The Gates of Hell

CHAPTER TWO

Drake woke deep in the night, bathed in sweat. Eyes caked together with partly shed tears. The dream was always the same.

He had been the man who always saved them. The man always first to utter the words ‘trust me.’ But then he failed.

Failed them both.

Twice now. First Alyson. Now Kennedy.

He slipped out of bed, reaching for the bottle he kept beside the gun on the nightstand. He swigged from the open top. Cheap whisky burned a path down his throat and into his gut. The medicine of the weak and the damned.

When guilt threatened to bring him yet again to his knees, he made three quick calls. The first to Iceland. He spoke briefly to Torsten Dahl and heard the sympathy in the big Swede’s voice, even as the man told him to stop ringing every night, that his wife and kids were safe and well and that no harm would come to them.

The second was to Jo Shepherd, a man he had fought many battles alongside during his days in the old regiment. Shepherd politely painted the same scenario as Dahl, but didn’t comment on Drake’s slurred words or the raw croak in his voice. He assured Drake that Ben Blake’s family was well guarded and that he and a few of his friends sat in the shadows, proficiently guarding the guards.

Drake closed his eyes as he made the last call. His head spun and his gut burned like the lowest level of hell. It was all welcome. Anything to draw his attention away from Kennedy Moore.

You even missed her damn funeral…

“Hello?” Alicia’s voice was calm and assured. She too had lost someone close to her recently, though she showed no outward sign.

“It’s me. How’re they doing?”

“All fine. Hayden’s healing well. Another few weeks and she’ll be back to her saintly CIA self. Blake’s okay, but pining for you. His sister just turned up. Quite the family reunion. Mai’s AWOL, thank God. I’m watching them, Drake. Where the hell are you?”

Drake coughed and wiped his eyes. “Thank you,” he managed before he broke the connection. Funny she should mention hell.

He felt he was camped outside those very gates.