Page 67 of Operation K-9 Brothers
Chapter Nineteen
Nichole frowned at the unfamiliar car pulling up behind hers.When Jack stepped out from the back, she realized it was an Uber, and that was puzzling.Maybe his truck had broken down.
“Hey,” she said when he was on the porch.He swayed, and she frowned as she studied his face.He stared back at her with bloodshot and unfocused eyes.He was drunk!
“Jack?”
He turned away, fumbled with his keys, finally managing to unlock his door, then disappeared inside.What was she supposed to do?Leave?Follow him inside?The only thing she knew he had planned for the day was his doctor’s appointment.What had happened between then and now?
Dakota walked out the door he’d left open, came to her, and if Nichole wasn’t mistaken, the dog wore a worried expression.She knew her master, and if there was something wrong with Jack, Dakota would pick up on that.Maybe it was her imagination, but Dakota seemed to want her to do something.
“What’s going on, girl?”
Dakota whined, then walked to the door.She glanced back at Nichole.The dog wanted her to come inside.Had Jack purposely left the door open so she’d come in?The way he’d looked at her, though, made her wary.He clearly hadn’t been happy to see her on his porch.Dakota whined again.
“I wish you could talk so you could tell me what’s going on.”
She took a deep breath, then followed Dakota.The dog led her through the living room and to the French doors leading to Jack’s back deck.He was sprawled in a chair, a beer in his hand with three unopened bottles on the table next to him.His gaze was on the mountains, but his eyes were so unfocused that she doubted he saw them.
“Jack?”She slipped onto the chair on the other side of the table.“Can I have one?”she asked, picking up one of the bottles.She hadn’t known him a long time, but she’d been with him enough to know being drunk wasn’t his normal.
“You need to go home,” he said without looking at her.
“Please, tell me what happened.”She touched his arm and felt like crying when he flinched.Her gaze fell on his hands, on the bloody knuckles.“Jack?”she gasped.“You’re bleeding.”
He held up his hands, frowned, and without a word, twisted the cap off a second beer, guzzling half of it.Dakota, sitting at his feet and staring at him with worried eyes, whined.Deciding she wasn’t leaving until she found out why he was pouring beer down his throat like a man living in hell and beer was the only weapon against the fire threatening to consume him, she tried to twist the cap off the bottle she’d picked up.
When she was unsuccessful, he sighed, snatched the bottle from her, opened it, and then set it next to her on the table with enough force to cause beer to geyser out the top.
If she didn’t know that he was a gentle soul, a sweet man with a kind heart, his anger would have scared her, would have sent her fleeing.But no matter his rage, she trusted him.Knew he wouldn’t hurt her.
“What happened at your doctor’s appointment?”It had to be something related to that.
He finished off the remaining beer in his bottle, staggered to his feet, stumbled over Dakota, and caught the railing to keep from faceplanting to the deck.“Damn dog,” he muttered.
At the door he paused, his chin dropping to his chest.“My shoulder’s permanently damaged.Won’t be returning to my team.”
“Oh, Jack, I’m sorry.”
She knew what returning to his team had meant to him, and what a devastating blow it was that it wasn’t going to happen.She would never admit it to him, however, but tremendous relief flowed through her that he wouldn’t be putting himself in danger again.
“Sorry doesn’t get me back to my brothers.”He finally looked at her, the warmth for her that used to be in his eyes gone.“That’s all that mattered to me.You know the way out.”
Nichole glanced down at her chest, almost expecting to see a knife stabbed through her heart.She startled when he went inside, the door slamming behind him.The tears pooling in her eyes stung, and she tried to swallow past the lump in her throat.
That’s all that mattered to me.
How could six words hurt so much?
“You were supposed to call me after you got to Jack’s,” Mark said when she got home.“Are we still going out to celebrate?”
She’d completely forgotten about that.What she wanted to do was crawl into her bed and pull the covers over her head, but there was so much excitement in his eyes.She couldn’t bring herself to disappoint him, so she buried her hurt and forced herself to smile.
“Jack’s not feeling well, but yes, you and I are going to celebrate your amazing future as a game creator.Give me time to take a quick shower and change.”
“Yeah, okay.”
At seeing the disappointment on his face, she wanted to march back to Jack’s and give him a piece of her mind.Not that it would matter to him.She treated Mark to dinner and then claimed a headache when he wanted to go to a downtown nightclub.
