Page 131 of Enthrall Ecstasy
He waved that off. “How are you doing, really?
“Great.”
He gave a slow nod. “Look, Cole thinks it best I don’t bring it up, so I won’t.”
“Bring what up?”
“Have you ever considered seeing him in a professional manner?” He raised his hand. “Not the crazy shit he does but the more traditional therapy.”
“I don’t need it,” I said calmly.Because I didn’t.
“Okay, well, you know it’s available if you ever decide you do.”
“I appreciate it, Henry.” I raised my glass. “But I’m fine.”
Sometimes, when I woke in the middle of the night and thought back to our time in Kabul, I knew it was this guy here who’d gotten me through it all.
We had an unbreakable bond.
“How’s the wild side?” he said, snapping me out of my musing.
“Still wild.”
He gave me a devilish grin. “Bunch of reprobates.”
“It’s cathartic. It’s my version of EMDR, only with my dick.”
Our laughter filled the room.
God, I’ve missed this. Missed him.
“Funny how you wish you were back there,” he said. “But when you were there all you could think about was home.”
“Even after everything, you wish you were back?”
He looked thoughtful. “Before Charlie Foxtrot.”
“I don’t remember much.”
“Maybe we’re still running from ourselves.” Henry watched my reaction.
“Maybe.”
He leaned forward and stared at me. “You saved my life that day, Gardner…made a hard decision.”
I tasted grit—trying to see through goggles in a sandstorm, my vision blurred.
Deafening blades cut through the thick air as the Black Hawk helicopter turned around—dust being the enemy of flight, making it impossible to extract us.
Movement from over the ridge…a mountain lion appearing.
The sound of a bullet.
Mine.
The look on Henry’s face…horror.
Then relief.
