A Second Chance

by Edward Kendrick

  “She does that after a job’s over,” Ez said fondly. “The adrenaline wears off and she’s out like a light. I should probably take her down to her room and then head to bed myself. What time are we leaving tomorrow, Zach?”

  “I’ll let our pilot know in the morning so that he can set up his flight plan, but not until we’re up and moving, so probably not before noon.”

  “That almost answered my question,” Ez grumbled. He gently picked Hayley up, told Ben and Zach he’d see them whenever, and when Ben opened the door for him, he left with the still sleeping woman in his arms.

  “He really should let her know how he feels,” Ben said, going back to sit on the sofa.

  “He has. She says it wouldn’t work, or some such,” Zach replied.

  “Then he should try harder, damn it.”

  Zach chuckled. “You’re a romantic at heart, I think.”

  “I suppose. It would be nice to see a relationship that worked the way it was supposed to.”

  “Unlike yours?” Zach cocked his head in question.

  “You know the answer to that, and it never would have, not really. Not after ten years.”

  Zach leaned back, hands behind his head as he studied Ben. “Were you faithful while you were married?”

  “Yes. I married her to hide my sexuality; even from myself, I’m ashamed to admit. So there was no way I would have gone out and tried to pick up some guy.”

  “You never let anyone know?”

  “No.”

  “Not even after the divorce?”

  “No. I was too deep in the bottle by then to give a damn about, well, anything. When I ended up on the streets, who would I have told?”

  “No one, I’m sure. I have another question which I’m not certain I should be asking. Put it down to the fact I like to know everything about the people I work with.”

  “All three of us?” Ben asked with a dry grin.

  “There have been others. They come, they go. I like working with a small team.”

  “All right. What’s the question?”

  “Have you ever had sex with a man?”

  “That was to the point.” Ben shook his head, replying succinctly, “No.”

  “Talk about to the point,” Zach replied with a brief grin.

  “Why elaborate?”

  “No reason, I suppose. Before you got married—”

  “Damn it, I already told you. I was so deep in the closet I had convinced myself my interest in men was some teenage stage I had gone through. Everyone gets a crush on someone of the same sex when they’re in high school, or so I’d heard.”

  “But it didn’t end there,” Zach said softly.

  “I thought it had, but I was lying to myself. Then I met Anne, she’s my ex. She was desperate to get away from her father; I took advantage that to convince her to marry me. We tried hard to make it work and most of the time it did until the end. To the best of my abilities I was a good husband.”

  “Did she know? Never mind, you’ve already said no one did.”

  “Not until I let it slip to Durand.”

  “He’s very good about drawing people out,” Zach said.

  “You’re no slouch yourself.”

  Zach dipped his head in acknowledgement. “I had an advantage though, in your case. You’d already opened up to Durand, so doing it a second time wasn’t as hard for you.”

  “Fourth time,” Ben replied. “With you, soon after we met, and then with Ez, yesterday.”

  “Really? Why him?”

  “Pretty much the same reason as with you. He wanted to know everything about me.” Ben hesitated before saying, “I learned something about you in the process.”

  Zach snorted. “If it’s what I think, it’s no big secret. Well, not within the organization. Outside of it, I keep my personal life personal. No sense in giving anyone ammunition to use against me when we’re on a job.”

  Ben smirked. “So you don’t spend all your free time hitting up clubs to hook-up with someone.”

  “Not at all, which is not to say I wouldn’t connect on that level with an interesting man. I just don’t do it that way, and never as myself.”

  “No commitment.”

  “Never,” Zach replied firmly. Then he stood, saying, “This has been an interesting conversation, to say the least, but it’s time we ended it. It’s been a long, stressful day and we’d better get some sleep.”

  “Yeah, we should, or we won’t be leaving town until well after noon,” Ben agreed, getting to his feet. He grimaced when his knee protested.

  “Too much action today?” Zach asked with concern.

  “More than I’m used to, to be honest, and then sitting here for so long? Yeah, not a good thing. Don’t worry; I’ll be fine in the morning.”

  “I’m sure you will. Call me when you wake up.”

  “Will do,” Ben promised as he got ready to leave the room. “If I wake you up, don’t yell at me.”

  “Me? Yell? Never.” Zach grinned. “Well, hardly ever. Good night.”

  “Night,” Ben replied. When he was in the hallway and heard the door lock behind him, he said under his breath as he went down to his room, “Well, that was definitely not what I expected.”

  Chapter 5

  The team arrived home late the following afternoon. After dropping their bags off at their various residences, or in Ben’s case the safe house, they reconvened in Durand’s office where he debriefed them.

  After congratulating them on a job well done, he said, “I have an update, or updates for you. The man you dropped off at the hospital is in serious but stable condition. He refused to talk to the police without a lawyer, while in the next breath he told them he was wounded in a drive-by shooting.”

  “Can’t make up his mind, huh?” Ez said, shaking his head.

  “Apparently not. It won’t do him any good, however. Joe Stevens has identified him as one of the kidnappers. I’m sure you’ll be happy to know the other man has been arrested as well. Mr. Stevens contacted the police as soon as you returned his son, and they set up a trap for the kidnapper. Of course he’s claiming he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, which doesn’t wash as Joe also identified him.”

  “I’d say they were a couple of amateurs since they let him see their faces,” Hayley commented.

  “That or they had no intention of leaving him alive once they got their money, so they didn’t care,” Zach said.

  “Either way, they’re not our problem anymore,” Durand replied. “Now on to other business. Ben, I took the liberty of looking for available apartments for you.” He handed Ben a printout. “You’re under no obligation to take any of them, but if you do, Vanguard will pay your first month’s rent. After that, you’re on your own.”

  “It might help my decision if I knew how much I’ll be making, and will it depend on whether I’m sent out on a job.”

  “It won’t. You get a flat salary, like everyone else who works for me.” When Durand told him how much, Ben let out a low whistle.

  Zach grinned. “He likes to make certain we stick around.”

  “I would anyway, but damn.”

  “I thought as much,” Durand replied. “Zach, since Ben doesn’t have a car would you mind taking him to look at the apartments?”

  “I’ll come along,” Hayley said. She smiled innocently. “After all, women are much better a seeing what’s right or wrong with a place.”

  “Tell you what,” Zach said. “If you want to help him make a choice, you drive him around. It’s doesn’t take all three of us.”

  “You’re on,” she replied. “Well, if it’s okay with you, Ben.”

  “I have no problem with it.”

  * * * *

  Hayley picked Ben up early the following morning, reminding him to bring the list Durand had given him, to which he retorted, “I’m not that forgetful.”

  “Of course you’re not,” she replied with a laugh. “I’m just anal, or so a certain man has told me, more t
han once.”

  Ben had the feeling she meant Ez, but he wasn’t about to say so.

  By the time they were parking in front of the fourth building on the list, Ben was ready to take the apartment there no matter what it looked like, and said as much. “After spending a year living on the streets, even the worst hovel would be an improvement.”

  “I get that, but damn, Ben, you deserve someplace nice.”

  He wasn’t about to argue with her because he had the feeling he wouldn’t win. If nothing else, she was a strong-willed female who wouldn’t take no for an answer.

  “Now this one’s not bad,” she said when the building manager let them into the apartment.

  It consisted of a large, airy main room with a kitchen off to the right and the bedroom and bath to the left. The walls were what Ben considered a classic off-white found in most rental units, the kitchen appliances, while not new, were in good shape, and the bathroom had the kind of tub/shower combination that he had been hoping for.

  Apparently Hayley agreed it would work for him because she didn’t argue when he said he was taking it, “Whether you approve or not.”

  Once he had filled out the reams of rental forms, and the manager said he’d be in touch within a day to let him know if the apartment was his, Ben and Hayley returned to her car.

  “You’re going to need furniture,” she pointed out. “And food, and linens, and—”

  “A gazillion other things, I know,” he replied with a grimace. “Maybe I’ll go back to my favorite spot when I was homeless. It would be a hell of a lot less complicated.”

  “As if,” she said, patting his arm. “The minute you sign the lease, the four of us will go shopping. Do not say a word,” she added when he started to protest. “We’re a team, it’s what we do.”

  When they returned to Vanguard to let Durand know Ben had settled on an apartment, he handed Ben his first paycheck.

  “This is way more than you said I’d be paid,” Ben protested.

  “There’s always a bonus for a job well done,” Durand told him before suggesting that he open a bank account. He did, and deposited the check minus some spending money.

  Ben got the apartment. He signed the lease and handed the building manager the check Durand had drawn up, as promised, to pay the first month’s rent.

  Then, true to her word, Hayley corralled Zach and Ez to go shopping with her and Ben for what he needed to furnish the apartment.

  “Why you need all of us…” Ez protested after he and Zach had checked out the place.

  She fluttered her eyelashes. “To carry everything, silly man.”

  “Does the word ‘delivery’ mean anything to you?”

  “For the furniture, sure. The other stuff can fit in your van.”

  “Ah, I get it. I’m the designated driver this time,” Ez grumbled.

  “Well, my car’s too small for the four of us plus everything else, and so’s Zach’s jeep.”

  “She’s got a point,” Zach agreed.

  “Traitor,” Ez muttered.

  Much to Ben’s surprise, the shopping expedition turned out to be fun. Not only that, but Zach, being the kind of man he was, convinced the furniture store to deliver everything late that same afternoon. Not that Ben bought a lot.

  “A sofa, an armchair, a table and chairs, and a bed and dresser should do me for starters,” he told Hayley when she tried to convince him he needed more.

  After paying for everything, he looked at the balance in his checking account and tried not to panic. I can buy food, a couple of pans, and dishes. Sheets and towels are debatable.

  The linens proved to be no problem. Zach said he had more than enough of his own and offered to lend some to Ben to tide him over until he got paid again.

  By the time they returned to Ben’s apartment and put away the food, pans, and dishes he’d bought, the truck arrived to deliver his furniture. Then it was a case of the others deciding where everything went, while Zach took off to get the sheets and towels he was lending Ben.

  “The table and chairs should be there,” Hayley said, pointing to the wall opposite the front window. “Put the sofa under the window and the armchair cattycorner from it.”

  “No,” Ez said. “You do that, the room will look empty. Put the sofa and chair in the center and the table under the window.”

  “How about the table between the doors to the bedroom and bathroom,” Ben suggested.

  “I suppose…” Hayley replied.

  They spent the time until Zach returned arranging and rearranging the furniture until Ez said, “It’s his place, Hayley. He gets to make the decision.”

  “Well, if you insist. But I still think…”

  Ez hugged her. “Stop thinking.”

  “Not bad,” Zach commented when Ben let him into the apartment. “As soon as you get a couple of bookshelves it’ll look like home.”

  “And a TV, and pictures on the wall,” Hayley stated. “A small rug in front of the sofa, a—”

  Ez put his hand over her mouth, pulling it away quickly. “You bit me!”

  “You deserved it,” she told him, flipping Ben and Zach off when they laughed.

  Ben collapsed on the sofa at the point, carefully massaging his knee.

  “You okay?” Zach asked.

  “Yeah. Just need to get off my leg for a few.”

  “What you need is dinner. We all do. Hayley and I will make your bed, we’ll stop by the safe house to get your stuff, and then I’m taking us out for the best pizza you’ve ever tasted.”

  “Yes!” Hayley pumped a fist. “Erme’s.”

  “You don’t have to,” Ben protested. “You’ve done so much already.”

  “We do,” Zach replied. Sitting next to him, he put one hand on Ben’s thigh. “We’re a team, but even more important we’re your friends. This is what friends do.”

  “He’s right, so don’t argue,” Ez said.

  Ben swallowed hard. He wasn’t certain if it was because of what Zach had said, or where his hand was—which was more intimate than Ben was used to. He decided it was the idea that for the first time in longer than he liked to think about he did have friends—although Zach’s touch was definitely disconcerting.

  “Okay, gang, let’s do it,” Zach said. He got up, heading to the bedroom with Hayley right behind him.

  “‘You’ve got a friend in me,’” Ez hummed, and winked.

  Ben rolled his eyes, but he knew it was true. He did.

  * * * *

  As Zach had promised, the pizza was the best any of them had ever had, although he resisted saying “I told you so,” when they left the restaurant. Because they had driven there in Ez’s van, he took everyone back to Ben’s place so that Hayley and Zach could pick up their vehicles.

  “Thank you,” Ben said before he headed to the front door of his building. “I appreciate what you did, more than you know.”

  “Aw, shucks,” Hayley replied, rubbing the toe of her shoe on the pavement. “It weren’t nothin.’”

  “Yeah, it was, so deal,” he replied once he’d stopped laughing.

  She gave him a quick hug then crossed the street to where she’d parked. Ez took off, too. Zach started toward his jeep, turned, and came back.

  “I had an idea, if you’re up for it,” he said.

  “Depends what it is,” Ben replied.

  “Question, first. Did you do any PT for your knee after they released you from the hospital?”

  Ben snorted. “I went from there to facing the IA investigators. By the time they finished with me I didn’t have a job, which meant the department, or rather their insurance company, wasn’t going to foot the bill for more than they had already. I’m damned lucky they didn’t try to bill me for the hospital stay.”

  “Figures. You’re pretty mobile, in spite of that, but if you started working out it might get better, right?”

  “I suppose. Why?”

  “Durand told you about the gym in the building. It might be a good idea i
f you started using it.”

  “Afraid there might come a time when I can’t do what you need me to?” Ben asked tightly.

  “Not afraid. Not the way you mean it. It just seems practical to strengthen you knee as much as possible so there’s less pain. It’s the pain that could debilitate you at the wrong time.”

  “Okay, yeah, you’ve got a point. Maybe I’ll check it out tomorrow, presuming Durand doesn’t have another job for us.”

  “That’s doubtful. Unless it’s an emergency he tries to give us at least a few days for R&R.”

  “Nice.”

  Zach chuckled. “He can be, at times. Okay, if you decide to see what’s what, give me a call and I drive you over.”

  “I can take the bus.”

  “I’m sure, but why? I have the jeep, I’m offering, accept it.”

  Ben nodded. “All right, I will.”

  “Good. Now I’d better head home. I’ll see you in the morning?”

  “Yeah, I think so.”

  * * * *

  “I’m not so sure about this, Zach,” Ben said. When they arrived at the gym, he had changed from his jeans and T-shirt into a tank top and shorts, leaving his street clothes in the locker room. Now, he looked warily as the various pieces of equipment.

  “It’s a stationary bike. You can start by pedaling so the wheel goes part way around and then let it come back, at least according to what I read online.”

  “You researched this?” Ben wasn’t sure if he was impressed—because it meant Zach cared, even though it only had to do with his ability to do whatever was required of him on the job—or pissed off because Zach hadn’t asked for his input. “What else am I supposed to use?” he asked tensely, which answered the question about his mood. I am pissed, and I shouldn’t be.

  If Zach picked up on it, he ignored it. “That.” He pointed to leg press machine.

  “No deep knee bends or squats?”

  “If it was six months ago, as part of a physical therapy regime, probably, but it’s not. You want to strengthen the muscles and try to get more range of motion without it killing you.”

  “Maybe I should climb ladders,” Ben grumbled.

  Zach grinned. “Next week. Stop being a grouch. You don’t have to do this. It was just an idea.”