Born to Fight

Chapter 3

Jamie

The phone call had changed everything.

From the moment I’d been jolted awake by the ringing of my cell phone and heard Celeste’s terrified voice on the other end, I’d been running on pure adrenaline.

My mum is dead.

Those words kept replaying in my head.

I didn’t know Celeste well. Not really.

We’d exchanged emails for a few weeks. We’d talked about military life, our dogs, our families and everything in between.

But somewhere along the way, she’d stopped feeling like a school assignment.

She’d become my friend.

And now she was alone.

I’d remembered what she’d told me about her family. Her grandfather had died two years ago, leaving her mother as the only family she had left.

And now her mother was gone too.

Celeste had no one.

She was seventeen years old and, as far as she knew, completely alone in the world.

An orphan.

I couldn’t stomach the thought of her sitting in that house by herself.

Not after what she’d just witnessed.

I needed to see her.

I needed to know she was alive.

“Faster,” Josh muttered beside me.

“I’m already doing a hundred and sixty.”

“Then do a hundred and seventy.”

I glanced at him.

“You planning on getting us there alive?”

“Not particularly. I just want to get there before whoever did this comes back.”

His words sent a chill down my spine.

He was right.

We didn’t know who those men were.

We didn’t know if they’d been caught.

And we didn’t know why they’d been looking for Billy Avery.

I glanced at the GPS.

Still another twenty minutes.

I pushed my foot harder against the accelerator.

“Come on,” I muttered.

I needed to get there.

Now.

⸻

Celeste

I had stopped crying.

I wasn’t sure when.

Maybe I’d simply run out of tears.

I sat at the kitchen table, staring blankly toward the living room while police officers moved around my mother’s body.

In and out.

In and out.

Every few minutes, another group would enter.

They examined the room.

They photographed things.

They whispered to each other.

Then they left.

Only for another group to repeat the same process.

It felt surreal.

Like I was watching everything happen from somewhere outside my own body.

Almost like being trapped on some endless carnival ride I couldn’t get off.

Hours had passed.

The sun would be rising soon.

And still, nobody had really spoken to me.

That bothered me.

Shouldn’t someone have taken my statement by now?

Shouldn’t they have asked me what I’d seen?

I’d watched my mother being murdered.

I’d seen the men.

I’d heard what they’d said.

I’d heard my father’s name.

Billy.

Yet no one seemed particularly interested in what I knew.

That didn’t make sense.

Loki suddenly began barking again.

I closed my eyes.

“Loki, please…”

The poor dog had been going crazy since the police arrived.

Then I heard voices outside.

I opened my eyes.

Something was happening.

I pushed myself out of the chair and slowly walked toward the front door.

When I looked outside, I froze.

Two soldiers were standing on the front lawn talking to several police officers.

One of them was holding a German Shepherd.

My heart skipped.

Freeze.

I knew that dog.

And suddenly, I knew exactly who had come.

“Jamie!”

My voice cracked as I called his name.

His head snapped toward the house.

The second he saw me, he handed Freeze’s leash to Josh.

He said something to the police officers, then started walking toward me.

I didn’t wait.

I ran.

Jamie barely had time to open his arms before I crashed into him.

He wrapped me in a tight embrace.

And for the first time since I’d found my mother, I felt safe.

It made no sense.

I’d known this man for only a few weeks.

I’d never even met him until tonight.

Yet standing there in his arms, I felt like I could finally breathe.

I buried my face against his chest.

He held me tighter.

“You’re okay,” he whispered. “I’ve got you.”

Those simple words nearly broke me.

I clung to him.

I didn’t want to let go.

Not yet.

Not when he was the first person who had made me feel safe since my world had fallen apart.

“Miss Avery?”

I lifted my head.

A police officer was standing in the doorway.

“I need to ask you some questions.”

I looked at him.

Then at Jamie.

Without thinking, I reached down and grabbed Jamie’s hand.

“I want him with me.”

The officer stared at our joined hands for a moment.

Then he shrugged.

“Fine.”

He turned and walked back inside.

Jamie squeezed my hand.

“I’m not going anywhere.”

I nodded.

Together, we followed the officer into the house.

⸻

We sat around the kitchen table.

Jamie remained beside me, his hand firmly wrapped around mine.

The police officer pulled out a notebook.

“Tell me what happened.”

And I did.

Every detail.

The sound of breaking glass.

The shouting.

Loki barking.

The men.

My mother on the floor.

The questions about Billy.

The g*n.

The shot.

My mother’s eyes meeting mine just before she died.

Every time my voice broke, Jamie squeezed my hand.

When I struggled to continue, his other hand would settle gently on my shoulder.

He never told me to stop crying.

Never told me to be strong.

He simply stayed.

When I finally finished, silence filled the kitchen.

I stared down at our joined hands.

Jamie hadn’t let go once.

The police officer closed his notebook.

Then opened it again.

“Do you recognize any of the men?”

“No.”

“Have you ever seen them before?”

“No.”

“Do you know a man named Billy?”

My stomach twisted.

“My father is named Billy. I think that’s who they were talking about.”

“You think?”

“I’ve never met him.”

The officer studied me.

“You’ve never met your father?”

“No.”

“Do you know where he is?”

“No.”

“Do you know what he does?”

“No.”

He leaned back.

“Then why would these men be looking for him?”

“I don’t know.”

His eyes shifted toward Jamie.

“And him?”

I frowned.

“What about him?”

“How do you know him?”

“Jamie is my friend.”

“Friend?”

“Yes.”

“How long have you known him?”

“A few weeks.”

“And yet he’s the first person you called after your mother was murdered?”

I stiffened.

“I didn’t know who else to call.”

The officer stared at me for several seconds.

Then he closed his notebook.

“Okay.”

He stood.

Just like that.

He walked away.

I watched him disappear into the living room.

Something about the entire conversation felt wrong.

The questions.

His attitude.

The way he’d looked at Jamie.

I couldn’t put my finger on it.

But something wasn’t right.

I turned toward Jamie.

Before I could say anything, movement caught my attention.

Someone was standing beside the kitchen table.

Josh.

I’d almost forgotten he was there.

He’d been quiet the entire time.

I looked up at him.

He was staring at me.

And then something happened.

His face drained of colour.

Completely.

It was as if he’d just seen a ghost.

“Josh?”

Jamie turned toward him.

“What’s wrong?”

Josh didn’t answer.

He kept staring at me.

His eyes moved slowly over my face.

My hair.

My eyes.

My features.

Something flickered across his expression.

Recognition.

Fear.

Shock.

I couldn’t tell which.

“Josh?”

Jamie stood.

His friend finally looked at him.

For one strange second, the two men stared at each other.

Then Josh looked back at me.

His eyes widened.

And suddenly, he turned and bolted out the front door.

“Josh!”

Jamie stared after him.

I sat frozen in my chair.

“What the hell was that?”

Jamie didn’t answer.

He was staring at the doorway where Josh had disappeared.

And for the first time since he’d arrived, I saw something I’d never seen in his eyes before.

Fear.

Not for me.

Not for himself.

Something else.

Something I couldn’t understand.

“Jamie?”

He looked at me.

“What?”

“What does Josh know?”

He didn’t answer.

And somehow, that scared me more than anything else that had happened that night.