Page 4 of Rescued By the SEAL
Roger Caine talks some more, now focusing on an uninteresting story about his brother who was falsely arrested, according to him, anyway, and I allow my brain to wander. I try not to allow it to happen too much these days because it feels a bit tragic to still fixate on my childhood sweetheart who was clearly never meant to be mine, but unfortunately, no one else has ever compared. I’ve dated, even been in semi-long-term relationships, but something has always been missing. Without even meaning to, everyone was compared to Landon, but no one has ever matched up. I don’t think anyone ever will.
In a moment of weakness, when I was worried that I was going to be alone for the rest of my life forever, I tried to search for Landon online. I didn’t want to because it seemed like he hadn’t ever looked for me, so clearly, I wasn’t as missed as him. I also didn’t want to find out about his wonderful life with his wife and kids who aren’t anything to do with me, but I searched…
And searched and searched, coming up with nothing. Nothing at all. It’s like he fell off the face of the Earth completely, or maybe he never existed at all and I made him up. Either way, finding and locating Landon Ross isn’t in the cards for me.
Although I often wonder what would have happened if we’d stayed. If Landon’s parents weren’t into crime, or whatever the hell they were doing, and we were just allowed to be happy and together. Would we have gone to college together as planned? Would we have survived that time and gone on to be happy after? Or would life have torn us apart?
I can’t imagine anything breaking us, but I suppose that’s because all I have left are memories. Nothing can destroy memories. It’s nice to imagine us with our white picket fence and happy family now, though, especially when I’m alone.
I need to listen to Georgia and start dating again,I think sadly to myself as my heart aches.I can’t live in the past forever.
Georgia is my work colleague who wants us to do double dates together so it’s safer, but I’ve been avoiding it so far so I don’t get burned again, so I’m not disappointed by some other man, but if I don’t at leasttry, then I really will be by myself forever. I just need to get Landon out of my mind and stop trying to exist in some fairy tale. I need to accept imperfections.
Oh, God, I feel weepy and emotional already and I haven’t even gone on one date yet. The sad part is I think that I don’t ever want to fully commit to someone because that’s shutting the open-ended door on my teenage romance for good, and that is just tragic. I can’t live in hope that Landon will come back to me for any longer because it’s never going to happen.
“Hey, are you okay, Lola?” Roger’s concern brings me back into the room. “Sorry, my story is a bit depressing, isn’t it? I didn’t mean to make you cry, though. Hey, you just wait here and I’ll get you some tissues, you hear me?”
I want to tell Roger to stop, that I’m not actually crying, but at the same time, I want a little moment alone to gather myself up, so I let him leave me. He swings his apartment door open and leaves it that way while he hunts me down some tissues, leaving me to hastily wipe away any sad tears which threaten to tear me apart. Honestly, this is silly. Over an eighteen-year-old boy.
“Hey, Rog, you finished with the journo now?” A male voice, followed be an imposing figure, strolls into the room. “I was talking to Sticks before, and he was saying about a new bar just down the road which might be good for…”
His voice trails off, his eyes open wide, and I’m pretty sure that mine are the same. This isn’t just in my head anymore. This isn’t just me imagining the past. It’s here, standing in front of me, looking at me like I’m an alien or something.
“Fuck me, Heather Buchan, is that you? You look different all grown up, you know.” He runs his eyes all over me, a little too hungrily for my liking. Now I feel like a kid again and I want to be treated like one too. “Yeah, you look all good now.”
“B–Bill Ross,” I stammer as my blood runs ice cold. This is not the member of Landon’s family I planned to run into. “What… erm, what are you doing here? I just…” I leap up, ready to gather up my things. “You know, I think I might be done with Roger now, so you can do whatever you were planning on. Tell him thank you for his time and everything.”
“No, wait.” Bill rests a hand on my shoulder to stop me in my tracks. I shouldn’t, but I freeze. “Me and you haven’t seen one another for years. Let’s catch up. I thought you were called Lila Jasmine or something. If I had known that it was you…” His eyes sparkle with something that I don’t quite recognize. “My God, I bet you’re dying to know what happened to that old boyfriend ofyours, aren’t you? Even if you’re married and shit now. You will want to know where Landon is. That’s just human nature, isn’t it? To want to know what happened to those in the past. Shit, you should come and catch up with me.”
Damn it, Idowant to know, but this is a bad idea, isn’t it? It screams of a terrible plan. Bill Ross looks nothing like the version of him that I used to know. I could easily believe that this man is a criminal. Oh, God, what the hell do I do?
4
LANDON
“Hey, Max.” I take a seat in the all too familiar office where I seem to spend so much of my time these days. It makes a change, dealing with Max and this security work compared to being a Navy SEAL, but I love it equally. Heading into the Navy was a logical step for me after seeing Daniel and his family making great careers for themselves there, and this was the natural progression after that. My career has kinda worked itself out for me, which is great. At thirty-two years of age, I see people with the same number of years under their belts still struggling to make ends meet. “How are things going? What do you have for me?”
“Well, I wanted to check how you’re doing first.” Max laughs. “You haven’t been back from Argentina long, and that was one hell of a job. Extracting Pablo from that drugs gang must have taken its toll on you. Are you ready for another job?”
I offer my boss a one-shouldered shrug while trying my hardest to ignore the exhaustion racing through my body. “I’m always ready, you know me. Plus, while getting Pablo out was hard, it was made easier knowing that it was the right thing to do. Hiscircumstances led him down that path, he didn’t want to be there, and he was in over his head. Poor guy would have ended up killed had he not gotten in touch with us. Now, he’s set up and about to become a model citizen, I’m sure.”
That’s what it’s all about, isn’t it? Making the world a better place, making a difference. That’s what I saw from living with Daniel and his family. There were all about doing something meaningful and making the world safer, which is something I’ve always admired greatly and love to emulate. Because I’ve never been able to control my parents and the shit that they apparently enjoy bringing into the world, I try to counteract that by being a much better person, by helping, not hindering.
“True, true.” Max nods carefully. “I wouldn’t have allowed you to put yourself in danger had I not thought that Pablo would go on to do great things. I’ll keep an eye on him now to ensure that he does and is out of harm’s way the whole time. But, that’s for me to worry about, not you. For you, I wanted to talk about an assignment that I think you will be perfect for.”
I sit up straighter in my seat, feeling a smile already starting to creep on my face. Maybe other people wouldn’t be so keen to throw themselves into danger to help strangers, but I feel pumped and excited. I can’t wait to get my teeth into a juicy new case and to find a way to solve it. It gives me an adrenaline rush like no other, which is probably why I’m such a workaholic.
“What do you have?” I demand. “Whatever it is, I’m ready for it. You know me. Always ready for action.”
“Well, this morning, I had a call from a cop.” I raise an eyebrow in surprise, which causes Max to laugh. We don’t often get contacted by the police for our help. “I know, I know, but apparently, he’s a high-profile cop and he fears that this is alllinked to him. By getting other police officers involved, he’s concerned about making this whole situation a lot worse.”
“What situation?” I’m intrigued now. This is very mysterious, unlike anything I’ve worked on before, or so it seems.
“His daughter is a journalist for the local newspaper where they live. Lola Rose, she goes by. She was last known to be interviewing criminals for a story, which unfortunately due to low budgets, she did alone, and now she has gone missing. This police officer told me that she hasn’t been gone for long enough to file a missing person’s report anyway, but he knows deep in his gut that something is wrong. He never struggles to get ahold of her, but now he is. She’s not picking up.”
“And he doesn’t think that Lola might just be busy?” I laugh awkwardly. “It seems a bit extreme to me. She might just want some peace from him or something. She might just be chilling out without Daddy breathing down her neck.”
“You ever had a gut feeling?” Max knots his eyebrows together. “Because often, they’re right and we ignore them.”
