Page 40 of Bad Decisions

My next breath is shallow, not filling my lungs the way it should. “Do you remember me telling you about that woman I met when I stayed at your place?”

He nods like the pieces of a puzzle are finally slotting together. “She lives here in Brooklyn.”

While Ben and Parker knew I’d met Jewel, it was Blake who I’d talked to most about her. Given that she grew up in Southampton, he remembered some of the local kids. And while he wasn’t sure he’d met Jewel, he’d known her father as a local handyman.

“She’s my physiotherapist.”

A chuckle rumbles up from his chest, filling the air and rising above the general chatter of the busy bar. “Fuck, I didn’t know that. How’s that going?”

“Frustratingly slow. This injury is worse than the bullets I’ve taken.” To be fair, the two gunshot wounds I’ve sustained over the last ten years barely penetrated my flesh.

“Not what I meant. But I get the message. You don’t want to talk about the woman. What was her name again?”

“Jewel.” Even saying her name is like a hand squeezing my throat.

Picking up my beer, I spin my barstool a full one-eighty, so my back is wedged against the solid edge of the wooden counter. Out of habit, my gaze roams the room, checking the entry and exit points. From this point, I have a clear view around the whole space, which is small but open, and one of the reasons I chose this bar. That and the fact that it’s local and only a short distance from my rented Airbnb. Blake turns beside me, mirroring my actions. Surveillance of our surroundings is embedded in us as thoroughly as our DNA.

“I thought that was over months ago?” he asks.

It’s a fair assumption on his part, as I’d tried to convince myself that it was too.

“The long distance idea went to shit when I went down to South America.” Blake and his business partner, Luke Steel, also a former teammate, know what we do. And though they don’t get actively involved in operations anymore, the expertise that their cybersecurity company can offer has been invaluable. “She thought I’d ghosted her and blocked my calls. It’s only now that I’ve been able to explain what happened.”

His gaze narrows like he’s trying to figure something out, so I’m expecting the question before it comes.

“That was months ago. What made you come looking for her now?”

My hand goes to the injured area of my leg that’s stretched out straight in front of me, while my other leg is bent at the knee and resting on the foot of the stool.

“Nearly dying from a knife-wielding asshole had a lot to do with it. And realizing that I’d thrown away my chance at a different kind of future.”

He nods knowingly. Blake has found his happy future, so he gets it in a way that Parker and even Ben don’t.

“So how’s it going with Jewel this time around?”

“She’s asked for time.”

Normally, I’m a patient man. I can lie prone for hours on a jungle floor, the damp bed of moss seeping into my bones. Or hide for days in a cavern carved into the rugged slopes of an Afghan mountain. But not knowing when I’ll see Jewel again eats at my resolve to wait, plummeting my thoughts into a lonely hellhole that could be worse than the physical ones I’ve been to.

“That’s savage, man.”

“Mmm,” I murmur and drink my beer. Savage is a fair assessment.

One half of the bar’s double doors swings open, and in walks the very woman I’d just been talking about. It’s like saying her name has conjured her up. The glass nearly slips through my fingers as all the air leaves my body. I rub my free hand across my eyes just to make sure I’m not imagining her.

Fuck. She’s here. Although it’s not such a stretch since her practice, my rental, and this bar are all within the same block radius. My heart leaps at the possibility of speaking to her again, even if it’s only to say hi.

But those hopes are quickly dashed when a tall blond man follows her through the doorway. My gaze narrows to the point where his hand lands on the small of her back. That’s where my hand belongs, not one attached to some suit from the city. A burning desire to break every one of his fingers accompanies the jealousy streaking through my veins like a bolt of lightning just hit me and lit me on fire.

“No fucking way.” The expletive is ripped from my mouth along with a piece of my heart.

Blake’s eyes bore into the side of my head; the questions are bound to follow. But I can’t deal with that when I’m willing Jewel to look up and see me. To pay attention to me like she’s paying attention to the other guy who’s helping her with her coat. To share her smiles with me like we did in Southampton.

“It’s her, isn’t it?” Blake’s voice barely penetrates through the fog in my brain as I continue to stare at the couple. The only acknowledgment I can make is a sharp nod.

Her soft laughter drifts across the room, seeping into my chest and wrenching another stabbing pain from my heart.

What the fuck did he say that’s so funny? But that’s when she turns. Our gazes find each other among the dozens of others with the pinpoint accuracy of a sniper’s spotting scope. She freezes, a beautiful alabaster statue draped in sapphire blue, which adds a depth of color to her eyes, making them sparkle in the beams of light that fall around her. I can’t look away even if I wanted to. And I know I should.