That Summer Night (Callaways #6) Read Free

had always been a planner, Emma liked to leap first and think about how to land later.
    "I'm trying to be smart. Anyway, I also came here to talk to you about Drew and Ria's wedding. We're meeting tomorrow at noon at the bridal boutique to try on our dresses and then we're going to lunch on Fisherman's Wharf. It's going to be just the girls, and I want you there."
    "I will be."
    "Good. I better get to work. See you tomorrow."
    As Emma walked out to her car, Shayla looked around the neighborhood. There was a woman putting out the trash a few buildings down, a man walking his dog by the corner, and another man trying to park his SUV in an incredibly tight spot.
    It was a typical morning in San Francisco. She was a long way from Colombia, from the men with guns, but she still couldn't stop the goose bumps that lit up her arms. She walked quickly back into her building, making sure the front door locked behind her. As she walked up the stairs to her apartment, she wondered if she'd ever feel safe again.

 
    Chapter Two
     
    "So what's your plan, Becker?" Jared Stone filled a shot glass with Jack Daniels whiskey and pushed it across the bar.
    Reid Becker sighed at the familiar question that seemed to come more frequently with each passing day. Since gunfire had shattered his left leg nine months ago, he'd been forced out of the Army where he'd spent the last sixteen years of his life, most recently on an elite tactical fighting unit. He still had his leg, and eventually he would be free of pain and able to live a normal life; he just wouldn't be able to do what he'd been trained to do, what he loved to do, all he knew how to do...
    Which brought him back to Jared's question.
    What the hell was he going to do next?
    "Right now I'm just going to drink." He lifted the glass to his lips and enjoyed the warm, tingly slide of alcohol down his throat.
    "Like you've done way too many nights for the last few months," Jared observed as he wiped down the bar with a towel. "As much as I appreciate your business, I'm concerned. You've never been a guy to do nothing. What's the deal?"
    He had no answers. Everything Jared had said was true.
    "Are you thinking you're going to find a way back into the Army?" Jared asked.
    "No. That's over." He shrugged and smiled. "Maybe I'll open up a bar. It seems to work for you."
    "It does work for me, and there are certainly worse things you could do, but I can't see you as a bartender."
    "Because I'd drink all my profits?" he asked lightly.
    "There's that. But you'd also be bored out of your mind in a minute. You're used to action, and while we have the occasional bar fight, most nights are pretty tame."
    "Do you ever miss the action?" Jared had served with him for over seven years. He'd left the Army three years ago to take over the family bar after his dad had a heart attack.
    "I miss the guys, but nothing else. I sure don't miss the desert, the bad food, or the threat of dying every day. I never lived for the adrenaline rush the way you did." Jared poured some peanuts into a bowl and pushed it across the bar. "Eat something. Soak up the booze."
    "I'm not hungry. And I don't want to soak anything up."
    Jared sighed. "You're damn stubborn."
    "That’s news?"
    "Why don't you go to work for Matt? He's been trying to get you into his company ever since you got out of the hospital."
    "I'm considering my options." Matt Kelton was another Army buddy who had opened a private security firm that apparently was booming with business. While investigative work could certainly be dangerous and challenging, Reid couldn't seem to get up the energy to have a conversation about it. He knew that eventually he had to dig himself out of the rut he'd gotten into, because Jared was right; he didn't like to do nothing. Unfortunately, there was nothing besides the Army that he really wanted to do.
    "What other choice do you have?" Jared asked.
    "Right now, my best option is to get drunk and see if I can pick up that redhead over