Die for You

Chapter 70

It felt weird letting myself into Becky's flat without her with me. I couldn't think of a time when I had ever been here on my own, and the emptiness was absolute, the stillness unreal. Ever since my first visiting here, the flat had been filled with some sort of noise, even if it was nothing but the sound of her breathing as we sat in silence together.

I was planning on going back to the apartment where I'd been staying, grabbing my meagre belongings, the ones I'd taken with me. Instead, I'd driven from the airport to St John's Wood and the flat where it had all truly begun all those months ago, in a momentary lapse when I shared far too much of myself to a scared woman in a darkened bedroom.

So much had happened since those fateful days; it felt like we had lived an entire lifetime in the few short months when we had gone from opponents to friends to lovers. An entire lifetime filled with pain and misery but most of all happiness. If there was one thing I wanted from this mission, it was a return to the happiness I had discovered being with the whirlwind that was Rebecca Armstrong.

I stood in the kitchen making a cup of tea, my hair wet and wrapped in a towel, clothed only in a robe. I'd taken my much needed shower only after I'd filled my travel case with the essentials that I needed for the trip, a couple of changes of clothes, underwear, shoes and the combat gear that Becky and Jenna had left out for me on the bed at Armstrong Manor, fear that I had used to great effect in the US; that I hoped to use in the same way on our little rescue mission, if it was needed. 

I decided that I would wear the boots under the dark suit I'd opted to wear to escort Jenna to India; the last thing I needed was for some overzealous security officer to see them in my bag at the airport, start digging through my things and find the rest of my kit, and as a bonus they were extremely comfortable; my feet absolutely loved them, and if they did get uncomfortable on the plane I'd take them off... fuck the people around me.

Drink sorted, even if the milk was smelling a little close to turning, I sat down on the sofa with it, staring at the picture of me, Whitey and the boys; the picture that Becky had placed in full view for me to make me feel at home in her flat. I was still staring at the picture, lost in my thoughts my tea gone cold when my phone rang, startling me back to reality.

"Secure365, Sarocha speaking," I said flatly, no trace of the false voice left.

"Sarge, it's JJ, how are you?"

"LT," I said blinking in surprise, "what the hell are you calling for, you're supposed to be resting."

It was true, James had wanted JJ to conference call into our meeting the previous evening, but after half an hour on the phone he had been unceremoniously dragged from the call by a grumpy sounding Lauren.

"I have been resting, Sarge," he said sounding affronted, "I've been doing nothing but resting since the damn surgery; anyway, I wanted to know how you were and how things are going, I didn't get much time to talk to you all last night and no other fucker is answering their phones."

"I'm fine, and things are on track," I said with a smile, "everyone's happy so far, and James and the boys are off on their jolly's already so that's why they're not replying to you, LT, don't take it personally."

"I won't, Sarge, you cheeky twat," he laughed, a good sound despite the circumstances, "That's good news then, what about everything else?"

"On the go," I replied, not in the slightest bit surprised that he knew everything that was going on, despite missing the bulk of the conference cal. Crippled or not, the LT was a sharp cookie, and I knew James relied on him an awful lot and would have updated him somehow so he could get his opinion.