings you all the way to Pendleton?”

He pushed his black cowboy hat back off his forehead and his sunglasses down over his nose. “Well, ma’am, I’m looking for a pretty little thing named Kelsey. You seen her?”

Kelsey ignored his flirtation and turned for the steps. “Come in. I’ll make lemonade.”

“Just a minute.” Harley let out a shrill whistle. As quick as if they were chasing squirrels back home in Alexandria, Smoke and Whisper bolted up the driveway and full speed toward Kelsey. She knelt on the grass before they bowled her over. With tails thumping and those big mutt bodies wriggling, Whisper and Smoke whined and barked their excitement at seeing her again.

Kelsey grabbed Whisper in an especially tight hug, tears streaming down her face. “I’ve missed you boys so much.”

“Looks like these fellows think they’re your dogs,” Harley observed quietly.

She wiped her nose. “I’ve missed them.” She couldn’t let Whisper go. With his usual German shepherd-speak, he growlingly let her know he enjoyed the extra long hug. When she stood, he stayed at her side while Smoke took a self-guided tour around the flowerbeds, lifting his leg and marking a few rose bushes as he went.

“Whisper and Smoke look good, Harley. I’m glad you brought them with you.”

Harley filled a bucket from the garden hose for the dogs. “I reckon you could use a visit from a couple of friends.”

Alex

I’ve ruined everything.

Alex sat thinking on the hospital patio. The orderly had moved him outside to sit in the sun and get some fresh air. Other patients chatted around him, but he didn’t join in. He didn’t need or want human companionship, but at least the sun felt good. Birds chirped overhead and the summer air felt cool. He knew the calm wouldn’t last. Mother was probably looking for him by now. Too soon she would interrupt the quiet. That was Mother’s way.

He was healing, able to stand and walk. That was a major accomplishment. Physical therapy helped, and soon he would know if the blindness was permanent. That was the real kick in the gut. He pushed the thought away. Like Murphy said, no need to borrow trouble.

But blind or not, his doctor wouldn’t release him until the infection draining from his multiple surgeries cleared up, and that was the problem. Murphy was on their side. He wouldn’t help Alex leave without that stupid permission, and
he couldn’t do it alone. He was his own worst enemy. He knew it.

Jed McCormack, his friend and financial backer, had called earlier just to talk. That was kind. Jed was as solid a friend as Murphy. For some reason Alex knew he would never be able to drive those two men away no matter how ignorant and rude he was. They saw through him like good friends do.

Jed and he had talked about how successful the business had become. In less than a year, Alex had repaid the multi-million dollar loan Jed had advanced him. The TEAM had barely operated in the red at all, and built a solid reputation in the process. By the world’s standards Alex had it all, wealth, success, and the right kind of fame. Opportunity had smiled on him. He should be happy.

He wasn’t. He knew what real happiness was, and it had nothing to do with success. No. Happiness was a sixty-watt light bulb shining on his front porch and a plate of homemade lasagna waiting in his microwave. It was chocolate-brown eyes that spilled love and light on him the minute he walked through his door at night. He had too much time to think and every thought turned to Kelsey. She hadn’t made a single phone call or sent a letter, not that he expected any. He hadn’t called her either, but what he wouldn’t give to hear her laugh again or feel her light touch on his cheek. Her absence was the worst physical pain. Murphy was right. He was a dumb ass.

The hospital patio door swooshed open behind him, and right on schedule, Mother gushed like he had been missing a year. “So this is where you are. I’ve been looking all over for you.”

He turned away.
She found me.

“Well, that last contract’s written just like you wanted. It’s setting on your table, all ready for you to sign when you get back to bed. I put one of them sticky tabs on it so you can feel your way through it. Just be sure you sign right next to that tab, okay?” She pulled up a chair beside him. “Course I’ll show you exactly where to sign if you need more help.”

The fragrance of her expensive perfume wafted over him like a stifling sauna. He wondered if she bathed in it. Why use a drop when a pint will do? He wanted to move.
Where’s that orderly?

“I sure wish you’d tell me when you go gallivanting around the hospital though. I got better things to do than wander all over this place looking for your ornery butt.” She chastised him like he didn’t sign her payroll check.

Alex said nothing. Mother took too many liberties. He wished she would respect the line between employer and employee, but also knew why she didn’t. Mother was a genius, pure and simple. She didn’t need the job as much as he needed her. She knew it, too.

“Merciful heavens, I wish you’d let me do the negotiating the next time the Army comes calling. I’m sure I can get more bang for your buck, pardon the pun.” Mother chuckled to herself. “I mean we are talking about covert surveillance and snipers and all, right?”

Alex didn’t reply. No need. Mother was a veritable talking machine. All output.

“So what’s next, Boss? You need me to run grab you a Starbuck’s coffee or anything?”

“No thanks.”

“How about a glass of water? You need a drink? You look kinda thirsty sitting out here in the sun like you are.”

“No.”

“Well, then do you want me to place any calls for you? You know, maybe to Harley or David back at the office? I hear Jed McCormack called this morning. So how’d that go?”

“Fine.” He contemplated returning to his room.
Where’s the orderly?

“Come on now, Boss. Let me call someone. Talking with one of your friends is a whole lot better than sitting here feeling sorry for yourself, you know what I mean?”

“I’m fine, Mother.”

“Well then, how about I ring up Kelsey’s sister? I still got her number from the last time you wanted to talk to her, and—”

“Stop.” Alex held up a hand to silence Mother.
If only.

Her voice kicked into wheedling gear. “At least you could talk with her, Boss, and find out how Kelsey’s doing. I mean, if you’d learn to listen sometimes, instead of always—”

“For hell’s sake Mother, give it a rest.” Alex snapped.

Mother was quiet only as long as it took her to take another breath. She sniffed as if offended, but Alex knew better. Mother was a master manipulator, and all that sniffing was just another tool in her vast arsenal of ways to get what she wanted and around people. “Well, I guess the important thing is
you’re
feeling better, never mind how she feels. And just so you know, I’m flying back first thing in the morning. There’s no sense in staying where I’m not wanted.”

“Good.”
Thank God and United Airlines.

“I knew you’d be saying something rude like that. How long are you staying in the hospital? When are you coming home? Do you know yet?”

“Soon.”
So freaking pushy.

“And when you going to try that walker or that cane? You have to move on you know, you can’t just sit in a wheelchair for the rest—”

“Mother. Sasha. Enough.” Alex bellowed at the top of his voice. “Enough already.”

“Well, I just—”

“This is the first day I’ve left the room. Give it a rest.” He heard her huff and sniff.
Leave me alone.

She sat drumming her fingertips on the armrest, no doubt as exasperated with him as he was with her. Their problem was always the same. He wanted to know what time it was, and she tended to tell him how to build the clock, how to set it, dust it, and where to put it on the mantle. He kept his personal life private while she was an open book, and an audio book at that. He didn’t share, and she continually pried.

“So. Have you talked to Murphy lately?” She wouldn’t give up.

“Every day.” Alex sighed deeply.

“Well, okay then. I’m going.”

It’s about time.

Mother rose from the chair and gave him a gentle hug. “I’ll stop by in the morning before I leave.”

“I’ll be here.” He rolled his wheelchair backwards into the shade. Instantly an orderly asked if he was ready to return to his room. Alex nodded in relief.

Twenty-Five

Kelsey

Good ole Harley.

Kelsey brought a plate of homemade chocolate chip cookies along with the icy drinks to the living room. As she sat down on the couch, he drank a full glass and devoured several cookies. She smiled to see his appetite. Within minutes she refilled his glass and waited for him to talk. Sunburned and windblown, his hazel eyes sparkled from the white mask left by his sunglasses. He snagged another couple cookies.

“Well, you may not know this about me, Kelsey, but I’m a man of few words,” he said with his mouth full.

“I don’t know much about you at all, Harley, except I owe you my life. You’re my friend,” she said quietly. “But let’s get to the point. Why are you here?”

“I’m on a mission, ma’am.” He started again. “It’s kind of a mission from God, if you know what I mean.”

Kelsey leaned back into the sofa with her arms crossed. “What? Alex send you?”

Harley smirked. “Well, he does think he’s God sometimes, doesn’t he? But no, he doesn’t have a clue I’m even in the country. I had Murphy tell him a story about me being on some operation in Turkey. Anyway, the boss isn’t himself right now, so he fell for it.” Harley watched from his side of the couch. “Which is really saying something because Alex doesn’t fall for much.”

Kelsey heard what Harley didn’t say.
Not too long ago Alex had fallen for her. Did that make her special? She used to think so.

“I’d like to think I’m here more as your friend than anything else.”

“I’m worn out, Harley. I’m tired.” Kelsey brushed a tear off her cheek and looked away. “I’ve had the year from hell. What do you want?” She had seen the tenderness in his eye, the last thing she needed.

“Okay, so here’s the deal.” He blurted it right out. “Alex is an idiot.”

Leave it to Harley to make her laugh. She felt the quick rise of tears just the same.

“You know, I’d just got out of rehab. I didn’t know anything about Alex and you til that night,” he said quietly.

“You were in rehab all the time you were missing?” Kelsey leaned back into the couch cushions behind her. She would have never have guessed Harley for a rehab kind of a person. He looked like a big kid with his wide-open smile, sun-bleached streaks scattered through his brown hair, and sunglasses perched on the top of his head. Murphy had told her Harley was from up-state New York, but he could pass for a cowboy any day of the week. She wondered how he came to develop that alternate persona.

“Yes, ma’am, I was. I’ve been kind of a mess since I got home from Iraq. Done a lot of crap I ain’t proud of. You know, when you get down so far you can’t get up, well that’s when you figure all you got left to do is to pull your head out of your … ah …. ” He stuttered as he corrected his language. “I mean, then you pull yourself up by your boot straps and do something smart for a change.”

She smiled at his bright eyes. It touched her that he tried not to cuss around her. Much. “Was rehab hard?”

“Yes and no. This one was tougher than others I have been in.” Harley blew out a big sigh. “You’ve got to understand something about addicts, Kelsey. We’re mean, thoughtless, selfish people. I didn’t care who I hurt when I was using. Heck.” He looked away, scrubbing a hand over his face before he continued. “My Mom and Dad won’t have a thing to do with me anymore. I’ve put them through hell. I don’t blame them.”

She let him talk, but it was hard to see the man he had just described. He looked handsome, strong, and healthy sitting there on Louise’s couch.

“I’m an addict. I won’t lie to you. Right now I’m clean. I don’t drink booze either. It’s all the same crap, and I don’t go near it. Any of it.”

“What made you seek help?”

“It’s crazy, but ….” He scrubbed his face again. “I thought of my boss. Alex believed in me, and I threw his trust back in his face like it was nothing. But I woke up one day and I just didn’t want to be me anymore. I wanted to be like him.”

“The rehab helped?”

“Nope. Not right away, it didn’t. You know, none of them places work unless you really want the help. This time I was lucky. I got a good counselor. Sonny served in Iraq, plus he’s a recovering addict. It makes a difference when you’re talking with someone who understands what you’ve been through.” Harley leaned back into the couch; every cookie long gone and his fingers licked clean.