Page 7 of Rescued By the SEAL

“You don’t look like a guy with friends around here.” He leans his nose forward and sniffs. “You smell like bacon to me.”

I roll my eyes in an exaggerated manner, but while I might be acting blasé on the outside, I don’t really trust these people. God knows what the hell is going on with them. I don’t know what they may do. Thank God I have my gun close to hand so I can grab it if I need to. I would prefer it not come to that since I’m supposed to be low-profile, but if it’s life or death, I’ll live.

“Suit yourself, buddy, I’m just here to find a friend of mine. I don’t have time for your paranoia. I’ve got stuff to do.”

He spits at me as I walk by, or at least tries to, but it lands meters away from me so I don’t even need to turn around to see it. It has set me on edge now and has left me very aware of how my presence is going to be welcomed—i.e. not at all. Damn, and that’s before I get to my father and I have to deal with him. Urgh, I’m really not looking forward to this one damn bit.

“Hey, did you say you were looking for Bill?” I’m suspicious when the next voice calls out to me. I don’t know what to expect from anyone here anymore, but this guy seems a lot nicer. He’s smiling at me. “That guy is my friend. I’m actually looking for him too. We were supposed to head out to see our other friend, Sticks, but he’s vanished into thin air.”

“Oh, right, okay.” I nod slowly. “Well, I suppose we can look together for him, can’t we? Who are you?”

“My name is Roger,” he replies with a smile. “You know, I was interviewed by the press today, isn’t that cool?” Okay, so he’s a talker and my ears are pricked right up because this could be the hint that I’m searching for. “But she cried and ran off.”

“Thatiscool. You’re going to be famous. Err, who interviewed you? That’s really interesting.”

“Well, she was a nice girl, Lola Rose from the local newspaper.” My blood runs cold. Oh, my God, fucking Roger really does know something. “And I was talking to her, but my story made her so sad, she was crying. I went to get her a tissue and she ran away. I don’t know what I did wrong, but it was a shame. Hey, you know what? Maybe Bill upset her.” Roger tosses his head back and laughs. “He did see her, and you know what he’s like if he’s your friend. He’s brash as fuck, honest too.”

“Oh, wow.” I feel sick to my stomach. What the hell am I going to do if I find out that my dad is responsible for all of this? I don’t know what he’s capable of anymore, so this scares the living shit out of me. I suppose it could be Roger too, but he seems too much like he wouldn’t be able to do something like this. He obviously isn’t clean-cut, but I can’t imagine him having the ability to be able to trick some journalist. But my father… hmm, I don’t know what he could do. It’s scary.

“Yeah, I know, right?” Roger rolls his eyes. “And this is his room, so let’s go and ask him now what he did to her.”

Oh, wow. The door swings open and there he is, the man I’ve spent the last few years avoiding as much as I can. It’s a shock to find myself looking at him now, or the shell of who he used to be, anyway. My God, this is a shock.

“Landon?” His eyes flicker up and down me as his cheeks suck in even further. He looks so ill it’s painful. “What the hell are you doing here, Son? Wow, today really is like a blast from the goddamn past. I’m speechless.” He stares at Roger. “You know what, mate? I don’t think that we can hang out today. I have a surprise visitor, so now isn’t the time.”

Roger, the easygoing guy that he is, salutes my dad and walks off. I’m kinda glad for the time alone with my father, but it’s nerve-racking too. I don’t know how to be around him, that much is acutely obvious. I barely know how to cope.

“So, what the fuck brings you back into my life after all this time, Landon, huh?” Dad’s expression changes. “What the hell are you doing here now? You’ve ignored every time I’ve tried to talk to you over the last few years. So, why now?”

Everything inside me tingles like crazy. There is definitely something going on here, something… awful. “I need to talk to you, Dad. I’m sorry. I’ll tell you now that I’m not here to catch up on your life. I don’t think I want to know, to be honest.”

“Wow.” Dad sniffs angrily. “You still think that you’re something so much better than me, don’t you? Me and your mother always used to laugh about your having a little stick up your ass, and it seems like you’re still the same way now.”

Anger surges through my body as I imagine this little scene. I justknowthey did, of course they did. They were so shitty as humans. I just didn’t see it when I was a kid because I didn’t know that my home life was different. Messy. Awful, actually.

“Okay, well I’m not about to get intothatwith you,” I declare, trying my hardest to remain cool and collected.

“No, of course not because you never want to get into details of how you could help your old man, do you?”

I grind my teeth together. I’m trying to keep my temper down, but this man is making it very difficult for me. But I won’t give him what he wants. He needs me to snap so he has an excuse to treat me like shit some more. I can’t trust him to be an adult and act like a normal person about this, so I’m going to have to be the one to do that. I’ll have to hold my head up high.

“Listen, Dad, I want to talk to you about Lola Rose. I already know that you met her today and had a talk. An altercation.”

“Lola Rose?” He furrows his eyebrows in confusion. “Who the fuck is Lola Rose? I didn’t meet anyone today.”

“The journalist. Don’t try and hide it from me. I know exactly what happened. Roger is a talker. You know that much.”

“Oh, she isn’t called Lola Rose.” Dad leans forward and laughs. “Fucking hell, you don’t have a clue, do you? She isn’t some chick who just wandered in here, someone who was here to do some journo work. It’s Buchan’s daughter, Heather.”

I can’t stop myself. My fists balls up by my sides and I see bright red. So much red that I can’t handle it. How dare my father bring up Heather. As far as I’m concerned, he doesn’t get a chance to even mention her name. He’s the one who drove her away, whosent both of us away, so he can’t even let her name rest on his lips. I fucking hate him for doing this.

Shit. Before I even know what’s going on, before I can stop myself, I swing that fist out and smack it into my father’s face. I don’t know if he isn’t expecting it or he really is that weak, but he slams back and hits the floor hard. As he stares at me like I’m a goddamn stranger who could kill him at any given moment, clutching his cheek, I wait for guilt to come, but it doesn’t.

“Don’t fucking talk about Heather,” I growl. “You don’t get to say anything about her. We aren’t here to talk about her.”

“Then who are we here to talk about?” He throws his hands in the air in frustration. “She’s the journalist. But you can’t be here interfering in this because things are happening. It’s too late for you to get in the middle of it. I owe some money and Heather is going to be payment for it. The guys I owe cash to are on the way, so unless you want to get mixed up in shit, get out of here.”

I ignore my father. I don’t care about what he’s saying anymore. I begin hunting the room to find any evidence that Heather, or Lola Rose if my father is winding me up, has been in this room or is still here. I really don’t want to hear about my father’s problems, and even less so if he’s thinking about selling an actual fucking human to solve them. Someone who has nothing to do with this too. Who the hell does he think he is? My God, who the hell is this man? He’s disgusting in every single way.

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