by Fall, Carly
“Good.” Joe backed up from the table. “Thomas and I will take our leave now, and return tomorrow at four p.m. Garrett, you’re in charge. I suggest the first thing you both do is cut some firewood. It’s supposed to be in the teens tonight, and I’d hate to see both of you freeze to death.”
Lucas and Garrett stood, following Joe and Thomas to the front door where Lucas slipped on a pair of boots. Joe rolled out the screen door to the edge of the deck where the stairs led to ground, and Thomas opened the door of the van, pulling out the ramp. Joe wheeled himself into the vehicle, set the brakes on the chair, and gave them a small wave. “Goodnight, gentlemen,” he said, then slammed the door.
A moment later, the van made its way through the snow on the other side of the pond and disappeared down the hill.
“Well, you heard the man,” Garrett said. “You better get chopping. The axe is around back.”
“What about you?”
“I don’t need to chop wood.” Garrett turned toward the door. “I didn’t let myself turn into a scarecrow. While you work some of the little muscle you have left, I’m going to read a book.”
The door slammed, Lucas left alone on the porch.
“After that, get in here and do these dishes!” Garrett called from inside.
Lucas walked around the back of the house, the snow knee-deep. It felt as if he were back in boot camp with the grunts being told what to do and when to do it. As he raised the axe and impaled the first log, he thought of Gabby. What would she think if she saw him in his current state? Would she think him weak, or, if he could explain his thought process and his ability to her, would she understand?
Honestly, it didn’t matter. She’d be safe as long as she didn’t know where he was, and his focus needed to be on splitting enough wood so that Garrett and he didn’t freeze. The second log cracked, and his muscles groaned after not being used in such a long period of time.
The dishes would wait until morning.
Chapter 10
“Hi, Gabby. It’s Jerrod.”
Gabby smiled, his smooth voice sending a shiver through her as she curled up on the sofa in her flannel pajamas. She hadn’t realized how much she looked forward to the call. “Hi, Jerrod.”
“I assume you got home safe and sound?”
“Yes, we did.”
“It was really nice to meet you tonight, Gabby.”
“It was nice to meet you, as well.” A blush crawled up her neck as she glanced around her apartment.
“Are you ready to talk about that house?”
“Sure.” She picked up her pen and paper. “Do you have a specific part of town you’re looking at?”
“I’m interested in the west side,” Jerrod answered.
“Are you set on it, or if I find something that meets your criteria in another part of town, do you want to see it?”
“I’m kind of set on the west side, but sure, we can take a look.”
She jotted notes for the three-bedroom, two-bath house with a basement he desired.
“The bank also pre-approved me for up to three hundred and fifty thousand,” he said.
She smiled. The median home sale sat right around two-ninety nine, so this proved a little above average and would bring in a nice commission. They had a little wiggle room in the pricing, which was always nice, and also opened up more opportunities for him.
“Square footage?” she asked.
“It’s just me, so I’m not sure. The basement is the most important thing.”
“Kind of a place to set up shop?”
He chuckled. “Exactly. It’s nice to have a woman understand that.”
She did understand it. Lucas had always said he wanted a basement for the exact reason. What he would build or tinker with, she had no idea. He did love his guns, so maybe he’d wanted a place to clean and store them. He hadn’t been much of a craftsman—he didn’t do any woodworking or anything like that, but he always said that he would like a basement.
They discussed other features of the house Jerrod wanted, and Gabby found herself relaxing and enjoying the phone call.
“So, what do you do for a living, Jerrod?” she asked after she noted all the particulars of the house.
“I’m in engineering,” he said.
“Oh. Do you design and build buildings?”
“No. My field is specialized. I like to keep the explanation simple, so I always tell people I’m hired to fix stuff, stuff that you can’t get fixed by a plumber or a handyman, except on a much bigger and intricate scale.”
“Oh, I see,” she said, not really understanding at all. “When did you move to the area?”
“ I just arrived about a week ago, and it seems like a nice place to settle down.”
“Will you be working in the same office as Cherri?” she asked.
“I’ll be doing some private contract work for the company Cherri works for,” he answered. “I’ll see her now and then.”
“Are you ready for months of rain?” She’d been living in Portland just under a year, and still hadn’t grown accustomed to the constant rain, and she looked forward to the summer months so she could feel the sunshine on her skin again.
“I think so,” he answered with a chuckle. “Weather really doesn’t affect me very much. I’m good wherever I’m at.”
The answer reminded her of Lucas. It didn’t matter where the military sent him—whether at home or abroad—he adapted and accepted it. In the United States, he’d been stationed in North Carolina, and after returning from South America, the military had relocated them to Portland. Gabby wasn’t a big fan of the Northwest weather, but Lucas didn’t even seem to notice it.
He’d gone from the dust bowls of the Middle East to the hot, humid jungles of South America, and it had never fazed him, until this last deployment. Something happened during that last trip.
“Are you married?” She regretted the words as soon as they left her lips. The question made her sound ridiculously desperate. “I...I mean that if you are married, I’d like to know what features of the house your wife would be interested in.”
“I was. We’re divorced.”
She was about to ask about kids, but decided not to go there. Despite her attraction to Jerrod, she felt guilty, as if she were betraying Lucas by wanting to know more about Jerrod’s life.
“What about you, Gabby? Are you married? Kids? I noticed you wore a ring, but you never mentioned your husband.”
She closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. Technically, she was still married; however, she hadn’t laid eyes on her husband for six months. She should have hung up after Jerrod gave her the details on the house instead of diving into personal conversation. “No, none.”
Jerrod chuckled. “No what? Kids or husband?”
“No.” She tossed the pen on the table. “Neither.”
A brief moment of silence settled, and Gabby decided to end the conversation before it delved any further into her private life. “I’ll pull some houses from the MLS and get back to you tomorrow.”
“That sounds great. I’ll look forward to talking with you, then. It was really nice to meet you, Gabby.”
As they hung up, she considered her flip-flopping stomach. She’d been so morose for so long, she’d almost forgotten what being excited felt like. But did she get exhilarated because this perfect client had been dropped in her lap, or because of the man himself?
Ready for bed, she walked to the bedroom and decided she wasn’t going to consider the answer to her question.
Chapter 11
“Good morning, sunshine,” Garrett said, leaning against the stove. Lucas smelled coffee, and for the first time in many, many months, his stomach didn’t roll and his head didn’t ache in the throes of a hangover. Strange, yet invigorating, to feel somewhat human in the early morning hours.
“Good morning, gorgeous,” he quipped, taking a cup of ambition from Garrett.
“Did you sleep well?”
There hadn’t
been any visions, and there hadn’t been any dreams. He’d slept a full nine hours without interruption, something he hadn’t accomplished since the night before the accident in Guatemala.
“Yeah,” he said, the hot liquid burning his lip as he tried to drink it.
“Good. You’re going to need it today.”
“And why’s that?” he asked, his arms burning just from lifting a coffee cup.
“Because, you need to get your ass back into shape.”
He smiled. “You know I outrank you, Honey.”
Garrett threw back his head and laughed a deep, gut-wrenching guffaw. Lucas joined in despite himself.
“Not anymore,” Garrett said, wiping the tears from his eyes. “Nothing’s the same since that night, Lucas. Nothing.”
Garrett had that right. All of their lives had been turned upside down after the explosion. Lucas had lost everything, or perhaps he should say, he ran away from it all. He reminded himself he’d done it to protect Gabby from him and his visions. She deserved someone better than him, someone normal.
“So, what’s on tap today?” he asked, not wanting to ruin his decent mood with thoughts of the past and things he couldn’t change.
“I’m going to cook up some breakfast while you chop some more wood,” Garrett answered. “After that, we’re going for a walk.”
“Where to?”
“Just around. Now hurry up on that wood. The fire’s almost out.”
Lucas drank the rest of his coffee in one long gulp and headed for the front door. He slipped on his boots and coat, but didn’t bother to zip it as he knew he’d be tossing it aside after a few minutes of swinging the axe.
The snow sparkled under the sunshine, and he inhaled deeply. The cool morning air stung his lungs, but felt refreshing. As he exhaled, his breath came out in a white puff. He walked down the steps and followed the path to the back of the cabin, the snow crunching under his boots.
He lifted a cord of wood to the tree stump and picked up the axe, his arms and back screaming. Softly cursing, he brought the axe down, the crack of the wood echoing around the canyon. Smiling, he had to admit that being physical again and actually doing something to contribute to his own well-being felt good.
Fifteen minutes later, he tossed his jacket aside and wiped sweat from his brow.
A half hour more, and Garrett came around the side of the cabin. “Slop’s on,” he said, leaning against the side of the house.
Lucas brought the axe down one more time, splitting the piece of wood down the middle. “Good. I’m starved. Can you grab some of these and help me take them inside?”
Garrett shook his head. “Nope. You need to do the heavy lifting, not me, man. You let yourself go to shit, and now you got to get it back. I’ll be inside.”
He headed back around the front of the cabin.
“Bastard,” Lucas whispered under his breath as he gathered up the wood.
Chapter 12
After bacon, eggs, fruit, and more coffee, Lucas was ready for a nap. However, Garrett held true to his word and had other things in mind.
“Let’s go,” he said once the dishes were done.
They headed out the front door, and Garrett walked down the driveway, around the pond and toward the forest.
“Where are we headed?” Lucas asked, breathing hard after a few yards while trying to catch up.
“To work out.”
They hiked into the forest and up a hill where the snow gradually became deeper.
A half-hour later, Lucas needed to stop. He rested his hands on his thighs and gasped for air, his heavy breathing the only sound in the still trees.
After a few moments, he looked at Garrett, who stood at the base of a tree.
“Do some pull-ups,” the man commanded, moving out of the way.
The branch would be at perfect height for Lucas, and he inwardly groaned, but grew determined not to let Garrett see his weakness.
The bark bit into his hand as he grabbed the tree limb and heaved himself up. His chin scraped the branch, and he lowered himself. The first pull up didn’t feel too bad, so he went for ten.
By eight, his arms shook in protest and vomit burned his throat. The food, the exercise . . . it was all too much, too soon.
At the tenth one, he dropped to the ground and lay flat on his back staring up at the blue sky peeking through the treetops. His chest ached as he tried to calm his breathing.
“You never told me how you found me,” he panted.
“I didn’t. Joe did.”
“How?”
“It took a long time, man. We decided if you were alive, you’d take the bus or hitchhike out of Portland. We started with the buses. You paid with cash, which was smart, but you can’t get away from Big Brother.”
“What did he do, hack into the terminal security cameras or something?” he asked, turning to look at his friend.
“Something like that. Then we just tracked what bus you took. If I was going to disappear, I’d fall off the grid, become homeless. I figure you’re almost as smart as me, so you’d come to that conclusion, too. Then it was a lot of walking around with some luck thrown in, and then I found you.”
After a few moments of silence, Lucas asked, “How did you do it?”
He actually sent silent thanks to be lying in a bed of snow as it felt wonderful against his hot skin.
“How did I do what? I just told you how we found you. Do those visions affect your memory?” Garrett asked.
“My memory is fine. How did you keep your shit together?”
“You mean after the accident?”
“Yeah.”
Garrett looked around the forest for a moment, and then back at him. “Well, the way I saw it, the fucking government took everything that mattered to me. You guys were my family, my brothers. I haven’t had any family since my Nana died. I woke up in a hospital in Seattle, of all places. You know I hate the rain.”
Lucas nodded, remembering Garrett’s mother had abandoned him at a young age, his father had been put in prison for murder, where he met his demise, and Garrett’s grandmother had raised him.
Garrett had complained about the humidity and rain while in Guatemala. The unit had teased him relentlessly about melting, and Lucas had been almost as miserable as Garrett, but not quite. Funny, he never complained to Gabby about the weather wherever in the world he may be. He supposed he never wanted her to know just how miserable the wrong weather made him, and realized that doing so was simply another way to protect her. He never wanted her worrying about him.
“It seemed like they wanted me to shrivel up and die. They isolated me, took away my career, my brothers . . . basically, my life. The brawling street kid in me took over and I decided I wasn’t about to let them win.”
Lucas wished he could have found that strength within himself, but it hadn’t been there. The visions had slowly torn him down.
“Did you wake up in Portland or were you moved there?” Garrett asked.
“No, I woke up there.” He got to his feet. “Gabby was at my beside and told me I’d been honorably discharged and they’d set us up in an apartment.”
“Yeah, they set me up in a shithole in Seattle. Told me to live quietly and to keep my mouth shut about the accident, and under no circumstances was I to try to get in touch with the rest of the unit.”
Lucas nodded, stood, and reached for the tree branch again, using everything he had within him to bang out five more pull-ups.
“You aren’t as weak as I thought you were,” Garrett commented.
“I’m surprising myself.” He chuckled.
“When did you start having your visions?”
He put his hands on his waist and breathed in the cool air. “About a week after I got released from the hospital. I was sitting at the kitchen table wondering what happened to everyone. Did you all die, or were you discharged like me? Why was I told I shouldn’t look for you? Just question after question running through my mind. Then, suddenly, it was like s
omeone held up a screen in front of my face and I saw a man getting gunned down in a convenience store. Like I was standing right next to him.”
“Man, that’s harsh.”
“Yeah, I know. I tried to ignore them after that, but the visions came without warning. I’d be in the middle of a conversation with Gabby, and bam! There it was.”
“What did she say about it?”
“I tried to hide it from her, but she thought I was suffering from some PTSD stuff because I’d just all of sudden stare into space. I just knew in my gut it had to do with that damn explosion, and since they came to visit me every month to remind me that I wasn’t to discuss what happened with anyone, I knew what took place in that goddamn jungle was bad. I wanted to keep Gabby as far away from it as I could.”
“Can you bang out five more?”
He groaned, but reached for the branch. “I’m going to need a nap after this.”
“Naps are for babies and old people. You are neither, my friend.”
“I feel like both.”
“So how did things end with Gabby?” Garrett asked.
After completing his five pull-ups, Lucas dropped to the ground. “I started drinking, trying to make the visions go away. When that didn’t work, I started recording them in a notebook. Then, while watching the news one night, they flashed a picture of some guy who was shot dead in front of a liquor store in downtown Portland, Oregon. Imagine my surprise when I recognized him from a prior vision.”
Garrett let out a low whistle. “So these people you see dying, it’s for real? They’re really being killed?”
He nodded. “Yeah. Once I realized that, I went back through my notes on the visions and picked out landmarks—addresses, street names, store names—and I did research. I could locate the stories on some of the people. It became kind of an obsession with me.”
“And what did Gabby say?”
“She thought I was looking for a job.”
“Did she kick you out?”
“Nope. I just left. I realized that what I was going through was putting a huge toll on our marriage, and that I was a fundamentally changed man. Those bastards who came to monitor me on a monthly basis said that if I told her what was happening, they’d kill her. By that point, I was such a mess, I figured she’d be better off without me. So, she went to work one day, and I caught a bus out of town.”
