Need You for Always (Heroes of St. Helena)(6)
“Yeah,” Dax said, running a hand down his neck. How did one go about explaining that his brother’s wife was kind of crazy? Pretty as hell, sweet, funny, perfect for Jonah, but crazy as hell when it came to her animals. “Did that. I ended up going to PT with a Shetland pony on my lap. On the return I got stuck with a flock of geese who were left behind in the migration. I got suckered into goose-sitting for two days. Two days of honking and feathers, bro.”
Now it was Adam’s turn to run a hand down his face, only he was hiding a stupid grin. “It’s called a gaggle, and I heard the mama has a thing for pecking at the boys.”
She also had a thing for sneaking up on him when he was in the shower—and his boys weren’t covered. “Which is why I came alone. Mr. Fallon is in town, he wanted to meet me in person, but I didn’t want to show up covered in feathers or holding a bag of frozen peas.”
Mickey Fallon was the former chief of the San Francisco Police Department and an old army buddy of Dax’s commanding officer, who was also at the party. Three years ago, Fallon had been asked to head up a security company in Silicon Valley that provided elite detail teams for private sector businesses, so when he’d e-mailed Dax and asked if he wanted to meet up for a beer, Dax had jumped at the chance. He was more than qualified for the position, but he was the only outsider in the running, and if he wanted his transition into civilian life to go as smoothly as possible, then having Fallon’s blessing would go a long way toward securing this job.
“Well, you can meet him holding this,” Adam said, trading the bartender a bill for a drink. It was tall, fruity looking, prissy as hell, and had one of those umbrellas sticking out of the top. And it was pink—the umbrella and the drink.
“What the hell is this?”
“You in a glass.” Adam took the cold draft off the tray, clinked rims, then took a long swallow. “Now, if you want one of these,” he said, holding up the beer, “you need to man up.” When Dax didn’t make a move for the glass, Adam went serious. “You applied for a job with Jonah’s former boss. And you didn’t say a word. To me or Jonah. We want to hear these things from you, not the grapevine. It sucks having to pretend we know what the hell’s going on in our own family.”
This was not the conversation Dax wanted to have tonight. “Because I’m still in the application process.” And because he didn’t want to spend the next five weeks defending his decision to live a good two hours from home and his family.
“We knew that convincing you to stay for the long term was a pipe dream, but to apply with Jonah’s friend for a job that would take you to San Jose and not say a word?” Adam shook his head, which made Dax feel like he was ten all over again.
“This isn’t a for-sure thing,” Dax explained. “And I knew if I told you guys I was applying, Jonah would want to hook me up. Help out. And I didn’t want his name to sway the decision.”
Jonah hadn’t always been a small-town sheriff. Prior to working in the sheriff’s department, Dax’s older brother had been one of the top detectives at SFPD. He was respected, admired by everyone he talked to, and a real honest-to-God hero. If Dax wanted those kinds of expectations hanging over his head, he would have stayed here in St. Helena. “I wanted to get it on my own merit.”
So that there wouldn’t be any misconceptions about exactly who they were hiring. Dax was good at his job—better than good. He had been one of the best snipers in the army and had no doubt he could out-shoot, out-train, and out-strategize any of the competition. It was when he wasn’t combat ready that he fell short.
Both of his brothers had a charisma about them. Baudouin charm, as his stepmom called it. A way of making people feel safe, involved. Making people want to be better, do more just from being in their presence, which made them powerful leaders. Dax didn’t have that.
Didn’t want it.
By nature, snipers clung to the shadows, a position that fit Dax’s personality well and had earned him the name Wolf. He liked being a part of a team, liked the rush of a mission, but didn’t want the responsibility again that came with being a squad leader or looking through the scope of the gun and being the one to decide if he pulled the trigger. Nope, this time around, he wanted to do his job, do it well, then be able to clock out and go home without fear of closing his eyes.
Simple, straightforward, clean-cut.
“Too bad for you, Fallon had dinner with Jonah,” Adam said, and Dax’s stomach knotted. “And it looks like they’re headed this way.”
Dax turned to look at the entrance, disappointed he couldn’t catch a glimpse of Emerson through the door. Just his luck, he could see his big brother leading the former chief right toward him. Chest puffed out, superhero complex in full effect, Jonah walked right over and gave Dax a hug. It was a handshake/bro-hug combo that was a little heavy on the back smack part.
“You made it,” Jonah said as though this were his meeting. “Dax, this is Mickey Fallon. Mickey, this is my brother Dax. And like I was saying, you couldn’t ask for a better addition to your team.”
Fallon reached out a hand. “After spending the day with Jonah here, I’m starting to realize that a Baudouin is just what our team needs.”
Emerson wasn’t much for sweating the little things. She’d long ago learned that stressing over variables she couldn’t change was a big energy suck. It also clashed with her tough-girl persona. But with fifty pounds of shaved lamb shank and an entire day’s profit hinging on a faulty heating system, she felt the first bead of perspiration slide between her breasts.