by Robin Leaf
Noah chuckled. “Whoa, you have Darby at a loss for words. Now you have to come work for me.”
The plate placed before me interrupted the snarky comment that was about to erupt forth from my mouth, and my hunger trumped any need to defend myself. I focused on eating and mostly ignored their conversation.
“Before you decide,” Noah continued, “I’d like to give you a tour of the facility and have you meet my men. That way you can make a better informed decision. Are you available tomorrow?”
She turned to me. “Will you be there?”
“I can be.” I winked. “I live in the building.”
She stared at me; I wasn’t sure why. She turned to Noah after a few moments. “What time should I be there?”
Sixteen
“In My Life” – The Beatles
Allison received the grand tour of the security portion of Noah’s business. Today, she was dressed business smart in a black pencil skirt, matching heels, and a white blouse. Her hair was in a French twist. She looked like a boardroom bombshell.
Since I had never seen the security side of the facility, I tagged along, feeling quite like the third wheel. I was actually kind of bored. How many banks of computer monitors and surveillance equipment does one company need? I mean, once you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all. Allison seemed pretty impressed though.
“And here is our training facility,” Noah announced, opening the door without much fanfare. “I asked the men to meet us here.”
Noah introduced her to the men as I sat on the treadmill.
“Forgive me, lass,” Bryan, Fionn’s younger brother, began in his accent only slightly less pronounced than his brother’s, “but I’m just not sure what you can teach us. Aren’t you a right bit too delicate to give us a lesson?”
Allison looked amused. “I’m willing to give a demonstration, Mr. O’Cleirigh, if you gentlemen are willing to be a part of it.”
The men, who apparently had been thinking the same thing as Bryan, agreed.
“Great. If you’ll give me a few minutes,” she requested politely. She turned to me. “Once I get my gear, can you show me where I can change?” Her cheeks turned pink as she asked.
I pointed across the room. “It’s the only door over there. You can’t miss it.” I smiled.
She looked down and nodded. “Thanks. I just need to run to my car.”
As she left, Noah approached me.
“You’re not going to get in on this action?” I asked him.
He chuckled. “No, I prefer to watch them get their asses handed to them by a ‘delicate female.’ They have no idea about her qualifications. I want to enjoy the lesson they’re about to learn.”
“Ah, would that be the don’t-judge-a-book lesson?”
He smiled. “Something like that.”
Once she returned, the men whistled at her appearance. She donned a sports bra covered in a tight tank and matching lycra workout pants. She strutted into the room straight to the mats the boys had spread out on the floor, not intimidated in the least by their blatant sexism. I knew they were attempting to get into her head as I had never felt any jerkish behavior from anyone of them.
“Now, gentlemen,” she said with a touch of a sarcastic flair. “I want you to come at me as if you are going to attack me.”
“All at once?” Fionn asked.
“I want you to think of me as a threat to Miss Cheetwood over there.” She winked at me, eyed me up and down, then blushed. “The only thing is that once you’re down, I want you to stay down.”
Bryan laughed. “You can’t take all of us, sweetheart.”
She sobered at that comment. “We’ll see. Do not go easy on me, either.”
Bryan was the first to lurch in her direction. She took him down easily with some rolling spin move and had him pinned. The second man had a turn with the same result. Each man who rushed her got some of the same treatment. She was flying limbs, as if she could anticipate what they were going to try, outsmarting each with her maneuvers.
“Luck,” Bryan proclaimed after all men had been pinned.
“I thought it was the Irish who were supposed to be lucky,” she teased. “So, let’s go again.”
This time, the men tried to take her two at a time. Bryan rushed her again with Fionn, and both men ended up on the ground gasping for air. She took on eight men a second time and barely broke a sweat.
Normally, I abhorred violence in any form. I thought it was overly perpetuated in Hollywood. I realized how hypocritical that was since I was on a pretty violent TV show, but I justified the violence on my show because: a. the beings we fought were ghosts, and b. these ghosts were usually causing harm to the humans on the show. To me, self-defense was usually a justifiable excuse to commit acts of violence. But gratuitous violence, especially sports that celebrated violent acts, was not my forte.
However, right then, watching Allison kick some serious man ass was very entertaining, and honestly, intriguingly sexy.
“I’ve got to call this,” Noah said from beside me. He approached the melee, but Allison had her back turned. In less than a second, he let out an, “Oof,” and found himself down on the mat, her straddling his neck.
“Oh my God, I’m so sorry, Mr. Reed,” she sputtered as she rushed to get up. She pulled him to standing and proceeded to dust him off. I couldn’t help it. Laughter bubbled up from me, one of those fits that make it hard to breathe.
Noah shot me a look. “It’s fine, Miss Carlisle. I should not have approached you from behind.” When he held up his hands, she stopped swatting the dust off his ass, and he smiled. “You are better than your reputation indicates.”
“Aye,” Fionn added, holding his neck. “Never mind what ye did to us grunts, I’ve never seen anyone take down the boss like ye did, lass. That was impressive.”
All the other men grumbled their agreement.
Allison glanced at me and her cheeks flushed again. Why was she so embarrassed? She kicked ass.
“You should see the rest of the amenities before we discuss financials,” Noah offered. “Then I would like to meet you in the office to make my official offer.”
“I’ll show her around,” I volunteered.
Noah nodded. “I’ll see you in an hour, Ms. Carlisle. Behave, Kung Fu.”
“Well now, that’s no fun,” I winked. Noah stared at me before smiling. I felt like he was trying to convey something, but I wasn’t picking up on the message. I returned his smile and guided Allison out of the room.
We made our way to the elevator. Something felt a bit awkward, so I decided to compliment her. “You know, Noah was right. That was quite impressive.”
She reached out and touched my arm briefly. “Thank you.” As I reached over to push the button to call the elevator, I kept expecting her to say something else. No such luck. We returned to the awkward silence.
When the elevator arrived, she indicated I should go first with a hand to my back. After I pushed the button for the correct floor, I thought I’d try small talk, but I found her staring at my mouth. She blushed once more and looked down, and I took the opportunity to check my reflection in the steel doors to see if my lipstick was smeared or something. Nothing.
Weird.
“So, what other amenities could there possibly be?” she asked once we stepped off the elevator on the apartment floor.
“Well, are you hungry?” I asked.
She smiled. “A little bit.”
“We’ll pick up a snack from Chef.” I pointed to the hallway to the left. As we turned the corner, the chef’s kitchen gleamed. “The chef is here through lunch and will prepare dinner before she leaves for anyone who orders it. After we eat, I’ll show you the apartments for the employees,” I explained. “All of the men who work here live on site.”
I hugged Chef and asked her to make us some avocado wheat toast, my favorite. I introduced Allison, and we sat at the table in the corner.
“You have access to all of the apartments?”
�
�I plan to show you mine.”
She blinked and moved her jaw back and forth. “If you don’t mind me asking, why do you live here?”
I smiled. “Noah’s sister is my agent. I worked for her when she moved from San Francisco to L.A., and I needed a place to live. I couldn’t afford anything I liked. Noah hired my brother right before his last deployment, so he let me move into his apartment.”
“And you like it here?”
“Yeah. At first, it was rough having all this testosterone around, but after a few days, I realized it’s kind of beneficial having a buffet of big, beefy boys at my beck and call.”
“Nice alliteration.” She smiled nervously. I could tell she was thinking of how to word her next statement.
“Just ask, Allison.”
“Well, I’m just wondering…” she said slowly. “Do you… visit the buffet of beefy men?”
I guffawed. “They wish.”
“So you’ve never had relations with any of them?”
Relations? Who is this girl? She talks like Jase.
But no way am I answering that truthfully. No one will ever know about my night with Noah.
“No, no sex, if that’s what you meant. Plus, I’m not one for relationships.”
She tried to hide her surprise. “How old are you?”
“I just turned 24.”
“And you’ve never been in a relationship? Not even in high school?” she asked, almost irritated at the notion.
I considered what to say. I really didn’t know her well enough to dump all my truth on her. “I kind of had one once, but I ended up getting hurt. I vowed I wouldn’t give that power to anyone ever again.”
I saw her flash a look of disappointment before she forced a neutral face. “Well, that sounds lonely.”
“I don’t like to be unhappy, and in my experience, relationships do nothing but make me miserable.”
She was quiet for a moment, sliding her hand back and forth over mine. “It seems a little unfair to judge from just one relationship how all the rest will be.” Her lips turned up at the corners.
I didn’t respond to that comment. Instead, we ate in silence.
“This is very good,” she commented. “I’ve never had avocado before I came to L.A.”
“You’re not from here?” I asked, thankful for the change in subject.
“No. I’m from Portland. I moved down here about two years ago after…” she trailed off. “I got a job as a stunt double.”
I smirked. “I’m guessing the actress couldn’t kick ass like you do?”
She grinned. “Not even close.”
We cleaned up our snack trash and thanked Chef.
“You’ll be surprised at the apartments. The building may be cold, but the living spaces are cozy and functional. I’m not sure if Noah will ask you to live here, but it sure does make it easy on the men.”
She shifted her feet nervously. “Will I see your bedroom?”
“Well, yeah, of course,” I said as we rounded the corner. “You need to see all the space…”
I noticed a familiar man dressed in his usual jeans, black motorcycle jacket, and backward baseball cap standing at my door. He wasn’t due home for another week, so this was a happy surprise.
“Oh my goddess! Dex!” I called.
He stiffened and didn’t immediately turn around. “Dex? You’re early. Hey, you okay?” Slowly, he turned to face me. Once I saw who it was, I stopped cold.
It wasn’t Dex.
“Freddy?”
Something was off. His shoulders slumped when he saw me.
And his face told me everything.
“No, Freddy.” I shook my head, but his expression became only more pained.
I shook my head fervently, turned, and walked a step away. “Nuh uh. No.” I felt hands reach out to grab me, but I shook them off and kept walking.
“Darla…” Hands grasped my waist, trying to get me to stop.
“Don’t…” I pried the hands off me and fought desperately to get away. “No. Let me go! He’s not… You will not tell me…”
A sharp pain hit me, clawing… ripping and tearing. I clasped my hand over my chest and rubbed, trying to take a deep breath. My lungs seized as I gasped for breath.
“Noooooo!” I shouted and crumbled to the ground.
I felt arms around me, Freddy’s voice in my ear. “He saved me, Darla. I’m so sorry. He saved my life. He saved everyone.” He just kept repeating the same thing over and over.
My brain flashed every memory I ever had of Dex in a harried montage of great big-brother moments. At each one, I wailed uncontrollably, the pain lancing my heart; that place where my brother lived was slowly being sliced out of my chest with a dull knife.
Freddy’s voice was distant, but still in my ear.
I couldn’t catch my breath. I kept trying desperately, but the demon ripped at my chest and sucked all the oxygen out of the air, making it impossible to breathe.
The pain was too much. Everything went blurry, then dark.
Seventeen
“Make You Feel My Love” – Adele
Warmth seeped through me, uncomfortable warmth.
I squirmed, and a strong arm held me tighter against a hard chest.
“Jase?” I said groggily.
“I’ll let you know,” I heard a deep voice say, right before a quiet beep of a disconnecting call. “Darla?”
I pushed back from the chest to stare into blue eyes. I was cradled on Noah’s lap like a baby.
“Wha…” Then reality hit.
My brother was dead.
I felt it again trying to rip at my chest, but I shook it off. I looked around the room at all the somber faces. Freddy paced, and Allison sat quietly at my small table, out of the way. Fionn stood watching the scene.
“Do my parents know?” I asked Freddy, my voice hoarse from earlier.
“I think so.” Freddy stopped his pacing to come sit next to us, pulling my feet across his lap. “Officers were due to visit the winery sometime this morning.” He swallowed and looked away.
“My parents are at the farmer’s market today, so they probably don’t know yet.”
He closed his eyes. “I was supposed to stay on base, but I had to come tell you myself. Your address is still listed at your parents’ place, and I didn’t want them to have to make the call to you. I wasn’t exactly cleared to leave yet, but I needed you to hear it from me.”
Tears filled my eyes. “When? How?”
He looked around the room. “I’m not sure what I’m allowed to tell you. Hell, Darla, I’m not even supposed to tell you until your parents are notified. I could get in big trouble. But you need to know the truth.”
Noah stopped him to clear the room. It touched me how he thought to protect my friend.
“Darla, do you want me to leave?” Noah asked.
“No, please stay.”
He smiled sadly and leaned against the counter.
I looked back to Freddy expectantly. He eyed Noah, not sure what to think of him.
“You can trust him, Freddy. Actually, you can trust everyone here. They are my friends, but they also signed this thing that prevents them from revealing anything that happens to me. They will protect you. Don’t worry.”
He nodded and sighed. His eyes looked distant and his posture changed. “What I’m about to tell you might be classified, so you can’t tell anyone, not even your parents.” I nodded. “We were called in to provide security in one of the small villages where another unit was setting up a communication station, so we were scheduled to be there for three weeks. The station was installed quicker than we expected, so we set out to leave. There was this little village kid that I befriended, and as we were leaving, he came over to tell us goodbye. He hugged me, and I got in the truck, but he tried to get in, too. Dex yelled at the driver to leave, grabbed the kid, and ran away with him. I thought he was just taking the kid back to his mother, who was crying hysterically in front of her house. I figured
Dex would catch the second truck. Everyone started yelling and the driver took off. Our truck was hailed by bullets. I heard a boom, and the bullets stopped.
“When we made it to our drop off point, we had to wait for the second truck. Dex wasn’t in it.” His voice broke. “The other men reported…” he stopped and swallowed down the emotion. “Turns out the kid was strapped. Dex somehow saw it. He ran with the kid to get him away from us. Someone said they were shooting at him because he ran in the direction of the kid’s dad.” He placed his head in his hands. “The dad strapped his own son so he would kill us. His own fucking son.”
I scrambled over to wrap my arms around Freddy, who buried his head in my neck. “He saved us, Darla. We all should have died. Dex saved our lives.” He whispered, “I’m so sorry. If we had only left a second sooner. I should have felt it on the kid. It should have been me.”
Holy fuck.
I held him as we cried together. I heard a rough clearing of a throat from another part of the room, but I ignored it and held onto my brother’s best friend until our tears died down.
“Freddy,” I began. “How can you think it should have been you?” I pulled back from him. “You have a family, two beautiful little girls to think about. Dex knew they needed their daddy.” I wiped his tears with my thumbs. “I can’t begin to understand how you feel right now, and I’m not going to try to tell you how to feel. However, I will give you something to think about. Guilt? It’s a wasted emotion. Especially when you aren’t at fault,” I smiled, “and you know Dex would kick your ass for thinking that way. You need to take this gift for what it is.”
He scoffed. “It’s not a gift. I just lost my best friend.”
“Yeah, and I lost my big brother. But Freddy, he did the best possible thing. He was the superhero I always thought he was.” I wrapped my arms around his neck and whispered in his ear. “Please don’t dishonor him with guilt or wishes that you took his place. You should live in a way that would honor him.” I sat up and looked him in the eyes. “You need to make his sacrifice mean something.”
The phone ringing startled both of us. I answered my dad’s call and died a little more inside because I had to let him announce the news to me. To protect Freddy, Dad couldn’t know that I already knew. Fuck, it was hard to hear, even after I already knew the truth. My parents were wrecked by the news. I assured them I would be there very soon.