Worth Saving(27)

“Dude, my mom told me all about it. So, your last case got a little hot, huh? Hooking up with your clients now, man?” I chuckle as I take a bite of the most delicious cheeseburger in the world.

“That shit wasn’t funny. That went from zero to one hundred real quick. Real f*cking quick. One minute, I’m laid up with this chick thinking she might be the one, the next thing I know, I’m defending her in court for the murder of her husband! I mean, can you believe that shit?”

“Nah, I couldn’t believe it when my mom told me then, and I still can’t now. That’s insane. Especially the way it turned out in the end. That was quite the twist you put on it.”

“Hey, I did what I had to do, bro. But anyway, enough about all that craziness. I learned from that mistake.”

“Shit, I couldn’t tell judging from that fancy suit. You’ve gone all pretty on me, man. Look at you, trying to attract all the ladies in Vegas.”

Jason was always the ladies’ man growing up. He had the lightest blue eyes I think I’ve ever seen, and girls would just eat that shit up. Then, he added a little prickly beard and some wavy hair, and they just wouldn’t leave him alone, which is probably how he ended up in trouble out in Seattle.

“Damn, you’re hating hard today! Don’t worry about me and my suit. I’m gonna change once I leave here and I have to go pick up Jordan in a couple of hours. So anyway, how have things been going out here with you? The Air Force treating you alright?”

“We’ll get back to that suit later,” I chuckle as I chew. “Yeah, it’s good. It’s good to be home.”

“How was it?”

I try not to let images of Lieutenant Weston come flooding into my mind.

“It was . . . this one was tougher than the others. I can’t lie, man, this one was hard on me.”

Jason squints his eyes as he stares at me. He has a playful expression on his face like he thinks I’m kidding, but after a while, he can tell I’m not joking around.

“Wow. You okay?” he asks, his voice now an octave lower than it was a second ago.

“I’m okay,” I reply. “But it’s been tough. I’m working on it.”

“Damn. Do you mind if I ask what happened?”

I break eye contact with Jason and look down at the table. Images of the blood underneath Weston’s body rush to my head and I feel like I’m right back in the chopper in the middle of the night. I feel like I’m watching him die all over again, and there’s a lump in my throat that seems to have come out of nowhere.

“My co-pilot was shot and killed right in front of me,” I answer more honestly than I thought I was going to. “He’d only been there a couple of weeks, and he was with me on my last extraction of the tour. He died two weeks before I left.”

“Damn.”

“Yeah. The Air Force has me going to mental health once a week now so I can see a therapist about it. They tell me I have PTSD.”

“Wow. That’s crazy, man. I’m so sorry to hear that.”

I finally look back up at Jason and I can see the sincerity in his eyes. Even though we haven’t really hung out since high school, he’s still a good friend. A great friend, actually.

“I appreciate it, but I’m okay, really. I’m working on it, and I know I’ll be alright.”

“Well, this case I’m working on will keep me here for a while. Actually, I’ll be bouncing back and forth between here and home, but I’m here for you, man. Whenever you need me, you just let me know, Austin. You hear me? Anything you need, bro, I got you.”

“I know, and thank you, Jason. I appreciate that. But, I don’t wanna talk about all that. I wanna talk about you. So, what’s this case you got pulled down here to handle?”

Jason takes another bite of his burger and sips his drink. He waits until he’s swallowed his food, then he leans in and starts to whisper to me, obviously trying to keep the details of the case private.

“Guy I went to college with, Larry Miller, shot and killed a guy who he claims was trying to break into his house. He’s claiming self-defense, and since we know each other and were kind of tight in college, he called on me to represent him. That’s been happening a lot since I won the Roberts case. Been getting calls left and right from people all over the west coast.”

“Well, good. That’s good, right?”

“Yes and no. It’s great to have business flowing like this, obviously,” Jason answers as he swallows the last of his first burger and eyeballs the second. “But it’s shitty when I have to go through all kinds of shit to get my bar card in a new state. I had to get licensed before I could come here and represent the guy.”

“I see. Yeah, I bet that’s annoying.”

“You have no idea. It’s flat out shitty! It took me . . .”

My cell phone chimes and vibrates in my pocket, cutting Jason off mid-sentence. I pull out the phone and stare at the screen. I can feel my eyes starting to squint as I read it and become confused by the message.

“You okay, man? Can you read it?” Jason asks, chuckling.

“Yeah, I’m good. I just don’t know who this message is from.”

“Oh,” he replies, sounding relieved. “Well, what does it say?”