Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 83040 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 415(@200wpm)___ 332(@250wpm)___ 277(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83040 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 415(@200wpm)___ 332(@250wpm)___ 277(@300wpm)
It’s early afternoon when I get back to the compound and the whole place is filled with ex-soldiers busy training K9s. I ease the bike down the long driveway towards the house I’ve been assigned to. There are like ten houses for the men here, and then all the guys who run the place have their own houses, so it really is a compound.
One might even call it a base. Because everybody here is ex-military.
I catch Amon’s eye as I pass by and he nods at me. I’m not sure what this nod means, but by the time I get off the bike and take my helmet off, I can take a good guess because he’s heading my direction.
“Hey… uh…” He forgot my name.
“Ean,” I say, fillin’ in that blank.
“Right. Ean. Sorry. We haven’t really talked yet, so I figured I’d come over and explain what’s goin’ on with the dogs.”
“I guess you’re training them for deployment?”
“Right.” Amon smiles, and he’s a very attractive man, so his smile is always comin’ off as charmin’. But he’s Collin Creed’s partner, so that charm he so effortlessly displays on the outside has absolutely nothing to do with the man he really is on the inside. “Obviously. What I meant to say is I thought I’d explain why you don’t have one yet. You see, we did have an extra puppy, but my son claimed it. And the other puppies are too young yet. Just born three weeks ago. So it’s gonna be about another month and a half before you can really interact with yours.”
“My…?” I’m confused.
“Your dog.”
“I don’t have a dog.”
Amon chuckles. “I know. That’s why I’m explainin’ this to you.”
I look around and realize everyone has a dog. Everyone but me.
“I’m sorry,” Amon says. “I get that you just got here last night, but didn’t you get some kind of briefing about what we do here at Edge?”
I shake my head. “Nope. I was told this is my new contract and you guys own me for the next twelve months, so I showed up.”
“Oh.” Amon ponders this. “All right. Well”—he pans a hand to the soldiers and the dogs—“everyone gets a dog to train. And depending on where they’re at in the training, they might deploy with a dog or they might not. We’ve really only got about ten of them ready to work. All the others are a project, so I’ll just be blunt right now. You will not be deploying with a dog if you’re only plannin’ on being here for the first term of your contract because your dog will be a puppy.”
I shrug. “OK.”
“And said puppy is too young to bother you with at the moment, so you won’t be doing any kind of serious training for a couple months.”
“Fine with me.”
Amon stares at me. Hard. “So what I’m really sayin’ is that after PT every morning, you’re with Ryan.”
I look around. “Ryan is…”
“One-fourth owner in Edge. He’s not here, he’s in the woods making roads and digging shit up.”
Now I squint my eyes at this fucker. “Tell me again what you’re saying?”
“I’m saying you’re on labor for the foreseeable future.”
“Labor?” I laugh. “Dude, I’m a fuckin’ soldier. I’ve been all over the goddamned world. And you’re telling me… I’m what? Diggin’ ditches or somethin’?”
This guy actually has the balls to clap me on the shoulder. “That’s exactly what I’m telling you, friend. I don’t have any fuckin’ idea what Ryan is doin’ out there in the damn woods. All I know is that you’re his new bitch. So… welcome to Edge.”
Then he turns and just… walks away.
“Welcome to Edge,” I mutter. But I don’t bother continuing the argument. I just take myself inside, go upstairs to my bunk.
There are ten houses, six men to a house. This is the story I got last night from my roommate, Chester. But I’m the odd one here, since I’m new and the rest of them have been here for months already. So this house has seven of us. The guy who was in this room has moved in to a walk-in closet on the first floor, claiming he’d rather live under the stairs like Harry Potter than spend one more night with Chester, who snores like a motherfucker.
But I don’t really mind. Sleep is highly overrated, if you ask me. Sleep is where the nightmares live, so I only give in when I have to.
I didn’t sleep a fuckin’ minute last night. Not a single minute. Which is most likely the whole reason Collin Creed told me to ‘take a day.’
But there’s nothing else to do, so I might as well just kick it on the bed and phone surf. I take my wallet out of my pants and this is when it hits me. “Fuck.” I forgot my damn credit card at that bar. Then I actually laugh out loud. Because right here and now, that place doesn’t even feel real. Did I really ride my bike into the woods, take several hundred stairs deep into a river gorge, and find myself a clandestine speakeasy filled with moonshine and whores?