Page 1 of Unspoken Confessions
1
Jameson
I walked into the conference room and the instant I saw Austin sitting at the table, my feet suddenly felt as if they had stepped in tar. The smug smile that seemed like it was permanently carved into his face slipped only slightly the moment his eyes collided with mine.
My jaw ticked and I couldn’t even try to hide the extreme unhappiness from my face.
“Fuck,” he breathed out and for once, we were on the same page about something.
I dropped down on the opposite side of the table, my eyes locked onto his. I cared not one fuck about making him feel at ease around me.
Why did I hate him so much?
Because he didn’t shut up.
He didn’t know when to fucking quit.
He acted as if the world revolved around him.
Take your pick.
Was he a good member of this team? Yes, I could admit that even though the thought left a sour taste in my mouth. Just because he was a good part of this team didn’t mean he made a compatible partner for me. He rubbed me the wrong way. There was a shit load of darkness that he tried to cover up with his cocky, joking attitude. I didn’t trust him. I didn’t like him. And I sure as fuck didn’t want to be around him.
I had my demons too, but I knew they were there. I didn’t run from them. I didn’t try to hide them. I might not have talked about them, but I never pushed them away. Austin was running. And a man that tried to run that hard from something was bound to hit a wall at some point. He wouldn’t be good to anyone then and who the fuck knew when that shit would happen. On a mission? Right when I needed him to have my back? Yeah, fuck that.
See, I had my reasons not to trust him.
Or be around him.
“Thanks for coming in,” Reed said after he’d entered the meeting room and closed the door behind him.
He looked a little frantic as his eyes bounced between Austin and myself.
He knew.
I might not havesaidI didn’t like Austin but I’d never hid that fact from my face.
“Look,” Reed said with a disappointed sigh. If he wished we’d just put shit behind us then he was shit outta luck. “I know you don’t work well together, but everyone else is out. So this is what I have to work with. I’m hoping you won’t have to interact too much.”
With narrowed eyes, I stared at the man that was so desperate to save all the puppies that had been kicked and left in a ditch.
Yeah, I was one of those puppies.
So was Austin.
Reed slid a folder across the table in my direction before doing the same in Austin’s.
I didn’t bother to flip it open, letting Reed give us the rundown first so we could get this shit over as fast as possible. I was sure he was looking forward to getting back to his men as much as I was looking forward to getting away from the fucker on the other side of the table from me.
I wasn’t ever eager to look at the file first. I preferred to let Reed give me the details as I watched him closely. There was something about him delivering the mission that made it easier to stomach. Just barely. It was in the way he commanded the room but held empathy and a sense of humanness in his eyes. This shit wasn’t easy, not even close, but being constantly reminded that we were here for a reason, and a good one at that, helped me to go on. It sure was better than flipping open the top of that folder and looking directly into some sick fucker’s eyes wishing I could put a bullet in his head right then. A lot better than seeing the kids that were missing, or even sometimes, dead. Better than feeling like this world was too full of fucked up shit that I didn’t feel like I was doing any good even taking just one of them out.
It was that same side of Reed that had reeled me in when he found me so far lost to hate, grief, self-loathing, and the bottle to even give him my name.
He’d saved me from an early grave, but he hadn’t been able to pull me out of those first three things.
I was one of the first men he’d picked up for his side-project, way back before it even had a name. Reed Willis was a tech genius millionaire who ran his own security company. Though, I think Project Shadow Guardian held most of his focus these day. There was a full team now. Hackers. Soldiers. People with their own special skills. And even a few of us like me. I was proud to be a part of his team and most days, that was enough to keep me going.
“This is more of a security type of job. I know that’s not what we do, but a friend of mine reached out to me and I told him I could help.”
