A chill ran down my spine, a feeling of dread prickled.
Oh shit, they are going to make me eat.
“Ah, I have already eaten lunch—”
“Let’s go, Oaklee. Don’t start this talk off with lies,” Rainn cautioned, her green eyes firing sparks at me. Reaching around Memphis, Rainn wrapped her fingers around my upper arm, gently squeezing.
“Yeah, right,” she drawled, letting me go, then putting an arm around my shoulder, guided me to the door, Charlotte moving past us too, I assumed to take care of Memphis. Her dog was nowhere in sight, so I had to guess where we were going was not animal friendly.
“Where is Jasper?” I asked, pulling back from Rainn in a pathetic attempt to stall.
“Home with Creed and Willow,” Memphis said from behind me, “he is having trouble with his hips; Addy said he needs to rest for a while.”
“Creed knows you are here?”
“Nope, and we don’t have long before he figures out where I have gone, so let’s get this moving.”
With that, I was propelled through the store and out to a waiting car, driven by one of the prospects I noticed from the Club.
No bones are sticking out; your face is … ah screw it. Stop lying, Oaklee.
“Are you and Cole involved?” Memphis asked me the second Charlotte situated her at the picnic table. Her hands coming straight out to take mine in a firm hold.
The women brought me to a secluded park, far enough away from town that it would take Creed or any of the other men a while to get to us.
A bad thing for me.
Dropping my head, I looked down at the scarred, wooden tabletop, absently reading the graffiti.
Want a good time? Call Debbie for head.
Charming. Good for you, Deb.
“Oaklee?”
“Yes,” I whispered, confirming her suspicions. “Yes, we are involved.”
“How involved?”
“From head to toe and everything in between involved,” I answered truthfully, finally getting the courage to look at Memphis.
“I love him, desperately.”
“And my son? He feels the same way about you?”
“Yes. He does.” My chin lifting, a move I learnt from my man.
Nodding, Memphis pursed her lips, her head turning to the woman beside her. Charlotte was the softest woman I had ever met; her generous, caring nature and her empathy gave me one ally, I hoped. Smiling softly at me, Charlotte looked to me, then back to Memphis and to me again. Her kind eyes holding a hint of disappointment.
“Sweetheart, I know you aren’t aware of everything about the Club, other than your job as Memphis’s personal assistant. So you are to be excused for this little indiscretion, but now you need to be informed that we don’t like sneaky, underhanded behaviour.”
“Sneaky? Underhanded?” I screeched, shocked and quite a bit hurt. Is this really how they thought of me?
“Well, what else are we supposed to call you keeping your relationship secret?” Rainn challenged, staring me down.
“I mean, Cole would never keep such a thing secret, not from his family,” Memphis added, Charlotte bobbing her head in agreement.
“Cole has always been a good boy,” Rainn nodded, then glared at me. “Memphis gave you a job, trusted you.”
Anger seethed through me. Who the hell did these women think there were? Judge, jury and the executioner? Lumping me with all the blame, as if they knew me already and making up their minds, I was some kind of scarlet woman! A shameless hussy taking advantage of a child?
“Ladies, please, I don’t think this line of questioning is conducive—" Memphis tried to soothe her friends, but I was done. Heard enough.
“NO! I think this interrogation is done,” I interrupted, pushing to my feet and climbing out of the plank seat awkwardly, losing my footing once and nearly going arse over tit.
“What goes on between Cole and me is our business and no one else’s. He is a grown arse man, not some barely-aged, sheltered virgin,” I yelled, righting myself.
“My job with you doesn’t have anything to do with my relationship with Cole, nor does it affect me from performing my duties properly.” Looking directly at Memphis, even though she couldn’t tell that I was.
“Oaklee, I think—”
Rushing forward, I slammed a hand down on the table, my anger erupting.
“There are certain reasons why Cole and I decided to go about this the way we did. And yes, it was our decision, not just mine. The main one being your husband, Memphis.”
“He told Cole to stay away from me, and he said I wasn’t to be approached. Who is he to say that? Creed barely talks to me, and I have no interaction with him unless there is a signing or when he comes to the shop to pick you up. And from that, he makes up his mind I am not worthy of being with your son.” Getting a full head of steam, I continued my outburst, not caring that the women were looking at me with wide, shocked eyes. My last thread had snapped and there was no shutting me up.
“Cole has been so worried that his father would be disappointed in him, we opted to put off telling you both until he gets back from his deployment. I’d rather he concentrate on what he has to do wherever the hell he is than on Creed scowling, grunting and growling!”
Mentally I was counting to ten, trying to calm my boiling temper before I really said something I could not take back if I hadn’t already.
Looking directly at Memphis, I took her hand, gentling my grip, so I didn’t squeeze too hard. I loved my job, adored my boss, but I wasn’t going to stay where everyone thought such horrible things about my character.
That was not healthy.
“If you are unhappy having a liar and an underhanded person working for you, then consider this my resignation.” The words ripped at my heart, but I meant them. As much as I didn’t want to give up my dream job, staying and being treated like a criminal would be worse. Much worse. I’d had enough of that from my parents, and I didn’t need more from people who weren’t family.
More aching thumped in my chest. The Wounded Souls was becoming like a family to me … or they were, so I thought.
What hope was there for Cole and me if his family wasn’t accepting of our relationship … of me? Being at odds with them, making him choose between time with them and me, was too unfair to burden him with.
You ruin everything, Oaklee, I can’t have a life because you were born.
A sob tore from my lips, and tears streamed down my face unchecked. My life was crumbling with each falling tear. He is gone. I’ve lost Cole and he doesn’t even know it yet. Yelling at his mother and aunts, my final nail in the coffin. Spinning on my heels, I bolted from the picnic area, desperate to get away from the brutal, unfair and heartbreaking confrontation.
Confrontation! It was more like a firing squad, with me as the poor sap as the target.
Running as fast as my shaking legs allowed, I tried to tune out the shouts for me to stop and kept running until I left the park area and hit the road. This part of town was kind of isolated, being in a semi-wooded area of Ballarat East. The roads were mainly gravel, but I was familiar with the area and knew of some tracks that would take me off the well-known and more travelled road.
Dodging an oncoming car that honked at me when it nearly hit me, I ran blindly down a deserted track, my lungs screaming at me to stop, but I refused to until I was finally out of earshot of the shouted pleas from my boss and her flock. Grateful that all of them had been dressed to the nines and wearing high heels, so there was no chance of them following. Memphis not coming after me was self-explanatory.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
COLE
“You doing okay, Ghost?” Tank asked, coming up behind me as soon as we disembarked from the chopper and back to the temporary base we had set up amongst the thick jungle. A fifteen-hour slog through dense vegetation and high humidity had us all in foul moods. Me especially.
For two weeks now, I had not been able to get hold of Oaklee thank
s to the shithouse reception, even on the satellite phones. When I finally found a spot to make a call, she never picked up, nor was there any reply from her to my text.
“Fucking peachy, captain. We can’t find this fucking prick who is killing innocent women and children, we have been in this godforsaken jungle for four weeks, and I seem to have lost my girlfriend,” I gritted out between clenched teeth, “so no, mate, I am not fucking fine, I am fucking pissed the fuck off!” Throwing my rifle to the ground, I stormed into the operations tent and straight to the communications officer.
“I want a goddamned clear line to make a skype call, and I want it yesterday, private,” I seethed at the trembling idiot unfortunate enough to be on duty tonight.
“Yes, sir, I will do my best, sir.”
“You will do it period, or so help me I will —”
“2nd lieutenant,” Gabe yelled, his hand coming down hard on my shoulder. “Compartmentalise, disconnect the personal shit and stand down,” Gabe warned, going back into commanding officer mode.
Balling my fists at my legs, I hissed through clenched teeth.
“Yes, sir.”
“Good, now private, we need a line directly to our computers, think you can manage that?” Gabe asked calmly. Something I should have done but failed.
“It will take some time, captain, but I will do my best.”
“You will find us in our hut, double-quick on this private, understand?”
“Copy that, captain,” the poor bugger stammered, avoiding eye contact with me.
Snivelling shit.
“Cole, with me now,” Gabe ordered, giving me a chin lift and a stare that would make a lesser man piss his pants.
“You’re fucking lucky we don’t have a ring set up out here,” I muttered but followed him as ordered.
“And you are lucky I don’t rip you a new one and send you home on a stretcher,” Gabe tossed back at me.
“Fucking serious shit here, Ghost, what is going on? This isn’t you, you don’t let anything get to you, mate. Normally, we leave that to Bastian.”
“Yeah,” I scoffed, giving Gabe a semblance of a smile, “it’s a strange day when Ammo is the calm one, not me.”
“It makes me nervous, Ghost,” Gabe admitted, sitting down next to me on the rickety bunk. “You and the dark go hand in hand brother, quiet is your strong suit, your thing. It’s why you have that name.”
Ashamed and embarrassed for being called out for losing my cool, here and on our last recon, I shook my head and dropped it into my hands.
“I used to welcome the dark, preferred to be alone. Now it’s different, that … need, isn’t there as much.”
“Because of Oaklee?” Gabe asked, but he already knew that it was her changing me.
Dragging a hand down my face, I let out a frustrated growl. Over half the world away from my girl, not knowing if she was okay, was messing with my head. I lost all control of disconnecting, and that was nothing short of dangerous. Deke’s dead body suddenly came to mind; he lost his life because he had a mind-numbing idea that his team … us, would judge him for being gay. What a crock of shit! He decided that for us. Didn’t trust us to be there for him or see him the way we always had. A fucking good man, friend and soldier.
And here I was doing the same fucking thing he had. Acting reckless and not using my brain or my training.
“I don’t understand why she isn’t picking up, Tank. Not a word from her in two weeks.” My gut was telling me something very bad was going on back home, something I should be there to fix. Even communicating with Dad was a no-go. I had the option of sending him a message through the base at Queenscliff, but announcing my private life through god knew how many hands before it got to my father appealed as much as eating my dinner out of Rafe’s boots after a fifteen-hour trek through rivers animals pissed in.
“Oaklee has brought a light that I never had before. I fucking need that light, brother.” Pouring out my heart this way was foreign, especially when on deployment, yet here I was practically sobbing like a pussy.
“Fuck,” Gabe clipped, his tone pricking my spidey senses.
“What? What do you know?”
“Not a lot,” Gabe sighed, shaking his head.
“Last time I managed to get more than a few minutes on the phone with Devon, she mentioned that Oaklee wasn’t working for your mum anymore.”
The words were barely out of Gabe’s mouth before I was pouncing on him, fisting his filthy sweat-dripping shirt in my fists.
“What the actual fuck, Tank!” I bellowed in his face. “How long have you known this?” Dread and panic fired in my belly like acid rising.
Wrenching his shirt out of my hold, Gabe jumped to his feet, getting some distance. He knew what I was capable of when my temper showed, which wasn’t all that often. Control was one of my weapons, and I was a master at it, but unleash it and fucking pity the poor prick in my way.
Just ask Bastian. Not too long ago, he’d pushed me and felt my fist in his face.
“Just a couple of days. She said there was some kind of conflict with Oaklee and the Flock. Dev didn’t know all the details, but Memphis came back to the compound that day pretty upset. Rainn told Pixie that Oaklee lost her shit and raged at them.”
My mind spun with what Gabe just told me. Oaklee yelling at my mother didn’t make sense, nor did it sound like something my Temptress would ever do. She fucking adored my mother, and her job was important to her. She was proud of being a personal assistant and revelled in being the manager of the book store.
“Two days you have known this?” I spat, getting to my feet. “and you are just telling me this now?”
“I made a decision that was best for the mission, and I stand by it.” Gabe’s chin jutting out in that stubborn way he’d inherited from his old man.
“The mission? Fuck the mission, Gabe, Oaklee is there all alone, and who fucking knows what they said to her to make her go off. Jesus Christ, Tank, two fucking days!”
“It wouldn’t have made any difference telling you, Ghost, had you known and no outside coms, it would have messed with you more.”
“Oh, and that is your call to make?”
“Fuck, yes it is,” Gabe roared at me, “the morale of this team is at an all-time low. We have never been hit this badly. Deke dying, Kodah unravelling and the brass up our arse. Team FIVE is being hit from all angles. I made a judgement call to leave any outside bullshit and influences until this mission is complete.”
“Bullshit! My fucking heart disappearing, quitting her job and fighting with my mum constitutes as bullshit to you?”
“If it has the outcome of compromising the safety of my men? Then yes.”
Gabe didn’t see my fist coming until the sound of cracking bones echoed in the room. Pain radiated from my knuckles and up my hand to my wrist, blood … Gabe’s blood dripping from my swelling knuckles.
“Fucking hell!” I bellowed, drowning out Gabe’s pained hiss. Blood pissing out between his fingers as he held onto his nose.
“Err, excuse me, sirs.” A voice came from the door to the hut. “I have a Creed Stephens waiting on the line for you, Lt.”
“Go tell him to wait for a few minutes, make sure you don’t lose the connection,” Gabe ordered, dismissing the private. His gaze not leaving mine.
Regretting my lack of control, I looked around me and found a towel and snatched it up, tossing it to Gabe.
“Tank, I’m—”
“I will let you have that one, Ghost, but just that one. Next time you decide to hit me, it will be as your captain and not your cousin. Now piss off and go talk to your dad,” he ordered, wiping the blood from his nose.
Feeling lower than a snake, I offered Gabe a tight smile in an apology.
“It won’t happen again, I promise you that.”
Shaking his head at me, Gabe let out a nasal chuckle.
“Well, I won’t promise you Devon won’t kick your arse if this doesn’t heal properly before the wedding
photos,” he said, pointing to his busted and bloody nose.
“In fact, I can assure you of that.”
“Copy that. Warranted and welcomed,” I laughed before sobering.
“We good, cousin?” I asked, holding out a hand to him, then sighed in relief when he gripped it firmly, accepting my olive branch.
“Never better, brother. Never better. Now get going and find out what is going on with your girl.”
“What do you mean you can’t find her, Dad?”
“Exactly what I just said, son,” my father fired back at me on a crackling line. “Her employment declaration states her grandparents as her next of kin. And they are on a cruise ship presently docked in Greece. Ford located them, but I stopped him from contacting them. It isn’t fair to worry them when they are too far away to do anything.”
“Her parents?”
“Whereabouts unknown. Your mum said Oaklee didn’t go into too much detail about them, not even their first names.”
“Pete and Carla. They’re not married, and Carla’s last name is Moore.”
“You know her parent’s names?” Dad asked quietly. Deliberately.
“I know everything about my girlfriend, except where the fuck she is!” I growled back, not in the mood for my father’s special brand of questioning. One thing about my dad, he did things his way, and you really didn’t get a choice in the matter.
Gritting my teeth, I prepared myself for an onslaught, a Creed Stephen’s interrogation.
“Had I known she was your girlfriend, I would know more information so I could find her, son.”
Dad’s dry tone indicated he knew more than he was letting on, and that only pissed me off more. What the hell was his problem?
“You knew, old man, what I don’t understand is why the warning off speech?”
“I think you know why, Cole.”
“Jesus Christ, Dad! You think that I am that much of an arsehole I wouldn’t be able to handle her eating disorder?” I growled out, understanding immediately why he warned me off Oaklee.
Cole: The Wounded Sons Page 18