Billy glanced at the eye shield covering Sean’s injury. “When will you know more about your eye?”
His stomach tossed a little around the bites of chili dog in his gut. “I have an appointment with the specialist on Friday. They told me not to take the shield off before then, but it’s been fucking tempting.” It was true. He’d been itching to see if his vision was any clearer than it’d been the day he’d been discharged. So much depended on it.
“Shit,” Billy said. “I’ve got back-to-back meetings all day on Friday or I’d offer to go with you.”
Sean appreciated the thought. “Don’t worry about it, but thanks. What’s going on with you guys?” he asked, hoping to shift the attention off him and his damn injuries.
“Actually, that’s part of why I was hoping we could all get together tonight,” Mo said in his deep voice. “Because I have news.”
“Oh, yeah? What’s up, man?” Sean asked.
“I’ve decided I’m tired of jumping from contract gig to contract gig. A year here. Six months there. Always being in job-hunting mode. Never really putting down roots or feeling like I’m part of something meaningful.” Mo shook his head. Since he’d retired from the Army Rangers almost eight years before, he’d been working variously for the feds or defense contractors, but this past stretch of months he’d been seeming less satisfied with it.
Billy dunked his fries in ketchup. “We’ve talked about it many times. You know I feel you on all of that.”
Mo nodded. “I’m gonna open my own security services company. Personal security for individuals, executives, celebrities, and diplomats; secure transportation, security consulting, and private investigation. We’ll expand services as we bring on personnel. Guys coming out of the Spec Ops communities often face challenges in finding jobs that match their skill sets, so I’m prioritizing hiring veterans.” He laid a portfolio on the table and his gaze swung to Billy. “And I’m putting together a small group of partners to help me get this thing off the ground.”
Billy’s dark-eyed gaze lifted from the folder to Mo’s face. His brows went way up. “Partners.”
“Mmhmm. I was hoping you might be open to joining me.” He slid the papers closer. “So this is for you. Read it over. Think about it. No pressure.”
“This is seriously cool, Mo,” Sean said, grinning. “Congratulations. I can’t wait to see this come together for you.” They bumped fists.
“Thanks. I’m pretty fucking hyped about it.” Sean could tell, because Mo hadn’t seemed this relaxed in months.
“Billy?” Shayna said, peering at the sorta shell-shocked man sitting next to her.
He blinked and looked at her. She gave him a smile and a tiny nod. And that was all it took for Billy to turn back to Mo and say one word. “Yes.” He picked up the portfolio. “Of course, I’ll read it. But there’s not going to be anything in these pages that changes my answer. The rest we can work out.” The two men hadn’t served together, but they’d both been Army Rangers, so this didn’t surprise Sean at all.
Now Mo was full-on grinning. “You’re in?”
“I’m in,” Billy said. They shook hands across the table, and then everyone was laughing and smiling.
“Damn, I’m glad to be able to say I was there from the start,” Sean said, truly happy for his friends. “And if you ever need a smoke-breathing hose dragger, I might consider hiring myself out. For the right price.” He winked.
Mo chuckled. “I’m sure we’ll have plenty of fires to put out, Riddick, but hopefully none of them will be of the actual-flame variety. We do, though, and you’re our man.”
“Boom. Done,” Sean said, hoping he would in fact get to return to his job. Unlike Mo, he already had his dream job, so long as his injury didn’t prevent him from meeting the vision requirements.
And, sonofabitch, that was entirely out of his hands.
But there was nothing he could do about that but wait. So, fine. In the meantime, he could get out of his head and celebrate something good happening to his friends, because it sometimes seemed in this world like good things didn’t happen often enough to good people. And he’d look forward to his movie marathon with Dani.
Yeah, he was looking forward to that a stupid lot.
Chapter Eight
Dani felt oddly nervous, and it was freaking ridiculous.
It was just that this was the first time she’d gone to Sean’s house on what was more or less a purely social call, and even though the basic purpose was to help him out and keep him company, his issues were no longer acute the way they’d been nearly a week before. It wasn’t that she wasn’t looking forward to watching movies with him, because she was. It was just that, as she approached his back door, she felt like less of a nurse and more of a friend.