Page 2 of Seeking Vengeance
He swallowed hard and nodded, sick with grief but proud of her courage. He watched her walk down the alley, her head held high, until she disappeared around the corner. Then, Nick picked up his backpack and followed her out, turning in the opposite direction when he hit the street to make his deliveries.
CHAPTER ONE
Ten Years Later
Pine Ridge, Pennsylvania
“Goddamn it!” Sean cursed as he hung up the phone. “Nick!” His voice bellowed out clearly from his office, easily heard by the mechanics at work in the six-bay garage.
Nick Milligan received sympathetic looks from the others as he put down the wrench and carelessly wiped his hands on his coveralls.
“Yeah, boss?” the younger man said, poking his head through the open doorway. There was only a hint of cockiness in his tone—a huge improvement from the mountain-sized chip he’d sported only a few months ago when Sean decided to take a chance on his sorry ass.
Deep down, Sean sensed Nick was a decent enough guy who’d had a lot of bad breaks. According to his application, Nick was pushing twenty-four chronologically—not much younger than Sean—but there was something about Nick that made Sean think of him more as a kid. Maybe it was the way he moved or the way he smiled, though his smiles came few and far between.
Or maybe it was his inability to respond well to authority. Nick simply hadn’t grown up yet, but there was potential. The garage was probably his last chance before he ended up as a permanent guest of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania penal system. That made Sean push even harder because he wanted the kid to make it. Once you got past the attitude, Nick was a likable guy—not to mention, an excellent mechanic. He had a real future ahead of him.
If he could keep his head out of his ass, that was.
“Why isn’t Mr. Thompson’s Benz finished yet?”
Sean was proud of himself. He’d kept his voice even and non-accusatory. His sister-in-law, Taryn, had told him he had a tendency to yell first and ask questions later. That, she’d explained, was probably why he’d gone through four mechanics in the last three months.
As much as he liked Taryn, Sean disagreed with her assessment, though arguably, they shared the same kick-ass temperament. And while he was more than ready to recognizeherinnate tendency to act first and ask questions later, he failed to see how that applied tohim. In contrast,hewas more apt to cite blatant incompetence and attitude problems rather than what Taryn had dubbed his “unreasonably high expectations” but conceded—somewhat reluctantly—that Taryn might have a valid point about his quick temper.
Sean saw the tic in Nick’s jaw, caught the slight narrowing of the eyes.
Don’t go there, kid, Sean thought. Every eye in the place was on them.Don’t make me make an example out of you.
Sean didn’t give a damn what the rest of the guys thought; this exercise was intended for Nick and Nick alone. If the kid was going to make anything of himself, he had to learn how to handle shit without losing his temper or mouthing off. Nick had guts, smarts, and some mad skills with cars. Now, he just needed the self-control and the maturity to take it to the next level.
Self-control was something Sean had mastered. For all intents and purposes, he was the twenty-seven-year-old owner and chief mechanic of Callaghan Auto in the small northeastern Pennsylvania town of Pine Ridge. Nestled among the mountains, it was a quiet, peaceful community that he and his family called home. He was also a former SEAL, just like his father and six brothers.
What most people didn’t know was that once their traditional six-year commitments had been completed, they didn’t stop serving. The family patriarch, Jack Callaghan, had formed an elite team of his own. Technically, their special group did not exist. Realistically, they were called upon frequently to handle situations that accountable agencies couldn’t touch. They were a team of ghosts, nonexistent to all but a few very highly placed “believers.” There was freedom, they found, in not having to answer to anyone, except themselves.
And sometimes, the end really did justify the means.
His current problem, however, had nothing to do with terrorists, political madmen, or wealthy puppetmasters with no regard for the sanctity of human life and liberty, and everything to do with the kid teetering on the edge of making something of himself and pissing away his last chance.
Shane, his twin, was so much better at this kind of shit. Especially when Sean couldn’t shake the nagging sense of unease, making him restless. It had started a couple of days earlier and had been building since. The last thing he wanted to deal with in his heightened sense of awareness was unhappy customers or ineffectual employees.
Attitude problems notwithstanding, Nick was his best mechanic. He went through twice the workload of anyone else. Like Sean, the kid had a natural talent for engines. Perhaps that was why Sean had taken him under his wing when no one else would hire him; Nick reminded him of himself—or what he might have been had life dealt him a different hand.
But something had been going on with Nick lately. He was off, distracted. Not thinking things through like he normally would. And the last couple of weeks, he’d started disappearing for an hour here, an hour there, saying only that he had “things to take care of.”
So far, Sean hadn’t pushed because Nick was staying later to make up for lost time. He sincerely hoped it wasn’t anything serious; he doubted he’d be able to pull enough strings to save the kid’s ass. Even if he could, Nick wouldn’t be particularly receptive to help. Nick had a hardness and pride about him that made Sean think he would see an offer of assistance as charity, and Nick Milligan did not strike him as the type to accept a handout.
Nick stared at him with those freaky light-gray eyes, almost completely devoid of color. His long, straight black hair was currently tied back and kept out of his face with a Harley-Davidson do-rag. Tall, lean, built for speed, the kid cut a bad-boy look that drove girls wild and worried their fathers—with good reason, from what Sean had heard.
Sean held his gaze. It was Nick who blinked first.
The kid blew out a breath and shifted his weight onto one leg. “I haven’t been able to fix it.”
Sean raised an eyebrow and moved to the front of his desk. He leaned back carefully, crossing substantially muscular arms over an equally substantial muscular chest. “That’s a first. Want to tell me why?”
Taryn would be so proud of him. He hadn’t even raised his voice.
The kid had the good sense to look embarrassed, which mollified Sean somewhat. The show of humility was a definite indication of progress.
