“Alex?”
“We’re waiting for you. Didn’t you tell us to get a move on?”
Following the sound of his voice to the open kitchen door, Hunter and Alex were waiting by the car. She just had to put up the wheelchair, hopefully without messing up her outfit. After a brief wrestling match, she won, and the chair was safely stashed in the trunk. Nine-twenty. As long as they didn’t run into any traffic, she’d make it to the meeting on time.
The car ride had been quiet, each of them focused on their own thoughts. Hers would be worrying if she’d missed anything for the presentation. While his were rehashing his nightmare. Thankful she’d been semi-distracted by her meeting, she’d let it drop about his dream. Too bad he couldn’t push it out of his head as easily. Instead of a few times a week, now they were every night, and each time more vivid. When he finally woke up, he couldn’t even remember where he was.
They got to Paws for Hope early for his training, so after she dropped him off he didn’t go in right away. The weather was nice, Florida in December, low humidity and mid-seventies. Why not be outside while he could? Of course, his mind wandered back to last night’s dream.
Hunter had helped, at least he hadn’t fallen out of bed trying to run from the explosion. Every fucking time he closed his eyes the scene played out like a bad movie. The truck driving through the gate checkpoint and onto the base, the explosion minutes later. Seeing two of his unit tossed into the air as they ran from the blast. But he was never fast enough, could never get far enough away. Never save Bongo. That was the worst.
Seeing his friend lying in the dirt and sand, eyes open but unseeing, half his body missing. Even now so many months later, thinking about it made him break out in a cold sweat. As his heart tried to beat out of his chest, he thought he was going to pass out, when a hand pressed down on his shoulder. His first reaction was to reach for his M-4, the rifle he didn’t carry anymore.
“Easy, Alex. You okay?”
Breathing in and out slowly, he calmed his heartrate and focused on the here and now. “You scared the shit out of me. Don’t you know better than to come up behind someone.”
“I was calling your name. Hunter knew I was there, he even nudged your hand. Didn’t you feel it?”
Fuck.
No, he hadn’t felt it or heard Cage call his name either.
“Sorry, bro. I didn’t mean to make it worse.”
“No problem. I was just lost in thought.” The look Cage gave him said he wasn’t buying it, but he’d let him get away with it for now. He didn’t really know Noah “Cage” Jensen except by reputation. Ex-SEAL, highly decorated and retired. Logan said no one knew why he’d gotten out, or if they did, they weren’t talking. Now he was one of the trainers at Paws for Hope.
“You ready to work? How about you, Hunter?”
Cage had been Hunter’s original trainer, and he clearly loved him. Even though he didn’t move from Alex’s side, his tail thumped against the concrete. “Yup, we’re ready.”
As they headed to the training area located in an old converted warehouse, Cage asked him about their first day together.
“It was good. No problems, at least not that I know of. My wife picked up a bunch of stuff for him at the pet store. She’s unsure of how much she can interact with him.”
“When he’s wearing his harness, he’s working, and he shouldn’t be distracted from his job. But if you’re just hanging out, watching TV, sitting in the backyard, whatever, he can be treated like a regular family dog.”
“Good to know. I should have asked yesterday.”
“It’s a lot to take in at first. But you can call anytime, it’s what we’re here for.”
“I’m surprised at how in sync he is with me. I didn’t expect that to happen for a while.”
“Every dog is different. Hunter is extremely empathetic. We don’t know his whole background, except for medical records, but he must have been well loved before he was dropped off at the shelter.”
“I hope I can take care of him properly.”
“You will. We’ll show you how, but mostly he’ll be taking care of you. Logan shared your background with us so we could find the right dog for you. He also said you’d been having a lot of nightmares since you came back.”
“Fuck. Is nothing private?”
“We’re not here to judge. The whole point of this program is to help you and the dog. Finding the right match is imperative and the more we know, the better. Since you were at Walter Reed, we couldn’t meet you. Logan and Tag filled in the blanks, it’s not how we usually do things, but you had good references.”
“Thanks. I think.”
“You have good friends. Don’t push them away. A strong support system can make all the difference with recovery.”
“I guess. I don’t want to need help.”
“You were an Army Ranger, so it’s not surprising at all. But if you want to move past all of this you’ll need to.”
“Who the hell asked you?” As soon as the words had left his mouth, he felt like a huge piece of shit. The shadow that crossed Cage’s face told him more than he wanted to know and more than the ex-SEAL realized he was sharing. What the fuck was wrong with him? Why couldn’t he keep a reign on his emotions? Why did he constantly want to rip everyone’s heads off? He really wasn’t fit to be around anyone, except maybe Hunter. For some reason, the dog helped to make him calmer, at least when it was just the two of them.
Maybe that was the answer.
“Let’s get something straight. I’m not going to take any shit from you. I know you’ve been through some heavy shit, but a lot of soldiers have. You need to show people respect.”
“You’re right. I am sorry. I’ll try harder.” Cage nodded and continued into the warehouse.
The next two hours were spent putting Alex and Hunter through their paces. Teaching him how to communicate with Hunter when he couldn’t use his voice. How to direct him to help, or get help for him.
When Lily returned to pick them up, he was more than ready to call it quits for the day. He wasn’t sure if it was the lack of sleep, the training, or both, but he couldn’t remember being this exhausted since Ranger training. He needed a nap.
Chapter Five
It was Lily’s first visit to the beachfront offices of the Walcott Corporation. It was beautiful. The four-story glass building almost disappeared into the sky as it reflected the sky and water. It didn’t hurt that it was surrounded by native plants and palm trees. As beautiful as it was, if you weren’t looking for it, it was almost invisible.
After parking, she checked her lipstick in the rearview, then grabbed her case and took a deep breath. She was not a fan of big presentations and thought it would be just her and Terrence Walcott. But his secretary’s email fixed that misconception, and let her know he’d invited the entire project team. The design she’d come up with was good, but that didn’t mean the customer would like it, and the customer was always right. Mentally crossing her fingers, she walked through the automatic doors into the cool climate controlled building. What was the worst that could happen? If they hated it, she still had time to come up with something else.
Stopping at the reception desk, she signed in and was handed a visitor’s badge. The perfectly made up receptionist told the meeting was in the fourth-floor conference room. The piped in classical music was at odds with the click of her heels on the marble floor as she walked across the lobby to the elevator. This was the most lavish building she’d been in since moving to Florida. It seemed like overkill for Willow Haven, but it wasn’t her money.
The elevator doors opened, and an elegant middle-aged woman was waiting for her with a smile. “Ms. Barrett?”
“Yes. Lily Barrett.”
“I’m Enid Mercier, Mr. Walcott’s assistant. I’ll show you where you can set up. They’re all in a meeting but shouldn’t be too much longer.”
“Okay, great. Thank you.” Lily followed the woman who looked like something out of her
Cosmo magazine, from her Christian Louboutin heels to the top of her perfectly-styled hair. Until that moment she’d felt good about her appearance, but now she was second guessing it. Her suit hadn’t been cheap but not even close to Ms. Mercier’s. What did they say? Dress for the job you want not the one you have. Well if they ended up tossing her out on her ass that was fine too. Yeah, this would be a coup for her little company, but she didn’t need the work.
“Can I get you anything?”
“No, thank you.”
“You can set up here, the windows will be dimmed, so you don’t need to worry about the glare.”
“Dim the windows?” That was a new one on her.
“Yes.” She smiled and for the first time seemed more human than Stepford woman. “It’s really quite ingenious.” She pulled out her cell and clicked her screen a few times, and the windows darkened like a shade had been pulled over them, but you could still see outside. “It’s fully adjustable all the way to opaque. Mr. Walcott incorporated every new technology available in this building.”
“That is very cool. From what he showed me at the fitness complex he’s doing the same there.”
“Oh yes. He believes that if you don’t go all in, why bother?”
Lily hadn’t picked that up when he’d given her the tour of the complex, but maybe she’d been too distracted about Alex. They’d only been back in Willow Haven one day when she had the meeting. Now it was six days later, but it already felt like months.
“From the looks of this building he’s been very successful.”
“Yes, you could say that.” The man himself commented from behind her. Lily jumped. How the hell had he snuck up on her with all these marble floors. Did he hover above the ground too?
“Good morning, Mr. Walcott.”
“Terrence, please. I’m looking forward to your presentation. I liked what I saw when I reviewed the mockups.”
“Thank you. I’ll be ready shortly. I just need to connect the laptop to a projector.”
His assistant clicked another button, and a portion of the table top slid open, and a projector appeared out of the opening. She couldn’t hide how impressed she was, and she caught Terrence grinning at her reaction.
“You’ll see I don’t do anything half-way, Lily.”
“That’s definitely obvious.” A few moments later the rest of the team came in. As they took their seats around the large mahogany table, Terrence did the introductions as the ten-people focused on her with various degrees of interest. Talk about wanting to sink into the floor.
“Please welcome Lily Barrett of OLB Designs. I asked her to come up with an advertising campaign and do some mockups for the web presence.”
“What? Wait a minute, I had it covered. Markman’s created the entire campaign and started work on the site already.”
“I had Enid contact them to cancel. I didn’t fit my vision for the complex.”
“But…”
“Harrison, we’ll discuss this offline later.” Harrison Chandler, Terrence’s executive vice president, looked like he swallowed a frog but he kept his mouth shut. He could have been one of the preppy asshats she’d avoided in college, right down to his slicked back dirty-blond hair. Men like him gave her the heebie-jeebies. It’s not that he wasn’t attractive, but it was in a used car salesman type of way. The thought relieved some of the pressure building in her shoulders.
After the initial objection from the douchenozzle, the presentation went well. At least that’s the feeling she got. There were some good questions and after all the feedback she had some tweaks to make if she got the job. But she figured the look of admiration on Terrence’s face was a good sign. There was something odd about the man, but she couldn’t figure out what it was that bothered her about him. From the moment she met him she’d felt something was off like he was trying too hard or something. But that didn’t make sense. It was obvious he was exactly what he presented to be, a man who knew what he wanted and made sure he got it.
A few of the project team approached her after the meeting while she was packing up. If their questions and comments were any indication she had the job in the bag. She hoped they’d give her the ‘official’ okay soon so she could get to work making her mockups come to life. She couldn’t wait to tell Alex and Chloe about it. That made her wonder how his training was going. She checked her phone, but there were no texts from him, just one from Chloe wishing her good luck.
After thanking Enid for her help, she grabbed her bag and planned on leaving. She hadn’t realized Terrence’s office was on the same floor, she should have, though. It was the top floor, and it was only the best for Mr. Walcott. Chatting with Enid as she headed to the elevator, she almost collided with Harrison Chandler as he threw open Walcott’s office door and stormed out.
“Well damn. What’s the hurry?” She stopped herself before she used her nickname for him. That would have been a disaster. Instead of answering, he glared at her and continued down the hallway.
“Are you okay? He didn’t bang into you, did he?”
“No. I’m fine. He just startled me.”
“Can I get you anything, Mr. Walcott?”
“Please get Jameson on the phone. Let me know when you have him. Lily, do you have a moment before you go?”
“Yes, sir,” Enid replied, and then smiled briefly at Lily.
“Did you have some questions?” Lily asked as she followed him into his office. He closed the door behind her, and the hairs on the back of her neck shivered. It was so weird. There was no reason at all for her reaction to him, but she couldn’t deny it.
“No questions. Just wanted to let you know you have the job. I’m impressed with your work, Howard was right to refer you to me. I’ll have to send him a bottle of that forty-five-year-old scotch he enjoys.” He said it like she knew that her accountant liked scotch let alone forty-five-year-old stuff. He did her taxes, that was the extent of their relationship. But she did owe him something for recommending her company.
“Excellent. I look forward to working with your team. Who will be the point of contact for the project?”
“I’d prefer you run everything through Enid and she’ll see I get it. If I need to bring other members of the team in, I will.” It seemed strange to her. He was the CEO, so why take such interest in one project? Especially when it was clear, he had a very capable team. There was something off about this whole thing. But was it weird enough for her not to take the job? Nope. She’d pull her big girl panties up and deal with it.
“No problem. I’ll have the next round of designs ready for you by next week unless you’re closed for Christmas week?”
“Next week will be fine. Thank you, Lily.” He reached for her hand. It was dry, thank God, but cold like marble and made goosebumps stand up on her skin. Thankfully her arms were covered by her suit jacket.
Anxious to get outside, she thanked him again and made her way to the elevator. After dropping her badge off at the reception desk, she stepped into the bright, warm sunshine. Her tension drained with each step further from the building. Glad it was over, she couldn’t wait to get out of her ‘dress-up’ clothes and shoes. Her feet were killing her. She probably needed to wear heels more and slippers less. Nah. She couldn’t give up her fuzzy slippers.
The sound reached her before she saw it. Arguing. One of the men was Chandler, but she had no idea who the other ones were. Definitely not happy campers. She wanted no part of it and hoped she’d be able to get out of there before they noticed her. Too bad she wasn’t that lucky. She was so close to making it when there was a tap on the driver’s side window. She hadn’t seen him approach and her heart jumped in her chest.
Motioning for her to roll down her window, she debated whether to floor it and get the fuck out of there or to do it and see what he wanted. It was a parking lot in the middle of the day, so she gave in and rolled it down. It was safe, wasn’t it?
“I don’t know what you said to Walcott, but you better watch yourself,
bitch. I can’t have you fucking up my plans. You’re going to turn down the job do you hear me? If you don’t, you’ll be stepping into some deep shit especially with that invalid husband of yours.”
“What I understand is that you’re out of your mind. You’re not the boss or the boss of me. If you have a problem, take it up with Mr. Walcott. And my husband is an Army Ranger and can take care of himself, so I’d be careful who you’re threatening.” If he’d been a cartoon steam would have shot out of his ears. His face turned red, and he looked like he was vibrating with anger. One look at the rage showing in his cold hard eyes and she figured it was time to go.
The drive to pick up Alex and Hunter at Paws for Hope was spent rehashing the threats Chandler had made against Alex. It was surreal; like she’d walked onto the set of a Lifetime movie. Still, his threats seemed real enough, but she’d never been the type to back down. What could he really do? Debating whether to tell Alex she opted for not. He had more than enough going on right now without worrying about her. Especially when she was almost sure it was an empty threat. Almost.
Alex and Hunter were waiting with a giant when she pulled up. He wasn’t really a giant, but with Alex in the chair, he sure looked like it. The guy had to be at least six foot five and ex or current military. Not someone whose wrong side you’d want to get on.
“Hi. I hope you weren’t waiting long.”
“Not really. Lily, this is Cage. He’s helping me and Hunter learn the ropes.”
“Nice to meet you.” She smiled up at him, having to take a step backward to see his face, as she held out her hand. His closed around hers like she was a child. Definitely a giant of a man. “I hope we’re not keeping you from anything?”
“Not at all. We only got out here a few minutes ago. I’m enjoying the weather.”
“You must be new to Florida then?”
“Yeah. I’ve only been here a few months. It’s going to take some getting used to. But I can’t say I’ll miss shoveling snow and dealing with the ice.”
“You’ll get used to it pretty fast. Although there are some things that are better in the cold,” Alex said as he rolled over to the car and stood long enough to rotate into the passenger seat. Hunter jumped into the back as soon as she opened the door. But Cage grabbed the chair before she had a chance to reach for it.
A Soldier's Triumph: An Eagle Security & Protection Agency Novel (Beyond Valor Book 3) Page 5